A Dynamic History II

See A Dynamic History.

Textual dynamism is also generated by later additions of earlier instalments, by revisions of the reading order and by multiple potential starting points. The original Polesotechnic League Volume I, Trader to the Stars, a Nicholas van Rijn collection, began with "Hiding Place" (1961) although the van Rijn series as a whole begins with "Margin of Profit" (1956) which is quoted in Trader to the Stars and collected in the later published The Earth Book of Stormgate. That later collection begins with "Wings of Victory" (1972) although the still later collection, The Technic Civilization Saga, Volume I, The Van Rijn Method, begins with "The Saturn Game" (1981).

"Margin of Profit" is set earlier in van Rijn's career than "Hiding Place";

"Wings of Victory" comes earlier in the history of Technic civilization because it is set during the Grand Survey (early interstellar exploration) and describes the Discovery of Ythri;

"The Saturn Game" is pre-Technic because it describes early interplanetary exploration and the recovery from the Chaos on Earth.

Thus, the narrative, by reaching progressively backward through time, almost links the experience of Anderson's readers forward to the original starting point of van Rijn's era. When "The Saturn Game" refers to the passive entertainment of television, we recognize where we are. Van Rijn and the Polesotechnic League become slightly less implausible as longer term consequences of events on twentieth century Earth.