Surveying Anderson's complete canon, we see:
fictional prehistory;
a version of Atlantis;
100 BC;
the legend of Ys;
the Fall of the Roman Empire;
the Viking period in myth and history;
aliens, mermen and men in the fourteenth century;
time travelers and immortals in diverse periods;
fantasy and mystery in the twentieth century;
many alternative futures;
human and cosmic destinies;
many alternative timelines;
different kinds of universes;
a place between the universes and timelines.
We are in that place when we read Anderson's works - guests in the Old Phoenix Inn, drinking with van Rijn and Holger Danske.
4 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I certainly would love to meet Nicholas van Rijn and Holger Danske! And other characters created by Poul Anderson such as Dominic Flandry and Anson Guthrie. And I wonder how the spirits of real history characters like Harald Hardrede and Cardinal Richelieu thought of how Anderson portrayed them?
Sean
Sean,
I would love to be involved in events that were subsequently filmed so that I would then be able to compare the real events with the dramatization. Members of CS Lewis' family said that, in a TV play about him, the actors did not resemble the real people, the conversations were fictions and the course of events was not accurate and yet it was all TRUE.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Interesting, what you said about the TV play on CS Lewis. Altho it seems contradictory to say the conversations and the course of events described were fictional but still TRUE. But, I think I understand what Lewis' relatives meant, the play was faithful at least to his general THOUGHT and beliefs.
And Poul Anderson himself wrote at least one play, modeled on the Japanese genre of No plays ("Rokoru," I think).
Sean
Sean,
Yes, TRUE meant authentic.
Paul.
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