Bactra was the capital city of Bactria. Benegal Dass, born in the late nineteenth century, wrote a thesis on Indo-Bactrian society that attracted a Time Patrol recruiter.
Dass spends decades in the city, each time arriving and departing by local means of travel, not on a timecycle. He adopts different identities. As Rajneesh, he worked in a silk dealership. As Rajneesh's cousin, Chandrakumar, he seeks enlightenment and stays in a Buddhist monastery while studying Greek philosophy. Usually his visits are "...separated by timespans of a length to preclude recognition..." (p. 53) but urgent Patrol business brings Chandrakumar to Bactra soon after the departure of Rajneesh, necessitating a kinship story to explain their resemblance.
On holiday back home, "...he must lie to family and friends about what he did for a living." (p. 54) He observes and writes the entire history of the city. His work is read within the Patrol and in the distant future. Thus, the Patrol knows what events it must protect in this historical backwater.
Folk are being real swell about page views right now. However, it is tempting to pause posting at the round number of 80 posts for this month. I am sure that Poul Anderson's Time Patrol series is inexhaustible but I will temporarily exhaust my ability to find new details to post about. Would anyone else like to write their completely different take on this series and email it to be posted on the blog?
1 comment:
"this historical backwater"
Is anyplace ever *really* a backwater?
What was Bactria became less important after the Portuguese rounded Africa & made that sea route the most important trade route between the extremities of Eurasia, but for millennia that area was on the silk road and both goods & ideas passed through it. I suppose in the early 20th century that area could be considered a backwater, but in the late 20th/early 21st centuries it was involved in damaging the two largest military powers of the time.
I suppose where I live would qualify as a backwater before the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway, but after that it became one of the major agricultural export regions of the world & also supplies much of the world supply of other important goods like potassium chloride for fertilizer, uranium & petroleum for energy...
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