in Robert Heinlein's Future History, "Gentlemen, Be Seated" is a background event in "The Black Pits of Luna";
in Sandra Miesel's Chronology of Poul Anderson's Technic History, stories featuring van Rijn, Falkayn and others overlap in the 2420s and 2430s;
in Jerry Pournelle's King David's Spaceship, characters on Prince Samual's World know that something important is happening in the Trans-Coalsack...and, if we read Larry Niven's and Jerry Pournelle's The Mote In God's Eye, we know what.
Succession, or chronological linearity, generates series whereas simultaneity adds three dimensionality. Their combination confers narrative substantiality.
2 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Your mention of "simultaneity" makes me think it's necessary to raise a technical point. In Chapter II of ENSIGN FLANDRY I found this: "But nonetheless, Runei had sent a message of congratulations when Birthday [the holiday honoring Emperor Georgios birthday] rolled around. (Twice ridiculous! Even if a spaceship in hyperdrive has no theoretical limit to her pseudovelocity, the concept of simultaneity remains meaningless over interstellar distances." My point: can we truly say his Majesty's birthday was celebrated on exactly the SAME day on Starkad as it was on Terra in Chapter I? And that questions as well to other events in both the Technic and CoDominium series. The most we can say is that many "simultaneous" occurred roughly close to each other in time. And even "time" has problems when used on such a vast scale.
Sean
I recopied/revised the comments I originally uploaded at 08:47 on March 11 to correct some annoying omissions I made due to my haste.
Your mention of "simultaneity" makes me think it's necessary to raise a technical point. In Chapter II of ENSIGN FLANDRY I found this: "But nonetheless, Runei had sent a message of congratulations when Birthday [the holiday honoring Emperor Georgios birthday] rolled around. (Twice ridiculous! Even if a spaceship in hyperdrive has no theoretical limit to her pseudovelocity, the concept of simultaneity remains meaningless over interstellar distances." My point: can we truly say his Majesty's birthday was celebrated on exactly the SAME day on Starkad as it was on Terra in Chapter I? And that question applies as well to other events in both the Technic and CoDominium series. The most we can say is that many "simultaneous" events occurred roughly close to each other in time. And even "time" has problems when used on such a vast scale.
Sean
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