Saturday 4 March 2017

Literary Associations

This might be a sub-discipline of literary geography. If we read a lot, then books can become associated in our minds with the places where we were when we read or reread the books. Thus, a place and a book acquire a connection that is unique to us. I have discussed this here. Today, this thought was prompted by passing a restaurant in Morecambe and remembering rereading a James Blish short story while drinking coffee in that restaurant but what is my personal literary geography with Poul Anderson?

I borrowed the Gollancz edition of Guardians Of Time from Penrith Public Library shortly after its publication;

I bought and read a paperback copy of Twilight World and an issue of Venture Science Fiction containing "The Game of Glory" in Dublin while attending secondary school in the Republic of Ireland;

I bought the Dominic Flandry collection containing "Tiger By The Tail" while visiting a friend in Manchester;

I bought The People Of The Wind and The Day Of Their Return while visiting family in Nottingham and was surprised to find a reference to Flandry in the latter because I had not yet internalized the Chronology of the Technic History;

I reread and posted about some Nicholas van Rijn stories, e.g., here, while on holiday with family near Lichfield;

I started to read Perish By The Sword in Liverpool.

Obviously, every Anderson fan will have a different personal literary geography with all of these works.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

For me, the very first Anderson book I read was the Chilton Boooks edition of AGENT OF THE TERRAN EMPIRE, borrowed from the local public library. Needless to say, most times I read Anderson's works at HOME, altho I have sometimes taken PA books to read during breaks at work.

But one of the most personal aspects of reading Anderson was how it affected my late father. I sometimes left Anderson books in the den of my house and my father noticed and started reading them himself. And he LIKED the stories Anderson wrote. My father also started reading SF by other authors, usually from books I gave him for birthdays or Christmas.

Sean