Wells, Stapledon and Heinlein looked forward;
CS Lewis looked backward;
Poul Anderson looked both ways, like Janus.
Lewis, Anderson and Stirling present multiple mythical pasts:
Biblical;
Classical;
Arthurian;
Carolingian;
Norse;
Japanese.
Lewis' literary monotheism incorporates Classical deities in subordinate roles whereas Anderson and Stirling, like Neil Gaiman, present eclectic mythological systems.
We know the future only as multiple possibilities. Stapledon followed Wells not by writing a sequel, although that would have been an option, but by presenting a future vision different both from The Shape Of Things To Come and from The Time Machine. And no one wrote more fictional futures, future histories or time travel scenarios than Poul Anderson.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I had to laugh a bit when you said Poul Anderson's works "...looked both ways, like Janus." And I knew what you meant!
I do hesitate a bit at including the Biblical "among multiple mythical pasts." Yes, I know "myth" does not have to mean "lie" or "fiction," but too many people would jump to that conclusion. And I do agree books like Genesis included "mythical" elements reused by the inspired authors to present revealed truths in ways that could be understood by the people who lived thousands of years ago.
Sean
In a sense, all pasts are mythical. The facts may be objective, but meanings and significance are always generated by human beings.
Dear Mr. Stirling,
I agree. I'm reminded of how the editors of the Book of Genesis reused the old Mesopotamian flood story to put a different meaning into it.
Sean
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