Also, if there was a Poul Anderson in the twentieth century of the Time Patrol timeline, then that Anderson cannot have written the Time Patrol series and therefore must have written something else in its place. So how many Poul Andersons are there? Every novel set during its author's lifetime assumes a timeline in which, if the author does exist, he does not write that novel and therefore is a slightly different version of himself.
I am just about to reread "House Rule" because I suspect that it does contain information that differentiates its narrator from its author.
2 comments:
Paul:
Whoever the narrator is, he recognizes and seems not at all fazed by being in the same room with Nick van Rijn. One would think the writer of the Polesotechnic League stories would be at least a bit freaked out by meeting his literal (and literary) brainchild ... even though he presumably already knew, from prior experience of the Old Phoenix, that it was possible.
David,
It is very difficult to think through all the ramifications of this idea. It looks like the narrator is not the author.
Paul.
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