I noted somewhere on the blog that, in the original version of "Margin of Profit," the Martians are not yet described as colonists from outside the Solar System. Reading these Flandry stories independently of the rest of the Technic History, we would get the impression that Mars did have native inhabitants a long time ago.
Thus, Anderson indirectly alludes to an earlier tradition in sf. Arnold (see image) preceded ERB who competed with OAK (Otis Adelbert Kline, see here) and was pastiched by Michael Moorcock but, of course, there are many other famous names that we need not list yet again.
4 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Even tho Mars, in the Technic series, had no "native" Martians, I can imagine the extra-Solarians who settled there might have developed their own designs and styles for jewelry which came to be called "Old Martian" by Flandry's time.
Sean
Paul and Sean:
Alternatively, "Old Martian" might refer to Terran colonists on Mars before the non-humans arrived and proved to be so much better suited to the place. Is there a reference anywhere that specifies how long ago the extra-Solars began colonizing?
David,
Previous Terran colonists of Mars strikes me as an unlikely meaning of "Old Martians" but what do I know? I don't know whether there is info about when the extra-solars arrived but, if there is, it will be in "Margin of Profit."
Paul.
Kaor, DAVID!
You made an interesting suggestion! I like the idea of how there might have been human colonists on Mars before the extra-Solarians were allowed to settle there. In fact there must have been humans there thru out the Commonwealth and Imperial eras. So it makes sense to think human Martians developed their own jewelry styles as time passed. And some designs came to be called "Old Martian" by Flandry's time.
Sean
Post a Comment