Brann the Ranger asks whether these things are evil:
the science that ends drudgery, famine and childhood diseases and sends men beyond the moon;
the Constitution of the United States;
reason, which alone differentiates men from animals -
- and:
"'Do you seriously think this earthward-looking, magic-muttering, instinct-bound, orgiastic faith of the Goddess can ever rise above itself?'"
-Poul Anderson, The Corridors Of Time, CHAPTER EIGHT, p. 66.
That reminded me of this passage:
"Where the West had soared from the rock of Earth like a sequoia, the Soviets spread like lichens over the planet, tightening their grip, satisfied to be at the bases of the pillars of sunlight the West had sought to ascend."
-James Blish, Cities In Flight (London, 1981), p. 238.
Soaring or Earthbound - the same conflict in a different fictional future.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
And my sympathies lies more with Brann the Ranger than they do with Storm Darroway and her Wardens. Where the Rangers erred was in going too far in their urbanization of North America.
And in at least two stories Poul Anderson gives us some speculations about what a Soviet dominated Earth might be like: "The High Ones" and "The Pugilist." Both are grim and dystopian in their descriptions of Zolotoy and Earth.
Sean
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