I am rereading Poul Anderson's
The Winter Of The World,
I, and might as well never have read it before. We recognize Andersonian descriptions of a landscape, a homestead, an extended family and their social interactions. The first page mentions tundra, taiga and darkling trees. The opening sentence states that this is "...during the Ice Age..." (p. 9) On p. 11, a dwelling has "...a sunpower collector..." so that this is most probably a future Ice Age.
The reader cannot immediately assimilate all the characters and places referred to but accepts that a complicated social setting will emerge. This novel stands alone and is not part of any future history series although, of course, it assumes a history linking Anderson's twentieth century to that future Ice Age.
4 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I'll be very interested in any comments you make about THE WINTER OF THE WORLD, because of the rather strong feelings I have about that book. I wish I had thought of writing to Poul Anderson about WINTER, because of the dislike I have for some of the characters in the book. One view I came to have was that the "villains" in WINTER were the real heroes, the persons to be truly admired or respected. In my hypothetical letter to PA, I hope I would have asked him if that was one of the points he had in mind while writing WINTER.
Sean
Sean,
A view that will enable me to reread the book with even greater interest.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Thanks! I tried not to give away too many spoilers in my first comment, only hint at where I hope you might look.
Sean
Kaor, Sean!
The villains in THE WINTER OF THE WORLD were not malicious do-badders, but they were prepared to serve their empire by conquering people who had done them no wrong. There’s a scene where Josserek hopes that Donya dies cleanly in battle, instead of being one of the survivors of a destroyed culture and people, hungry, tubercular, turned whore to feed herself. That is among the consequences of a civilization settling the “vacant” land of hunter-gatherers, and if the people who try it end up dead themselves, there’s an Andersonian (and perhaps authentically Old Norse) phrase: He fell upon his own deed.
You may have arguments to the contrary; if I find time to catch up with the weblog, I may see them and respond further.
Best Regards,
Nicholas
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