The Chaos
Future History Beginning IV, combox
While agreeing that Earth has been in a chaotic state since 1914, I think that it is clear that, by "The Chaos...," Minamoto means a later process that specifically ended the period of recreation dominated by "...inactive entertainment, notably television..." (p. 25)
Minamoto writes in 2057. Thus, Poul Anderson's Technic History begins over a century later than Stapledon's and Wells' future histories.
2057 is the only year date given anywhere in the Technic History and the Chaos is mentioned only this once (I think).
Minamoto lists degrees of imaginative activity:
passive watching of a screen
reading
daydreaming
storytelling
psychodrama
Neil Gaiman said that everyone gets ideas but fiction writers take notes.
Between reading and daydreaming there is the interactive reading of blogging.
5 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
But you quoted Sandra Miesel, in her chronology of Technic Civilization, as saying the 21st century was a period of recovery from a time of violent disorder she called the "Chaos." But I've not found that version of her Chronology in the Anderson books I looked at. I'll check a few more.
So it seems people in the Technic timeline used "the Chaos" in two different or overlapping ways.
Sean
Sean,
Miesel wrote that in her introduction to the Chronology in Baen Books' TECHNIC CIVILIZATION SAGA. But that does not contradict the statement about the Chaos in "The Saturn Game." According to Minamoto, the Chaos ended the period of passive entertainment like TV. According to Miesel, the Chaos was a period of unrest ending in the 21st century. So, combining the two accounts, the Chaos began late in the 20th or early in the 21st and ended in the 21st.
If there had been a contradiction, then Miesel would have been wrong because Anderson's texts are the only authority on the History.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
But if Miesel dated the Chaos as beginning in the 20th century, the seemingly most logical date would be 1914. I don't think that necessarily contradicts what Minamoto said. Yes, Anderson's texts has to come before those of mere ccmmentators like me.
Sean
Sean,
Minamoto said that the Chaos ended the period of passive entertainment.
Miesel said that recovery from the Chaos was in the 21st century but says nothing about when it began. However, Minamoto did.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Then I wonder what people in the Technic timeline called the anarchy which began in 1914.
Sean
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