there are major conflicts;
enemies become allies;
eras come and go;
events experienced as the end of everything are perceived very differently by later generations.
"'Sir, the League, the troubles, the Empire, the fall, the Long Night...every such thing - behind us. In space and time alike. The people of the Commonalty don't get into wars.'"
-Poul Anderson, "Starfog" IN Anderson, Flandry's Legacy (Riverdale, NY, 2012), pp. 709-794 AT p. 722.
"There had been a fight. The reasons - personal, familial, national, ideological, economic, whatever they were - had dropped into the bottom of the millennia between then and now. (A commentary on the importance of any such reasons.)"
-op. cit., p. 728.
And, in a novel whose protagonists receive messages from many periods of their future:
"'If an Englishman of around 1600 had found out about the American Revolution, he probably would have thought it a tragedy; an Englishman of 1950 would have had a very different view of it. We're in the same spot. The messages we get from the really far future have no contexts yet.'"
-James Blish, The Quincunx Of Time (New York, 1973), AN EPILOGUE, p. 127.
Futuristic sf presents an excellent perspective on history.
3 comments:
Heck, I agree that the Revolution was unfortunate -- breaking the political unity of the English-speaking world was something that had, from our point of view, very negative consequences(*), and it was due to ignorance and arrogance on both sides.
(*) the American Civil War, just for starters -- if the colonies had stayed in the Empire, emancipation would probably have come earlier, though not in the 1830's, and it would have been gradual and compensated.
A fascinating alternative history.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I'm inclined to agree it would have been better if mutual concessions and compromises could have prevented the US War of Independence. We see Harry Turtledove speculating about that idea in THE TWO GEORGES (not sure of his co-author's name).
And a gradual, compensated emancipation of the slaves in the American south would have been better than a bloody civil war and all its warping consequences for the US.
And I'm frankly skeptical of Lauren Daven's optimistic comment about the people of the Commonalty not getting into wars. The mere fact war IS mentioned makes me think it IS possible for the Commonalty to get into wars.
Sean
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