Times And Places

Any novel or short story collection is to us a visible, tangible artifact with a receding publication date whereas, to its characters, a fictional narrative happens in a world that may be very like or very unlike ours and that has its own chronology. A contemporary novel is assumed to be set in the year of writing or of publication and, if it diverges too far from that, then it is not contemporary.

Poul Anderson writes:

"London, 1944."
-Poul Anderson, "Time Patrol" IN Anderson, Time Patrol (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 1-53 AT p. 44.

That place and that year are enough to tell us in general what is happening. However, Anderson goes on to describe it:

"The early winter night had fallen, and a thin cold wind blew down the streets which were gulfs of darkness. Somewhere came the crump of an explosion, and a fire was burning, great red banners flapping above the roofs." (ibid.)

(Another sf reader remarked that authors of time travel fiction usually state that a character is at a particular time and place whereas Anderson tells us what it is like.)

"Time Patrol" has a history, originally published in a magazine in 1955, then collected and recollected in subsequent decades, culminating in 2010, if not by now more recently.

1984 is the title of a 1949 novel by George Orwell whereas 1984 is the publication date of Past Times by Poul Anderson and the date of fictional events in Anderson's 1990 novel, The Shield Of Time. See 1984.

CS Lewis' That Hideous Strength was published in 1945 but its Preface, dated Christmas Eve, 1943, tells us that:

"The period of this story is vaguely 'after the war'."
-CS Lewis, That Hideous Strength IN Lewis, The Cosmic Trilogy (London, 1990), pp. 349-753 AT p. 354.

In 1943, Lewis did not know that the War would end in 1945.

Of my recent Dornford Yates acquisitions, some are copies printed before or during World War II and one, Red In The Morning (Ward, Lock & Co., Limited, London and Melbourne), is a first edition presenting this interesting information:

"First published     1946
"BOOK
"PRODUCTION
"WAR ECONOMY
"STANDARD
"THE TYPOGRAPHY OF THIS BOOK CONFORMS TO THE AUTHORIZED ECONOMY STANDARD" (p. 4)

What I have typed as lines 2, 3, 4 and 5 are printed inside an image of an open book with a lion lying sideways on top.

Second hand books are artifacts from past times.