Friday 13 September 2019

Aldiss And Anderson

"'...all is illusion, a two-dimensional shadow play on the mist of space-time.'"
-Brian Aldiss, "Incentive" IN Brian Aldiss, Galaxies Like Grains Of Sand (London, 1979), pp. 95-115 AT p. 115.

"'If everything is random and causeless - if there is nothing out there, no firm reality, only a mathematical shadow show...'"
-Poul Anderson, The Shield Of Time (New York, 1991), 1990 A. D., p. 433.

See here.

"'That monster, that thing you sensed, is the residue of the slime of the evolutionary past still lingering - not outside you, but in your own mind. It is from that we must escape. We must grow from it.'"
-Aldiss, ibid.

See "protean enemy."

Aldiss has two Anderson parallels on one page.

The two big A's of trans-Atlantic sf.

4 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Alas, altho I have, of course heard of Brian Aldiss, I've read almost nothing by him except his study of science fiction: BILLION YEAR SPREE. I also have Reginald Bretnor's SCIENCE FICTION: TODAY AND TOMORROW. The second book includes Poul Anderson's article "The Creation of Imaginary Worlds."

Ad astra! Sean

S.M. Stirling said...

There's no escaping the evolutionary past, of course. It's a basic constituent of your self-hood.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Mr. Stirling!

But there are still people who deny the truth and actuality of evolution. Many "Evangelical" Protestants are perfectly good and decent people, but most of them seem to deny that evolution happened or is happening. It can be exasperating and frustrating trying to talk to such persons.

Ad astra! Sean

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

"Evolution is a myth! Why aren't monkeys still turning into people?" Said on TV. A complete misunderstanding of the process.

There is a song about this with the line, "It seems so unbelievable!" The criterion of truth is not evidence or research but just what seems believable to people with a particular set of presuppositions and prejudices.