The concluding line of "A Twelvemonth and a Day"/Let The Spacemen Beware!/The Night Face is barely discernible in the attached image:
"And not remember." (XII, p. 660)
However, our, or at least my, current rereading of the novel is still in its opening chapter, I.
I have quoted separate sentences from an early piece of dialogue by Commandant Raven but should now quote this paragraph in full:
"'[The Gwydiona]'ve had almost one standard year to think over what the first expedition told them. We're a long way from home in space, and even longer in time. It's been twelve hundred years since the breakup of the Commonwealth isolated them. The whole Empire rose and fell while they were alone on that one planet. Genetic and cultural evolution have done strange work in shorter periods.'" (I, p. 549)
See Twelve Hundred Years and its combox.
If those "'...twelve hundred years...'" had been local Lochlanna or Namerican planetary years, then they would not have impacted the Chronology of Technic Civilization. However, Raven explicitly refers to "'...one standard year...'" so his twelve hundred years are almost certainly standard/Terran as well. On the other hand, we are very probably giving the text even more detailed attention than its meticulous author did.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
Ha! I recall how Anderson, both in published essays and letters he wrote to me, was somewhat bemused, if flattered, by the zealous and detailed commentaries fans gave to many of his stories. And that kind of "detailed attention" is part of the fun gained from reading Anderson's stories.
Ad astra! Sean
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