Texts In Contexts

A single text can bear different meanings not only to different readers but also to a single reader when read in a different context. Despite dissimilar contents, texts in differing contexts include the following:

in the Hebrew Bible, the Prophets immediately follow the Law and apply it to history, whereas, in the Christian Bible, they immediately precede the New Testament and prophesy the Messiah;

The Protocols Of The Elders Of Zion can be read either as a factual account of a secret meeting or as an insight into the mental processes of a conspiracy theorist;

I first read Poul Anderson's "The Game of Glory" without as yet any knowledge either that this story was part of a Dominic Flandry series or that that series was part of a future history series.

As I have said before, a prequel might not only be written later but also be meant to be read later. Readers like to be told what happened before. Thus:

having read about visits to Narnia, now we read about how such visits began;

having read an account of She, ending in her death, now we read Allan Quatermain's account of his earlier meeting with her;

having read Watson's accounts of Holmes' cases while they were together, now we read about Holmes' initiatory case before he met Watson;

having read about Nicholas van Rijn's trade pioneer crew, now we read about one team member's student days.

One text in three contexts:

"Adzel talks a lot about blessing in disguise, but this disguise was impenetrable."
-Poul Anderson, "How To Be Ethnic" IN Roger Elwood (Ed.), Future Quest (Avon Books, 1974).

"Adzel talks a lot about blessings in disguise, but this disguise was impenetrable."
-Poul Anderson, "How To Be Ethnic In One Easy Lesson" IN Anderson, The Earth Book Of Stormgate (New York, 1979), pp. 49-67 AT p. 51.

"Adzel talks a lot about blessings in disguise, but this disguise was impenetrable."
-Poul Anderson, "How To Be Ethnic In One Easy Lesson" IN Anderson, The Van Rijn Method (Riverdale, NY, 2009), pp. 175-197 AT p. 177.

If we just read Future Quest, then "How To Be Ethnic" is just a one-off story.

If we are reading Anderson's Technic History in its original order of publication, then we have read about the trade pioneer crew, including Adzel, in "The Trouble Twisters," Satan's World and Mirkheim before reading "Adzel talks...," the opening words of "How To Be Ethnic...," whereas, if instead we are reading the Technic History in chronological order of fictitious events as presented in Baen Books' seven-volume The Technic Civilization Saga, of which The Van Rijn Method is Volume I, then Adzel means nothing to us as yet when we read his name at the beginning of "How To Be Ethnic..." We will read about the trade pioneer crew later, in Volumes II and III, although only in the first of the six works collected in Vol III. History is bigger than organizations or civilizations.

So which is the better way to read it? Search me.