On the spaceship, the Quetzal, Miguel Tolteca puts:
"...Castellani's Symphony No. 2 in D minor with Subsonics on the tapester..." (I, p. 545)
I deduce that Anderson has invented this composer and symphony.
Raven, who shortly confronts Tolteca, is a Lochlanna aristocrat. (p. 547) Remembering first that Roan Tom's father was from Lochlann and secondly that, much earlier, Lochlann was a member planet of the Supermetals Company, we begin to see how this new story fits into the Technic History. Then Raven spells it out for us:
"'It's been twelve hundred years since the breakup of the Commonwealth isolated [the planet, Gwydion]. The whole Empire rose and fell while they were alone on that one planet.'" (p. 549)
Some characters refer to League and Empire whereas Raven refers to Commonwealth and Empire. Basically: Solar Commonwealth, politics; Polesotechnic League, economics. The Technic History has brought us a very long way and is not finished yet. There are two more installments, each presenting a new set of political and economic arrangements, after this one.
One reason why Daven Laure of the Commonalty did not mention the Allied Planers (see Future Medievalism) is that Laure's story, "Starfog," was published in 1967 whereas the story about the Allied Planets, "The Sharing of Flesh," was published in 1968.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
In the combox to "Future Medievalism," I calculated in a rough and ready way that "A Tragedy of Errors" occurred more than 500 years after the Empire fell. If Gywdion lost contact with the rest of the human race sometime after AD 2600, Tolteca's comments creates a chronological difficulty if the "years" he spoke if were Terran years. Because then THE NIGHT FACE took place around AD 3800, only about three centuries after the Fall of Terra. Placing it BEFORE "A Tragedy of Errors." And my view is that THE NIGHT FACE took place after "A Tragedy of Errors." Unless Tolteca meant that a Lochlanna year was a good deal longer than a Terran year. Should we understand THE NIGHT FACE as happening not long after "Tragedy"?
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
I am sure that, when THE NIGHT FACE was written, we were meant to understand that the 1200 years were standard but we can save the appearances by arguing that they were years of a different length. Both "A Tragedy of Errors" and THE NIGHT FACE are set during the Long Night. They may or may not be in the chronological order that we have thought.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I agree, to "save the appearances," it makes sense to think Tolteca naturally thought in terms of Lochlanna years, which may have been longer than those of Terra.
And I think THE NIGHT FACE came later than "A Tragedy of Errors." Because the Nuevamericans and Lochlanna were enjoying a more sophisticated and prosperous level of culture and technology.
Ad astra! Sean
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