This chapter almost entirely fills its four pages. The omniscient narrator directly informs the reader concerning both the successes and the ultimate failure of the Psychotechnic Institute. Character conversations and interactions are temporarily suspended, as if we were instructed to read a chapter of a history text book between two chapters of a historical novel. This is one key source text for the Psychotechnic History. A similar passage informs us about the Polesotechnic League in the first Nicholas van Rijn story, "Margin of Profit."
The Institute nurtured Technic civilization as the Church had nurtured the preceding Western civilization. We have to accept that the phrase, "Technic civilization," like the phrase, "known space," is used in more than one future history series. We might even imagine a composite history combining features drawn from two or more such series. This is particularly the case with James Blish's diverging futures.
I will post now just in case the computer goes off again.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Is Chapter V of Anderson's THE SNOWS OF GANYMEDE much like how H.G. Wells wrote his fictional "history," THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME? Or Olaf Stapledon's own science fiction?
Interesting, I've forgotten how "Technic civilization" is also to be found in SNOWS.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
Yes. Wells and Stapledon wrote more detailed future history text books. Stapledon discusses Martian invasions of Earth as if they had happened.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
While I have nothing against this kind of science fiction, and I might even find it as interesting as Tolkien's similar Appendix A to THE LORD OF THE RINGS, this kind of textbook approach will not, I think, appeal to many readers.
Ad astra! Sean
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