Operation Chaos, XXII.
We have remarked on how an author can obliquely comment on our history by describing an alternative history, e.g., see Eutopia, Westfall And America. Poul Anderson does this again in Operation Chaos:
"I went back to the generator and started the motor, leaving the circuits open. It stuttered and shivered. The vile fumes made me glad we'd escaped dependence on internal combustion engines. I've seen automobiles, as they were called, built around 1900, shortly before the first broomstick flights. Believe me, museums are where they belong - a chamber of horrors, to be exact." (p. 154)
In fantasy and sf, the author should not invent new rules as he goes along but does Anderson do that here? -
"The surge of current through the coils on the generator threw out enough magnetism to cancel every charm, ours and theirs alike, within a hundred-yard radius." (ibid.)
2 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I don't know if that is Henry Ford himself in the picture, but what I noticed was how keenly the men in the background seems to be looking at that very early car (perhaps around 1905)? Many, many people must have been fascinated by these "horseless carriages"!
No, I don't think Anderson created a new rule in the text you quoted. The people in the OPERATION CHAOS universe DID know about electricity. And the mention of internal combustion engines being made about 1900 shows that even after the "Age of Goetic" began, engineers in that timeline would not find it that hard to later build such engines, if desired. So Anderson stayed within the rules!
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
I meant the following point about magnetism neutralizing magic.
Paul.
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