Generational Differences

For generational differences between characters in works by Poul Anderson, see:

Time Patrol Generations
Carl And Jorith
Generations
Confrontation And Conclusion In "The Pirate"

Someone said that the only generation gap in history was between those born before or after the atom bomb. There was an unbridgeable generation gap between me and my parents and none between me and my daughter. My mother disliked me reading sf, then found that her social contacts, including a judge and a colonel, read it. I did not dislike anything that my daughter did. A policeman was probably surprised that I was unconcerned when he rang to inform me that she had been arrested on an animal rights demonstration.

The atom bomb and the Moon landings were twentieth century events that were highly significant for sf. Wells, Verne and Heinlein had written about going to the Moon. Wells prefigured nuclear weapons in The World Set Free, as did Heinlein in "Solution Unsatisfactory." Poul Anderson's first future history series opens in the aftermath of World War III and its characters are motivated to prevent further wars at all costs.

We look back both at the history of the twentieth century and at the sf that it generated.