Are we to understand that, during the events of Poul Anderson's "Iron," Ulf Markham remembers that, for several weeks, he enjoyed being hypnotically controlled by a telepathic Thrint but just doesn't mention it? No. UN "pscychists" have suppressed those memories and made Markham susceptible to hypnotic control by General Early from Earth!
That the ARM, and through them the Brotherhood, control governments by such means is a plot element in the Known Space future history that, as far as I can see, appears only in two stories by Pournelle & Stirling. Authors contributing to an existing series can exercise considerable latitude, especially if they are able to invoke memory loss in their characters.
Stories by other authors need not mention these facts but also must not contradict them.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
I have to think that I believe Anderson's Chereionites were more plausible in speculating about how memories could be edited, deleted, or false memories implanted.
Ad astra! Sean
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