"'Although [Antiochus] himself is tolerant, a descendant of his attempted to crush Judaism in Palestine, as you may read in First and Second Maccabees.'" (pp. 75-76)
(An explicit Biblical reference.)
What Shalten says next suggests a whole new phase for the Time Patrol series:
"'Given total power in Asia, that attempt may well succeed. Therefore the whole world that brought you and me into being is a phantom, a might-have-been, which conceivably, an alternate Time Patrol keeps suppressed.'" (p. 76)
Everard suggests the same idea to Wanda. He tells her that, if the Exaltationists change events, then:
"'There'd never have been a you or a me, a United States, a Danellian destiny, a Time Patrol...unless they organized one of their own to protect the misshapen history they brought into being.'"
-Poul Anderson, "The Year of the Ransom" IN Anderson, Time Patrol (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 641-735 AT 23 May 1987, p. 718.
So we might see wars in the remote past between rival Time Patrols.
4 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I've said this before, Poul Anderson has to be one of the few SF writers to quote, allude, or explicitly mention the Bible in so MANY of his works. I can't think of many SF writers, even if they happened to be Christians or Jews, who do that.
Anderson referred to many other works in his stories. Some of them admittedly obscure. E.g., the "Ahab Whaling" we see Flandry using as a pseudonym while on Diomedes in A KNIGHT OF GHOSTS AND SHSAWDOWS would be understood only by readers who had read Herman Melville's MOBY DICK. Alluding to Captain Ahab and the White Whale.
Ad astra! Sean
Hi,
A day spent mainly with friends leaves zero time for blogging but time travel in general and the Time Patrol in particular are still very much with us as I hope to demonstrate soon.
Paul.
Sean: the English language is saturated with Biblical references -- and has been for a very long time.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I agree, but what strikes me about Anderson's use of the Bible was how often he must have DELIBERATELY used it, such as the times he carefully quoted fairly lengthy passages from the Scriptures in his stories.
Ad astra! Sean
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