Sunday, 4 October 2020

Prehistoric POVs II

HG Wells wrote:

Commenting on his own prehistorical fiction, "The Forest," Poul Anderson wrote:

"It has been well said that the past is another country. The further back we go, the more foreign it becomes. Modern narrative techniques begin to fail us in conveying some sense of eras as remote in spirit as they are in time. Myth has more power, but few writers can handle it."
 
Anderson then proceeds to discuss Johannes V. Jensen, (see also here) who could "handle" myth. I think that we here are agreed that Anderson could also "handle it," not only in retellings like, e.g., War Of The Gods, but also in the Time Patrol novel, "Star of the Sea," which traces the development of Northern European myths through successive historical periods.
 

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

I agree in Anderson being able to "handle" mythologies myths, as in the examples you cited. And in HROLF KRAKI'S SAGA and "The Long Remembering," I suggest as well Anderson could blend modern narrative or literary technique with mythological stories or legends. "Remembering" gives us some idea of how PA thought the mind of a Stone Age hunter worked.

Ad astra! Sean