Saturday, 19 December 2020

Changed Reading Order

In The Earth Book Of Stormgate
"Wings of Victory"
"The Problem of Pain"
"How To Be Ethnic In One Easy Lesson"
"Margin of Profit"
"Esau"
"The Season of Forgiveness"
The Man Who Counts
"A Little Knowledge"
"Day of Burning"
"Lodestar"
"Wingless"
"Rescue on Avalon"
 
In The Technic Civilization Saga (interspersed with other works)
"Wings of Victory"
"The Problem of Pain"
"Margin of Profit"
"How To Be Ethnic In One Easy Lesson"
"The Season of Forgiveness"
The Man Who Counts
"Esau"
"Day of Burning" 
"A Little Knowledge"
"Lodestar"
"Wingless"
"Rescue on Avalon"
 
The changes are in heavy type.
 
According to Sandra Miesel's Chronology of Technic Civilization (see also here), "Margin of Profit" and "How To Be Ethnic..." are set in the same year. For what it is worth, I prefer a slightly longer delay before our first encounter with Nicholas van Rijn in "Margin of Profit."
 
Hloch's Earth Book introduction to "A Little Knowledge" informs his Avalonian readers that:
 
"Arinnian of Stormgate, whose human name is Christopher Holm and who has rendered several Ythrian works into Anglic, prepared this version for the book you hold."
-Poul Anderson, "A Little Knowledge" IN Anderson, The Earth Book Of Stormgate (New York, 1979), pp. 291-315 AT p. 291.
 
Hloch's introduction to "Day of Burning" states that:
 
"Hloch and Arinnian together have worked [a full account of what happened on Merseia] into narrative form."
-Poul Anderson, "Day of Burning" IN The Earth Book Of Stormgate, pp. 316-367 AT p. 317.
 
Thus, in The Technic Civilization Saga, the introduction that merely refers to Arinnian comes before the introduction that explains who he is.
 
"Esau" is about Emil Dalmady. Hloch's introduction to this story explains that some of Dalmady's children moved to Avalon with Falkayn and that one of them, Judith, wrote the story. Hloch's introduction to "The Season of Forgiveness" begins:
 
"The following story was also written by Judith Dalmady/Lundgren..."
-Poul Anderson, "The Season of Forgiveness" IN The Earth Book Of Stormgate, pp. 131-145 AT p. 131.

Again, the introduction assuming knowledge of Judith comes before the introduction that explains who she is.

Hloch's introduction to "A Day of Burning," mentioned above, informs readers that the story was based on an account found in records that had been kept on Falkayn's home planet, Hermes. Hloch's introduction to "Lodestar" begins:
 
"Also in the records left on Hermes..."
-Poul Anderson, "Lodestar" IN The Earth Book Of Stormgate, pp. 368-408 AT p. 368.
 
In the Earth Book, "Lodestar" immediately follows "Day of Burning" whereas, in the Saga, "The Master Key," Satan's World and "A Little Knowledge" come between them so the reader must hark back to recall the records on Hermes.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Trying to work out a completely satisfactory listing of the Technic stories in internal chronological order seems to be almost impossible. "Editors" and "historians" have to make educated guesses and sometimes make arbitrary choices.

Ad astra! Sean