Contemporary And Historical Accounts

"The Problem of Pain."

After Hloch in his introduction, we are addressed by the unnamed human first person narrator who in turn introduces the experience of the central character, Peter Berg. The narrator directly addresses not readers of a book in the twentieth or twenty-first centuries but his own contemporaries and in the present tense:

"Pete and I got along well. He's a big, sandy-haired, freckle-faced young man, altogether dependable... I recommend him as a companion." (p. 27)

This narrative is not recounted years or decades after the events of the story. Pete is still as described at the time, big, dependable etc and a recommended companion. This reminds us of the contemporaneously narrated daily life of the future in Robert Heinlein's Future History. See Daily Life In Future Histories.

However, Poul Anderson presents two perspectives. "The Problem of Pain" is in the Earth Book because:

the narrator described his conversations with Peter Berg in private correspondence;

the recipient's heirs preserved the correspondence;

it was recorded on Terra;

a visiting historian acquired a copy;

there was a transcription in the archives of the University of Fleurville, Esperance;

Hloch's mother, Rennhi, found it there;

Ythrians judge that all the persons concerned died so long ago that no pride will be touched by publishing the account;

a human being trying to understand Ythrians might help Ythrians to understand human beings.

That original narrator's first person, present tense account has become very much a historical document.