In Anderson's Psychotechnic History, the Un-Men are clones of Stefan Rostomily. In his Technic History, Duke Edwin Cairncross plans to clone himself when he has usurped the Imperial Throne.
"'...as far as I know cloning exists only in the pages of science fiction."
-Susan Howatch, Mystical Paths (London, 1996), PART TWO, TWO, I, pp. 358-359.
Thus, Howatch's character refers obliquely to works like Anderson's future histories.
"The virtue of sf is that it presents man in relation to his surroundings: man on another planet, man in a different era, man faced with alien life, man against one of his own inventions. Without making too large a claim for it, we may say that sf is the only way of dealing with ourselves as an organic part of the universe; whereas the ordinary novel can only portray us as a part of human society. This is the justification of the term 'science-fiction' - not, perhaps, as hideous a term as it seems."
-Brian Aldiss, Space, Time And Nathaniel (London, 1966), INTRODUCTION, p. 11.
"Mankind as an organic part of the universe" is a sound description of Poul Anderson's works.
Also appropriate is the concluding phrase of the concluding story in STAN:
"...a voice singing in a new universe."
-Brian Aldiss, "Dumb Show" IN Space, Time And Nathaniel, pp. 153-159 AT p. 159.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
The very year Susan Howatch pub. MYSTICAL PATH (1996), was also the year Dolly the Sheep was cloned using an ADULT cell taken from an adult animal. So cloning ceased to be merely fictional in 1996.
I first came across the idea of cloning, altho not the word itself when I first read ENSIGN FLANDRY in 1971. In Chapter 12, when Dwyr the Hook, the Merseian spy captured by Com. ABrams, discovered how his own superiors had lied to him about it not being possible to clone new limbs for his war injuries.
Cloning has many obvious, hopeful possibilities: such as being used to grow new arms and leg for people who lost limbs, or for replacing failed organs (such as the heart, lungs, kidneys, eyes, etc.). Unfortunately, tho, it seems plain there are still many practical difficulties hindering such uses of cloning.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
MYSTICAL PATHS is copyright 1992. My paperback edition was published in 1996.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I sit corrected. Cloning was still purely science fictional in 1992.
I just wish the science of cloning had advanced far more rapidly over the past 25 years.
Ad astra! Sean
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