Friday, 24 September 2021

Greater Treks II

Here it becomes relevant to quote Sandra Miesel's conclusions to Poul Anderson's first two future history series.

The Psychotechnic History
"To Earth there's no returning. She vanished with the childhood of our race. Yet as a poet once said, 'No matter how far we range, the salt and rhythm of her tides will always be in our blood.' One chapter has ended. Humankind's saga flows on."
-Sandra Miesel IN Poul Anderson, The Complete Psychotechnic League, Volume 3, p. 216.

Humankind's saga flows on. The adventure continues.

The Technic History
"Although Technic Civilization is extinct, another - perhaps better - turn on the Wheel of Time has begun for our galaxy. The Commonalty must inevitably decline just as the League and Empire did before it. But the Wheel will go on turning as long as there are thinking minds to wonder at the stars."
-Sandra Miesel, Chronology of Technic Civilization IN Poul Anderson, The Van Rijn Method (Riverdale, NY, 2009), pp. 611-619 AT p. 619.

The Wheel will go on turning. The adventure continues.

Technology has not become extinct but "Technic civilization" had become the name of the successor of Western civilization. That successor survived the Time of Troubles but ended with the Long Night following the Fall of the Terran Empire. 

The League, the Empire and the Commonalty are different kinds of organizations. The League is a merchants' alliance transcending planetary governments whereas the Empire is an interstellar government and the Commonalty is a service organization in one spiral arm. Nevertheless, each of these organizations defines one period of Technic, then post-Technic, history.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Considering how I still don't believe "The Chapter Ends" is truly part of the Psychotechnic series, those comments by Sandra Miesel are not a satisfactory summing up. But I agree much more with her comments about the Technic stories.

Ad astra! Sean