Learning And Appreciation

When you read a text written by Poul Anderson:

learn what it teaches about the universe;

learn what it teaches about humanity;

appreciate the writing;

notice how it connects with your own experience.

I thought that the previous post noted a good example of a simplistic explanation even though the corresponding example from my own experience was probably unlike most other people's.

An even more personal association for each reader is remembering where we were when we read each particular work. If we have been reading an author for most of our lives, then remembering where we read the works is also remembering where we lived, studied, worked, travelled etc. The author's works become part of our lives. My response to Anderson's Time Patrol series is very different now from when I first read Guardians Of Time in about 1960.

"A Tragedy of Errors" informs or reminds us that:

stars are mostly hydrogen and helium;

large planets retain their hydrogen;

smaller planets lose their hydrogen, form cores from heavier elements and outgas atmospheres.

Basic cosmological information incorporated into a fictional narrative.