What products are manufactured in the industrial district known as the Web in Nova Roma on Aeneas? What goods do the Riverfolk transport along the Flone? There are limits to what Poul Anderson's text can tell us and also to my imagination. However, readers with real world experience of industry and commerce will be able to imagine details appropriate to Aeneas in the Terran Empire. Thus, a novel could be written about people living and working in Nova Roma. Sf can be about the daily life of the future, not just about exploits at the edge of civilization among explorers, spies or fugitives. Robert Heinlein began his Future History moving in this direction and Anderson presented a glimpse of daily life in the San Francisco Integrate on Earth in the period of the Solar Commonwealth in "How to Be Ethnic in One Easy Lesson." The full potential of Anderson's Technic History remains untapped.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
It's a trite truism to say this, but there's only so much a writer can say in his stories. And not just with Poul Anderson. I'm reminded of how JRR Tolkien wrote in some of his letters about how eager fans of THE LORD OF THE RINGS were to learn more about Middle Earth. Historians or historically minded readers asked questions about the history and economy of Gondor, for example.
Ad astra! Sean
Post a Comment