Tuesday, 31 January 2023

A Common Timeline

"The Acolytes" and:

Poul Anderson, "The Green Thumb" IN Anderson, The Complete Psychotechnic League, Volume 3 (Riverdale, NY, July 2018), pp. 21-41.

Characters swearing by Cosmos is one indication that these two Nerthusian stories plus "Gypsy" and "Star Ship" are set in a single fictional timeline. There are also indications that it is the timeline of psychotechnic science:

"Something of [Pete's] training in self-integration came back, psychophysiological habits, a shaking sort of calm." (p. 18)

When Pete feels bad about causing Tobur's death, his uncle and aunt think that they might have to:

"...take him to a psychiatrist in Stellamont." (p. 21)

Not to a doctor but specifically to a psychiatrist.

"The Acolytes" was published in Worlds Beyond in 1951 whereas "The Green Thumb" was published in Science Fiction Quarterly in 1953. Despite this disparity, "The Green Thumb" begins by directly continuing the narrative from the end of "The Acolytes":

"Pete felt so bad about Tobur getting killed on his account..." (ibid.)

We will see Nerthus again but not Pete or his family. 

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