When the narrator at last spells out the terms of the great Pact, it sounds familiar to us because its crucial phrase had already ben used very near the beginning of the story:
"In few other parts of the planet could you be more fully in the oneness of time." (p. 138)
"We guard the great Pact, which is the heart of civilization, of society, and ultimately of life itself: the unspoken Pact between the living, the dead, and the unborn, that to the best of our poor mortal abilities they shall all be kept one in the oneness of time." (p. 165)
When reading p. 165, do we remember "...the oneness of time..." from p. 138? The narrator then concludes the narrative by explaining the Pact:
"Without it, nothing would have meaning and it may be that nothing would survive. But the young generations so often do not understand." (ibid.)
That is very philosophical. In fact:
"'You Cordys are supposed to be philosophers.'" (p. 162)
- and, before that:
"Trevelyan had been meditating upon his philosophy." (p. 146)
Nerthus would not have been colonized if had been known that it was inhabited. Good Luck will not be colonized until its extinct inhabitants have been adequately studied, understood and empathized with, that they be kept one in the oneness of time. This is the real culmination of the Psychotechnic History. But more could have been written. I would have liked the Psychotechnic and Technic Histories to have been many times longer than they are.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
I found a fair number of the Psychotechnic stories to be unsatisfactory and rather weakly written. Some of them were very much the kind of stories a BEGINNING writer might compose. I believe Anderson was right to become dissatisfied with the series.
Ad astra! Sean
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