"The paths fork and divide. With each step you take through Destiny's garden, you make a choice; and every choice determines future paths.
"However, at the end of a lifetime of walking you might look back, and see only one path stretching out behind you; or look ahead, and see only darkness.
"Sometimes you dream about the paths of Destiny, and speculate, to no purpose.
"Dream about the paths you took and the paths you didn't take..."
-Neil Gaiman, The Season of Mists (New York, 1992), Episode 0, p. 13, panels 1-4.
I immediately thought of three major works by Poul Anderson -
choices determining future paths: the Time Patrol;
darkness ahead: the shadow of God the Hunter across the future in the Technic History;
paths not taken: the alternative history novels.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
I recall reading of analogous metaphors in St. Bede's ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH PEOPLE. The swallow leaves the darkness of night outside, enters a brightly lit great hall at one end, and returns to the darkness of night at the other end of the hall.
Ad astra! Sean
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