Anderson And Larsson

As readers, we make our own connections between authors and can be as idiosyncratic as we like. I reread Poul Anderson and Stieg Larsson. There is a Scandinavian connection although obviously that is not why I read them both. If the Time Patrol is involved in the clandestine intelligence organizations investigated by Mikael Blomkvist, then it keeps out of sight but that is as it should be. (I do not suggest that Larsson knew of the Time Patrol. I am exercising my own imagination here.)

The penetration of sf ideas into the popular consciousness is demonstrated in the following passage:

"The key to the mystery was what it was that Harriet had seen in Hedestad. He would never find that out unless he could invent a time machine and stand behind her, looking over her shoulder."

-Stieg Larsson, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (London, 2008), p. 277.

We owe not only the idea but even the phrase, "time machine," to Wells who has many successors but principally, in my opinion, Anderson with his Time Patrol timecycles.

Blomkvist is scrutinizing a photograph of Harriet Vanger frowning at something. If he stood behind her, looking over her shoulder, then he would appear in the photograph! But he does see something else there that furthers his investigation - almost as good as a time traveler. Read Larsson.

There is more on this but I am being rushed here.

Laters.