Friday 25 October 2024

Revisiting "Gypsy"

As we read or reread Poul Anderson's "Gypsy," how much internal evidence do we find that this story comes after anything that we have read before? I will check but I don't think that there is any. There does not have to be, of course. History is full of populations living in their specific contexts without referring to any earlier events or to any wider perspectives. But everything is connected anyway. The protagonists of "Gypsy" found the Nomads who will later interact, frictively, with the Coordination Service, a branch of the Stellar Union, the successor of the Solar Union and before that the UN world government which was only just in the making in the aftermath of World War III (its own date now in our past) in the opening instalment of the Psychotechnic History, "Marius." We recognize future history substantiality and complexity even though these qualities in this series do not match the corresponding features of its successor, the Technic History.

A reminder that I will be away from the computer for all of tomorrow.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

The Sarajevo Assassination in 1914 must have seemed utterly remote and unimportant to the residents of Tibet, but it had tremendous worldwide consequences affecting everybody!

Ad astra! Sean