Sunday 3 November 2024

History And Yarns

Assuming for the sake of argument that "The Acolytes" does belong in the Psychotechnic History, we find that:

in "The Snows of Ganymede," Callisto and Ganymede are going to be terraformed;

in "Brake," Europa is going to be terraformed;

in "The Acolytes," Wilson Pete's father, an engineer, has:

"'...been assigned to a project on Sol VIII.'" (p. 6)

- i.e., on Neptune.

Thus, human activity expands out through the Solar System.

By the same token:

in "The Big Rain," Venus is being terraformed;

in "Cold Victory," Venus has been terraformed;

in "The Acolytes," Stellamont, the only city on Nerthus, is a few buildings on a broad plain;

in The Peregrine, Stellamont has grown much bigger and has even acquired a native section. See here.

History happens.

Wilson Pete is ten. His uncle, Thorleifsson Gunnar, has a blue, bald Javartenanian servant, Tobur, who tells Pete fine stories. Tobur has been with Gunnar since leaving Javartenan yet has been on many planets that Gunnar never mentions:

"...and he wouldn't lie to a fellow." (p. 11)

We return to the ambiguity of the yarn.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Fictions are "lies" that readers temporarily accept as "true" while reading them. Good stories makes us willing to suspend our disbelief in them.

Ad astra! Sean