Why read or reread old stories when newer stories are better?
First, old stories still entertain.
Secondly, if we are old enough to have read them before, then rereading them might evoke nostalgia.
Thirdly, if we are of a younger generation, then they are new to us.
Fourthly, republication of old stories might help scholars:
"These tales were not seminal like Heinlein's, but they were a noticeable part of the field a generation ago. We've all come a long way since then, but sometimes we do well to look back and see where we have been.
"-Poul Anderson"
-Poul Anderson, Afterword IN Anderson, The Complete Psychotechnic League, Volume 1 (Riverdale, NY, October 2017), pp. 229-231 AT pp. 230-231.
Although republished in 2017, Anderson's Afterword is copyright 1981, another two generations ago from us now.
It is paradoxical to look back at a future history with all of its by now outdated assumptions and anticipations but that is the nature of fiction and literature. We permanently value Frankenstein, The Time Machine and Poul Anderson.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
Hope this gets uploaded.
I also value rereading yet older works that could be classified as proto-SF, such as Jonathan Swift's GULLIVER'S TRAVELS. Part of that work satirizes the activities of the Royal Society and its embryonic/amateur scientists.
Ad astra! Sean
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