"'As a rule, when I have heard some slight indication of the course of events, I am able to guide myself by the thousands of other similar cases which occur to my memory. In the present instance I am forced to admit that the facts are, to the best of my belief, unique.'"
-Arthur Conan Doyle, "The Red-Headed League" IN Doyle, The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes IN Doyle, 3 Books in 1 (Mumbai, 2007), pp. 28-54 AT p. 29.
What Holmes said reminded me of something that Nicholas van Rijn said:
"'I think maybe I see a pattern. When you have been swindling on so many planets like me, new captain, you will have analogues at your digits for much that is new....'"
-Poul Anderson, "The Master Key" IN Anderson, David Falkayn: Star Trader (Riverdale, NY, January 2009), pp. 195-233 AT p. 201.
"'Sweating is not so common on cold terrestroid planets,' Van Rijn remarked. 'Always you find analogs to something you met before, if you look enough. Evolution makes parallels.'"
-Anderson, op. cit., p. 203.
Van Rijn also claims that his brain:
"'...has stored away more information about the universe than maybe the universe gets credit for holding. I see now what the parallels are. Xanadu, Dunbar, Tametha, Disaster Landing...oh, the analogue is never exact and on Cain the thing I am thinking of has gone far and far...but still I see the pattern, and what happened makes sense.
"Not that we have got to have an analogue. You gave us so many clues here that I could solve the problem by logic alone. But analogues help, and also they show that my conclusion is not only correct but possible.'"
-ibid., p. 229.
(Close examination of the text has revealed a spelling inconsistency.)
Both Holmes and van Rijn rely on their vast knowledge to interpret new phenomena.
"Per fiddled with a glass of Ansan vermouth."
-ibid., 199.
We recognize "Ansan" as a Technic History background detail.
The dustcover blurb claims that Anderson's Technic History equals Heinlein's Future History, Herbert's Dune and Asimov's Foundation. It surpasses them.
2 comments:
Agreed it surpasses them -- but then, it was in two parts, originally. That provides the "unevenness" that real histories have.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
And it was so impulsively accidental, that mention by Anderson of "Polesotechnarch van Rijn" in THE PLAGUE OF MASTERS.
Ad astra! Sean
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