Example:
Mark Twain: A Connecticut Yankee..., Premise:
A twentieth century man is mysteriously transported to an earlier period.
Twain
Applying modern knowledge, he made big changes which were not recorded in the Dark Ages.
de Camp
Applying modern knowledge, he made big changes and changed the course of history.
Anderson
Lacking knowledge and skills appropriate to the period, he did not survive.
A debate in three stages.
(Other reading: I bought Donnie Brasco: Unfinished Business. It's good.)
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
"The Man Who Came Early" made a very necessary point: SF writers should not too blithely assume all time travelers stranded in the past will be as successful as de Camp's Martin Padway in LEST DARKNESS FALL.
In his Antonine books Stirling has the Americans stranded in the Rome of Marcus Aurelius mentioning LEST DARKNESS FALL as something of a model to follow. Anderson's "The Man Who Came Early" could have been mentioned as a warning on the need to avoid overconfidence.
Ad astra! Sean
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