Past And Future Histories

Reading past history increases my appreciation of future histories. Geography precedes history. An historian informs us that Russia is a gigantic, austere plain open to eastern winds and Asian migrations, then introduces populations, peasantries, nobilities, cities and so on. We know that we can read about all of these features elsewhere. A future historian introduces planetography and planetary populations and persuades us that we would be able to read about them elsewhere. Readers with amateur writing abilities can fill in some details with fanfic. (I can write but not fiction.)

Emil Dalmady comes from the colonized planet, Altai. Later, Dominic Flandry visits that planet. We accept what we are told about its history just as we accept a past historian's account of Russia. The background details do not really exist but Poul Anderson is able to write as if they did.

(Here at Blog Central, we have been busy preparing for four house guests for five nights arriving tomorrow. When they leave, I will visit Andrea above the Old Pier Bookshop. So posts might remain sparse. The spirit is willing but not always the social conditions!)