An author can make something sound so authentic that we have to pause to reflect that he has invented it. Thus, when the Emperor Marcus Aurelius begins to address Roman soldiers, their standard response is to bellow:
"'ROMA! ROMA! ROMA!'" (p. 16)
How do we know this? It was taken so much for granted that no one wrote it down or, if anyone did write it down, then that written record has not survived. So, again, how do we know? We don't. But American time traveller, Arthur Vandenberg/Artorius, finds out when he is with Marcus Aurelius as the latter begins to address the troops. For a moment, we accept that this is genuine. Then we realize that SM Stirling cannot have known it either so he has had to make it up - but very plausibly.
In "Delenda Est," Poul Anderson surmises that Cro-Magnons in the Pleistocene would have had the sense to wear protective clothing, including trousers, in snowy terrain.
Sf authors have to think of the logical consequences of their premises, not just share and reinforce their readers' (usual) lack of imagination!
12 comments:
I would point out that trousers were invented on the Eurasian steppe... long after the Proto-Indo-Europeans. Cro-Magnons probably wore "wrappings" -- strips of fur wound around the legs.
Yup, our knowledge of Roman customs is -seriously- incomplete.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
But those Cro-Magnons wearing trousers could be rationalized if we think of them wearing copying the trousers worn by Time Patrol personnel.
The body of Otzi the Ice Man was found wearing trousers.
Ad astra! Sean
The Cro's hadn't copied the Patrol. Everard reflects that they had had "...enough sense to wear jacket, pants, and footgear in a glacial period..." (TP, p. 174)
Yeah, but that was in the Neolithic.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling and Paul!
Mr. Stirling: Granted, of course.
Paul> I know, just trying to rationalize the apparent contradiction.
Ad astra! Sean
If you're writing in a period of which are knowledge is fragmentary, you -have- to make stuff up... but you have to do it carefully, so it fits.
"Roma! Roma! Roma!" fits perfectly.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I agree that was what Anderson was trying to do when he wrote "Delenda Est," filling in gaps in what he knew with what he believed were reasonable guesses about what Cro-Magnons would do.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: Yup. One thing that we now know was that invention was -slow- in preindustrial times, even with stuff that looks 'obvious' to us, like pants.
Eg., until the Chinese invented the horse collar, horse harness for pulling was based on that for oxen. And it made pulling heavy loads very, very difficult for horses.
NB: that was a massive advance, because horses can pull a lot -faster- than oxen. Horses supplanted oxen in most of Western Europe for pulling plows and harrows in the centuries after the introduction of the horse collar. It was important to get plowing and stuff done -fast-. Oxen hung on in stuff where speed wasn't important.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I agree, efficient horse collars was a hugely major advance. I think I first came across discussion of that over 50 years ago* in Jerry Pournelle's A SPACESHIP FOR THE KING/KING DAVID'S SPACESHIP.
Ad astra! Sean
*Ugh! That makes me feel so ancient!
Post a Comment