After roaming about town, I have returned home and might, before midnight, post more about Poul Anderson's Rustum or about Clifford Simak's future history. However, I have meanwhile acquired the current copy of a journal containing analyses of the global economy and of some contemporary military conflicts. I really ought to spend more time reading about
our problems and less about those of fictional characters. Except in the most general terms, real world issues do not belong in blog posts although anything goes (just about) in the combox.
This post is an explanation and partial apology but any departure from the blog will only be temporary.
Laterz.
5 comments:
Well, this -is- a topic for discussing Poul Anderson's work... 8-).
Future civilizations, like those in Poul Anderson's works, will have theoretical journals as dense in content and as difficult to read as any on Earth Real but we cannot be shown the fictional worlds in that amount of detail.
Kaor, to Both!
Sometimes I read articles in journals like MODERN AGE or FOREIGN AFFAIRS if an item catches my eye enough to interest me. And I read similar articles in NATIONAL REVIEW (to which Anderson contributed at least two essays).
In one letter to me Anderson wrote he sometimes read articles by Dr. Otto von Habsburg, eldest son of Karl I and IV, last Emperor of Austria-Hungary.
Ad astra! Sean
Fictional works need enough detail to make the environment they're set in feel 'real'.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Absolutely! And that lack of convincing background detail in most of his novels must have been a big reason why I became so dissatisfied with Asimov's works. Why on Terra I was so fascinated with his three original FOUNDATION books as a boy beats me.
I believe you, Anderson, Tolkien, and certain other authors I like were/are very good at creating convincing details.
Ad astra! Seam
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