Of the stories in this collection, I am most drawn back to this one, even though I have reread it most recently. It is a later addition to Anderson's first future history series and has a palpably elegiac tone. A long series like the Pychotechnic History is bound to be uneven in quality especially if maturer works are inserted into earlier sections of the fictional timeline.
In his introduction to the story for this collection, Anderson writes:
"Of readers who have commented on it to me, the young have generally confessed to being a bit puzzled, while the older have instantly seen what was going on." (p. 92)
Indeed, the text opens and closes by observing that:
"We guard the great Pact; but the young generations, the folk of the star frontier, so often do not understand." (p. 92)
"But the young generations so often do not understand." (p. 126)
I see what is going on but I am old but I do not remember being puzzled when I was any younger and that is enough for tonight, folks.
Andrea above the Old Pier Bookshop on Tuesday, I hope. Maybe more music tomoz.
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