Friday 17 May 2013

Narrative Order

I am beginning to make more sense of the order of the stories in Poul Anderson's History of Technic Civilization. The Earthbook Of Stormgate introduction to "A Little Knowledge" claims that:

"...even so does the story which follows give a glimpse into some of the troubles which Technic civilization was bringing on itself..." (David Falkayn: Star Trader, New York, 2010, p. 599).

I had thought that this story merely filled in some of the background of the Polesotechnic League and that therefore it could have appeared earlier, as a companion piece to "The Season of Forgiveness." However, if, as I am also able to agree, it can be seen to show some of the problems developing in the League, then it makes sense to place it just before "Lodestar" in which those problems start to come to a head.

The active part of Nicholas van Rijn's career is shown in "Margin of Profit," The Man Who Counts, "Hiding Place" and Territory." After that, he appoints David Falkayn to lead a trader team in "The Trouble Twisters" and the team continues to function in "Day of Burning." However, van Rijn, now staying at home, can solve a problem brought to him by others in "Master Key" so it makes sense for this story to be placed after "Day of Burning," not, as I had thought, moved earlier to join the previous van Rijn stories.

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