Monday 16 January 2017

Future Historical Revolutions

Poul Anderson's Tales Of The Flying Mountains (New York, 1984) describes the Asteroid Revolution and thus is firmly in the tradition of Robert Heinlein's Future History.

Heinlein's Future History Chart refers to:

"Revolution in Little America";

 "Rebellion and independence of Venusian colonies";

Antarctican, American and Venerian revolutions ending interplanetary imperialism.

-Robert Heinlein, The Man Who Sold The Moon (London, 1963), p. 7.

That American "revolution" must be the beginning of the religious dictatorship as opposed to the Second American Revolution which ends the dictatorship.

Heinlein's "Concerning Stories Never Written: Postscript" (see here) refers to:

Martian and Venerian colonies breaking away from Earth;
the Second American Revolution.

When, in this Postscript, Heinlein refers to "...a counter-revolutionary underground...," he must mean that the Cabal, which will lead the Second American Revolution, counteracts the Prophetic revolution.

In Anderson's Tales, the planners of educational philosophy in the spaceship Astra are keen to pin down "...the root of the revolution..." (p. 41) and that is a subject for a further post.

No comments: