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to fail, then follows him into exile, at the expense of personal happiness. Flandry's personal life seldom works out, but his efforts prolong the Empire by one hundred years more than it would otherwise have lasted. |
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Flandry and van Rijn represent, as do many other of Anderson's characters, a belief in enlightened self-interest operating within a freethat is, laissez-fairecapitalist system. He has been criticized for his conservative political views, but his response is that such a system has gotten most of the world's work done most effectively. Anderson does not put forth these views thoughtlessly. As Flandry's personality has developed, he has gained both depth of character and philosophical complexity. In addition, critics of Anderson's politics neglect to take into account his larger view. Both Flandry and van Rijn appear at points when their respective cultures are dying. For a while what each man does makes a differencea small individual decision can often affect the course of historybut surrounding the heroism is the conviction that nothing lasts, that all ends eventually in the Long Night. Anderson is optimistic in his faith in man, but not foolishly so. |
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Roald D. Tweet, "Poul Anderson," Science Fiction Writers, ed. E. F. Bleiler (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1982), p. 261 |
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I really see no excuse for sloppy workmanship. A literary genius of the first rank may, once in a while, erect a splendid edifice on foundations of sand, but literary geniuses of the first rank are few and far between. Frankly, I doubt that any are alive at this moment, in any branch of literature. Whether this is true or not, I do not see that careful construction ever does any harm; and in most cases it makes all the difference. |
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By this I do not mean that absolute scientific accuracy is a sine qua non of good imaginative literature. For one thing, the scientific picture is always changing. We can still enjoy C. S. Lewis' Out of the Silent Planet, for instance, in spite of what our space probes have since told us about Mars. Much of the cosmology in Olaf Stapledon's Star Maker is now obsolete, but his magnificent cosmic vision has lost nothing thereby. Yet I do invite you to note how solidly timbered these works are. (. . .) |
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Besides the mutability of what we know, or believe we know, there is the fact that often a story requires a nonscientific or counterscientific assumption. Travel faster than light is an obvious example. If ever we find that this is possible after all, we will probably find it within the context of |
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