Importance
"Aristotle and the Gun" is one of de Camp's most notable works. Like his first significant work of alternate history, the novel Lest Darkness Fall (1939), the story posits a world changed as the result of time travel, and like his other major work in the field, "The Wheels of If" (1940) it reveals the long-term consequences of the historical change. The story's popularity has been demonstrated by frequent reprinting and anthologization. For de Camp himself, however, its publication marked the beginning of a lengthy departure from the science fiction field, and pointed the way to the historical novels of the ancient world he would write during the next ten years, beginning with An Elephant for Aristotle (1958), which serves as an interesting counterpoint to the present story. This development is indeed to some degree foreshadowed in the present story itself, with its meticulously researched depiction of the Classical Greek and Hellenistic milieu – for which de Camp clearly had strong interest and empathy, also when seen through the eyes of its own native-born denizens and without a time traveler in attendance. De Camp would write no more science fiction until 1977.
Read more about this topic: Aristotle And The Gun
Famous quotes containing the word importance:
“There are of course people who are more important than others in that they have more importance in the world but this is not essential and it ceases to be. I have no sense of difference in this respect because every human being comprises the combination form.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)
“I am not sure that it is of the first importance that you should be happy. Many an unhappy man has been of deep service to himself and to the world.”
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)
“Any novel of importance has a purpose. If only the “purpose” be large enough, and not at outs with the passional inspiration.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)