If Spinrad would only look around him with a less jaundiced gaze, he would find many SF novels with a similar imperative, many SF writers for whom history is merely a foundation to aspire from. Two further stories are unambiguously set in the future, but of course they bring their baggage with them. We may go to the stars, but we'll take our loneliness with us. March's poems are quite impressive, forming a kind of triptych surrounding the ambivalence towards space travel that Steele explores. SF exists to remind us of that fact.
History is our launching pad, the stars our destination.
Pace Norman Spinrad, we can still Hope. Since completing a Ph.D. on uses of history in SF, Nick Gevers has become a moderately prolific reviewer and interviewer in the field of speculative fiction. He lives in Cape Town, South Africa.