A question on time (was: Re: $crooge's brothers [and about Ludwig])

[Michiel Prior]

Olaf replied to my message, but he forgot to send it also to the 
mailinglist, so that's why I'm forwarding this for him. I planned to add 
a short comment at the end of this message, but it got rather long, 
so I'll post that later.

Michiel.

------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent:      	Wed, 12 Nov 2003 14:49:31 +0100
From:           	Olaf Solstrand <olaf at andebyonline.com>
To:             	m.j.prior at student.rug.nl
Subject:        	A question on time (was: Re: $crooge's brothers [and a lot about Ludwig])

Michiel to Lauri:
> Let's try to figure things out: "A Letter from Home takes" place 
> after "The Crown of the Crusader Kings" which takes place 
> after "The Fabulous Philosopher's Stone" (1955) AND after 
> "Return to Xanadu" which takes place after "The Valley of 
> Tralla-La" (1954) AND after "The Lost Crown of Genghis 
> Khan" (1956). Thus "A Letter from Home" takes place in or 
> after late 1956. [One weak spot in this reasoning is that I 
> deliberately choose to ignore the dates of the  trophies in 
> Scrooge's trophy room in "Xanadu" en "Crusaders".]
> 
> Ludwig's first appearance dates from 1961 and by then he's 
> already Donald's uncle. So, let's suppose Ludwig and Matilda 
> married between 1956 and 1961 and after "A Letter from 
> Home". [I don't know what to make of Ludwig's appearance, 
> without Matilda, in "A little something special" which is 
> supposed to take place in 1952.]

I notice one thing about your speculations which I see very often... We all say 
that this Don Rosa-story finds place in the early 1950's, this story finds 
place in the late 1950's... Even though we know they're written in the 1990's. 
I have no problem with that. No problem at all.

But why doesn't this "theory" include that other stories, like Barks' ones, are 
as flexible as that?

I mean... as long as you say openly that a story written in 2003 can be 
happening in 1950-something, why is it so unlikely that a story written in 1956 
could be happening in 1950? Only because that story is written by Carl Barks 
and not by Don Rosa?

I just find it strange, as I feel the normal attitude is "this story is written 
in 2000 and is taking place appr. 1950, but it is a follow-up to a story 
written in 1955, thus it must be happening after 1955".

Not meant to criticize any time theory, I just wonder why it's so normal to use 
two so different theories so close together.

I've always thought of Carl Barks' stories as finding place not far away from 
each other cronologically - even though they span over more than twenty years.


Olaf
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