Tuesday 6 November 2018

Today And This Evening

Today we walked along a canal in the company of a couple from Seattle and ate lunch in a George and Dragon pub where a beer mat explained that cask ales are tested for temperature, appearance, aroma and taste, thus addressing four of the five senses like a good Poul Anderson descriptive passage!

Rereading a Julian May novel while posting on the Poul Anderson Appreciation blog has led to comparing ideas in the works of these two authors in recent posts. My attention wandered from Anderson's Harvest Of Stars when that text focused on the intrigue of smuggling download Guthrie off Earth in spite of ubiquitous government surveillance. However, this evening, I will reread past that point. Is there a confrontation between download Guthrie and the download copy that has been reprogrammed to support the government? I do not remember exactly what happens.

If you like Poul Anderson's works, then read Julian May's series which incorporates past, present, future, time travel, FTL interstellar travel, extrasolar colony planets, aliens, parapsychology and theology.

5 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

If that beer mat had added that the brewers strove to make their ale be a certain COLOR as well, that would have completed the list of senses!

I never minded action, adventure, intrigue, and derring do in the works of Poul Anderson. It's my view that such things makes the philosophic, political, and socio/economic ideas in his works more interesting to read about.

And you have made me want to reread Julian May's SAGA/INTERVENTION/MILIEU books! And I need to first reread the third volume of Anderson's THE LAST VIKING. What would King Harald Hardrede have done if he had lived in our times? I doubt he would have been content with a quiet, placid life!

Sean

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

Sean,
But the beer mat does mention "appearance." The missing sense is hearing.
Paul.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Darn! I responded too hastily. How might you HEAR a beer? Could beers be brewed to give off different kinds of sound when poured? (Smiles)

Sean

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

Sean,
Food can satisfy most senses: smell; taste; sight; sound (crackling sounds etc). And, if it is eaten by hand instead of with cutlery, then it is felt.
Paul.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

I'm not sure, isn't TASTING a food also a way of touching it? But, yes, foods cam be felt by the hands.

Sean