-Poul Anderson, AUTHOR'S NOTE IN Anderson, Virgin Planet (London, 1966), pp. 150-156 AT p. 151.
That comment on a volume of Anderson's Psychotechnic History is also applicable to his Technic History where Dominic Flandry, playing a role, makes himself sound like a frivolous but self-important nineteenth or twentieth century Brit:
"'I say, could you tell the chauffeur to come aboard and fetch my bags? Deuced lot of duffel on these extended trips, don't y' know.'"
-A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows, VII, pp. 433-434.
Flandry sees that he has possibly irritated the Diomedean portmaster but it is more important to:
"...stay in character from the beginning." (p. 433)
And we must remember that he is playing the role of a frivolous Terran.
Continuing the performance:
"'Nobody else staying there, what?'" (p. 434)
"'I mean, after all, if some of the tribes revolted, an infernal nuisance, 'speci'lly for trade, but surely Thursday Landing can hold out against primitives.'" (p. 435)
He knows that the natives are not merely primitive but submits to being told this by the chauffeur.
To the resident:
"'See here, d'you mind if I bore you for a few ticks? Mean to say, I'd like to diagram the situation as I see it. You correct me where I'm wrong, fill in any gaps. that kind of thing, eh?'" (p. 437)
The resident resignedly agrees.
"'You and Maspes seem offhand to've put on a jolly good show.'" (p. 441)
He sounds like Lord Hauksberg whom we met a few volumes back.
On another point about the use of language, the Diomedeans have "...bat wings..." (p. 433) so it resonates when Flandry says "'...infernal nuisance...'" (above) and reflects:
"It was not [the resident's] fault that demons haunted the planet which were beyond his capability of exorcising, and might yet take possession of it." (p. 436)
Beyond the resident's capability but not beyond Flandry's.
5 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Yes, both Lord Hauksberg and Flandry were putting on roles, PRETENDING to be frivolous, self important twits, so people would underestimate them (albeit the Resident was shrewd enough to wonder if this was merely an act). We see Flandry playing a similar role at the beginning of "A Message In Secret," because he needed to convince the Kha Khan of Altai that he was harmless, not a threat. In fact, the Bertie Woosterish moments in "Message" makes that the funniest of the Flandry stories.
Ad astra! Sean
The same is true of writing set in the past -- except that it's harder to do right, because at least people know they don't know about the future.
The "noise level" of concepts of the past is worse. This is a problem for both historical and alternate history fiction.
There's a good example of dealing with this in THE SHIELD OF TIME, when Everard is interacting with his assistant while in the alternate history where Frederick subjugates the Church. There are multiple layers of real and assumed identity here -- Everard's Icelandic persona, his assistant pretending to be Danish (and being caught out because -this- Denmark has different politics from the one he acquired via hypno-learning) and Everard's American impatience with the mid-20th-century formality and formalized deference of his Czech assistant.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Good points! The Denmark of "Amazement of the World" was different from ours because royal brothers did not quarrel and fight among themselves as they had done in our timeline. The powerful and united Empire led by Frederick II in "Amazement" frightened the Danes into remaining united, from sheer necessity.
And I will have to pay attention to that mild "culture clash" of Everard with his Czech assistant, the next time I read THE SHIELD OF TIME.
Ad astra!
Sean: Everard refers with mild irritation to the Czech's "Middle European ordnungsliebend" -- which means roughly "love of order", or "love of tidiness and fixed procedures". In this case, bracing to attention and so forth.
One of my elder brothers was traveling in Europe in the early 60's and went to a movie. The seats were sold specifically, and all of the (very few) people were sitting in a compact block in the middle
My brother took one of the empty seats. The attendant told him he had to sit in the seat with the number on his ticket: he pointed out that there were dozens of empty seats, so what did it matter?
She was horrorstruck and started screaming: "Anarchy! Anarchy!"
That's ordnungsliebend.
Back before 1914, you had to step out of the path to let a German officer go by in the German Empire; if you didn't, he was entitled to draw his sword and beat you with the flat.
This happened a couple of dozen times a year in Berlin and other places where foreign tourists were common.
I remember reading a contemporary account by a British academic visiting Berlin for a conference, who was "rescued" by his German colleague who urged him aside and explained to the irate German officer that this was a foreigner who didn't know better.
That's ordnungsliebend too.
(The British professor remarked mildly that in England, there was a similar custom -- gentlemen stepped out of the way for ladies, although the ladies didn't hit them with their parasols or purses if they failed to do so.)
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Thanks for this amusing story! I do have some respect for order, tidiness, and fixed procedures. But not to that extent! and I would HOPE not all German officers were so hidebound by "ordnungliesbend" that they beat people with the flats of their swords like that.
And the story about the British academic reminded me of what I have sometimes seen in older movies, men removing their hats when meeting women.
Ad astra! Sean
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