"Our sentries were, of course, wearing Tarnkappen, but I could see their footprints form in the mud and hear the boots squelch and the tired monotonous cursing." (I, p. 5)
I identified invisibility as one of eleven "sf themes" but found little to say about it:
Invisibility
-copied from here.
Visible footprints were one way that Wells' Invisible Man betrayed his presence. Another was not-yet-digested food. He was unable to make his clothes invisible and therefore had to remain naked. Then he had to wear clothes and bandages to conceal his invisibility. When they knew that he was nearby, a band of strong men walked forward shoulder to shoulder beating the air with staffs...
The one-eyed man is not king in the Country of the Blind and the Invisible Man is not king in the country of the sighted.
Reasoning from Heinlein's premise of magic as technology, Anderson deduces that:
sentries would wear Tarnkappen;
their footprints would be visible;
they would be audible.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
It seems to me that the sergeants and corporals of those sentries should have made them to keep quiet, because any kind of noise would have exposed them to being eliminated by enemy infiltrators.
Ad astra! Sean
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