Flandry to Kossara:
"'Not that I really know what drives Aycharaych. Maybe he's an artist of overriding genius. That's a kind of monster, isn't it?'" (p. 504)
But Flandry has already had insight into Aycharaych's motivation. Earlier he said to Desai:
"'I've sometimes thought he's an artist.'" (III, p. 391)
- to which Desai replied:
"'An artist of espionage and sabotage, whose materials are living beings? Well, conceivably.'" (ibid.)
Aycharaych himself told Flandry:
"'In action I find an art; and every art is a philosophical tool, whereby we may seek to win an atom deeper into mystery.'" (IX, p. 463)
It is then that they discuss the poem:
"'Yet half a beast is the great god, Pan..." (p. 464)
-see here.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
I first read A KNIGHT OF GHOSTS AND SHADOWS around 1974, and that stanza from Elizabeth Barrett Browning's "A Musical Instrument" lingered in my mind. It caused me to look up Browning's verses so I could read the entire poem. Eventually, I got a collection of her poems and made sure "A Musical Instrument" was included.
And we see Anderson showing good trade craft as a writer here, when he had Flandy saying he had read this poem in TRANSLATION, to remind us that the Anglic he spoke was not our English.
Ad astra! Sean
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