In Hans's reign, there is neither perfume nor psychogenic vapor at the Coral Palace. Music is neither hypersubtle nor raucous but formal and stately. There are fewer servants and more guardsmen in less ornate uniforms. They have seen action. Fantastic garb on guests is passe. Bedrooms are locked. The Emperor is unashamedly uncultured.
"'I see us generally heading into a puritanical period.'" (VIII, p. 444)
Explaining his colorful Ramanujan garb and turban to Tachwyr, Flandry says:
"'Garb at home has gotten positively drab.'" (IX, p. 455)
(In fact, though, the turban is in place to conceal his mind-screen.)
Flandry's face is:
"...relic of a period when everybody who could afford it got biosculped into comeliness. (The present generation scorned that; in many ways, these were puritanical times.)"
-Poul Anderson, A Stone In Heaven IN Anderson, Flandry's Legacy (Riverdale, NY, 2012), pp. 1-188 AT III, p. 31.
A consistent presentation of a period.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
We are seeing here a reaction against the excesses of Josip's reign, both major and minor!
Ad astra! Sean
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