See
A Four Stage Literary Progression.
An author of a popular fictional series presses buttons by referring to earlier episodes. Characters and readers reminisce. (Alan Moore did this big time in his "last Superman story." See Life And Art II.)
When, in A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows, I, Dominic Flandry is reminded of:
"...Persis d'Io as she had been when she and Flandry said farewell on a planet now destroyed..." (p. 344)
- this refers to Ensign Flandry, the first Flandry novel.
When we are told that Persis had never recontacted Flandry, not even when he:
"...well-nigh singlehanded put down the barbarians of Scotha and was knighted for it..." (p. 346)
-this refers to "Tiger By The Tail," the first published Flandry episode.
Let me conclude this post with two similar examples from Ian Fleming, then a peculiar one.
"'Remember that Moonraker job I was on a few years back?'"
-Ian Fleming, Thunderball (London, 1961), 17, p. 141.
Bond remembers:
"...the great battle across the baize he had had with Le Chiffre so many years ago."
-Ian Fleming, On Her Majesty's Secret Service (London, 1965), 2, p. 21.
A few years, so many years - but we are not told how many. Fictional time can be more fluid than real time. We can check the precise year of publication for each volume. In Royale-les-Eaux, Bond also visits the grave of "Vesper Lynd. RIP." (ibid.) Le Chiffre and Vesper are, respectively, the villain and heroine of the first James Bond novel, Casino Royale.
I have referred
before to the haunting ending of
Alice In Wonderland which refers to this work itself as a tale of long ago.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
Well, Anderson was more precise in some ways than Fleming! We know his son Dominic Hazeltine was 27 years old in A KNIGHT OF GHOSTS AND SHADOWS. Which means Flandry and Persis last met about 28 years before.
Btw, I think a point should be made that neither Anderson or any commentator seems to have thought of: the explosion of the sun Saxo must have been a nearly unique opportunity to prepare for studying a nova before it happened. The rogue planet which triggered that was not going to do so for about four or five years. That would give time for interested scientists to make the necessary preparations without needing to rush it, as was the case in "Day of Burning."
I think we should "read between the lines" a bit and assume such quiet studies did go on amidst the hurly burly of events like the need to save the two intelligent races of Starkad from extinction and the struggle between the Empire and Merseia.
Ad astra! Sean
Post a Comment