All literature is a conversation with earlier literature, sometimes explicitly:
"Everyone on a Roman naval ship was a free man and part of the military and would fight at need - Ben-Hur had gotten that drastically wrong.
"Pity. Both movies were great otherwise, though the 2016 one was better..."
-CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE, p. 310.
(I have found an on-line list of five Ben Hur films.)
"That was another gift of Martin Padway. Though for some reason he hadn't known the actual formula for gunpowder, odd in an archaeologist, even a fictional one.
"Or maybe not, that book was written a century ago...well, nearly, 1938. Damn, but the English language is not intended for time travel, and Latin's even worse."
-CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT, p. 399.
And that concluding sentence might be an indirect reference to the Temporal language of Poul Anderson's Time Patrol. (Although, unfortunately, we do not read a single word of Temporal.)
Four words of Latin in another Anderson time travel work:
"'Es tu peregrinator temporis?'"
-Poul Anderson, There Will Be Time (New York, 1973), VI, p. 62.
8 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Alas, I've not read Lew Wallace's novel BEN-HUR, the closest I ever came to that was watching parts of the famous chariot race in the 1951 movie of the same name.
I did read, far too long ago, Henryk Sienkiewicz's analogous novel QUO VADIS. I remember it well enough to think I should reread it (my old paperback copy literally disintegrated).
Ad astra! Sean
I mostly buy electronic versions of books now. First, the house would burst if I brought many new books into it... and they're easier to carry around. I've got 7,000 books available on my Ipad...
And I've found that audiobooks make exercising a lot easier.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I do understand the advantages of eBooks, except I'm old fashioned, I simply prefer hard copy books.
Also, I no longer buy as many books as I used to, mostly because I need to reread many of the books (several thousands?) I already have.
Ad astra! Sean
BTW, galley slaves were a late-medieval, early-Renaissance innovation. They were basically there to maneuver the cannon over the ram into position.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I thought it was like that re galley slaves. I recall Anderson writing somewhere that the galley rowers of the Byzantine navy were free well-paid professionals.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: Yeah, having slaves rowing galleys is... how shall I put it... risky.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Ha! Very risky. To be pedantic galley slaves would get in the way during a naval battle. Nor could they be trusted in a fight, unlike free rowers.
Ad astra! Sean
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