I am rereading the revised version of the first published Dominic Flandry short story, "Tiger by the Tail," as if for the first time. The opening sentences establishes that the viewpoint character is Captain (not yet Sir) Dominic Flandry and that, on regaining consciousness, he sees metal. The words "Captain" and "metal" might locate the story in a sea going ship on Earth.
The second sentence gives Flandry a clue to his whereabouts and the reference to a sound "...not to be mistaken for anything else in the universe..." suggests a science fictional setting. (Poul Anderson, Captain Flandry, Riverdale, NY, 2010, p. 241) The third sentence confirms that this is an sf story: he is in a spaceship on hyperdrive. This sf cliche informs us that Flandry lives in a future period of regular faster than light interstellar travel.
Next, he realizes that he is in a ship not built for human beings although the crew must be fairly humanoid. This informs us that he is accustomed not only to interstellar travel but also to alien contacts. His realization that he must have been drugged and his reflection on what he had been doing before that informs us that he has been doing some sort of detective or Intelligence work.
Reading the series now, of course, we already know most of these things but it is instructive to reflect on how quickly and effectively Anderson made his original readers aware of them.
2 comments:
Hi, Paul!
Enjoy your trip! And I look forward to the comments you hope to make about the three Flandry stories Anderson revised: "Tiger by the Tail," "Warriors from Nowhere," and especially "Honorable Enemies." That last story has come under comment here, as you know.
Sean
Sean,
Well, I might not have been planning to comment on all three of the revised stories but I suppose I better had!
Paul.
Post a Comment