"'I have heard about one seer who walks there now, who will call back the Old Shen from the stars. Will our dead then rise from the waters?'"
-Poul Anderson, Captain Flandry: Defender Of The Terran Empire (New York, 2010), p. 169.
Amidst a general air of expectation, Jao asks this question. Someone able to formulate such an image would also be capable of writing imaginative prose or inspiring verse that could then be misread as inspired and authoritative scripture, especially if she left out the question mark: the dead will rise!
Gabriel Stewart, active in the Aenean resistance movement, tells Tatiana Thane:
"'Ivar is rightful leader of free Aeneas - when Builders return, which they will, which they will. And you are his bride who will bear his son that Builders will make more than human.'
"Belief stood incandescent in his eyes." (p. 172)
What has got into all these people? Jaan the Shoemaker believes that his consciousness has merged with that of Caruith, an Ancient. Jaan tells the multitude:
"'Like one who spoke upon Mother Terra, long after Caruith but long before Jaan, I bring you not peace but a sword.'" (p. 151)
Aycharaych, who induced a secondary personality in Jaan, then went elsewhere about his other business, describes the Christian-inspired Taiping Rebellion to Desai and adds:
"'...scarcely what Jesus had in mind, no?'" (p. 92)
That being's cynicism is transcendental.
1 comment:
Hi, Paul!
Not only is Aycharaych's cynicism truly SATANIC (as well as transcendental), it's revealed to us from a person who might otherwise be regarded as admirable in many way if he had not been so subtly cruel. I remember Flandry even asking Aycharaych, the very last time they met, if he was clinically crazy. But, no, Aycharaych was not insane, could a truly insane person be so subtly cruel?
Besides the Taiping Rebellion, which nearly toppled the Ch'ing Dynasty in China, mention was also made of Mohammed and how he used war and jihads to spread the religion he created.
Sean
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