In Poul Anderson's A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows, a disciplined, armed procession of four hundred ychan fishers marches towards the Dennitzan Parliament where they will respectfully but firmly request that their leaders be invited to address the Lords, the Folk and the Zmayi, who are meeting in a single chamber. The procession conceals the cloaked and hooded Dominic Flandry and Kossara Vymezal.
The ychani and their two human companions might encounter resistance either from the authorities, Dennitzan or Imperial, or from pro-Merseian assassins. In fact, Anderson, through Flandry, has reminded us of Djana's curse: that Flandry will never get the woman that he really wants. He did not get Kathryn McCormac and now is engaged to Kossara who resembles Kathryn. But they were interrupted before having sex, right after Flandry had reminded us of Djana... We have every reason to fear the worst for Kossara.
Nature obliges with a skirling west wind, a pale sky, sweeping cloud shadows, cold, crying winged animals, branches casting about, leaves blown noisily along the pavement and rain puddles. To clinch everything, the paragraph ends:
"All nature was saying farewell."
-Poul Anderson, Sir Dominic Flandry: The Last Knight Of Terra (New York, 2012), p. 552.
1 comment:
Hi, Paul!
It's a measure of Poul Anderson's skill as a writer that his use of the pathetic fallacy is deftly woven into the story, that it seems natural and right to use the P.F. A lesser writer might have handled it more clumsily and awkwardly, making use of the pathetic fallacy glaringly obvious. It's mostly because of your notes here that I've come to realize the purpose and meaning of passages such as the one you quoted and commented on above.
Sean
Post a Comment