I want to compare Poul Anderson to both William Shakespeare and Lewis Carroll. Regular readers already know of Anderson's Shakespearen novel, A Midsummer Tempest. Anderson did not write any corresponding Alice-related novel. However, like both Shakespeare and Carroll, he did write poetically about mortality.
Shakespeare: "We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep."
Carroll: "Life, what is it but a dream?"
Anderson: see here.
Life, a dream or summer shadows, is celebrated in drama, an acrostic and a haiku. Before returning to Anderson's hard sf, let's appreciate the poetry.
4 comments:
Hi, Paul!
And in ORBIT UNLIMITED, we see Commissioner Svoboda referring to Carroll's ALICE IN WONDERLAND. I think to the effect that it took a lot of running just to stay in place!
And, of course, we see allusions to Carroll's ALICE IN WONDERLAND in Poul Anderson's novel A CIRCUS OF HELLS. With the intelligent, self aware computer on Wayland being said by Flandry to being awoken from a dream like that of the Red King.
Sean
Sean,
Yes, and I had forgotten those references!
Paul.
According to Bryan Talbot, "After Shakespeare, Lewis Carroll is the most quoted writer in the English language." And, of course, Anderson quotes both.
Hi, Paul!
I agree with both points, the one made by Mr. Talbot and by you. And Poul Anderson also frequently quotes or alludes to the works of Rudyard Kipling.
Sean
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