Here is another word that I simply did not recognize: "...berdache..." (p. 242)
Richelieu was wise when he said that, if the immortals went public, then they would merely exacerbate the already existing social turmoil and rulers would treat them badly. To prevent any disruption whatsoever, the Cardinal does not detain or kill Hanno but does advise him to return to obscurity. Hanno was right to sense that society was changing but wrong to deduce that it would yet be safe to come forward.
It is a wrench to finish one chapter and begin another because every time we must adjust to a different period and milieu. As in the Time Patrol series, each chapter is set in a different time and place but, by contrast with that series, the times must retain unwaveringly chronological order. Having lived at the same time but not in the same place as Christ, Hanno is no better informed than anyone else about Christian origins and cannot go back to find out. Thus, two works, one series and one long novel, span history but in contrary ways both fully explored by Anderson.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I remember how deeply Cardinal Richelieu affected Hanno/Lacy! And Poul Anderson's depiction of Richelieu in Chapter XI of THE BOAT OF A MILLION YEARS certainly seems very soundly researched. A hard man when he had to be, but not gratuitously cruel, as just as his turbulent times allowed him, and, yes, a pious and devout Christian, all this fits Cardinal Richelieu (to say nothing of his great intelligence).
I remember how one point about Chapter XII, introducing the North American Indian immortal "Deathless," puzzled me. I did not understand clearly what a "berdache" was. I thought Deathless' son Three Geese suffered from Frohlich's Syndrome, a disease affecting males causing most witb this disorder to be impotent. The way Three Geese was mentioned in one part of this chapter "...and, when it grew clear that the youth was not going to become fully a man..." led me to think some kind of disease was meant.
Sean
Sean,
I hope that "berdache" is now clear?
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I looked up the link you gave to the word "berdache," and, yes, it's clearer now, how that word was used. Altho what we are TOLD about Three Geese still led me to think he suffered from some kind of disorder leading to impotence. I fear this was one of the more obscure points Anderson could have been clearer about!
Sean
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