Friday 3 July 2015

Dodos

The previous post listed several comparable literary devices including Alice in Wonderland's rabbit hole, SM Stirling's Gate and some of Poul Anderson's routes between universes. Dodos also link these three authors.

Alice meets one (see image). Stirling's Tom Christiansen, investigating the smuggling of rare species, recognizes a caged, and just dying, dodo. Later, when he is being introduced to the alternative timeline:

"'Dodos?' [Tom] murmured. 'And tigers and bears, oh my!'"
-SM Stirling, Conquistador (New York, 2004), p. 248.

When Poul Anderson's Wanda Tamberly realizes that she can join the Time Patrol and study live prehistoric animals, she thinks:

"Mammoths and cave bears and dodos, oh my!"
-Poul Anderson, Time Patrol (New York, 2006), p. 735.

We strive for literary unity between the universes!

4 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

As Stirling himself said, bad writers have influences, good writers STEAL. I suspect you have here found a direct connection of Stirling with Anderson. (Smiles)

Sean

David Birr said...

Actually, when I see "___ and ___ and ___, oh my!" the very first thing that jumps into my head is the movie *The Wizard of Oz*, so I'm not sure that counts as a true Anderson-Stirling connection. It's only certain that both their characters are referring to the same film.

Paul Shackley said...

David,
Thank you. I have not seen the film often enough to remember that line.
Paul.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Hi, David,

I'm a bit chagrined! After all, I ALSO thought of "The Wizard of Oz" movie as well as the possible connection with Anderson. In fact, I have to admit Stirling was probably more likely referring, this time, to the movie, not Anderson.

Sean