I think that the following list-description belongs on our food thread even though the fish is displayed for sale, not yet for eating:
"The fish section...was a pungent mass of vats and piles of shaved ice topped with sixty-pound yellowtails and huge albacores, barrels of writhing crabs the size of dinner plates, mounds of three-inch prawns, rock lobsters, abalone by the gross, oysters bigger than his fist, ling and flounder, cauldrons of shrimp...." (p. 254)
And here, on p. 324, is another description of natural scenery that evokes the other four senses:
"The cooling engine ticked..."
- heat decreasing but engine ticking -
"...the cries of birds and the endless sough of the wind were louder."
- two more sounds -
"The smell of hot metal was quickly lost beneath the aromas of laurel, ceanothus and minty yerba santa crushed beneath the wheels."
- one "smell" and three "aromas" -
"Long champagne-pale grass rippled in the cool wind off the water..."
- the color of the grass and the coolness of the wind...
Golden poppies, green rushes, freshwater marsh, streams, trees and land:
"...stretched immense to the blue horizon."
- four colors. And a sensory feast.
4 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
And I remember how the prices for these sea foods seemed ridiculously, even by the hard money, free enterprise standards of the Commonwealth. But that was because the New Virginian dollar had not been inflated into worthlessness, unlike OUR dollar or pound.
Sean
Sean: forgive the time-gap... 8-).
There's inflation, inflation, and then again inflation. The -relative- prices of things in New Virginia are different, for reasons having to do with demography and the environment. The population is low relative to the land area, and the environment has never been seriously stressed, and if anything is less stressed now, so things like fish, timber, and food are cheap -in comparison- to other things, like manufactured goods.
Or to put it another way, here on (our) firstside, nearly everything is cheaper relative to the average wage than it was in 1920. A dollar today is equivalent to about $0.05 in our 1920; but an hour of -labor- will buy more wheat, steel or petroleum than it would in 1920.
But certain things are more expensive relative to average wages -- and land in places like the Bay area is one of them. They're "positional goods" of which no more can be made regardless of overall productivity.
Likewise, wild foods (like fish) are -relatively- more abundant in New Virginia because they're tapping a less stressed oceanic ecosystem.
Farmed shrimp are cheap in labor terms today; but wild shrimp aren't.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I don't mind the "delay," I'm glad you commented. Yes, I can see how a relatively small population would put less stress on the overall environment. I'm a bit surprised, but I think I can see why, even now, an hour's pay can buy more wheat and other goods than it would in 1920.
Ad astra! Sean
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