Although I welcome Sean's discussion of how to introduce films based on Poul Anderson's works, I think that the book blurbs that he cites are rather too wordy and "spoiler" for this purpose. The famous intro to Star Trek might serve as a model. Something about how mankind has spread into - rather than "through" - the galaxy would certainly make sense as an opener to any film or TV episode set in Anderson's Terran Empire.
However, I like my proposed start for "The Game of Glory," simply a narrator's voice quoting the opening sentence:
"A murdered man on a winter planet gave Flandry his first clue." See here.
4 comments:
Paul:
I've said this before, but I think a Flandry movie would be better begun with such a bit of narrative turned FIRST-person:
"A murdered man on a winter planet gave me my first clue."
Or, to use the example that first made me think this way (from *A Knight of Ghosts and Shadows*):
"Every planet in the story is cold—even Terra, though I came home on a warm evening of northern summer. There the chill was in the spirit."
Going back to third person, though ... if a narrative opening covering ALL stories of Dominic Flandry is desired, I favor an adaptation of the back-cover blurb from my copy of *Ensign Flandry*:
"Though ... he will struggle gloriously and win (usually) mighty victories, Dominic Flandry is essentially a tragic figure: a man who knows too much, who knows that battle, scheme and even betray as he will, in the end it will mean nothing. For with the relentlessness of physical law the Long Night approaches. The Terran Empire is dying..."
Kaor, Paul!
I actually agree with you, some of the texts quoted from the jacket cover of FLANDRY OF TERRA are too wordy and gives away too much of the plots of the stories in that book. But I do like the indented quotes. I think a shortened version could still be a good introduction to any Flandry movies. And I think the blurb I quoted for "The Game Of Glory" hardly needs revising for a film using that story.
I argue for using the blurbs I quoted in my "Textual Scrawl" article as a model for discussion. As am example to help suggest both what to keep and what to omit in any real world textual crawls for Flandry movies.
Sean
Ha! I blundered in the second paragraph, writing "Scrawl" instead of "Craw". The amusing thing is that "scrawl" almost makes sense!(Smiles)
Sean
Kaor, DAVID!
I like the suggestion you made about using first singular for texts introducing any Flandry movies. I can easily imagine Flandry narrating these stories using the forms you suggested.
And I like as well the blurb you quoted from the cover of ENSIGN FLANDRY using third person. I would argue a bit about the content, however. The Terran Empire might be doomed, but if Flandry'toils, struggles, and "betrayals" helped to extend the life span of the Empire by as much as two centuries, then his struggles were a success. In fact, at the very end of THE GAME OF EMPIRE, we see Flandry even hoping the Empire would survive another couple of centuries.
And I like as well Paul's suggestion about using the opening sentence of "The Game Of Glory" in introduce any filmed version of that tale.
Sean
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