Wednesday, 13 December 2017

Swimming In The Atlantic Or The Pacific In Different Universes

"'Come!' she laughed. 'Last one in is a Sassenach!'"
-Poul Anderson, "Delenda Est" IN Anderson, Time Patrol (Riverdale, NY, 201), pp. 173-228 AT p. 199.

"'Last one in is a Tasmanian!'"
-SM Stirling, Prince Of Outcasts (New York, 2017), Chapter Fifteen, p. 301.

"He plunged, got hold of a slender leg, and pulled her under."
-Anderson, p. 200.

"...a hand clamped around his ankle and pulled him underwater..."
-Stirling, p. 302.

"'...she's half polar bear."
-Anderson, p. 200.

"Pip seemed to be part sea-otter..."
-Stirling, p. 302.

Deirdre, tumbling and frolicking in the Atlantic, is compared to a polar bear whereas Pip, swimming effortlessly in the Pacific, is compared to a sea-otter.

Three parallels between two accounts.
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3 comments:

  1. paulshackley2017@gmail.com14 December 2017 at 08:58

    Kaor, Paul!

    And the way Stirling used these parallels you pointed inevitably makes me think he was deliberately being Andersonian!

    Bye, bye, commment! (Wry smile)

    Sean

    ReplyDelete
  2. S.M. Stirling25 June 2020 at 05:47

    Actually in that case I think it was unconscious. All the better!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sean M. Brooks25 June 2020 at 14:19

    Kaor, Mr. Stirling!

    Yes, I can see that, more artistically satisfactory if the parallels or allusions to Anderson was unconscious.

    But the time I noticed you briefly putting in an Ensign Domimique Flandry could not have been accidental!

    Ad astra! Sean

    ReplyDelete