Monday 4 December 2017

Three Senses In Todenangst

We celebrate Poul Anderson's frequent appeals to at least three of the senses in many descriptive passages and also commend SM Stirling's continuation of this literary tradition. Count the senses here:

"The mild humid warmth of a Willamette summer came in through the open panes, carrying scents of woodsmoke and greenery and flowers, to mingle with the stone and beeswax scents of the building. The silver-gray tile of the wall was divided by thin upright panels of stylized ceramic vines and flowers and birds in blue and crimson and green; niches held the fruits of her maternal grandmother's expeditions and patronage -here a celadon vase made in old China, there a blue-robed, gold-crowned modern Madonna with a soft secret smile as she gazed down at the Child in her arms."
-SM Stirling, Prince Of Outcasts (New York, 2017), Chapter Four, pp. 57-58.

The single bodily sensation is delineated by four words: the warmth is mild, humid and of summer.

There are five scents:

smoke;
green plants;
flowers;
stone;
beeswax -

- and seven colors:

silver-gray;
blue;
crimson;
green;
celadon;
another blue;
gold.

A sensory feast.

The Madonna, celebrated here by a statue, appeared to one of our protagonists in an earlier volume of the Emberverse series and we saw a pagan predecessor, the goddess Niaerdh, in the mythological passages of Poul Anderson's "Star of the Sea."

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Yes, I recall how Stirling adopted this literary method which Poul Anderson seems to have pioneered. It adds greatly to the interest and liking I have for these writers works.

Poor Isaac Asimov seems to be an unfortunately favorite whipping boy here! I simply can't remember him using two or three senses in a single paragraph in his stories. Which must have contributed to me eventually becoming so dissatisfied with his fictions.

Sean