"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:
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
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