Wednesday, 24 January 2018

Four Senses On Avalon

We read an account of a natural scene on another planet, expecting Poul Anderson to appeal to at least three of the senses:

"The wind was strong and loud as yet, though easing off in fickleness, flaws, downdrafts, whirls, and eddies. Clouds were mostly gone. Those which remained raced gold and soft orange before a sun low in the west, across blue serenity. The lagoon glittered purple, the greensward lay aglow. It had warmed up till rich odors of growth, of flowers, blent with the sea salt."
-Poul Anderson, "The Problem of Pain" IN Anderson, The Van Rijn Method (Riverdale, NY, 2009), pp. 103-134 AT p. 125.

In fact, I count four senses there. To the beauty of nature, Anderson adds the beauty of Ythrians in flight:

"And splendid in the sky danced Enherrian, Whell, and Rusa. They wheeled, soared, pounced, and rushed back into light which ran molten off their pinions. They chanted, and fragments blew down to the humans: 'High flew your spirit on many winds.... be always remembered....'" (ibid.)

Realizing that, "'They're holding a service for Arrach...'," Berg kneels and prays for the repose of her soul, then wonders whether she would really want rest. She would have wanted to give God the Hunter a good fight, which she has already done.

No comments: