"'No matter. That only destroys this body. And, in so doing, it creates the martyr, it fulfills the cycle. For Caruith shall rise again.''
"The wind seemed to blow cold along Ivar's bones."
-Poul Anderson, The Day Of Their Return IN Anderson, Captain Flandry: Defender Of The Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 74-238 AT 17, p. 205.
The wind seeming to blow cold is Ivar's response to Jaan's talk of resurrection. Anderson often underlines his characters' words by referring to the elements. It would be the literary "Pathetic Fallacy" if the wind really did blow colder at the appropriate moment. However, the seeming coldness is Ivar's subjective reaction. Nevertheless, the effect is sufficiently dramatic.
5 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
What I understood from what poor Jaan said is that, unknown to him, Aycharaych would use his advanced knowledge of the mind and the devices available to him to implant the false Caruith persona in another victim.
Sean
Yup, but it's a clever ploy. The blood of the martyrs can be the seed of the Church, as the old saying goes.
Though there's another one: "Repression works. But it doesn't work in moderation."
Dear Mr. Stirling,
But can't repression be carried so far that it basically destroys the state doing the repressing? What ultimate GOOD did repression inflicted on Russia by Lenin and Stalin do? An exhausted, demoralized, impoverished, and decimated Russia seems to have been the only real result. In almost every way you can imagine Russia is worst off now then she was in 1914.
Sean
Sean: yeah, but it all depends on what your motives are. Lenin and Stalin both died in bed, in power, and of natural causes -- unlike poor Nicholas.
There's a Russian saying that Stalin was fond of: "When a man causes you a problem, remember: no man, no problem. Because death solves all problems."
Dear Mr. Stirling,
Too grimly true, what you said about Lenin and Stalin! And that saying Stalin was fond of makes me thing that since Russia was a problem for Stalin--he did his all too successful best to KILL Russia.
One wonders what might have happened if, instead of being so weak and fatalistic, Nicholas II had been more like his father and grandfather. Oh, well!
Sean
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