Here, I discussed Poul Anderson, A Stone In Heaven IN Anderson, Flandry's Legacy (Riverdale, NY, 2012), pp. 1-188 AT V, pp. 56-62, but missed a point.
Soundproofing means that Miriam sees lightning but does not hear thunder and this makes the scene "...eerily unreal." (p. 57)
That eerie unreality exactly matches Miriam's situation:
the Grand Duke of Hermes conceals she does not know what;
he threatens her she does not know why;
she and Flandry must move in secret because others move around them in secret -
- eerie and unreal.
Flandry and Aycharaych love and live this stuff. I would intensely dislike it. See The Practice Of Deception (which has 23 comments).
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
In a way we see something similar in THE REBEL WORLDS, when Aaron Snelund met Admiral Pickens. The wall animation he favored for his office was of an Imperial court masked ball. The music was switched off, but masked lords and ladies still danced and whirled despite the incongruity.
I think I can appreciate, at least abstractly, the pleasure taken by Flandry and Aycharaych in subtle intrigues, but I seriously doubt I would be any good spinning complex plots!
Sean
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