-Poul Anderson, "Territory" IN Anderson, David Falkayn: Star Trader (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 1-76 AT p. 23.
It is the policy of this blog to leave no stone unturned when discussing Poul Anderson's texts, which brings us to this little gem. I expect that van Rijn knows better than this. Certainly, if Joyce says anything relevant, then he will heed what she says, not dismiss it because the speaker is a woman. He will also know that, when recruiting employees for his Solar Spice & Liquors Company, he should not deprive himself of the brain power of half the human race by insisting that women should be employed only to cook or to entertain men.
So here we have another part of van Rijn's life long act. He reminds me of Roger Bingham who, when I knew him, pretended to be xenophobic, saying things like, "I still haven't forgotten or forgiven Agincourt or Waterloo! My conversation is peppered with references to them!" Except that, when Roger addressed a group of foreign students, his delivery throughout was friendly and polite. Van Rijn deals on a practical basis with every kind of human and non-human being so he cannot possibly harbor stereotypical prejudices like the idea that female human beings should not think.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
Of course Old Nick knew better than to actually believe the "sexist" things he said to Joyce. It was all part of his life long act, getting people to underestimate him. Also, as we see in "Margin of Profit," he deliberately says irritating things in attempts to spark interesting ideas inspired by annoyance.
Sean
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