Torvald Anker, a centenarian philosopher, lives in a cottage overlooking the Sognefjord. When replying by letter to a young inquirer, Anker refers to Socrates, Spengler, Donne, Pericles, the Renaissance, Commodus and Laird. After the defeat of the North American revolt, Laird had appeared as if from nowhere and founded Constitutionalism, basing it on Anker's ideas.
Anker writes that:
"...today the stars are a new and more splendid America." (p. 24)
He would like to end his days on the new planet Rustum but instead dies of a heart attack before finishing the letter - like the British comedian, Tommy Cooper, who died from a heart attack on live TV or another British comedian, Sid James, who suffered a fatal heart attack on stage and is said to have haunted the theater and what is the point of being a blogger if you can't sometimes go off at a tangent?
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
And I wonder what Torvald Anker would have thought of such philosophers as Alexis de Tocqueville or Bertrand de Jouvenel? We see Anderson mentioning these and others in various of his works.
Sean
"suffered a fatal heart attack on stage and is said to have haunted the theater"
Then there is the actor who donated his body to theater so he could play the part of Yorick.
Kaor, Jim and Paul!
And what I thought as I read all this was that mention of Commodus reminded me of Stirling's novels set in Antonine Rome and how Artorius (Arthur Vandenberg) took steps to save Marcus Aurelius's other son, Marcus Annius Verus, before a malignant growth killed him. Because the younger Marcus would be a better heir than Commodus.
Ad astra! Sean
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