Friday, 5 April 2019

Abundance

A social activity generates other resonant reading:

this evening, I met two former work colleagues in an Indian restaurant;

one of them was James Crossley's partner;

she gave me a copy of his 2018 book (see image and here);

James quotes Margaret Thatcher - "...abundance rather than poverty has a legitimacy which derives from the very nature of Creation.'" (pp. 11-12);

this Thatcherite exegesis would find favor with Poul Anderson's Master Merchant of the Polesotechnic League, Nicholas van Rijn.

It is very difficult for a Poul Anderson fan to avoid Andersonian allusions in other literature and discourse. Although James examines radically opposed interpretations of the Bible, I thought that Thatcher's linking of abundance (a word with different connotations) with Creation was particularly appropriate for the large, loud, wealthy and pious van Rijn.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Interesting, this quote from the late Margaret Thatcher used by your friend James Crossley in his book. I have him in the back of my mind as a writer to look up.

I would have described Nicholas van Rijn as HUGE, rather than merely "large." Huge, exuberantly boisterous, fantastically wealthy, and surprisingly devout.

Sean