Machines
Van Rijn POV II
"Machines" highlights the lucent plastic, winking and talking machines, jade columns and soaring dimness of the reception area of Nicholas van Rijn's Djakarta office. However, much more is implied about the office's owner in this opening passage of "Margin of Profit":
the anachronistic human receptionist is long-legged, redheaded and armed;
when she opens the intercom to check whether Freeman van Rijn is ready to see Captain Torres, an oath is heard from the other end;
Torres also overhears van Rijn demanding an exclusive franchise, threatening an embargo and maybe a blockade and expressing contempt for a planetary emperor with a million soldiers;
Torres knows that van Rijn is a merchant prince who must beware kidnap or assassination but who is also rumored to be fast with a gun;
the receptionist's employment contract probably includes a personal fealty clause;
the League emblem and its motto, All the traffic will bear, are on the wall;
van Rijn's outfit, part of the League, is the Solar Spice & Liquors Company.
We quickly learn a great deal about van Rijn and his milieu. We are in a future with echoes of a past.
The second linked post above summarizes the bodily description that defines van Rijn's physical appearance for the entirety of his series. That post also links to another which describes the interior of his Djakarta office. All these descriptions of his chosen surroundings add to our knowledge and impression of van Rijn, just one of many characters but an extremely large one.
9 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I don't how well Nicholas van Rijn and I would do in real life, but I like him, at least from a safe distance. (Smiles)
Now I'm thinking I should BOTH versions of "Margin of Profit." Your blog DOES influence people and persuades them to read or reread Anderson's works.
Sean
It seems a bit anachronistic (and scary) that you'd have an armed receptionist. This is definitely a pre-9/11 work (if we didn't know it already)... A new thought: how does Nick actually run-day-to-day operations of SSL,particularly when he's galavanting around the galaxy? How much authority does he give his people, particularly when some of them are hundreds of ly away? How is it he isn't constantly being sued? There doesn't seem to be anyone to keep him in line/prevent him from doing especially (physically/financially) risky things. What would happen to SSL if he were incapacitated or killed on one of hiss jaunts?
-kh
Keith,
By the time of "Margin of Profit," van Rijn has already stopped leaving the Solar System very often. He goes out when necessary but not gallivanting.
He is canny enough to do what works and what does not annoy too many other people too often most of the time. Anderson shows us other League merchants acting badly and causing multiple problems.
Paul.
Kaor, Keith!
I didn't think it was that odd for Old Nick to have a receptionist who doubles as a bodyguard. It's a truism that powerful and wealthy men have enemies, and not all of those enemies are likely to decline using violence.
Also, I think you are missing an obvious point about how van Rijn ran Solar Spice & Liquors, he DELEGATED local operations of the firm to employees on the spot on many different planets. Only the most important or difficult problems would be referred to Old Nick for his personal attention, as we see in an amusing chapter in SATAN'S WORLD showing us how he did so.
Sean
And he made sure that his delegates were competent.
Kaor, Paul!
Exactly, as we see Old Nick doing with Emil Dalmady in "Esau."
Sean
Thank you, Gentlemen .How would you describe Nick's job and duties?
He doesn't sound like the typical CEO. As far as the business he's in, Nick seems closet to : Bernard Jean Étienne Arnault (French: [bɛʁnaːʁ aʁno]; born 5 March 1949) is a French business magnate, an investor, and art collector.[2][3][4] Arnault is the chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of LVMH, the world's largest luxury-goods company. He is the richest person in Europe and the fourth-richest person in the world according to Forbes magazine, with a net worth of $91.3 billion, as of April 2019.....OTOH, SSL may be more of an import/export company.
While many CEOs have security, I'm nor sure many of them would have armed bodyguard right outside their office- we have security guards and metal detectors. When was the last time you heard about an attack on a Global 1000 CEO anywhere,let alone in their offices?
You'd HAVE to delegate remote operations without FTL communications.
Nick has really annoyed a fair number of firms, organizations, etc. throughout his career, and it's unclear to me who his strong external allies are. I can imagine the 7 in Space, rivals in the Independents (I vaguely recall a Juan Harleman of Venusian Tea and Coffee Growers) Garver, bitter former mistresses (there are bound to be SOME), disgruntled former or current employees working to bring him DOWN and to ruin him financially.
Remember the strong dictum:
"It is not enough that I must win, but that you must also lose."
Some might regard it as a game rather than anything personal/emotional, and then of course there are the sociopathic business heads....
Cheers,
kh
Keith,
Van Rijn does remain hands-on as far as he can and has an almost superhuman ability to juggle many balls, speak many languages etc. SSL remains his personal domain. There are no shareholders or other Directors.
Paul.
Kaor, Keith!
I still don't think it was that odd for Old Nick's receptionist to be armed. Put it down, if you like, to be one of trademark flamboyant gestures.
I'm sure Solar Spice and Liquors began as import/export business, but it soon branched out to include the buying and selling of many different kinds of goods and services.
I do recall mention of ex-mistresses of van Rijn in MIRKHEIM, but not that any of them were hostile to him. Rather, they were reported as remembering Old Nick fondly.
Nicholas van Rijn outsmarted and out witted his commercial rivals. He had no NEED to get really rough with most of them. As for Garver, if van Rijn went beyond the law dealing with him, well, Garver himself provoked that by his deliberate and personal hostility to van Rijn.
Sean
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