In The Man Who Counts, we continue to learn about Nicholas van Rijn before we see him:
"...van Rijn is the Solar Spice & Liquors Company, which is a great power in the Polesotechnic League, which is the great power in the known galaxy." (II, p. 349)
- although, as we are frequently told, the known galaxy is only a very small part of the galaxy.
Van Rijn is powerful enough for someone to sabotage his skycruiser. He was at Antares at the end of "Margin of Profit" and has traveled from there at the beginning of The Man Who Counts but has stopped at Diomedes on his way to Earth. Human beings have been on Diomedes for only five years and Eric Wace is the SSL factor.
Van Rijn has batteries for only one cutting torch so he works alone on the makeshift raft. The others would only be in the way. Cooperation for survival transcends social distinctions. Lady Sandra tells Wace:
"'Here we are all human beings.'" (II, p. 347)
Van Rijn first appears, puffing, then roaring, at the beginning of Chapter III.
Why am I writing so much about that capitalist, van Rijn? Anyone would think that I liked the guy!
7 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Altho I'm usually the one being grimly realistic, I have to say I hope the pessimism in your first paragraph is not borne out!
As for why you write so much about Nicholas van Rijn, I think it's because you, somewhat reluctantly, do like him! (Smiles)
Sean
Sean,
I like him but, in any case, he is a major character if we are discussing PA.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Nicholas van Rijn and Dominic Flandry are the two dominant characters of Anderson's Technic Civilization stories. And I like them both.
Sean
Paul, could you elaborate why you believe we are now in the Chaos? Even a "gloomy Gus" like me doesn't think we're there, YET....
-kh
Kaor, Keith!
I'm partly to "blame" for that. I suggested years ago that the "Chaos" mentioned in "The Saturn Game" should be dated from 1914, the year in which the assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary triggered the crisis leading to WW I. It it my view that since the Sarajevo Assassination the world has been in a constant state of upheaval and chaos. With only first the British Empire and then the US providing SOME sort of stability and order in the world. And, as of now, I see no foreseeable end to the era of Chaos we are now enduring.
Sean
Hi,
I accept Sean's characterization of the period since 1914 as Chaotic. In addition, we are now in a period when an irreversible climate catastrophe is predicted in just 12 years.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
And I hope that prediction turns out to be wrong. And the only REALISTIC alternatives to coal and oil, if we want a high tech civilization, is nuclear energy and space based solar power satellites.
Sean
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