"'...salubrications...'" (p. 170) = salutations + lubrication.
"'...jelly-built empire...'" (p. 173) = (the equivalent of) a house built on sand.
In Britain, Chinese people are parodied as pronouncing "r" like "l." Van Rijn produces that effect here and gives it an unexpected meaning.
After "Margin of Profit" in The Technic Civilization Saga, Volume I, we read about:
Adzel on Earth
Falkayn on Ivanhoe
Falkayn in space
other League traders on Ivanhoe
van Rijn on Diomedes
van Rijn on Earth, receiving Dalmady's report from Suleiman
van Rijn back in space
Thus, certain characters predominate but are placed in a wider context. Hloch, editor of the Earth Book, tells us that James Ching, who narrates Adzel's story, wound up on Catawrayannis and that children of Dalmady went to Avalon with Falkayn.
A rich and substantial future history, as I never tire of saying.
7 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Actually, I think Old Nick meant by "...jelly-built empire.." was "JERRY-built empire." In either case his view was that the Kossaluth of Borthu was rickety, precarious, unstable, at serious risk of collapse if it suffered a real defeat.
Which reminds me of how, centuries later, Dominic Flandry subverted and undermined the Frithian domination of Scotha, which he also characterized as "jerry-built."
Sean
Sean,
Of course he meant "jerry-built" but he added another layer of meaning by mispronouncing.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Exactly. It was old Old Nick BEING Old Nick, mangling the Anglic language in comically apt ways.
Sean
The Japanese have an inverse version of that mispronunciation, tending to render "l" as "r" — and they joke about it themselves; it's not just foreigners stereotyping them. One example I encountered recently was a story in which a girl's name is Chitanda Eru (family name first). "-eru" is also how a Japanese without lots of practice in Western phonemes will generally pronounce the "-el" at the end of a Judaeo-Christian angel's name ... and two of her friends tease Eru by saying she has an angelic temperament. Thus, they continue, the archangel Gaburieru (Gabriel) is now joined by the angel Chitandaeru (Chitandael).
Kaor, DAVID!
And of course Tolkien fans will recognize "Eru" as the name of God in the Middle Earth legendarium.
Sean
Sean:
Of course. The "-el" of an angel's name is also a reference to God; Gabriel means "God is my strength" and Michael is the rhetorical question "Who is like God?" I don't think the Japanese author had Tolkien in mind when he named this girl ... but he cites Western literature enough that I won't say it's implausible.
Kaor, DAVID!
And Japanese Christians would be aware of how the "el" in originally Hebrew theophoric names refer to God.
Yes, some non-Christian Japanese are likely to be familiar enough with Western literature, including Tolkien's works, that they would know what "Eru" means.
Sean
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