"An early snow decked the land when the yacht Castle Catherine lifted from Williams Field." (XVII, p. 241)
For the possible symbolism of snow in this passage, see the concluding paragraph of Alliterative Prose.
Purity is possibly suggested again two sentences later:
"Above, heaven was unutterably blue." (ibid.)
The imagery of snow is deployed again when:
"Soon engines hummed, negagravity took hold, the hull rose like a snowflake on a breeze, until it was so high that it gleamed like a star and then blinked out." (ibid.)
Imagine if spaceships really could take off like that. Such ships would not have noisy takeoffs. See Eric Wace.
"The sun dwindled, the Milky Way beckoned." (ibid.)
Lady Sandra goes into exile. David Falkayn, accompanying her, has paid a very short but fruitful visit to Hermes.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
And this wasn't simply a flight into exile by the Grand Duchess. Rather, it was a painful but necessary part in the plan to bring down Benoni Strang.
And the stress on the purity of snow white and heavenly blue colors reminds me of the colors associated with the Blessed Virgin, altho I doubt Anderson had that in mind.
Sean
Sean,
But all such resonances are relevant.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I agree, if you mean something written by Anderson can "resonate" with readers in different ways.
Sean
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