Sunday 5 May 2019

Same Old Van Rijn

"Territory," see here.

Van Rijn and Joyce are in an enclosed land-roving car with its own air, heat and food and thus are alive despite the hostile t'Kelan environment yet the "...detestable old oaf..." (p. 13) complains because emergency rations include neither beer nor caviar.

We know by now that:

complaining is part of his persona;

he will endure starvation rations if necessary (he did it on Diomedes);

if he had designed a vehicle for hostile extraterrestrial terrain, then it would have had enough storage space for beer and caviar.

They have already had one gun-fight with hostile natives but no one should think that Poul Anderson wrote only space opera. The t'Kelans are much more than just Wild West Indians with fur and tendrils.

7 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

I think the illustration you chose was probably from an SF convention where a fan dressed up as Nicholas van Rijn. The hair seems right but the beard needs to be a goatee with a waxed mustache. And I the fan needs to be taller and MUCH fatter!

Yes, a hostile/alien environment car designed by Old Nick WOULD include plenty of space for beer and caviar! (Smiles)

Sean

S.M. Stirling said...

And an assortment of exotic cheeses... 8-).

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Mr. Stirling!

That too! I'm rather boring when it comes to cheeses, my favorites being plain old Swiss cheese and Philadelphia Cream Cheese.

And Old Nick would probably include honey cured ham and roast beef in his environment car!

Sean

Anonymous said...

https://recipes.howstuffworks.com/do-food-choices-demonstrate-political-preferences.htm
https://www.livescience.com/14302-political-ideology-liberal-conservative-food-choices.html
https://www.businessinsider.com/psychological-differences-between-conservatives-and-liberals-2018-2

-kh

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Keith!

Dang! Must even FOODS now become BONES of political contention for us to GNAW on? (Smiles)

Sean

Anonymous said...

@ Sean: Well played, sir!

:)

-kh

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Keith!

Ha! Thanks!

Sean