Van Rijn Interviews An Employee On Earth
"Margin of Profit"
"Esau"
"The Master Key"
"The Trouble Twisters"
Van Rijn Leaves Earth
"Margin of Profit"
The Man Who Counts
"Hiding Place"
"Territory"
Satan's World
"Lodestar"
Mirkheim
So far, I have ignored van Rijn's carefully cultivated physical appearance:
greasy, black, ringleted, swirling, shoulder-length hair;
waxed mustache and goatee;
pot belly;
large hooked nose - he can't help the size of his nose but he waves it about;
snuff-stained lace and ruffles;
bawling voice.
Most people would take one look and keep their distance.
A soliloquy serves two purposes. It sketches his personality and summarizes some facts:
he is a poor old fat man who should be home with a cigar and a drink;
his employees will rob him in his absence;
the factors are so incompetent that van Rijn must travel a hundred light years toward Orion to look for new trade;
otherwise his much execrated competitors will destroy his company (we are informed or reminded of its name) "'...and leave him prostitute in his old age...'" (p. 9)
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Yet, again, I had to laugh at the description given of how Old Nick behaves and his mock self pitying depiction of himself as being surrounded by bungling employees and merciless competitors who would drive him to an impoverished and "prostituted" old age!
And I know "prostituted" is a malapropism for "destitute."
I wonder how * I * would do meeting Old Nick? I hope we would hit it of, but I can't say that is what would happen!
Sean
I wonder how * I * would do meeting Old Nick? I hope we would hit it of, but I can't say that is what would happen!"
I'd think:
"Dude, you are WAY too old for cosplay! Probably some software engineer on the way to a SF con..".
OTOH, if this person had an entourage of physically attractive and/or well-heeled people, I'd wonder "Hmmm. Wonder who THIS guy is? Aging still-rich Prog-Rock star? White hip-hop producer"
BTW, O N seems to me more of a "Mama Coca" fancier than a snuff afficianado (unless tobacco wasn't all that was in it). 'Snuff said....
That makes me think of an ON for OUR Time: a tired, jaded, very O N sees the fortunes of the SSL crumbling as the fall of the Commonwealth nears. To prepare against the coming darkness, and to help those he loves and billions more, he makes a fateful choice- he hires a brilliant genetic nano-chemist with a dark secret that even Van Rijn doesn't know. His name: Walter White. It's "Trader to the Stars" meets "Breaking Bad".
-kh
-kh
Kaor, Keith!
While it's amusing to think of Old Nick first becoming famous and wealthy from being a rock star, the idea of him being like an aging Mick Jagger doesn't quite seem NATURAL for van Rijn!
Exploration, buying and selling goods and services, and then using some of the profits to have fun with, that is more like our Old Nick!
And snuff is or was made with powdered tobacco! But I will check to find out for sure.
I admit to not being familiar with Walter White and "Breaking Bad," so I'm not sure how that applies to Old Nick. We do see van Rijn, at the end of MIRKHEIM, beginning the project of patching up the Polesotechnic League so that it might another generation or two. THEN he planned to spend his final years in one last really LONG voyage of exploration.
Sean
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