Thunder in a pathetic fallacy usually means threat or menace, I think. This time it is different. Benoni Strang, the Baburites' High Commissioner on Hermes calls Grand Duchess Sandra to tell her to cancel all public celebrations on the planetary day, Elvander's Birthday. Initially, he merely states that his call is about the Birthday. At first, Sandra is too weary to respond:
"Then thunder resounded outside, she heard anew the trumpet of wind and march of rain, as if Pete rode by. She straightened in her chair and replied coldly, 'What of it?..." (XVII, p. 232)
Perhaps this is not a pathetic fallacy? The thunder does not merely parallel or echo Strang's call. Instead, it influences, and even heartens, Sandra. Thunder resounds, wind trumpets and rain marches as if her dead husband rides by. The Hermetian elements resist the oppressor.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
An interesting difference from how Anderson uses thunder in a pathetic fallacy. I thought of the ominous thunder heard by the despairing King Ermanaric, near the end of "The Sorrow of Odin the Goth." That thunder reminded Ermanaric of the thundering hooves of the Hun cavalry sweeping in to crush the strife torn and disunited Ostrogoths.
Sean
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