"The servants flitted about, setting forth bowls of iced gazpacho followed by a chicken escabeche." (p. 82) (See The Food Thread.)
Read Poul Anderson and learn.
"'La Loi, c'est moi.'" (p. 83)
- said by Louis XIV and Judge Dredd.
"'Scheherazade...'" (p. 83)
"The man at the head of the table smiled, a dusty expression." (p. 83)
What is a dusty expression?
Korea also provided opportunities for post-war crime. (pp. 84-85)
Haverner's study contains:
"...filing cabinets..., reference shelves, functional modern chairs, a bloc of the latest equipment for sending orders and retrieving information around the globe." (p. 86)
Published in 1980, The Devil's Game does not have PCs or the Internet. Some of Anderson's fictional futures have "infotrieves."
When Haverner tells it like it is to Nordberg:
"Somewhere a macaw, starled out of sleep, screeched." (p. 87)
Anderson's character interactions and dialogues are often punctuated by natural sounds, the wind, a storm or, in this case, a screech.
"The click of latch as his door was opened, of fluffy blue mules on his floor, brought Larry awake." (p. 89)
I am not sure what the fluffy blue mules are doing on Larry's floor in this sentence.
We have exhausted not this "Interval" but perhaps my ability to extract information from it this evening.
5 comments:
Paul:
One of the definitions of "mule" is "a shoe or slipper without quarter or heel strap." So I guess the "mules on his floor" refers to the sound of somebody walking into the bedroom. A servant? Or one of the other guests? Just walking in without so much as a by-your-leave? All the other times that I recall seeing references to someone wearing mules, it's been a woman. Not that that's definitive....
David,
Very definitive. Thank you.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul and DAVID!
Paul: THAT caught my eye, LOUIS XIX??? Even France, with its ancient former monarchy, only had EIGHTEEN kings officially included in the list of French rulers. Did you mean Louis XIV or Louis XVIII?
Recall how Sunderland Haverner was described a couple of times as having an expression or skull resembling that of Ramesses II of Egypt. So, if Haverland had a "dusty" look to him, recall the age worn mummified skull of the Pharaoh.
It was by 1985, after THE GAME OF EMPIRE was published, that we started seeing things like our PCs being mentioned in Anderson's stories. GAME mentions "mini computers from the inner Empire" in Chapter 1.
David: I'm a bit surprised by your comment. Gayle Thayer's "fluffy blue mules" refers to the bedroom slippers some women wear.
Ad astra! Sean
XIV.
Kaor, Paul!
I thought so! Louis XIV was famously credited with saying "The state? I am the state."
Ad astra! Sean
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