"'Villiam Valker slept here vunce,' the Islandmen said, unconscious in their echo of the claim so often made concerning a prior, more famous, and more fortunate revolutionary.'" (p. 35)
What is that all about? (I think I get it.) See also here.
The seven pick cards to decide their order in the game of Follow The Leader. How did Anderson do this? Did he pick cards or did he decide in advance which character would pick which card? Apparently, Tolkien wanted to describe a partly burned document so he wrote the document, then partly burned it, to find out what it would look like.
A quick breakfast post. For me, today consists of an early medical appointment followed by a coastal family picnic so posts might be sparse. Meanwhile, as expected, Poul Anderson's The Devil's Game proves to be eminently worthy of at least a second rereading. (Second rereading = third reading.)
7 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Most historically literate people from the US would know at once that the "...prior, more famous, and more fortunate revolutionary was George Washington! (Smiles)
And of course we know of another William Walker from Stirling's Nantucket books!
It would have been more artistically dramatic if Anderson had indeed picked cards for his characters, and more interesting, IMO.
I remember that story of how a perfectionist Tolkien strove to be as realistic as possible about the chronicle narrating the history of the short lived Dwarf colony in Khazad-dum. A document discovered by the Fellowship of the Ring at Balin's tomb.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
I deduced Washington after a little reflection. Initially, the reference was opaque to me especially since I did not know who "Villiam Valker" was.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Well, I knew at once that "Villiam Valker" was meant to be a dialectal mispronunciation of "William Walker."
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
That was obvious but there was still the question of which William Walker.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Well, we both know now that Anderson meant the American adventurer who tried to carve out a personal kingdom in the Central America of the 1850's. Walker failed and was eventually shot in 1860.
Incidentally, in Stirling's Draka timeline this William Walker succeeded and set up a Central American Empire, before it was eventually annexed by an expanding US.
Ad astra! Sean
Note that William Walker wasn't defeated by the locals: he had the bad judgment to mortally offend the American magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt (the founder of that family), who then set out to destroy him, providing help (guns and money) and transport to his local enemies.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I read about how Walker enraged Cornelius Vanderbilt when I looked up the former man. Yes, Vanderbilt set out to destroy Walker.
I would argue as well that the POLICIES Walker tried to institute in Nicaragua did its bit to stir up opposition to him. My thought was that Walker should have worked hard at building up LOCAL support for him. The combination of both Vanderbilt and Central American enemies brought down Walker.
Ad astra! Sean
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