Search this blog for:
Daedalus
Imhotep
the Patrician System
Olga's Landing
Diana Crowfeather
Axor
Targovi
the Highroad River
Lulach
Zacaharia
Magnusson
etc
- and you will find more information about Poul Anderson's The Game Of Empire than I can remember or intend to repeat! But, so far, it remains possible to find more to post about by rereading the text. Some time is spent in what I call "blog maintenance," making slight corrections and adjustments to spelling, grammar, punctuation, paragraph spacing, links etc. I think that this improves the blog although no one else is going to notice it.
The Cynthian, Wo Lia, a wandering gambler and occasional racketeer from Catawrayannis, was stranded on Daedalus by the interdiction on civilian space travel. Aiming to set up in business in the Cynthian town of Lulach, she has agreed to travel there, simultaneously employing the disguised fugitive, Targovi, as a performing animal that dances and does tricks while she plays a flute and collects coins. On arrival in Lulach, she puts Targovi's cage in the stable of the inn but later returns to release him. Now she must put on an act. How much commercial activity is dramatic performances? See Smug And Something Else and its links. John Buchan has an American character, John S. Blenkiron, who carries on in this manner but his purposes are political, not mercantile. Wo Lia's performance perpetuates the spirit of Nicholas van Rijn:
"Wo Lia waited a while before scurrying back and screaming for the landlady. Her priceless trained animal, the mainstay of her livelihood, was gone! She had cast about unavailingly, finding no trace. Had it escaped because the stablehands were careless? Had it been stolen? She demanded help in searching, the entire staff, the patrol, a posse of citizens. If the magnificent, irreplaceable creature was not found, she would have compensation. She would demand justice, she would file suit, she would not cease until she had her rightful due!" (pp. 328-329)
Meanwhile, Targovi, with mane and black dye removed and now wearing clothes, looks nothing like the escaped animal.
(I am unable to link to the Wikipedia article for "John S. Blenkiron," hopefully just for atmospheric reasons. Later: It is done.)
8 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I had to laugh a bit at these quotes about Wo Lia! I had completely forgotten about this incident. Yes, the show she put on of feigned outrage and blustering exaggeration makes her spiritually kin to Old Nick!
A REAL Blenkiron is somebody I am going to look up!
Ad astra! Sean
Kaor, Paul!
I looked up the FICTIONAL, not a real "John S. Blenkiron," a character created by the author John Buchan. It seems plain Anderson read the spy novels of Buchan, such as THE THIRTY NINE STEPS. I think the Admiral Blenkiron we see in THE GAME OF EMPIRE was partly modeled on Buchan's character. Have you read any of Buchan's books?
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
I have read all of Buchan's Hannay books, although not recently, and somehow managed to remember Blenkiron's name which is how I was able to google him.
Paul.
Sean,
Buchan's Blenkiron's play-acting strikes me as similar to van Rijn's and Wo Lia's but I don't see much similarity between Buchan's and Anderson's Blenkirons.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Alas, John Buchan is yet another of the many authors I know I should sometime read but have not!
Buchan's Blenkiron and Anderson's were both described as charming and likable persons. That is something to have in common.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
OK.
Paul.
Buchan was one of the formative espionage-adventure writers. And a prominent politician, an actual intelligence-officer during WW1, and later Governor-General of Canada.
His description of the fall of Kars to the Russians in GREENMANTLE is (apart from the secret parts involving his protagonists and villains) unusually realistic, because he had classified information that he drew on.
(Lawrence "of Arabia" commented on that a few years later.)
Buchan's THE THREE HOSTAGES relies far too heavily on implausible/impossible coincidences. He was obsessed with the idea of someone speaking publicly without preparation and carrying it off. This happens maybe three times, very implausibly.
Post a Comment