Wanting to find subject-matter for a brief post before turning in, I read further and find some.
In a passage narrated from Raven's point of view (pov), we read that, when Raven's Siamese cat, Zio, tries to follow him out of his cabin in the landed spaceship, Raven pushes him back in and closes the door. Next:
"Zio scolded him in absentia for several minutes." (p. 644)
Meanwhile, in the following sentence:
"Emerging from the spaceship, Raven saw that dusk was upon the land." (ibid.)
We have returned to Raven's pov. Thus, for a single sentence, the omniscient narrator abandons Raven's pov and tells us what neither Raven nor any other human observer saw: what a cat did for several minutes alone in Raven's cabin.
Poul Anderson's povs are usually carefully controlled but there is an occasional lapse.
4 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I don't think this was a lapse on Anderson's part. Rather, we get a bit of humor, seeing things from Zio's POV.
Ad astra! Sean
And given the temper and vocal proclivities of Siamese, it was both predictable (Raven would know how Zio would react) and probably audible for some distance, so Raven could hear the caterwauling as he walked away.
The pov is preserved! Right!
Kaor, Paul and Mr. Stirling!
And one of the jacket covers of my collection of Poul Anderson books shows the author holding a Siamese cat. So Anderson may have had at least one Siamese, giving him personal experience of them.
Ad astra! Sean
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