I have this story both as an Ace Double with Poul Anderson's War Of The Wing-Men and in The Complete Psychotechnic League, Volume 2. Rereading the story in the latter collection, I came across:
"Davenant noticed that Weller never lost a chance to needle Halleck - small personal remarks and sights..." (pp. 168-169)
What are "sights"? Is it a misprint for either "signs" or "sighs"?
Turning to the Ace Double, we find:
"Davenant noticed that Weller never lost a chance to needle Halleck- small personal remarks and slights..."
-Poul Anderson, The Snows Of Ganymede (New York, 1958), CHAPTER 4, p. 40.
I would never have guessed "slights" but it is obviously what is meant. It can be helpful to compare alternative editions. In The Hideous Strength, CS Lewis reproduces one of the ways that English people speak English when Mrs. Maggs refers to Merlinus Ambrosius as "'...that Merling man...'" The Pan Books omnibus edition of The Cosmic Trilogy has "'...that Merlin man...'" Maybe someone thought that that was a correction. In any case, I am glad to have got to the bottom of Anderson's "sights."
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
It's probably due to my sense of disillusionment with mankind, but I had IMMEDIATELY thought of "slights" when I saw that "sights." More prosaically, the context made it plain that "sights" was a typo for "slights."
And that reasoning applies as well to the typo from Lewis' story as well.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
Lewis knew that a character like Mrs Maggs would pronounce "Merlin" as "Merling" so the spelling should not have been changed in the later edition - unless it is the later edition that you think has the typo.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
It was the former example you quoted from Lewis I thought was the typo. It seemed logical to think he meant Mrs. Maggs to simply say "That Merlin man," without the "g."
Ad astra! Sean
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