Dornford Yates' novels, set in Austria in the early twentieth century, describe narrow winding cobbled streets with overhanging buildings such that, in one case, it would have been possible to pass a basket from an upper window to someone reaching across from the facing house.
In Poul Anderson's "The Chapter Ends," the far future Earth wallows in archaisms:
houses low, white and half-timbered;
roofs thatched or red-tiled;
smoking chimneys;
carved, overhanging galleries;
narrow, cobbled, twisting streets;
wooden clogs;
the ruined walls of Sol City;
wooded hills;
fields;
orchards;
distant sea;
farm buildings;
cattle;
winding roads;
marble and granite walls;
"...all dreaming under the sun..." (p. 196);
smells of leaf, earth, trees, salt, kelp and fish.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Except for a few items like thatched roofs and wooden clogs, I did not find that list you made all that archaic! All the other things you listed can be found quite easily in the here and now. Including ruined cities (or parts of cities).
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
Yes but they are archaic in a remote Galactic future.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Except I assume the "Galactics" would still need farms, at least. We see them eating and drinking in "The Chapter Ends," after all.
Ad astra! Sean
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