Operation Luna, 21.
The curious spell discussed in recent posts enables Frogmorton and the Matucheks to find Fu Ch'ing's address in London:
"'Here,' [Frogmorton] said. 'A sideway, virtually an alley, in Limehouse.'
[Ginny's] laugh rattled. "'Limehouse? Isn't that ridiculously obvious?'
"'Which may be why he chose it, Dr. Matuchek. I don't know what the building is like, although I would guess an abandoned warehouse or a dubious commercial establishment in that rather decayed district. One can readily learn. At any rate, there he sits motionless, like a spider in the center of its web, but that web has a thousand radiations, and he knows well every quiver of each of them.'" (pp. 191-192)
Compare Sherlock Holmes' description of Moriarty:
He sits motionless, like a spider in the center of its web, but that web has a thousand radiations, and he knows well every quiver of each of them
-copied from here. (Scroll down.)
Guion of the Time Patrol compares world-lines to a troubled spider's web (see Not In Our Yet) and an Upanishad compares the Absolute and the universe to a spider and its web:
7. As the spider creates and absorbs, as medicinal plants grow from the
earth, as hairs grow from the living person, so this universe proceeds
from the immortal.
-copied from here.
Why does Ginny say that Limehouse is obvious? See:
Limehouse: In Popular Culture.
(Alan Moore's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen has Mycroft Holmes believed to be "M," Moriarty as the real M and Fu Manchu unnamed either for copyright reasons or for dramatic effect.)
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
"Obvious" because we (some of us) are supposed to think of Sax Rohmer's stories, opium dens, and sinister Chinese operatives. (Smiles)
Ad astra! Sean
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