The Shield Of Time, PART SIX, 1138alpha A.D.
I read somewhere that, in TV dramas like Star Trek, indoor sets like cabin doors and furniture are made a certain percentage smaller than normal to make the characters subliminally seem larger and more imposing. All sorts of cinematic tricks would be necessary to present Lorenzo de Conti, hero of the battle of Rignano, as Everard first sees him.
Lorenzo is vivid. Even seated, he blazes, then rises like a panther. His facial expressions change like sunlight flickering on water under a breeze. His countenance is classical. His eyes are big, golden and changeable. His face seems older than his age, "...yet also ageless." (p. 33) (Yes, he has a strange relationship to time.) He is taller than average and slim but with broad shoulders. Even indoors, he is dressed as if for action. His baritone rings. He is hospitable, his smile flashes and he has uncommonly good teeth.
Is anything lacking? Everard judges that Lorenzo is that "Dangerous combination..." (p. 334) of romantic dreamer and formidable warrior. Perhaps a more formidable opponent than Castelar or Varagan?
"I can almost see a nimbus of destiny around that head." (ibid.)
This reminds us of the sunlight making a halo around a captain's helmet earlier in The Shield Of Time. See 1985 AD.
Everard reflects that Lorenzo will have seized on the stories and ballads of the Carolingian myth. This in turn reminds us of Anderson's Three Hearts And Three Lions. Much significance is focused in Lorenzo.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
And besides being charming, intelligent, formidable, and extremely able, Lorenzo de Conti was also a decent, well meaning man. And did not deserve to be so fatally caught up in a causal nexus or vortex.
Ad astra! Sean
Note the impact of popular culture — romances, legends — on Lorenzo. That isn’t a phenomenon limited to modern times.
Kaor Mr. Stirling!
A point I should have mentioned in my first comment here. And you have mentioned how was true in later centuries, when the Conquistadors of Cortez compared the Valley of Mexico to AMADIS OF GAUL.
And cf course Tolkien's Middle Earth legendarium has been playing a similar role in our times. Including a certain prominent character in your Emberverse books.
Ad astra! Sean
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