Sometimes an author refers to someone or something without directly stating who or what is being referred to. This can be for either of two reasons. Either the information is being temporarily withheld, to be disclosed later, or the reader understands the reference but appreciates the dramatic effect generated by this indirect allusion.
In Poul Anderson's Orion Shall Rise, the title phrase is repeated many times before the reader learns its meaning although we gather that it is highly significant.
In Anderson's A Stone In Heaven, Dominic Flandry refers to a lady that died on Dennitza. In The Game Of Empire, Flandry refers to the one being, neither human nor Merseian, whose destruction he had regarded as an end in itself. We are not told the names but, if we have been reading the series consecutively, then we do not need to be told.
Notice that, in the first version of the song quoted in the previous post, we are not told the boy's name - because we already know it. I have several really good examples of indirect references in the works of other authors but maybe this time I should confine my attention to the works of Poul Anderson?
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
And it was not in just THE GAME OF EMPIRE that Flandry tAhought it urgently necessary to kill a single person, Aycharaych. I was reminded of this bit from Chapter VI of WE CLAIM THESE STARS, long before the later novel (Flandry speaking): "We can't touch him in Ymirite space, but if we waylaid him on his way out. He'll be tricky, the ambush might not work, but name of a little green pig, if we can get Aycharaych, it'll be better than destroying a Merseian fleet!"
Plainly, Flandry thought the Chereionite the most dangerous threat to the Empire that it was possible for a single person to be!
Ad astra! Sean
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