In Genesis 27, Jacob disguises himself as his brother, Esau, and gains their father's blessing. In Poul Anderson's "Esau," the Suleimanite Translator, remotely directed by Yvonne Vaillancourt, disguises himself as a Baburite, thus deceiving the robot guards, then enters the invaders' base and reprograms the computer to work for SSL. This is the meaning of the story's title.
Sorry to be so long-winded about it.
Yvonne is able to direct the deception because the SLL base xenological library has microtapes on Babur covering:
principle languages;
historical and cultural sketches;
technological analyses;
population and productivity statistics;
planetology;
biology;
psychoprofiling;
etc.
This is enough to inform her that the Baburites' Suleimanite "'...operation must be straining their resources...'" (p. 122)
The text that I am reading includes this confusing paragraph:
"'We tell you what we tell you in order to make clear, not only our harmlessness to the League as a whole, but our determination. We trust you have taped this discussion. It may prevent your employer from wasting our determination. We trust you have taped this discussion. It may prevent your employer from wasting Suleiman, observe well. When you go back, report faithfully.'" (p. 118)
Fortunately, The Technic Civilization Saga resolves this text into:
"'We tell you what we tell you in order to make clear, not only our harmlessness to the League as a whole, but our determination. We trust you have taped this discussion. It may prevent your employer from wasting our time and energy in counteracting any foredoomed attempts by him to recoup. While you remain on Suleiman, observe well. When you go back, report faithfully.'"
-Poul Anderson, "Esau" IN Anderson, The Van Rijn Method (Riverdale, NY, 2009), pp. 517-553 AT p. 539.
The story ends with this dramatic dialogue:
Van Rijn: Hokay?
Dalmady: Hokay! (p. 130)
I was brought up with a set of social prejudices which told me that anyone who said anything like "Hokay," could not possibly be a company owner and director. I was taught a lot of nonsense.
At the end of "How To Be Ethnic...," Betty says that she will find a way to follow Jim. At the end of "Esau," Dalmady, thinking of Yvonne, reflects that he will soon be able to set his own hiring policies. Happy endings for two characters that we will never see again although each of them contributes more than just his single story to the Earth Book.
5 comments:
Differences between American and British class systems, hokay! Immigrant entrepreneurs with idiosyncratic command of English are a staple of American history and of fiction and folk-tales.
The closest equivalent in Britain would be a businessman with a broad Lancashire accent -- something common enough in the Industrial Revolution, if not later.
And a successful man in another field was Fred Hoyle with a broad Yorkshire accent.
Kaor, Paul and Mr. Stirling!
And of course Old Nick's comic mangling of Amglic has to be at least partly put on! He had more than enough brains to be able to speak perfect, cultured Anglic if he had wished to do so.
Ad astra! Sean
Incidentally, Tennyson (the poet laureate) had a distinct rural Lincolnshire accent. He said "proputty" for "property", among other regionalisms.
It wasn't until the late Victorian period that the "posh" upper-class accent became nearly universal among the British upper classes.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
And American English has its own regionalisms. I recall how, during one of my visits to the UK, a shopkeeper in London from whom I was buying things like postcards not only could tell I am American, but also that I came from Massachusetts. I was impressed enough that that little incident has stayed in my mind ever since.
Ad astra! Seam
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