I said here that we share van Rijn's pov twice when he is alone. This was true but misleading. The entire voyage of the Mercury is recounted from van Rijn's pov, including both conversations with other characters and his EVA repair job. During the latter, he is indeed alone with the universe:
"Emerging on the hull, he was surrounded by a darkness-whitening starblaze." (p. 94)
If he is thrown off the ship and beyond the hyperdrive field, then:
"Infinity was a long ways to fall." (ibid.)
In fact:
"...that lunge nearly tossed him off into God's great icebox!" (p. 95)
Before that, van Rijn and Torres were on the bridge while:
"The visuals showed Petrovich and Seiichi in the engine room..." (p. 90)
We think: Kirk and Spock on the bridge with Scotty in the engine room. Star Trek has embedded itself in the collective consciousness - or has a lot to answer for, whichever you prefer.
Hloch says that this story is "Maychance the best introduction..." (p. 69) to van Rijn. It is, because it was the first. Also, it was not included, but was quoted, in Trader To The Stars. Thus, it gained a special status as an earlier van Rijn story that some of us had not read yet. It is also fitting that Hloch tells us that he found the story in Tales Of The Great Frontier by A.A. Craig.
9 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
A small correction, "Margin of Profit" was originally pub. before STAR TREK came along. So, the TV show had no influence on Anderson's story.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
I meant not that STAR TREK influenced "Margin of Profit" but that STAR TREK comes into our mind when we read certain kinds of sf narratives. This has come up before in relation to THE PEREGRINE and THE AVATAR.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
But I never think of something as inferior as STAR TREK when I read stories like "Margin of Profit." But I can see how many would think of that TV show while reading "Margin."
When I see alien invasions on TV, that might reminded me of either Anderson's THE WAR OF TWO WORLDS or Niven/Pournelle's FOOTFALL, but only to make me feel disdain for the movies when I recall how much better these authors handled the same theme in their stories.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
Disdain! The ultimate alien invasion novel was, of course, Wells'.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I still believe most so called science fiction movies and TV shows deserve to be regarded only with disdain. That's how inferior I consider them to be when compared to the written efforts of the real masters of the genre.
I agree H.G. Wells was in many ways a pioneer in the new genre of SF as it emerged in the later 19th century (along with Jules Verne). As exemplified in such efforts as THE ISLAND OF DR MOREAU, THE INVISIBLE MAN, THE TIME MACHINE, and THE WAR OF THE WORLDS. But he could only begin exploring some of the possibilities of that new genre. Nor do I think Wells was necessarily the best of all SF writers simply from literary POV. He did write in a late Victorian style or manner which came to be seen as passe after about 1920.
I would still argue that simply in the ability to tell an interesting, fast moving story, Wells was surpassed even by Edgar Rice Burroughs, absurd tho the latter's "scientifantasies" often were. And I think that was true as well of some other SF writers who wrote before the Golden Age of SF began, with the advent of John Campbell. Here I have as examples some of the stories collected by Asimov in BEFORE THE GOLDEN AGE.
And I would argue in addition that Wells was surpassed by many of the works of Heinlein, Hal Clement, Poul Anderson, Larry Niven, Avram Davidson, Jerry Pournelle, S.M. Stirling, etc. Wells was a pioneer of SF, but not the transcendent master of the genre.
Ad astra! Sean
The standards of genre SF/F have improved vastly in the last generation. And in any case, it's a different medium. It doesn't do the same things, and it does some other things that written fiction can't.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I agree, but I still argue the flaws in filmed/TV science fiction still outweighs what it does right. Which is one reason I long so much to see good filmed versions of some of the Nicholas van Rijn and Dominic Flandry stories. Or even a similarly satisfactory version of some of your own works, such as CONQUISTADOR. I would love to see the menacing, charming, enormously able John Rolfe VI in film!
Ad astra! Sean
For example, the TV series "The Expanse" is very good... not least because the two people who wrote the fiction (I know 'em both) also got to do the screenplays.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
In that case I will looking up "The Expanse" online. And maybe I will find it on TV.
Ad astra! Sean
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