Monday, 11 January 2021

Yvonne Vaillancourt

"Esau."

For Yvonne Vaillancourt, see here. (Scroll down.)

The dialogue between Emil Dalmady and Yvonne seems to begin from her pov because she looks up as he passes and asks him what is wrong. However, he stops to appreciate and reflect on her comeliness so we are definitely in his pov. An account of someone looking up and asking a question can be rendered either objectively or from the pov of the person to whom the question is addressed. But, as I observed before, there is an abrupt shift from his pov to hers in the concluding paragraph of this section.

Yvonne's duties as secretary-treasurer of the trade post on Suleiman keep her busy only when the regular Cynthian freighter has landed so she spends the rest of her time on scientific research. In fact, Dalmady thinks that his whole staff is more interested in science than in commerce. But what a sensible recruitment policy for Solar Spice & Liquors - to hire staff who will happily occupy themselves with work interesting to them when there is no other demand on their time. Dalmady's staff includes two xenologists and one biologist. Both professions are necessary because Dalmady pays the natives to harvest a crop but, when they are not advising Dalmady, the scientists study Suleimanite life and civilization for their own sakes, an arrangement that serves the interests both of SSL and of Technic civilization as a whole.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

While I agree with what you wrote here, I think you should have mentioned that it was possible because only because the bluejack trade was so marginal that it was barely worth carrying on. So it made sense for SS & L to hire scientists willing to work on Suleiman for modest pay and occasional work as merchants in return for mostly doing what they preferred to do, studying the Suleimanites.

Ad astra! Sean