A very few errors find their way into printed texts. If a misprint is very minor and never noticed by anyone, does it even exist? It does not exist in anyone's perception of the text and thus does not spoil the effect that the author had intended to create but, of course, it does exist physically even though no one ever knows about it. I am a materialist, not an idealist.
I could discuss a couple of errors in other texts but it is getting late here and they would take us away from Poul Anderson's Technic History in which Lady Diana Vinogradoff, Right Noble Lady Guardian of the Mare Crisium, says:
"'No, on!'" (p. 10)
This is puzzling enough. I thought that she meant, "No, on your head," since she is asking Flandry what his mind-screen is. However, it is helpful to have two or more versions of a text. In fact, she merely says, "No, no!"
Before that, the narrative had highlighted a difference between Terrans and Merseians. When Lady Diana asked her host, Ruethen of the Long Hand, whether he in fact knew who she was, he replied:
"'Frankly, no.' A barbaric bluntness. Any noble of Terra would have been agile to disguise his ignorance." (p. 8)
The cover shows Flandry and Aycharaych, not Flandry and Ruethen. There are too few images of Merseians.
2 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
And I have recently discussed some interesting errors, or possible errors, I belatedly noticed in WE CLAIM THESE STARS.
I also recall how Ruethen, even if he had not yet met Lady Diana before, saying rather dryly he had encountered Flandry a time or two in the past. And Ruethen behaved like a gentle being, warning Flandry he might want one of the mindscreens he kept for certain guests. True, Flandry would soon have seen Aycharaych was also at the Crystal Moon.
And I would like to see some good, realistic (sic) depictions of Merseians! Perhaps by using CGI?
Ad astra! Sean
Kaor, Paul!
Lady Diana's title in the Imperial peerage is "Lady Guardian of Mare Crisium." I finally thought of looking up that Lunar mare, located NE of Mare Tranquillitatis. Once the Moon started to be colonized and developed, I wondered if relatively flat areas like this mare would be preferred? And in SATAN'S WORLD we get a good glimpse of how much was being done on the Moon by Nicholas van Rijn's time. By the time the Empire arose, the Moon must have many cities and even agricultural areas. So it's no surprise some peerages were located on the Moon.
Ad astra! Sean
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