The text feels like a different narrative if you focus attention on every character, however minor. In this chapter:
(i) A multi-armed Irumclagian chanting through a vocalizer to advertise Leon Ammon's joyhouse. His blue integument feels cold as Flandry brushes past.
(ii) A large, gaudily uniformed, obsidian-eyed man called Lem, armed with a stunner, who directs Flandry to room 666 and warns him not to use names.
(iii) A musky-scented, statuesque Gorzunian mercenary standing in a corner of Ammon's office.
(iv) Ammon himself although we have discussed him before.
Maybe I am wrongly promoting the Irumclagian and the Gorzunian to the ranks of "character"? They do not interact on a personal level. Nevertheless, they contribute their ambience to the narrative.
Forgettable characters in other fiction: Did you know that there is a James Bond villain called Horst Uhlmann? He is an ex-Gestapo SPECTRE man, appearing in a single chapter of a single novel.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Forgettable characters? Yes, but I remember the Irumclagian "barker", Lem, and Ammon's bodyguard! Lem's job was plainly to screen out possible troublemakers and direct customers to various parts of this disreputable establishment.\\
That other Horst I don't recall at all! I finished rereading LIVE AND LET DIE, and found it much better than CASINO ROYALE. I esp. appreciated Mr. Big, a truly intelligent and villainous gangster. One quibble I have, tho, is why the Big Man started working for Moscow at all. Was it just for money, the thrill, Or ideological conviction? Fleming never told us.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
I am also rereading Bond but not in order.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I would like to reread MOONRAKER next. But, when I rummaged among my boxes of books for the Bond novels, I found I did not have it! Unless I find a copy of MOONRAKER soon, DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER will have to be the next 007 book I read.
Ad astra! Sean
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