-Poul Anderson, "Margin of Profit" IN Anderson, The Van Rijn Method (Riverdale, NY, 2009), pp. 135-173 AT p. 128.
On a later occasion, van Rijn's guests include:
"...a stranger to me, dark and lean, with a blaster that had seen considerable service at his hip."
-Poul Anderson, "The Master Key" IN Anderson, David Falkayn: Star Trader (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 273-327 AT p. 277.
All that sounds very exciting to read about but what would such a period be like to live in? Of course, most of the population would not be directly involved in the activities of the merchant princes. Van Rijn glares out with scorn:
"...across the city, where it winked and glittered beneath the stars, around the curve of the planet."
-"The Master Key," p. 327.
- the city where houses, apartments and restaurants will have Solar Spice & Liquors salt cellars on their dinner tables.
8 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
But I have some sympathy for Old Nick's anger, scorn, frustration! Because reasonably tolerable human societies have so often turned out to be heart breakingly short lived or all too prone to chaos and collapse.
Ad astra! Seam
I see people with guns on their belts fairly frequently here in Santa Fe -- doesn't bother me much.
I carry a navaja-style folder with a six-inch blade, which I slip into my pocket whenever I leave the house.
My father kept an automatic beside the bed, a Luger he got from a German who had no further need of it in WW2.
For that matter, my first girlfriend's family kept themselves in meat over the winter by shooting a moose every October. They made it into tortier (meat pies) and stored them in the out-pantry (a pantry with screened openings) where they hard-froze until spring. One of my sisters-in-law's family does the same thing in New Brunswick, where they live.
Dad caused a bit of a sensation when we got off the BOAC jet from London in Nairobi in the mid-60's; asked if he had anything to declare, he opened his briefcase and said: "Yes, this Luger automatic." He'd had it in the overhead luggage bin over his seat all the way.
I don't think anyone who tried to hijack that plane would have had a happy time... 8-).
Gun-fire inside a plane would be bad news, though?
I’d rather have a shoot-out than a takeover by hostage-shooters
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Law abiding people legally carrying guns does not bother me either.
When I went to Rome for the Holy Year in 2000 I took my Swiss Army pocket knife with me. No one made a fuss about it either at the airports in Boston and Rome. But, that was before Nine Eleven. I don't think your father could have carried his gun like that after 2001. And I know darn well my Swiss Army knife would be confiscated.
I think the methods used by Israel to guard against terrorism on airplanes may be the best we can hope for.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: it -could- be confiscated.
I forgetfully left a Cold Steel bowie knife in my backpack a while ago (a model with an 11-inch blade), tucked into part of the support structure so that it was fully concealed but placed horizontally across the small of my back and could be reached easily by my right hand.
And it was confiscated at security.
After it had gone through 5 times without being detected.
Isn't that reassuring? 8-).
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
A Bowie that large seems way too big to be a mere knife. A hobbit might think it large enough to be at least a short sword.
And your experience was not in the least reassuring if it took SIX tries before someone belatedly noticed your knife. I remember the disdain Jerry Pournelle had for the Kabuki comic opera that passes for airport security at most places!
Ad astra! Sean
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