Fenn enjoys looking out at a hurricane although he knows that it would be dangerous to venture outside while the storm lasts. Then he realizes that he has enough time to track down the man who murdered his friend. Then, of course, two things happen. Fenn speaks and the storm responds:
"'Yes, I do now have some months at leisure. Time for tracking Pedro Dover down.'
"The storm yelled." (p. 194)
Right on cue. We can depend on it from Poul Anderson. The elements provide the Pathetic Fallacy to parallel the dramatic dialogue. It would not have been an authentic Andersonian text if the chapter had ended just with Fenn's words. Those words would have been quiet, deadly, reflective and effective but it would not have been the same if the storm had not yelled its approval. With Anderson, an approaching or yelling storm is almost as predictable as the full stop at the end of the sentence.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
All the same, a few "...quiet, deadly, reflective, and effective" words would also have been satisfactory. It might be interesting for us to keep an eye open for similarly quiet but effective moments in Anderson's stories.
Ad astra! Sean
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