"The leaden skies returned him no answer."
-James Blish, Black Easter IN Blish, After Such Knowledge (London, 1991), pp. 319-425 AT 14, p. 398.
The white magician, Father Domenico, wonders why a powerful spirit, when summoned, had appeared without a head. It is this question that the "leaden skies" do not answer. The headless spirit and leaden skies will prove to have been appropriate symbols when this novel reaches its climax.
"'It seems to me,' Hess said in a leaden monotone, 'that we are all insane.'"
-op. cit., 16, p. 419.
As without, "leaden skies," so within, "leaden monotone."
This is all pathetic fallacy, of course. I was reminded of Blish's leaden skies when Poul Anderson used that same adjective only to deny it:
"Heaven was not leaden, it was silver. Lively little weather clouds caught the light of a half-hidden sun in flashes which gleamed off steel and violet hues beneath."
-"My Own, My Native Land," pp. 48-49.
"My Own, My Native Land" is a feel good story whose characters solve their problems, both outer and inner. Consequently, of course, their sky is not leaden but silver.
11 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Yes, I can see that, a leaden sky and leaden tones in a grim story like BLACK EASTER, is meant to make us feel melancholy, pessimistic, anxious, etc. A far more optimistic story like Anderson's "My Own, My Native Land" would naturally tend to have the characters regarding their leaden skies far more benignly.
Ad astra! Sean
BTW, just a note -- "Coffin" is a real New England early-Yankee family name, as in the "Jared Coffin House" on Nantucket. I've used it (slightly modified for my own reasons) in fiction.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Oh, I knew "Coffin" is a very Yankee New England name. I have a translation of St. Augustine's CONFESSIONS by a Fr. Pine-Coffin. Think of the jokes that priest probably had to put up with!
And I remember "Cofflin" from your NANTUCKET books.
Ad astra! Sean
I did the "Cofflin" thing as a hint that the world that experienced the Change wasn't -quite- ours.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I know that's a favorite trope of yours, making something in your parallel worlds not quite the as THIS real world we live in. But, is that strictly necessary? For your alternate worlds to be so much like ours, they all still had to begin with a common starting point with THIS world, before splitting off from it.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: well, it's not strictly necessary but it's extremely useful. It keeps my stuff from dating the way near-future SF does; it ends up as an alternate universe, so why not have it that way from the beginning?
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I understand your point. I simply thought comparing that "dating" with the split off timeline would also be interesting.
I think THE PESHAWAR LANCERS might come closest among your works from splitting off from our real timeline, even if you had to go back to the 1870's for that.
Albeit, I thought it more likely for the France-Outre-Mer of that story to be ruled by Bourbons, not the far less numerous and prestigious Bonapartes.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: in 1878, Bonapartists were quite numerous, particularly in the French Army -- after all, a Bonaparte had ruled France less than a decade earlier. And they had a young and by all accounts able and charismatic heir -- who died in the Zulu War in our history.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I actually thought of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, the only son of Napoleon III. But, there were at least as many Legitimist supporters in and out of the Army as Bonapartists. And as far as I can make out from THE PESHAWAR LANCERS, the Fall of that story occurred when Louis Napoleon was in southern Africa, but shortly before the date of his death in our history, in 1879. Given the chaos and anarchy caused by the Fall, would the prince both had survived being in Africa AND somehow get to France? Possible, but I have my doubts.
The Bourbons, by contrast, were far more PROLIFIC than the Bonapartes, so some of them would be reasonably likely to survive. And if not as charismatic as Louis Napoleon they did have dogged political perseverance. There are still reigning Bourbons in Spain and Luxembourg, after all!
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: he didn't get to France, he got to Algeria. The French community there wasn't very Bonapartist before 1870 -- among other things, Napoleon III was too considerate of the natives for their taste -- but the Army there was. (There are complex reasons for that.) And the Fall produces a massive wave of French refugees to Algeria.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I should have remembered Algeria. Theoretically, Louis Napoleon could have struggled overland from southern Africa to Algiers. Yes, the Fall would provoke massive waves of refugees fleeing France and going to Algeria.
But, there were STILL strong pro-Bourbon sentiments in France as well. So I can see it being possible for Bourbons coming to rule France-Outre-Mer. The catastrophe of France's defeat in the Franco-Prussian war was a heavy blow to Bonapartism.
Ad astra! Sean
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