"'Three score and ten summers, the Book says.'" (pp. 109-110)
Yet another Biblical reference that I think we have missed before. (Psalm 90: 10)
Mrs Taverner, quoting this, goes on to say:
"'I should think yer couldn't afford to waste none.'" (p. 110)
And she says this because the narrator acknowledges that he had not been noticing the weather back home. This is another reference to the mood that he was in on that long, solitary walk. There is more. When an Irishman (Charles Stewart Parnell) asks him:
"'Woman trouble?'" (ibid.)
- he responds:
"'In a way... Not as simple as I wish it were.'" (ibid.)
So we learn something more but by no means all.
How effective is "'Losers' Night"? Major historical conflicts are alluded to:
The text relies on its readers' historical knowledge. Nowadays we can google, of course.
12 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
And I wondered just now if Parnell's personal problems contributed to the defeat of Gladstone's first Irish Home Rule Bill in Parliament? They probably did!
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: most certainly. The Great British Public in the 1880's was savagely intolerant of infidelity, in a way it hadn't been earlier and wouldn't be later. Parnell's peccadillos hit at precisely the worst time for him.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I thought so! And that "savage intolerance" was itself a reaction to the laxity of Georgian times. Parnell should have made a choice: to settle for either the woman he wanted or for Irish Home Rule, but he couldn't have both.
Another factor, of course, was Gladstone's irritating personality. Simply put, the PM rubbed many people the wrong way. So much so that some in Parliament, who might have been willing to accept Irish Home Rule, voted against the Bill because of their dislike for Gladstone.
Ad astra! Sean
and the loser at Phillipi was talking to Louis Riel who lost in his attempt to set up a Metis/native state in what is now western Canada.
That is a bit obscure to non-Canadians. I remember being surprised at Anderson including him, but Anderson did grow up in the adjacent part of the US.
Similarly I like the way Stirling used the timing of when Britain took over the Cape Colony as the P.O.D. for the Draka alternate history. Something rather obscure to non-South Africans.
As to Glastone, I've always liked Disraeli's comment -- that he didn't so much mind Gladstone having an ace tucked up his sleeve as he did his insistence when it was discovered that God had put it there.
Jim: though if I were doing it again, I might use 1632 -- there was an abortive attempt to start a British colony at the Cape in that year, but it got switched to an Indian Ocean island and failed.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I agree, Gladstone irritated many people as a sanctimonious hypocrite.
Hmmm, 1632 might have been a better date for founding what became the monstrous Draka. More time what became the Domination to evolve "organically," in a less rushed way than using the 1780'a.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: Precisely. Well, it was my first! Ye Gods, nearly 40 years ago!
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
As people so often portentously say, time passes! (Smiles)
But even the first of your Draka books, MARCHING THROUGH GEORGIA, was not printed quite nearly 40 years ago. The publication page in my copy says it was first printed in May 1988.
Even SNOW BROTHER, one of year earlier books, was not yet in print forty years ago. The pub. page of the copy I have, printed in May 1992, says the earlier version was first pub. in 1985.
Ad astra! Sean
Hence, 'nearly'.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I fear I sometimes behave like the stereotypical SF fan poring over the works of a favorite author with zealous casuistry--and then bugging the said writer with my nit picking! (Smiles)
Ad astra! Sean
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