"'Once we go superlight, we will be safe.'
"From everything except ourselves, Donnan thought.
"'Get going, then,' Strathey rapped." (2, p. 18)
Poul Anderson could just have written the dialogue between Ramri and Strathey without inserting Donnan's thought. A dramatization probably would just give us the dialogue. In fact, how would a film or TV episode tell us what Donnan was thinking? Not that it cannot be done but it needs to be finessed somehow. During a tense scene on the bridge of the U.S.S. Benjamin Franklin, Donnan should not address stage whispers to the camera. Is it acceptable just to see his face and hear his voice-over? How else might it be done? His thought could be incorporated into dialogue shortly afterward.
In any case, Anderson's prose gives us the added depth of reflection on "ourselves" and this extra dimension is always present. See also Militarism And The Human Soul.
2 comments:
Have him glance meaningfully at the others.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Or Donnan could be shown quietly muttering to himself.
Ad astra! Sean
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