Two further passages are set in the eighteenth century emulation:
"Early morning in the garden, flashes of dew on leaves and petals, a hawk aloft on a breeze that caused Laurinda to pull her shawl about her. She sat by the basin and looked up at him where he strode back and forth before her, hands clenched at his sides or clutched together at his back. Gravel grated beneath his feet." (2, p. 218)
Andersonian attention to detail: flashing dew, a hovering bird of prey, a breeze, our last sight of the fish basin, grating gravel - three senses.
"They followed a lane to a hill about a kilometer away. Trees on its top did not obscure a wide view across the land. The sun stood dazzling in the east, a few small clouds sailed across a blue as radiant as their whiteness, but an early breath of autumn was in the wind. It went strong and fresh, scattering dawn-mists off plowland and sending waves through the green of pastures; it soughed in the branches overhead and whirled some already dying leaves off. High beyond them winged a V of wild geese." (6, pp. 229-230)
This is the last sight of eighteenth century England both for the characters and for their readers. We see this emulation only when they do. Thus, the breath of autumn and the few dying leaves are appropriate. I do not fully appreciate all these nuances until I blog about them.
Christian and Laurinda will be together but as memories in Alpha. Gaia will not maintain them in an emulation:
"'After such knowledge as they have tasted of, how could they return to me?'" (XII, p. 246)
I don't see why not. But I have just noticed James Blish's title, After Such Knowledge, a quotation from TS Eliot, in Anderson's text. There is always more to be found.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
That "After such knowledge" of Anderson might have been meant by him as an echo of Blish's work.
Ad astra! Sean
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