Manning the weapons control turret of Muddlin' Through during an aerial battle gives Nicholas van Rijn what he calls "'...an abysmal appetite.'" (p. 267) He proposes to:
"'...quickroast a nice Virginia ham with sweet potatoes and Caesar salad...'" (ibid.)
- and asks his companions what they want for lunch. David Falkayn is not hungry which van Rijn attributes to unwarranted conscience. We have discussed loss of appetite before. See "A Sandwich With Coffee," here.
I guarantee that I would be like Falkayn and not like van Rijn. I have never understood a condemned man's last meal. What is the point of eating anything then? And I would not want to eat anything, in any case. I might be fully alert for once - but that would remain to be seen.
Van Rijn's colleagues should not have agreed to him risking himself in even a single battle but I suppose that Muddlin' Through is fairly secure against the defence craft of Abdallah Enterprises.
Because of that company's activities on Hopewell, a poisoned river, flowing between dumps, slag heaps and waste outlets, carries death into the sea but that is not why the Free Hermetian Navy attacks the industrial centrum. Even worse work is afoot! And, as Falkayn reflects, it is also the end of "...a grand era..." (p. 266) but we have belaboured that point already.
7 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
To have "...abysmal appetite" can have more than one meaning!
Much as I like Old Nick, I don't know if I would be hungry in a time of danger. It depends on the individual.
The custom of giving criminals condemned to death an elaborate last meal does seem rather odd.
Ad astra! Sean
Hunger is a reflex, you really don't chose it.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
But I think of "hunger," from simply a physical pov, as one's body signalling you that it's time to eat, that the body needs more nutrition. And that this sensation gets stronger as more time passes without eating.
Granted, emotion or stress also affects "hunger."
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: within limits. After a while hunger becomes all-consuming, to coin a phrase.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I agree! Moreover, after a certain point is it possible a man dying of starvation even loses the desire to eat? I was reminded of this bit from Russell Kirk's story "The Last God's Dream" (THE PRINCESS OF ALL LANDS, Arkham House [1979], pgs. 101-02): "Have you come to tempt me? It is late for that also. I shall eat nothing, and in a little time I shall be spirit only. I no longer even desire a morsel of bread, nor an olive, nor could I contain them."
In this ghost story Kirk has his hero Manfred Arcane somehow briefly contacting the spirit of the dying Emperor Diocletian--who chose to starve himself to death rather than submit to his enemies, esp. Licinius. Diocletian's successors owed everything they had to how he had raised them up, but they feared and resented the former Emperor, with Licinius even murdering the old man's wife and daughter.
I'm a fan of Russell Kirk's ghost stories and his novels!
Ad astra! Sean
"is it possible a man dying of starvation even loses the desire to eat?"
Something analogous to people dying from cold stripping off their clothes because they paradoxically feel hot?
Kaor, Jim!
I've heard of that phenomenon but hadn't thought of applying it to Diocletian losing all desire for food as he was dying of starvation.
Ad astra! Sean
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