We should always look for any contributions by the wind in Poul Anderson's narratives. Naysmith has entered Colonel Samsey's apartment from its balcony and now sets out to interrogate the Colonel quickly, quietly and efficiently. It is appropriate therefore that the apartment is quiet, the only sounds being:
"...the man's labored breathing and the sigh of wind blowing the curtains at the balcony door." (p. 79)
This wind sighs. It does not roar etc.
The narrator explains that truth drugs do not oblige anyone to tell the truth but do induce babbling, especially about what is meant to be kept secret. In The Quiller Memorandum by Adam Hall, the viewpoint character has enough control to divert his drug-induced babbling away from anything important even when quizzed by a skilled interrogator. Naysmith gets all that he needs from Samsey.
5 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
But I wonder if Adam Hall's hero could withhold valuable information from an interrogator as skilled as Flandry? Here I have in mind how he wore down and relentlessly extracted information from that captured Ardazirho officer in WE CLAIM THESE STARS.
Ad astra! Sean
Kaor, Anonymous!
Thanks! So many books we all should read and how it impossible it will be to read them all.
Ad astra! Sean
I reread Deighton's four "Harry Palmer" novels recently and was very disappointed, finding them unpleasantly difficult and almost incomprehensible.
"enough control to divert his drug-induced babbling away from anything important"
Which reminds me of a scene in one of the Miles Vorkosigan novels by L. M. Bujold.
Miles is injected with a truth drug but manages to divert his babbling into reciting poems he has memorized, including all of Richard III ;^)
BTW he sometimes goes by the name Miles Naismith, Naismith being his mother's maiden name.
Kaor, Paul and Jim!
Paul: More than once I've suggested, when it comes to spy novels, that you try William F. Buckley, Jr.'s series featuring Blackford Oakes, esp. the first two: SAVING THE QUEEN and STAINED GLASS. IMO, they're excellent.
Jim: And you reminded me of how I should read some of the SF stories of David Weber and Lois Bujold.
Ad astra! Sean
Post a Comment