It is late here and I will be brief.
We appreciate inns in many worlds and times in Poul Anderson's works. I was all set to summarize an account of Uminankh's place in Khemi. However, it is so dreadful that I will leave it to other Poul Anderson enthusiasts to read it for themselves. I mean this, folks. Usually inns sound comfortable. This one does not. The plan is that Conan will spend at least a week holed up there but I am sure that something else will happen although I do not remember what.
I would not be reading a Conan novel if it had not been written by Poul Anderson. This one is good. He turned his hand to anything, also including the Man-Kzin Wars period of Larry Niven's Known Space History. The multiverse is vast.
14 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I have read some of Howard's canonical Conan stories--not to everyone's taste, but entertaining reading for those who like adventure fantasies.
Ad astra! Sean
It's actually fairly accurate for a lot of inns. Well-to-do people stayed with friends (also upper class) or rented houses when they traveled. Inns were for middle-class to lower-class people. Some were hangouts for criminals.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I suspect it was a very nasty and dirty dive!
Ad astra! Sean
Modern hotels arose with the development of railways -- travel became much more common, you couldn't plan ahead and stay with friends/allies, so hotels with good accomodations and food arose.
In Britain, with the introduction of railways, seaside towns became holiday resorts with hotels, guest houses, entertainment, "piers," beaches set aside for swimming, even imported sand etc.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
It's also a perfect example of how free enterprise economics works. Clever entrepreneurs found a need that needed satisfying and filled that niche.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: correct. Of course, for every success there are several failures, but that's life.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
True, "creative destruction" as Schumpeter called free enterprise economics.
Ad astra! Sean
Note that it's impossible to correctly predict the future. Everything is contingent. A system which accepts that, and has people trying out multiple different avenues is better.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Exactly, the limited state, in whatever form, is vastly more preferable than rigid systems based on ideologies claiming to have the Final Answer.
Ad astra! Sean
And a stateless society will be better than either.
Kaor, Paul!
And I don't believe at all that is possible. And if it is not possible then neither is it desirable.
Ad astra! Sean
When wealth is abundant, there will be no need to protect private or state property from "theft."
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