The Thieves They Are

Poul Anderson, "Esau" IN Anderson, The Van Rijn Method (Riverdale, NY, December 2009), pp. 517-553.

Van Rijn begins a remark with:

"'Always they try to pirate my executives what have not yet sworn fealty, like the thieves they are.'" (pp. 521-522)

- and ends by complaining that his own employees include:

"'...too few men for helpers what is not total gruntbrains, and some of them got to be occupied just luring good executives away from elsewhere.'" (p. 522)

With some fictional characters, readers would know and understand that a man who spoke like this was totally unaware of his own inconsistency and self-deception. In van Rijn's case, we know that he knows exactly what he is saying and that he expects attentive listeners both to appreciate the humour and to admire his craftiness. In a later story, he is indignant at how much a competitor has paid to spy on him but then looks simultaneously hurt and smug when it is implied that he must have paid something to find out what that competitor had been doing...

I would like to be employed in a research post by van Rijn but not to be one of his executives or entrepreneurs.

(The picture shows Poul Anderson, not Nicholas van Rijn.)