In response to an invitation received from Iokepa Hakawau of the mid-Pacific Ocean polity called the Lahui Kuikawa at the very end of Chapter 6, Fenn travels from Luna to Kamehameha Spaceport in Hawaii from where he proceeds by air to a large, crowded, floating platform:
"As he stepped from the volant onto the airfield, into a wind lulling mild across three thousand kilometers of equatorial ocean, a brown girl gave Fenn a white smile and laid a garland around his neck." (p. 102)
A mild wind and a white smile belong together! Andersonian winds growl, roar, sigh, lull, caress, whisper etc as appropriate.
Three thousand kilometers of equatorial ocean set the scene for this section of the narrative. So far, Anderson's text has transported its readers from the colonized fourth planet of Beta Hydri via Alpha Centauri and the Kuiper Belt to the orbiting Habitat, Lunar passageways and both country and city on the colonized solar planet, Mars.
A boy, not a machine, carries Fenn's bag. This greeting is not an artificial observance, as elsewhere on Earth and Luna, but a ritual "...as natural as breathing." (p. 103)
We find all these details in the opening three paragraphs of Chapter 8 and the in first sentence of the fourth paragraph. It pays to read carefully and to take notes. One kind of sf is the futuristic travelogue. See also Anderson's The Game Of Empire.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
The stress placed on this use of human greeters, attendants, ceremoniousness, etc., helped to give meaning to the lives of the Lahui Kuikaawa people. Esp. on an Earth where life seemed more and more meaningless to more and more humans.
Ad astra! Sean
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