A senator thinks that his client has a:
"Lean and hungry look..."
-CHAPTER SIX, p. 100 -
- anticipating Shakespeare.
A farmer who finds it hard to adjust to the urgency of saving and investing in new equipment says:
"'...all the Gods damn it, you have to run fast these days just to stay in the same place!'"
-CHAPTER ELEVEN, p. 158 -
- anticipating the Red Queen's Race in Alice Through The Looking Glass.
Realistically, Artorius has to face an angry crowd of people displaced by the nova res ("new things") but is able to offer them alternatives: land grants with financial help or new employment with good wages. At this early stage, the economy is still expanding in such a way that the displaced can be not replaced but relocated. (I just thought of that way of putting it now.) This is in CHAPTER TEN on pp. 138-139.
Jeremy thinks:
"'Lay on, MacDuff..."
-CHAPTER SEVEN, p. 107 -
- more Shakespeare, but, in this case, Jeremy remembers it.
Artorius corrects Jeremy's "'The game is afoot, Batman!'" with "'The game is afoot, Watson...'" in CHAPTER ELEVEN on p. 166.
The Batman is a great detective and there are stories in which they meet.
After tracking down those references, your friendly neighbourhood blogger needs a food and drink break.
9 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I did notice that Shakespearian "lean and hungry look." I don't think I thought of the allusion to Lewis Carroll. I was reminded of this bit from the beginning of Anderson's ORBIT UNLIMITED: "You had to run pretty fast to stay where you were." And "How many people nowadays had read ALICE, he wondered."
And of course, A CIRCUS OF HELLS has Flandry mentioning the Red King's dream.
Dang, I think I missed the Sherlockian allusion. I think one of the Holmes stories has the Great Detective even saying he investigated a case for the Pope (at that time Leo XIII).
Ad astra! Sean
White King's dream.
Yes, the Pope.
Kaor, Paul!
Dang! I was going by the color Lewis Carroll actually used, "RED King." What Flandry said was "White King."
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
OK. I got all mixed up but I am straightened out now. Carroll has Red Queen's race and Red King's dream, not (as I had thought) White King's dream. Anderson has a Flandry story called "The White King's War."
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Exactly, re Lewis Carroll.
"The White King's War" was a shorter story which Anderson revised and included as the first part of A CIRCUS OF HELLS.
Ad astra! Sean
Tech innovation usually increases employment. Eg., the original Luddites were apprehensive about power looms, because it would take fewer to create the same amount of cloth.
That was true... but the drop in costs was big enough that nearly everyone bought -more- cloth.
They started to wear underwear, for example, made from cotton.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Exactly, what you said about Luddites. Alas, we still have Luddites, ignorant people blindly opposing nuclear power.
Ha! I remember Artorius' longings for cotton underwear!
Ad astra! Sean
The Romans were used to a 'steady state' technology, which you used well or badly according to your talents.
They weren't used to a situation where you had to innovate just to keep up.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I remember how you had one elderly, bewildered Senator expostulating about those "New Things" to Marcus Aurelius, who listened to him patiently and kindly. Apparently, just talking to the Emperor was enough to calm down that Senator.
Ad astra! Sean
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