Posted by Dean McMillan on March 21, 1999 at 11:55:47:
Okay. You know I'll try again. And I'm sure it has everything to do with the sheer timing of my encounters: the expectations raised by more accomplished work, in which Jack demonstrates a *control of implication* few writers can match. Or the sheer, soul satisfying delight one finds in luxurious words, carefully chosen. Then too, there's the laughter. As David Pierce said of Ports Of Call in an earlier thread: "...the names and situations it contains have made me laugh so hard I banged my head and spilled drinks on precious papers."
I, myself make such messes. For seldom in my experience do mere words trigger such explosive joy.
Recall the culminating line of The Augmented Agent. Or that unforgettable moment Forest Goblin hails Haxo Angmark with: "We meet again, Moon Moth!" Or when Cugel and rival, abandoning caution, keep lowering the bar (against the potboy's progress) by ever-enlarging intervals. ...And who, pray, could EVer forget an amorphous bug-like 'taint placer' who could threaten Cugel with: "Now you will know the meaning of fetor."
Such treasures must be counted rare in all the richness of literature.