Posted by Mick Scannell on May 11, 1999 at 07:43:03:
In Reply to: My all-time favorite sentence in a JV book: posted by Jim Gust on May 11, 1999 at 07:16:42:
: In Emphyrio: "Bricks, bricks, bricks." Read it again, and when you get to that sentence, see how it conjures up such a feeling of pure tension. Only JV could convey so much with just 3 words.
Well, I've posted before about mine being : "Gookin! Why do you lie among the cheeses". To me, this short collection of words sums up everything about Vance. Mention in dispatches for "Freak! Freak! Freak!", "After all, moderation in moderation", and one I can't quite recall word for word, but summat along the lines of "'He's been spending an awful lot of time in Tool Development!' 'Yes, and I think we can guess why!'". Don't ask me why I like these : probably for the same perverse reason I like 'Grey Prince' when no other Vancians seem to do so. Ho, and lest ye forget, hum.
However, over the last couple of years I've started using another of my favourites in everyday conversation : "Continue! I'm listening with both ears!". Anybody else use Vance-conjured words or phrases in 'real life'? I admit to referring to one of the security guards in our place as 'old stiffarse', to the general amusement of the gathered ensemble; shamefully, I did not come clean as to the source of this and other fine pejoratives!
Mick