Posted by David Pierce on June 29, 1999 at 22:48:08:
In Reply to: Re: Musicologists & ethnologists wanted! posted by Gabriele Guenther on June 29, 1999 at 20:37:47:
: I know that Jack Vance was both a musician and an occasional
: music critic --- but that doesn't explain his ease in describing
: and dealing with academics (going so far as to blow up an entire
: galactic congress of musicologists and anthropologists in Night
: Lamp). His descriptions of academica are knowledgable and
: precise, and his humour well-suited. Anybody know why, please?
: As to his way with colors, I have no idea why --- anybody know
: if Jacjk used to paint?
In his days as a potter, Jack spent hundreds of hours studying the pigments of glazes, and as he achieved triumphs in mixing, applying, and firing tones, he developed the inner eye of a color magician...which, I think, explains the deft use of hue and tint in his stories.