Posted by Tom Harris on May 31, 1997 at 22:27:39:
In Reply to: 'Jan Holberk Vaenz' posted by Tim Stretton on April 07, 1997 at 05:03:13:
: Do other readers find this in-joke as amusing as I do? There must be many other such throwaways in Vance's work: can other fans think of any?
Clearly other authors do too! I append a selection from the opening paragraph of chapter 14 of James Blish's novel 'Black Easter'. This novel, certainly among his finest, depicts the successful attempt by a black magician to unloose the demons of hell for one day. Against him are ranged a disparate group of white magicians. One of them is described thus:
"... Father Vance, in whose mind floated visions of magics that would not be comprehensible, let alone practicable for millions of years to come..."
Who does that sound like? Even without mention of the name I expect many would have understood the reference.
On a similar note, in the novel 'Rhialto the Marvelous', the fellow magicians of Rhialto are enumerated. One of them is 'Vermoulian the dream walker'. I have always thought that this rather ineffectual magician was a semi-portrait of HP Lovecraft. Any (dis)agreements or should I just start going out a bit more and stop reading so many books?
Best Regards to an interesting list & its readers
TomH