Posted by Leon J. Janzen on August 09, 1997 at 18:01:38:
In Reply to: Garstang posted by Suan Yong on June 17, 1997 at 00:31:53:
: Also, while everyone else seems to to be familiar with the "bottomless pit" notion, only with Vance do we continually encounter what I call the "topless ceiling" - you know, the castles and palaces with the ceilings "so high as to be lost in the gloom" :-D
Susan - I know of Garstang, who is immediately killed by Ifness in the Durdane series. I love Vance's use of pits, dark chambers, cavernous hollows where the hero can either kill himself or (after he becomes slightly mad) change the rules and escape. I think, since Vance uses environments and spacial adjectives on purpose (sometimes to diminish his characters), it's only logical that his pits would be bottomless and his ceilings lost in the gloom. Also, his weather is severe, his forests extensive, his aromas and chifes are maddening and his musics too sweet to elucidate. And that's just a start. Leon