Posted by Alex Forbes on January 13, 2018 at 08:54:33 user Pitsligo.
In Reply to: Re: S&A, Chp 1 posted by Magnus Smith on January 13, 2018 at 03:32:35:
I have encountered lesser versions of it throughout the series, but S&A Chp1 is the best of the lot.
The only other one that leaps to mind is WDMTGTS Chp1, where we see Goblin almost miss her mooring and be swept away by the tide. It's a good forewarning of "bad things happen if you're at the mercy of the tide" that sets the stage for the later drama. However, it's not as immersive a prelude.
He then does similar, smaller things throughout the earlier chapters of WDMTGTS --a constant awareness of tide, current, and shoal water, the boat stuck on the mudflat, etc. But that's just basic writer's craft.
It's the scale of his accomplishment in S&A Chp1 and the subliminal ease of it that, for me, puts it in the context of genius. Sailing is *not* a simple art to explain, and in that instance he does it so very, very well.
Alex
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