Friday 24 May 2013

Margins Of Profit II


The original "Margin of Profit" is in Un-Man and other novellas (New York, 1962).

The revised "Margin of Profit" is in The Earth Book Of Stormgate (New York, 1979) and in The Van Rijn Method (New York, 2009).

"...Batavia's towers..." (Un-man, p. 106) become "...Djakarta's towers..." (Van Rijn, p. 139) but otherwise the description of the location by the Java Sea is unchanged.

A "...referobot..." (p. 106) becomes a "...datacom..." (p. 139)

St Dismas as "...the precise and perfect patron for van Rijn...," in the opinion of a union leader (p. 107), is omitted from the revision. 

"...the Solar Federation..." (p. 107) becomes "...the [Solar] Commonwealth..." (p. 140)

Added in the revision is van Rijn questioning why women would join "...a brotherhood." (p. 139)

"'Now get out!'" (p. 109) becomes "'Now, would you like to join me in the bar? - No? Then good day to you, Captain, if possible.'" (p. 144)

So the union leader is a bit less perspicacious and van Rijn is a bit more polite! But there are too many textual changes to note them all here.

3 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Hi, Paul!

I don't see why the Brotherhood of Spacemen NEEDS to have demonstrations outside van Rijn's HQ when the lodgemaster was only just starting to put the wheels in motion on the need to do something about Borthu's impressing and brainwashing of space crew. Reasonable leaders first try to come to an understanding before any attempts are made by either party to put presssure on the other. After all, van Rijn himself agreed to go in person to see what could be done about Borthu.

And I liked very much the illustration of van Rijn! It fits my mental understanding of what he looks like far better than does the cover for THE VAN RIJN METHOD. Where did you find it?

Sean

Paul Shackley said...

I googled "van Rijn", then clicked on Images.

I agree, demo not needed in this case, especially when a hands on guy like Old Nick is prepared to put his neck on the line.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Hi, Paul!

Then I'll google "Nicholas van Rijn" and see what I find!

I've started rereading the original version of "Margin of Profit," after which I'll read again the revised version found in THE EARTHBOOK OF STORMGATE. I can already tell the original version is very different from the revision.

Sean