1) "Induction" Discussion

[Dan]

This four-page short story first appeared in 1957 as the first story for Leiber's short story collection Two Sought Adventure. In the 1957 collection Leiber immediately followed "Induction" up with the novelette "The Jewels of the Forest," the earliest published Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser story. We will be following up "Induction" with "The Snow Women" a 1970 novella Leiber later wrote for Fantastic magazine. My understanding (I haven't read the novella yet) is that it is an origin story of sorts for both characters. However, before "The Snow Women" we have "Induction."

Who has read "Induction", described by ISFDB as a vignette, definition:

noun
1.
a brief evocative description, account, or episode.
"a classic vignette of embassy life"
2.
a small illustration or portrait photograph which fades into its background without a definite border.

And would care to share their impression?

[Kateblue]

I have read it, just now, and it does seen like an intro. I will be sure to read it over later, just to keep that info in mind.

[Dan]

"Induction" is three paragraphs long, just ten sentences actually.

I'm not sure what to make of this part of the last sentence: "Fafhrd had recently been a youth whose voice was by training high-pitched, who wore white furs only, and who still slept in his mother's tent although he was eighteen."

Is there something wrong with Fafhrd? Who trains their voice to be high-pitched?

[Kateblue]

Dan asked "Who trains their voice to be high-pitched?"

Singers, perhaps?

[Dan]

The white furs only and sleeping in Mama's tent? Is Leiber trying to say Fafhrd is well in touch with his feminine side?

[[deleted user]]

Your questions will be answered when you get into "The Snow Women." Well, maybe. :)

[Dan]

It's kind of fun to think of "Induction" as a movie camera lens. For the first paragraph the scene starts out beyond space, across time and dimensions. Then, it comes from the planetary sky to aim for towers, skulls, and jewelry. There is the Inner Sea, forest to the north, desert to the east, and Lankhmar to the south, described as walled cities, plural, and a metropolis of the same name with a description of the city. Sounds like a New York, New York naming kind of thing going on.

The second paragraph introduces us to our two protagonists, but says virtually nothing specific about them, only the vaguest of physical descriptions.

The third paragraph adds a bit more description of the two characters, nothing very definitive. Just enough to see that Fafhrd is going to be an anti-barbarian. The end. What an odd beginning!

There's not much meat to "Induction." Certainly not a month's worth. Should we go on to "The Snow Women" then as July's read?

[[deleted user]]

I was going to ask the same question.