Pulling Strings

In a couple of my Mora fantasy novels—set in a preliterate Polynesian-like society—I have mentioned someone pulling someone’s strings. This, of course, is a relatively modern expression, coming from puppet shows. So was it anachronistic to use it? I admittedly didn’t think about it much until I worked on my current fiction project, which also mentions string-pulling. It poses no problem there; it is a more ‘advanced’ society and knows all about puppets.

I feel it was all right to use the expression in the earlier novels. It says what I intend my readers to understand, without any roundabout explanations. We can, if we wish, simply think of it as a translation of some Mora expression. Or maybe the Mora people had puppets and puppet shows. Why not? There are other traveling entertainers mentioned. Indeed, they play a major role in some of the stories.

It is entirely possible I will mention puppet shows in a future Mora novel. I might even feature one in some way. That is for somewhere down the line but I do have a couple more tales set among that people in my to-write queue.