Re: (Realized World) Knight Moves by Walter Jon Williams

Cryptoengineer wrote:

Christian Weisgerber wrote:

Paul S Person wrote:
>

Knight Moves by Walter Jon Williams

>
On Amazon (USA) I too see a large number of books with that title,
many of them parts of different series, some of which may not be SF.

>
This opportunity is as good as any to ask a question I've had at
the back of my head for some time:
>
There are many works of pop culture (movies, books as you note)
that have titles along the lines of "Knight Moves" and "Night Moves".
I assume one of those is a pun on the other, but which one?  What's
the underlying original expression?
>
Yes, I know chess and how a knight moves, but that doesn't seem
very relevant.

>
I don't think this is a case of imitation/satire, but rather
coincidence. 'knight' and 'night' have quite different
derivations, and perfectly valid meanings on their own, without
referencing the other.
>
My goto memory linked to 'Night Moves' is Bob Seger's 1976
song of that name, though usage for the term started spiking
around 1970.
>
Crossover confusion can get interesting. In my younger, more
innocent days, I thought the Moody Blues 1967 song was titled
'Knights in  White Satin', and imagined knights in armor
galloping across fields with pure white surcoats.
>
Apparently, I wasn't the only one:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knights_in_White_Satin
>
Turns out, Justin Hayward (who wrote the song at only 19),
was gifted a set of white satin sheets by his girlfriend.

My mind also heard "Knights in White Satin." Hayward's observation
about how he "was at the end of one big love affair and the beginning
of another" is an excellent way to emotionally integrate old
girlfriends.

Charles Packer's methodology partially answers Christian's interesting
question:

<https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=night+moves%2Cknight+moves&year_start=1760&year_end=2022&corpus=en&smoothing=3&case_insensitive=false>

It shows how "night moves" predates "knight moves." And centuries ago,
both phrases were almost as popular in English literature as they are
today.

This excerpt from POEMS by MISS H F GOULD is dated 1841:

    THE NIGHT AND THE MORNING

    ...

    The dismal night moves on but heavily,
      While they, who came the sepulchre to keep
    With bristling spears, the Roman soldiery,
      Would fain resign their glittering arms for sleep.

<https://archive.org/details/poems03goul/page/n49/mode/2up>

Danke,

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