Another tidbit about A CASE OF CONSCIENCE--
The James Joyce detail, while cryptic at first (I'll readily admit that I didn't recognize it as Joyce), is later on laid out in the open.
This matches up with Blish's known and reported deep interest in Joyce.
While I'm not at all an expert on Cabell, Blish's other great fictional interest, I can usually spot Cabell references. I did not see any in ACoC, which doesn't mean they aren't there. But I did see surface references to the work of our old friend Clark Ashton Smith! LOL!
=mantis=