(urth) The Sorcerer's House Questions (*Major Spoilers*)

[Gwern Branwen]

On Tue, Mar 30, 2010 at 7:02 PM, James Crossley <ishmael at drizzle.com> wrote:
> On 3/30/10 3:44 PM, "Thomas Bitterman" <tom at bitterman.net> wrote:
>
>
> Windows into Faerie, werewolves, vampires, visions of the future, astral
> projection, triannuluses (triannuli?), houses that grow and rearrange -
> these are all harder to swallow than lucking into money.  Not everything he
> says is false, just the stuff about Faerie.
>
>
> Just so I have this straight—you’re arguing that all the supernatural
> elements in the book are the product of Bax’s imagination, part of a scheme
> to eliminate his brother, capture Millie’s affections and explain his
> new-found wealth?
>
> If so, why all the coy hints the reader puts together along the way (fox =
> Winker, Zwart = Black, etc.)? Why couldn’t the fantastic part of the story
> be told more explicitly? It would be an equally (un)convincing tale whether
> laid out straightforwardly or in Wolfean fashion.  And who’s the reading
> audience who has to be convinced, just Millie?
>
> James

Given Millie's intellectual prowess (or lack thereof), I think a story
targeted solely at Millie would read much simpler than the actual
story.

-- 
gwern