(urth) Gummed-Up Works or Got Lives?

[Gerry Quinn]

From: David Stockhoff 

On 12/18/2011 10:51 AM, Gerry Quinn wrote:

> > Severian was certainly not responsible for Dorcas’s death, so placing 
> > him as the witch (or wicked fairy, in the canonical version of 
> > Sleeping Beauty) is absurd.

> Christ, Gerry. He raised her from the dead. No one said he was wicked.
Then trying to make a correspondence between him and the witch in the story (either story) is ridiculous.


> > If you want to change every aspect of the story, and even what story 
> > it is, what is the point of your argument? When you say “there is no 
> > 1:1" relationship”, then, given the sort of relationships you are 
> > apparently willing to propose, you are tacitly admitting that there is 
> > no relationship at all. Because admitting the sort of relationships 
> > you are proposing now would imply that every book should be discussed 
> > as if it reconstituted the Library of Babel.

> Please be specific, or no one will know what you mean.
It is you who are failing to be specific.  You don’t even know what fairy tale you’re talking about.

> > There is a vague resonance with Sleeping Beauty when a beautiful woman 
> > is resurrected. Just as there is a vague resemblance between Dr. Talos 
> > and a stuffed fox. Discussing the stuff that you are suggesting is 
> > meaningful – for example the “enchantment” you claimed Dorcas is under 
> > – is the equivalent of discussing the horsehair Talos is stuffed with, 
> > and what colour horse it came from.


> Have you ever considered introducing the concept of figurative language 
> to your programming? You are a marvel of AI engineering, but your 
> insistence on tackling literature that your analytical routines can't 
> handle betrays you. Or are you just trying to become human, like Data on 
> Star Trek?

There’s a difference between figurative language and un-thought-out nonsense.  I’m sorry if it discomfits you that I can distinguish between them.

- Gerry Quinn


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