(urth) the prime calcula/his citadel and other quotes

Gerry Quinn gerryq at indigo.ie
Wed Jan 19 17:55:41 PST 2011


From: "Lee Berman" <severiansola at hotmail.com>
>>Gerry Quinn:
>>You forget that people like Kypris and Echidna knew him intimately, and
>>Mamelta and Rigoglio knew him recently (in their terms). And Silk isn't 
>>just a random guy,
>>the guy on the Whorl most likely to win a Typhon lookalike contest.  He's 
>>the main
>>character.
>
> Heh. Just because Silk is "the main character" for us readers does not 
> mean he is the main
> character in every character's life. There were many unmentioned cities on 
> the whorl. Who
> knows how many copies of Whorl gods were doing who knows what in each of 
> them. And why would
> Mamelta have any special knowledge of what Typhon looked like (assuming as 
> you do, that she is
> not Kypris)? Paintings and rock carving are hardly accurate enough 
> renditions to warrant a swoon
> of recognition in encountering a flesh and blood version of Typhon.

Molpe (in her original form) danced through her dreams.  The Monarch and his 
family were the most important thing in the lives of Mamelta and her 
contemporaries on Urth.

And literature does not follow the rules of life as you well know.  You have 
talked about Checkov's guin, but you misapply it.  A clone of Typhon is a 
great example of a Checkov gun, though -  the clone must be recognisable, or 
the author must tell us why.

Neither case applies here, therefore Silk is not a clone of Typhon.

- Gerry Quinn 




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