(urth) Father Inire as Dionysus

[Jeff Wilson]

On 10/22/2011 11:37 AM, Lee Berman wrote:

> WOlfe gives us the mystery of a flying cathedral and later gives us the pedestrian
>
> answer that it is simply a big tent flying like a hot air balloon. So there are
>
> pedestrian answers to some mysteries. It's just that he provides the answer to
>
> that one. The mysteries we are supposed to figure out for ourselves ought to
>
> have cool, interesting solutions, I think. If we are willing to put the thought
>
> into solving his mysteries wouldn't he want to reward us rather than provide a yawn?

Some of the provided answers are pretty spectacular - the citadel towers 
are actually rocket ships, the giant cataphracts are a mix of 
mountain-carving construction machinery and flying combat mecha!

And so, I don't consider "mundane" answers like, "Dr Talos spies on his 
public" to be disappointing because not everything can be  spectacular - 
and Dr Talos is in the business of putting on a show of spectacle, so 
it's well in character for him to be doing "regular" stuff like a stage 
magician. The mundania in NEW SUN is all the more remarkable for being 
present on Urth as it is on our archaic Earth, and that's an important 
theme; some things don't really change, like human nature and human 
solutions to that nature's shortcomings.

What about Hildegrin's business card? Is it too yawny to think that 
there remains a printing industry in Nessus? Or does he dig up crates of 
them, then fling a bottle into the sea with a note letting the Green Man 
know where to bury the next batch in the previous chiliad?


-- 
Jeff Wilson - jwilson at clueland.com
Computational Intelligence Laboratory - Texas A&M Texarkana
< http://www.tamut.edu/CIL >