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<blockquote cite="mid:69872.764cf964.3b101ed1@aol.com" type="cite"><font
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<div> <font><font id="role_document" color="#000000"
face="Arial" size="2">SPOILERS</font></font></div>
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<div>* Is there significance to the names of the main
characters, Valorius the Knight (surely connected to "valor")
and Lurn the pawn (surely an allusion to Lune, the moon)? </div>
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Valorius is fine name for a knight. I can't find any likely
reference to "lurn" in any language. It bothers me.<br>
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<blockquote cite="mid:69872.764cf964.3b101ed1@aol.com" type="cite"><font
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<div>She reminds V, at one point, of "the maid no man has
bussed," which is probably Diana, right?</div>
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I think we're talking about Persephone (the Maiden). But it is
possible that he is talking about Caissa the dryad who is the muse
of Chess.<br>
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<div>* What is the game they're playing early in the story? It
sounds like chess with human pieces, but the names of the
pieces aren't all the same as in our game of chess. We don't
have bowmen or slingers, etc. Is that difference
significant? </div>
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The game, I think, is _like_ chess, but not exactly like chess. It
has certain variations such that an attacker does not always win.
In some countries, the bishop was an archer. <br>
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<div>In the larger game that they're playing, Lurn makes it to
the far side of the board, as it were, and becomes a queen,
which is what happens in chess. At the same time, however,
Valorius makes it to the far side of the board, as it were,
and he becomes able to defeat Lurn, which suggests that he has
become a king, which is what happens in checkers.</div>
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No. Any queen can be taken by a knight or anything else.<br>
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<div>* When V meets Lurn again, immediately after this dream, he
is initially afraid that she will want to engage in combat (p.
84). Doing so, he says, "would be but folly *as the world
stands today*" (p. 84). At first read, that could be taken
this way: "We're both trying to escape from the Hunas, so it
would be foolish for us to fight each other." </div>
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I take it to mean, "The is no game. So there is no benefit in us
fighting."<br>
It is possible that you are over-thinking the phrase "as the world
stands today". <br>
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But I think you are right. Valorius and Lurn live on the moon of
another planet. For them, the planet is their 'moon'.<br>
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<div> </div>
<div>Is that what has happened at the end of the story? Or is
Lurn mistaken (or deliberately trying to keep V from killing
her)?</div>
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See my comment to Marc regarding this.<br>
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<div>* Okay, the last paragraph, with its Christ-like allusions,
I'm not sure about. V has inherited the kingdom, presumably,
but at this point, there's still a lot of darkness, there are
tyrants, etc. But not forever. </div>
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Again, I think he endeavors to put an end to tyrants.<br>
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<div>That much I understand. But what do the various elements
of this paragraph mean?</div>
<div>- "Should our folk require a sword, I am the sword that
springs to their hands"</div>
<div>- "Asked to heal, I cure their sick -- when I can": He
isn't Christ, but he is a Christian figure.</div>
<div>- "If they bring food, I eat it. If they do not, I fast or
find my own": An allusion to Jesus' instruction to his
disciples when he sent them out to make their living from
preaching the gospel?</div>
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As I see it, he is the ideal of the knight errant. He serves but
does not demand service.<br>
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I'll think about the rest of your questions.<br>
<br>
J.<br>
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