{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/5201", "note": "Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright in each message remains with the person who wrote it. Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact.", "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'" }, "archive": "urth", "thread": { "id": 5201, "subject": "AEG spoilers - Gid as Timelord?", "messages": 4, "voices": 3, "first": "2008-10-28T10:20:57+00:00", "last": "2008-10-28T15:18:39+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Mr Thalassocrat", "address": "thalassocrat08 at gmail.com" }, "date": "2008-10-28T10:20:57+00:00", "subject": "(urth) AEG spoilers - Gid as Timelord?", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Or something.\n\n- The only time discrepancies we get told about explicitly involve him:\nmessages around his birth, and his ethermail message to Cassie.\n- He wears a watch but doesn't need to look at it.\n- The only RC we know about in this story is his father Bob. Did HPL give\nthe watch to Bob, ~150 years ago?\n- Gid seems too old. Bob was the first ambassador to Woldercon; then\nKlausner; then Bill, up until a couple of years ago. Gid was born on\nWoldercon, and left when he was a child. Say he was five at the time, and\nsay Sharon is right and he's around 35 now. That means say 28 years total\nfor the ambassadorships of Klausner and Bill. But Bill's service was during\nthe two terms of Ingstrup's presidency, so around 8 years. That makes\nKlausner ambassador for 20 years - how likely?\n- How long is it between the time he gts his leg cut off and the time he\nreappears as Gil, prancing around on his peg-leg with a dancing demi-goddess\non stage? Three months or so? How likely? (But Gid is surely half-human at\nmost, so maybe he has superior recuperation powers or something.)" } ] }, { "message_id": "<4906FF0E.2060302@gmail.com>", "from": { "name": "Dave Tallman", "address": "davetallman at msn.com" }, "date": "2008-10-28T12:01:18+00:00", "subject": "(urth) AEG spoilers - Gid as Timelord?", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "header", "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Thalassocrat wrote:\n- The only time discrepancies we get told about explicitly involve him:\nmessages around his birth, and his ethermail message to Cassie.\n " }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "If the birth announcement message was treated like Cassie's ethermail \n(sent in order to avoid time complications) then it's possible that \nthere was no child at all and that Gid is an imposter. On the other \nhand, the President treats him as the genuine son of the ambassador (p )" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "- He wears a watch but doesn't need to look at it.\n- The only RC we know about in this story is his father Bob. Did HPL give\nthe watch to Bob, ~150 years ago?\n- Gid seems too old. Bob was the first ambassador to Woldercon; then\nKlausner; then Bill, up until a couple of years ago. Gid was born on\nWoldercon, and left when he was a child. Say he was five at the time, and\nsay Sharon is right and he's around 35 now. That means say 28 years total\nfor the ambassadorships of Klausner and Bill. But Bill's service was during\nthe two terms of Ingstrup's presidency, so around 8 years. That makes\nKlausner ambassador for 20 years - how likely?\n- How long is it between the time he gts his leg cut off and the time he\nreappears as Gil, prancing around on his peg-leg with a dancing demi-goddess\non stage? Three months or so? How likely? (But Gid is surely half-human at\nmost, so maybe he has superior recuperation powers or something.)\n " } ] }, { "message_id": "<1bf4dd40810280807o55c9693bu2765860bd7430e81@mail.gmail.com>", "from": { "name": "Dave Tallman", "address": "davetallman at msn.com" }, "date": "2008-10-28T15:07:38+00:00", "subject": "(urth) AEG spoilers - Gid as Timelord?", "in_reply_to": "<4906FF0E.2060302@gmail.com>", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Gid cannot be too powerful. A time-traveler with the ability to freely\nchange the past would not allow himself to be shot and lose a leg, for\nexample. I don't think he can consciously warp reality enough to account for\nCassie's address changes, for the same reason. Still, he is very capable:\n\n1) He's strong, since he can break through a door with one lunge (p. 82).\n2) He's agile, since he can do professional-level dancing even after losing\na leg.\n3) He has a time-sense, though there are places it doesn't work (p. 75).\nPerhaps when he's in space?\n4) He may have matured more quickly than usual, allowing him to appear older\nthan he really is.\n5) He has a remarkable range of knowledge, including physics, Earth arcana,\nand old sea shanties.\n6) He can enter a locked room through a one-foot-square hole.\n\nI think these can be accounted for by two factors: his biological father and\nhis adoptive father. I think we should believe he was born on Woldercan.\nAmbassador Klauser saw him there as a young boy (p. 297). Klauser also says\nthat Wolder males try to seduce Earth females, and Chase tells us that they\ncan reproduce with other species. This probably accounts for his physicial\ntraits.\n\nHis adoptive father is Robert Chase, who seems to have known Lovecraft (p.\n75). If Lovecraft used him as the basis for his stories of Randolph Carter,\nwe know that he is an \"old dreamer\" (Dream Quest of the Unknown Kadath) who\nis well-aquainted with the mysterious beings of Earth (who are aliens, at\nleast in this novel). Bob Chase was either an old wizard who had some means\nof prolonging his life, or a time-traveler. He probably taught his son a\ngreat deal.\n\nThere is also the connection to Charles Finney and the \"Circus of Dr. Lao\"\nto account for. Bob Chase became the first ambassador to Woldercan. Is it\ntoo much to speculate that he used some knowlege he gained through his\narcane research to get a clue to the planet's location from the old\nspace-faring races that are hidden on Earth? He may have collaborated with\nChuck Finney, a descendant of the Charles Finney who wrote a novel based on\nhis encounter with Dr. Lao and his circus, in order to get the planet\ndiscovered. Lao himself may have come from the planet Woldercan, and brought\nsome of the humanoid-animal crossbreed monsters from there (there was a\ncentaur in his circus, for example)." } ] }, { "message_id": "<00B80007-9F46-497E-BE8A-E74DB7FFF918@io.com>", "from": { "name": "Adam Thornton", "address": "adam at io.com" }, "date": "2008-10-28T15:18:39+00:00", "subject": "(urth) AEG spoilers - Gid as Timelord?", "in_reply_to": "<1bf4dd40810280807o55c9693bu2765860bd7430e81@mail.gmail.com>", "reply_link": "header", "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "On Oct 28, 2008, at 10:07 AM, Dave Tallman wrote:\nHis adoptive father is Robert Chase, who seems to have known \nLovecraft (p. 75). If Lovecraft used him as the basis for his \nstories of Randolph Carter, we know that he is an \"old \ndreamer\" (Dream Quest of the Unknown Kadath) who is well-aquainted \nwith the mysterious beings of Earth (who are aliens, at least in \nthis novel). Bob Chase was either an old wizard who had some means \nof prolonging his life, or a time-traveler. He probably taught his \nson a great deal." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Oh, there's a whole Lovecraftian thread on how Old Wizards Never \nDie...see \"The Thing on the Doorstep,\" for example.\n\nBut it wouldn't be exactly a shock to find that Gideon was a Son Of \nYog-Sothoth (or whatever they call him on Woldercan) either (cf. \"The \nDunwich Horror\").\n\nAdam" } ] } ] }