The Sorcerer's House Questions (Major Spoilers)

Gwern Branwen · 30 Mar 2010, 23:08 · from 2010-March.txt.gz

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From: gwern0 at gmail.com (Gwern Branwen)
Date: Tue, 30 Mar 2010 19:08:21 -0400
Subject: (urth) The Sorcerer's House Questions (*Major Spoilers*)
In-Reply-To: <C7D7D123.B7B3%ishmael at drizzle.com>
References: <j2ie11bddb61003301544xa78806c6x51b223eff85b602a at mail.gmail.com>
	<C7D7D123.B7B3%ishmael at drizzle.com>
Message-ID: <cbf55b101003301608y57c17df9s574e05f745c8b524 at mail.gmail.com>

On Tue, Mar 30, 2010 at 7:02 PM, James Crossley <ishmael at drizzle.com> wrote:
> On 3/30/10 3:44 PM, "Thomas Bitterman" <tom at bitterman.net> wrote:
>
>
> Windows into Faerie, werewolves, vampires, visions of the future, astral
> projection, triannuluses (triannuli?), houses that grow and rearrange -
> these are all harder to swallow than lucking into money.? Not everything he
> says is false, just the stuff about Faerie.
>
>
> Just so I have this straight?you?re arguing that all the supernatural
> elements in the book are the product of Bax?s imagination, part of a scheme
> to eliminate his brother, capture Millie?s affections and explain his
> new-found wealth?
>
> If so, why all the coy hints the reader puts together along the way (fox =
> Winker, Zwart = Black, etc.)? Why couldn?t the fantastic part of the story
> be told more explicitly? It would be an equally (un)convincing tale whether
> laid out straightforwardly or in Wolfean fashion. ?And who?s the reading
> audience who has to be convinced, just Millie?
>
> James

Given Millie's intellectual prowess (or lack thereof), I think a story
targeted solely at Millie would read much simpler than the actual
story.

-- 
gwern

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