TSH: Ted's identity

Jonathan Goodwin · 25 Apr 2010, 19:09 · from 2010-April.txt.gz

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From: joncgoodwin at gmail.com (Jonathan Goodwin)
Date: Sun, 25 Apr 2010 14:09:47 -0500
Subject: (urth) TSH: Ted's identity
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As it would reveal things, deliberately or not, about the fabricator's
state of mind, the details about those characters would matter. If you
were looking for unconscious revelation, then the most apparently
insignificant details might be particularly important.

I myself don't quite think this is the best approach, but the fact
that it has occurred to several of the book's early readers shouldn't
be ignored.

On Sun, Apr 25, 2010 at 2:03 PM, Roy C. Lackey <rclackey at stic.net> wrote:
> Gwern Branwen quoted and wrote:
>> > Ummm. This makes it clear that Emlyn does _NOT_ know what happened;
>> > for he begins by saying "I imagine..."
>>
>> I read that as the imagine is about Emlyn's speculation about
>> Goldwurm's thoughts and reasons for not keeping Ambrosius around to
>> question. I don't read it as Emlyn imagining the entire scenario, and
>> only actually knowing 'Goldwurm was killed by someone who may've been
>> named Ambrosius.' I suspect I'm not alone in this.
>
> Quite so. In addition, Emlyn is, in effect, the only source of information
> we have concerning Ambrosius and Goldwurm, so we are stuck with his
> testimony.
>
> Let's cut to the chase: Emlyn is supposed to be a boy from Faerie, as are
> the two sorcerers. If none of the faerie and/or supernatural stuff is real,
> then nothing about these characters matters. Speculations regarding ghostly
> Ted's identity and whether or not he was also Ambrosius and what the wet
> thing he left behind may have been are fools' exercises. There can be no
> magic rings, werewolves, a talking vixen, a sorcerer's tower in faerie, a
> house that expands and has windows onto faerie, or eerie forests far larger
> than any map shows them to be.
>
> -Roy
>
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