Like a good Neighbor

Gerry Quinn · 20 Nov 2011, 15:35 · from 2011-November.txt.gz

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From: gerry at bindweed.com (Gerry Quinn)
Date: Sun, 20 Nov 2011 15:35:14 -0000
Subject: (urth) Like a good Neighbor
In-Reply-To: <4EC91904.1020306 at verizon.net>
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	<4EC91904.1020306 at verizon.net>
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From: David Stockhoff 
On 11/20/2011 10:00 AM, Gerry Quinn wrote:

> > You?re missing the point. If they were trying to help him, they didn?t 
> > do a very good job of it, but that?s consistent with them doing as 
> > much as they could (the astral projection device). But if they were 
> > sending one of their own to replace him, they did a really terrible 
> > job insofar as after the replacement he was still stuck in the pit ? 
> > that requires an astounding degree of impulsiveness and irrationality! 
> > And finally if they intended to replace him and offer Krait his family 
> > to get him out, that makes them downright non-benevolent, and doesn?t 
> > work with the whole storyline.
> > Only the first option is really tenable.

> I agree. You're missing your own point. Fairies are notoriously amoral 
> and, as you say, limited in their powers. Why expect the Neighbors to be 
> perfectly moral and powerful? When are fairies ever that?
All but the Increate are limited in their powers.  If you want to argue that the Neighbours are subject to mad impulses, maybe you could say that makes them like fairies also.  On the other hand, fairies don?t usually have high tech space-faring civilisations (which also reads against super-impulsiveness), and are not usually preyed upon by vampires.  And the Neighbours *do* in fact seem to have a strong moral sense even though it certainly does not make them paragons who never do evil.  In some ways, the Neighbours are quite unlike fairies, even if they resemble them in others.
So while I don?t dispute that there are some Faerie-like elements in their make-up, I do not think they are fairies.
- Gerry Quinn
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