Discontinuity = clue? [GS sample ch spoilers]

[Serack]

Ok so here are some theories...

I'm thinking that it may be significant that Captain "Jack" asked for Harry to write down an address rather than tell him who to take him too. 

I'm going to examine this from 2 directions.  Writing craft, and plot.  From a craft perspective, the reader doesn't need to hear the address, that would probably be a distraction for the reader, so it gets written down. 

So why an address rather than a person?  Maybe because it was anticipated that he would want to go to Mort, and the powers that be that seem to be dictating what Harry gets exposed to wanted to control where he actually ended up...  Somehow his memory of seeing Mort at the Duplex was modified and now he is in the wrong spot. 

So why is Mort there?  Good question...  The snow is probably a clue though.

Quackers time.

The being that Harry thinks is Mort is actually Bob.

[Serack]

Collection of disparate facts from the sample chapters...

• Everyone in Chicagatory is in the prime of their life with no scars (well at least the 3 we know)
• The cars are vintage
• What Harry is percieving is being censored
• There's an angel garding the door to the "precinct"
• Somebody cheated when Harry was killed
• 3 people Harry loves will be harmed if he doesn't solve who killed him
• Harry is asked to write down a specific address to go to rather than to say something like "Mort's House"
• Harry is limited in what he can influence on the living plane, and has no magic
• Mindless specters want to eat Harry's ghost
• Memories can be used as a weapon on these Specters
• Harry was taken to Mort's old address, not the Duplex in DB
• Harry had forgoten that he had already seen Mort with a bicked head
• Mort stopped to take the time to grab a single Oreo before locking Harry out of his bedroom
• There is 1.5 feet of snow outside
• From Harry's perspective about an hour has gone by since he died, yet 6 months have passed

[KevinSig]

When Harry died, the weather was sunny. Why would he expect 1.5 ft of snow an hour later?

When he died, it was sometime in the winter cycle, or at least the Winter cycle.  Otherwise, the table wouldn't be in Mab's control.  I'll have to go back & check, but for some reason I recall reading that this happens in May & 6 months prior Harry died?  Isn't that December, or am I missing a month?

I know I've had a winter, where it didn't snow until at least the 2nd//3rd week of December.  Changes might have been like that.  Or the snow wasn't mentioned, for whatever reason.

Kevin

[itari]

When he died, it was sometime in the winter cycle, or at least the Winter cycle.  Otherwise, the table wouldn't be in Mab's control.  I'll have to go back & check, but for some reason I recall reading that this happens in May & 6 months prior Harry died?  Isn't that December, or am I missing a month?

I know I've had a winter, where it didn't snow until at least the 2nd//3rd week of December.  Changes might have been like that.  Or the snow wasn't mentioned, for whatever reason.

Harry died in late October. Winter controls the Table when days are getting shorter (from June to December). He thinks that an hour passed since his death. It didn't snow that day, because Murphy's clothes (as described in Aftermath, slacks and a silk blouse) suggest that the weather was quite nice then.

[taishojojo]

Something on the single oreo....
These are typical actions for someone trying to lose weight:
One oreo is textbook portion control.
Its also a bite to eat every hour or so to keep your metabolism up.
Most modern weight-loss programs suggest trivial 'cheating' to curb craving the things that are typically bad for you.

I recognize that Jim puts stuff in for a reason, but I'm not sure if we aren't reading too much into it.
Ill read it again but its just my 2 cents.

[itari]

Something on the single oreo....
These are typical actions for someone trying to lose weight:
One oreo is textbook portion control.

Heh, I thought that Morty took the oreo, because some people eat sweet things to deal with stress 

[taishojojo]

Heh, I thought that Morty took the oreo, because some people eat sweet things to deal with stress 

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar

My point was maybe we're reading too much into it.
If that were the case (nervous eating), I would have thought he'd have taken more than or taken several over multiple withdrawals.

upon re-reading the chapter I noticed this:

“Morty, come on, it’s never been like that,” I said. “I’ve come to ask your help a couple of times because you’re a capable professional and—”
“Bullshit,” Mort snapped, spinning to face me, his eyes flashing. “Dresden came to me when he was so desperate he might as well try any old loser.” [emphasis mine]

In the same instant he's treating Dresden with contempt (for Dresden's prior treatment of Morty), Morty acknowledges (by speaking of living-Harry as Dresden) that the real person is different from the ghost/echo.
Either that or somebody got their tenses mixed up and it is yet another item to make it past Butcher, his main editor, his continuity editor, and the Betas (provided the Betas are not considered de facto continuity editors).

and uh... just so people aren't thinking I'm nit picking.... I can hardly for the book.

[OlosBC]

My point was maybe we're reading too much into it.
If that were the case (nervous eating), I would have thought he'd have taken more than or taken several over multiple withdrawals.

upon re-reading the chapter I noticed this:In the same instant he's treating Dresden with contempt (for Dresden's prior treatment of Morty), Morty acknowledges (by speaking of living-Harry as Dresden) that the real person is different from the ghost/echo.
Either that or somebody got their tenses mixed up and it is yet another item to make it past Butcher, his main editor, his continuity editor, and the Betas (provided the Betas are not considered de facto continuity editors).

and uh... just so people aren't thinking I'm nit picking.... I can hardly for the book.

He also makes a point of complaining about "Dresden's shade" coming to visit him.

As we've had explained by Harry before, who is less of an expert on this particular subject than Mort, the ghost is NOT the person, it is a pale imprint of the person that covers only parts of them.  I find it interesting that we are seeing this story from the perspective of a ghost, or there is something special going on here.  Whatever it is, I find it rather significant.


Also another interesting point along with mort being in only/all of the books that feature death in the title.  And in those same books, Harry dies/should have died.  Laundry room scene in GP, Shiro taking a bullet for him in DM, Gard/Marcone saving him in DB, and now him actually dying in GS (he was technically still alive for the last couple seconds of Changes I think, and then died in the first couple seconds of GS).  I just find this very interesting.  I mean yea, Harry comes close to dying in every book, usually several times.  However these are the only ones where we're told he is actually "fated" to die or does actually die.

[Shecky]

[pwoz]

I don't like you.

[Shecky]

I don't like you.

No, I'm just enjoying some of the false assumptions. Very creative.

[OlosBC]

No, I'm just enjoying some of the false assumptions. Very creative.

It's fun to speculate and then find out exactly how wrong you were.

[KnightShade]

Collection of disparate facts from the sample chapters...

• Everyone in Chicagatory is in the prime of their life with no scars (well at least the 3 we know)
• The cars are vintage
• What Harry is percieving is being censored
• There's an angel garding the door to the "precinct"
• Somebody cheated when Harry was killed
• 3 people Harry loves will be harmed if he doesn't solve who killed him
• Harry is asked to write down a specific address to go to rather than to say something like "Mort's House"
• Harry is limited in what he can influence on the living plane, and has no magic
• Mindless specters want to eat Harry's ghost
• Memories can be used as a weapon on these Specters
• Harry was taken to Mort's old address, not the Duplex in DB
• Harry had forgoten that he had already seen Mort with a bicked head
• Mort stopped to take the time to grab a single Oreo before locking Harry out of his bedroom
• There is 1.5 feet of snow outside
• From Harry's perspective about an hour has gone by since he died, yet 6 months have passed

One you might be missing... are we certain that ghosts are capable of issuing invitations over threshholds?
Could Harry's mind/subconscious/imagination be compensating for his expectations of needing an invitation?

[spiritofair]

Stu says that ghosts can become unattached to time... maybe Dresden's ghost is in the past.  That would explain why Mort says weird things like, "It’s not enough that you have to keep dragging me into things in life. So now your stupid ghost shows up to do it, too?"  The tense of this is all wrong.  If ghosts can time travel, Mort would know it, so he wouldn't clue Harry in on it.  When did the blizzard hit Chicago during one of the past books?  Was it May?  If so, maybe that is "when" Harry's ghost is at right now.

There is some really weird discontinuities, though, regarding Mort's house.  Harry remembers being killed and saving Maggie and killing Susan BUT he doesn't remember Mort having been bald before or moving to the duplex.  So, if Harry is in the past, he remembers "powerful events" like Maggie and Chichen Itza, but doesn't remember things like Mort?  That doesn't make much sense.

Unless the stuff about Mort's house and lack of hair is an error, which is unlikely, Harry's ghost is in the past and while he remembers some things about right before he died (Maggie and the offing of the Red Court and his apartment getting burned down), he doesn't remember Mort moving.  Nothing else makes sense, but, what I'm saying doesn't make much sense, either!

But if they are in the past, how does Stu know Harry has been dead for 6 months.

This all doesn't make much sense at all.  That's about all I can conclude, LOL.

[Agravaine]

Or Mort has read Neil Strauss' "The Game" and is working on his game.