"The Center Cannot Hold" > "Empty Night"

[The_Sibelis]

Sounds like Alfred.

pretty sure he's part of the dark beast that slouches towards bethlehem in the second coming. It matches his limp

[Snark Knight]

Oh, I found it - in last chapter of "Storm Front" in his sort of Badass Boast Harry says: "The world is getting weirder. Darker every single day. Things are spinning around faster and faster, and threatening to go completely awry. Falcons and falconers. The center cannot hold..."

I think Murphy also quoted it at one point somewhere. I'm thinking around the time she lost command of SI.

[Bad Alias]

We loosed some of the primal forces of your own precious Creation against you.

I took that to mean Ethniu, but the Fallen is an interesting theory.

I am not sure whether or not the Red King ever realizes that he was no more than a cat's paw for Nemesis.  He was, down to his vendetta against Eb, the kidnapping of little Maggie which lead to Harry reversing the spell that ended the Red Court.. Hmm.. Did the Red King willingly sacrifice himself and his people for the cause? Or their function finished, they were discarded, making way for  a force, The Fomor.

The destruction of the Red Court could have been a defeat for the Outsiders.

The irony is of course that wizards retard progress.

Jim has said they helped get the Renaissance (or maybe Enlightenment or maybe both) going. They might still be at it, even if they can't benefit directly from technological progress at the moment.

Yup, but then Harry was still young and foolish..

I'm not so sure. The last bit of SF really felt like it was a well established Harry telling his story. At least to me.

I think Murphy also quoted it at one point somewhere. I'm thinking around the time she lost command of SI.

She definitely said something about the center not holding. I think it was earlier than that, but I'm not sure.

[Mira]

The destruction of the Red Court could have been a defeat for the Outsiders.

I think it was made to look that way.  The Red Court were merely being used as a cat's paw by them as Harry suspected and told Morgan I think at the end of Dead Beat.  When they were done away with, the Fomor were raised up to take their place, more ruthless and sewing even more chaos among humanity and the Accords.

I'm not so sure. The last bit of SF really felt like it was a well established Harry telling his story. At least to me.

Perhaps because it might be an older, wiser, and well established Harry writing the story, for all we know he might be close to 300 when he decided to write down his history.

[Wicked Woodpecker of West]

I'm not so sure. The last bit of SF really felt like it was a well established Harry telling his story. At least to me.

I don't think so. It was very connected to his low-life spook-P.I. aspect, and too event just between SF an FM.
I see no strong foreshadowing except - things are getting worse, which is very very vague.

And really I hope Dresden Files do not exist in DF-verse as some diaries or confessions.

[Bad Alias]

And really I hope Dresden Files do not exist in DF-verse as some diaries or confessions.

It's long been speculated that they are his journals, like those he sees in Eb's office in TC. Jim's said things to back this up without confirming it.

The thing that makes me think it's written later is his "My name is Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden. Conjure by it at your own risk," statement. That's not the sort of thing we've seen him do until CD.

[Conspiracy Theorist]

They exist but not as you think

“The Librarian eyed me coolly, “Bring in the Dresden Files, all of them” he ordered.

The Assistant Librarian gulped “We haven’t finished breaking File 16 into two yet, it’s too big and unwieldy following the Battle of Chicago, and it will cost more than fifty dollars to make a copy of it, putting it over budget,”

Freedom of Information can be a real bitch sometimes.”

[morriswalters]

She gave me a faint smile. “It’s just…the center cannot hold, Harry. I think things are starting to fall apart. I can’t see it, and I can’t prove it, but I know it.” She shook her head. “Maybe I’m just losing my mind.”

[Bad Alias]

I really thought it was earlier than that.

[Conspiracy Theorist]

I suspect during our next re-reads of the entire series (in about Twelve Months) we will find lots of poetry references in the series.

[Bad Alias]

I bet you I won't. I've never been too interested in poetry.

[Conspiracy Theorist]

The was a young chap called Bad Alias
Whose dislike of poetry was far from spontaneous
When offered just verse
He said “nothing worse”
And declared it wholly extraneous.

On a read through of Christmas Eve we of course have “A Visit From St Nicholas” by Clement Clark Moore alluded to in the first paragraph.

[Bad Alias]

The was a young chap called Bad Alias
Whose dislike of poetry was far from spontaneous
When offered just verse
He said “nothing worse”
And declared it wholly extraneous.

Well, I have always enjoyed the occasional limerick. In my AP English class, our final exam was a group project where we had to write a poem incorporating the works we had read that year. We only had a few guys in the class, and we were all one group. All the other groups had pretty straightforward poems.

Ours was more ... humorous. Our poem was from the 1st person perspective. We had read A Modest Proposal and The Pearl, so naturally we had the narrator steal Coyotito to eat him.

[Conspiracy Theorist]

The thing to remember is that Jim is a bibliophile, English major and professional writer (indoors work not requiring a tie) so poetry is in the DNA of the series from Storm Front onwards.

You may not like poetry, but Jim has been slipping it to you subliminally for two decades, you have no choice.

[Arjan]

The thing to remember is that Jim is a bibliophile, English major and professional writer (indoors work not requiring a tie) so poetry is in the DNA of the series from Storm Front onwards.

You may not like poetry, but Jim has been slipping it to you subliminally for two decades, you have no choice.

Poetry can be quite nice. It just requires more effort from the reader.