Author Topic: Questions Specifically for Jim, Part 3  (Read 167089 times)

Offline Thanatos

  • Conversationalist
  • **
  • Posts: 198
    • View Profile
Re: Questions Specifically for Jim, Part 3
« Reply #180 on: June 06, 2010, 11:34:26 AM »
Well every equinox comes after a solstice, which came after an equinox, which came after a solstice... and that's just a year's worth. Good thing he doesn't live on Discworld with 8 seasons to keep track of! :P

The line was an internal thought, if i recall. The books represent his case files, written up at some unspecified point after each case was closed (much later in the case of Changes, granted). Billy refers to the case files in the DFRPG, and he has all the information in the books up to Small Favor*. So his mental state at the time it was happening shouldn't mess up his vocabulary years later. I mean, if he had permanent psychological our neurological damage at the time of the case file's writeup, he'd have those aphasic mistakes during the whole book.

* I wonder if the DFRPG will be completed as an in-character book in the Dresdenverse, given what happened to Kirby not too long after the "draft" that we see as the RPG-in-progress?

Offline Curly

  • Posty McPostington
  • ***
  • Posts: 1436
  • Roar!!! *Coughcough*
    • View Profile
Re: Questions Specifically for Jim, Part 3
« Reply #181 on: June 06, 2010, 09:27:23 PM »
Will you change from First Person to Third Person Narrative for the Big Apocalyptic Trilogy?
;) unless explicitly stated otherwise

Quote from: Neurovore
Why are you assuming it has to be heartbreaking ?

Offline the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh

  • O. M. G.
  • ***
  • Posts: 39098
  • Riding eternal, shiny and Firefox
    • View Profile
Re: Questions Specifically for Jim, Part 3
« Reply #182 on: June 08, 2010, 03:13:14 AM »
Harry has a history of making nonhuman minds a little more human by the way he interacts with them, such as with Bob and Lash. it's almost as if thinking of them in human terms causes his mortal free will to rub off on them a little.

I read that as "harry is good at anthropomorphising non-humans he hangs around with for any length of time", fwiw. That it's a perception thing rather than necessarily an entirely real thing.
Mildly OCD. Please do not troll.

"What do you mean, Lawful Silly isn't a valid alignment?"

kittensgame, Sandcastle Builder, Homestuck, Welcome to Night Vale, Civ III, lots of print genre SF, and old-school SATT gaming if I had the time.  Also Pandemic Legacy is the best game ever.

Offline Thanatos

  • Conversationalist
  • **
  • Posts: 198
    • View Profile
Re: Questions Specifically for Jim, Part 3
« Reply #183 on: June 08, 2010, 04:08:54 AM »
I read that as "harry is good at anthropomorphising non-humans he hangs around with for any length of time", fwiw. That it's a perception thing rather than necessarily an entirely real thing.
Sure, that's how it begins, and then the anthromorphisms stick. Lash eventually drifted enough from Lasciel that she sacrificed her existence (or most of it, at least) in order to save Harry. Bob has no reason to have a personality except that Harry treats him as a person. Harry's id may agree with Bob pretty often, but the rest of Harry finds Bob's perverse fascination with sex to be annoying and strange. When it's just one of many air/intellect spirits, or a shadow that lives entirely in Harry's head, there's not a lot of consequence to it developing a more human persona, but even a tiny drift in the mind of a being like Mab could have a huge impact, possibly compounded by the athame. Perhaps it was Margret's.

Offline neofyte

  • Conversationalist
  • **
  • Posts: 224
    • View Profile
Re: Questions Specifically for Jim, Part 3
« Reply #184 on: June 08, 2010, 04:24:56 AM »
I read that as "harry is good at anthropomorphising non-humans he hangs around with for any length of time", fwiw. That it's a perception thing rather than necessarily an entirely real thing.
Harry is like a virus, or a really good, not overly dogmatic, proselyter.  He gets in between the spaces of your thoughts and settles there like dust.  Then you can't get him completely out, no matter how much you shake your head, or pound it against the wall, or have someone blow into your ear. - from the unauthorized memoirs of Lash  ;)
My ego is like a kid brother.  He follows me around, gets in the way, and sometimes embarrasses the heck out of me.  But I've learned to love the little guy.  After all, he means well.  And he responds better to my love than my loathing.

Offline Dina

  • Has Collapsed Into a Singularity of Posts (a.k.a, "The Dina")
  • ***
  • Posts: 105538
    • View Profile
Re: Questions Specifically for Jim, Part 3
« Reply #185 on: June 08, 2010, 04:26:00 AM »
^ I love it!
Missing you, Md 

There are many horrible sights in the multiverse. Somehow, though, to a soul attuned to the subtle rhythms of a library, there are few worse sights than a hole where a book ought to be. Someone has stolen a book (Terry Pratchett)

Offline the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh

  • O. M. G.
  • ***
  • Posts: 39098
  • Riding eternal, shiny and Firefox
    • View Profile
Re: Questions Specifically for Jim, Part 3
« Reply #186 on: June 09, 2010, 04:09:26 PM »
Sure, that's how it begins, and then the anthromorphisms stick. Lash eventually drifted enough from Lasciel that she sacrificed her existence (or most of it, at least) in order to save Harry.

This is what Harry likes to think; it may well serve Lash for him to be mistaken here.
Mildly OCD. Please do not troll.

"What do you mean, Lawful Silly isn't a valid alignment?"

kittensgame, Sandcastle Builder, Homestuck, Welcome to Night Vale, Civ III, lots of print genre SF, and old-school SATT gaming if I had the time.  Also Pandemic Legacy is the best game ever.

Offline Thanatos

  • Conversationalist
  • **
  • Posts: 198
    • View Profile
Re: Questions Specifically for Jim, Part 3
« Reply #187 on: June 10, 2010, 08:48:21 AM »
This is what Harry likes to think; it may well serve Lash for him to be mistaken here.
...and maybe the entire series is the schizophrenic fantasy of an institutional patient.
Whatever, I'm done.  :)

*******

New question for Jim:
Did Harry name his foundling kitten after Mister Mistoffeles from the play Cats?
After all, that Mister has a magic/stage illusion theme...

Offline Shecky

  • Bartender
  • O. M. G.
  • ****
  • Posts: 34672
  • Feh.
    • View Profile
Re: Questions Specifically for Jim, Part 3
« Reply #188 on: June 10, 2010, 10:58:04 AM »
No, he named the cat "Mister" because it was the closest he could get to "Master" without sounding... off. :D

(Yes, that was a joke.)
Official forum rules and precepts; please read: http://www.jimbutcheronline.com/bb/index.php/topic,23096.0.html

Quote from: Stanton Infeld
Well, if you couldn't do that with your bulls***, Leonard, I suspect the lad's impervious.

Offline cass

  • Posty McPostington
  • ***
  • Posts: 2577
    • View Profile
Re: Questions Specifically for Jim, Part 3
« Reply #189 on: June 10, 2010, 01:55:26 PM »
Could also have just been an offshoot of, "Hey there, mister, how'd you get in that dumpster?" as he's removing the kitten from the trash.

Offline the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh

  • O. M. G.
  • ***
  • Posts: 39098
  • Riding eternal, shiny and Firefox
    • View Profile
Re: Questions Specifically for Jim, Part 3
« Reply #190 on: June 10, 2010, 03:37:41 PM »
...and maybe the entire series is the schizophrenic fantasy of an institutional patient.
Whatever, I'm done.  :)

I hardly think "one character, who is noted for the skill of her deceptions among beings who habitually deceive on a scale of centuries, and who has already been shown capable of fairly large scale deceptions (cf. 'Shiela') deceives our protagonist on an important plot point" is on a par with "Harry is actually one of those guys at the back of the room in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and it's all in his head".
Mildly OCD. Please do not troll.

"What do you mean, Lawful Silly isn't a valid alignment?"

kittensgame, Sandcastle Builder, Homestuck, Welcome to Night Vale, Civ III, lots of print genre SF, and old-school SATT gaming if I had the time.  Also Pandemic Legacy is the best game ever.

Offline Led Guardian

  • Conversationalist
  • **
  • Posts: 124
    • View Profile
Re: Questions Specifically for Jim, Part 3
« Reply #191 on: June 10, 2010, 04:07:48 PM »
I hardly think "one character, who is noted for the skill of her deceptions among beings who habitually deceive on a scale of centuries, and who has already been shown capable of fairly large scale deceptions (cf. 'Shiela') deceives our protagonist on an important plot point" is on a par with "Harry is actually one of those guys at the back of the room in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and it's all in his head".
Somewhere, though, JB actually said that Lash really did change, and it's not some con.

Offline Thanatos

  • Conversationalist
  • **
  • Posts: 198
    • View Profile
Nevermind.
« Reply #192 on: June 10, 2010, 04:29:36 PM »
Nevermind.

Offline Curly

  • Posty McPostington
  • ***
  • Posts: 1436
  • Roar!!! *Coughcough*
    • View Profile
Re: Questions Specifically for Jim, Part 3
« Reply #193 on: June 10, 2010, 04:39:14 PM »
Although I understand that this is supposed to be funny, I think it's a perfect example of retaining hard feelings against those who disagree with one's theories. I feel it's inappropriate to express these feelings on the boards and especially in this particular thread.
;) unless explicitly stated otherwise

Quote from: Neurovore
Why are you assuming it has to be heartbreaking ?

Offline Shecky

  • Bartender
  • O. M. G.
  • ****
  • Posts: 34672
  • Feh.
    • View Profile
Re: Questions Specifically for Jim, Part 3
« Reply #194 on: June 10, 2010, 04:56:14 PM »
*edited to protect the guilty*
« Last Edit: June 10, 2010, 06:17:31 PM by Shecky »
Official forum rules and precepts; please read: http://www.jimbutcheronline.com/bb/index.php/topic,23096.0.html

Quote from: Stanton Infeld
Well, if you couldn't do that with your bulls***, Leonard, I suspect the lad's impervious.