On Mon, Mar 10, 2003 at 01:16:49PM -0500, John Klein wrote: > On Mon, 10 Mar 2003, Andrew Lias wrote: > > @> >AFB, but Vlad said something similar to "my soul would have gone to feed a > @> >sentience in six inches of steel" in Jhereg (I think). It's the sort of > @> >line that sticks with you. Maybe "feed" is being used metaphorically > @> >there, but I got the impression from other bits in other books that > @> >they're actually eating the souls. > @> > @> I remember that -- I really got the impression that it was metaphorical, in > @> the sames sense that we talk about feeding wood to a fire. Of course, this > @> is blurred by the fact that MWs, unlike fire, actually do appear to have > @> some level of sentience, making them more akin to living beings, but I don't > @> get the impression that they have metabolisms. We don't see them, for > @> instance, excreting anything after they've consumed a soul, nor do they > @> appear to have anything like respiration, growth, or reproduction. > @> > @> As such, pending any evidence for a metabolism (which is the whole reason > @> that living organisms feed upon other things), I don't think that an MW > @> "eating" a soul is really like it *eating* a soul. > > Even the "feeding wood to a fire" metaphor works fine as far as my > question is concerned; if you stop feeding a fire, it goes away. I'm not > claiming that Morganti weapons meet our full definition of "living"; > that's problematic, as you've shown here. I was thinking of them more as > very sophisticated blenders, with the souls being the electrical supply > (hence the possibility that they just go dormant if they can't eat). A > blender doesn't have any metabolism that meets our definition of the term, > but it definitely does require power to perform its various functions. I would use the analogy 'feeding sticks to a wood-chipper'. Or, to use an analogy Vlad would appreciate - 'feeding meat to a sausage machine'. There are lots of machines that you feed - you put something in, you get something out. Now, what you get OUT of a Morganti weapon is an interesting question... -- Scott Raun sraun at fireopal.org