This sounds a bit more like a Paarfi-Aliera dialogue to me - note that iirc we don't see anything from an Aliera-oriented viewpoint in _FHYA_ except for a brief interlude probably thrown in to spice things up (and probably clipped by one of the Brusts so the this-world edition would have a wider readership.) "Can I... " - "No", while a limited correspondence, is not fascinating, so Paarfi's either lying (known these days I believe as "exaggerating") or well on his way to newtdom. It seems to me that Sethra might well recognize the value to the Empire of a certain dissemination of historical knowledge. On the other hand, a recent survey of Americans supposedly found that a large section of the country believes that WMDs have not only been found in Iraq, but were actually used on our forces - and we're still doing fine, so here's a raspberry to historical knowledge. On Tue, 1 Jul 2003, Jose Marquez wrote: > > Philip Hart wrote: > > > > from whole cloth in the non-fatal reception of the novel. And I think > > Sethra's agreeing to correspond with him represents evidence that he has > > some chops worth respecting. > > I still stand behind Damien's interpretation of Paarfi claiming a brief > but fascinating correspondence with Sethra: > > > > > "Will you do me the honor of answering some small questions about certain > > events concerning the Interregnum?" > > > > "No." > > Jose > -- > Jose Marquez > jhereg69 at earthlink.net > >