On Mon, Aug 25, 2003 at 09:08:46PM -0500, David Dyer-Bennet wrote: > Smed <smed51 at yahoo.com> writes: > > I've been speculating about whether or not Tazendra, Pel and Aerich > > survive to Vlad's time. This evening I was reading LoCB for the second > > time and noticed something interesting. On page 111, Paarfi talks about > > the return of the Orb stating "To others, such as Aerich, this > > connection came, but a little more slowly: he reports that he knew at > > once what had happened.... > > > > Note the present tense: Aerich reports. This implies that Aerich is > > alive at the point that Paarfi wrote the story. > > I don't think so; I think it implies that Aerich was alive at the time > that he "reported" -- and that report could have been a written letter > that later came into Paarfi's hands. I don't think it tells us > anything about Aerich's lifespan. I think you are correct. This is standard historical language -- one might say also, "Plutarch writes" or "Gibbon writes," or, for that matter, "Shakespeare writes," even though they are all dead. -- Pamela Dean Dyer-Bennet (pddb at demesne.com) "I will open my heart to a blank page and interview the witnesses." John M. Ford, "Shared World"