On Sun, 14 Dec 2003 yaga at berkano.pair.com wrote: > >I suppose, however, that Paarfi may have used this idiom in an >unknown work available in the middle of the third century of Zerika's >reign, later re-using it in TPG, a theory independent (though not >quite to elegant) as the one mentioned above. > On Sun, 14 Dec 2003, Will Marshall wrote: >Wouldn't it also be possible that Paarfi has written other works by >Vlad's time, but not the Phoenix Guards and others we are familiar >with? ( Perhaps a simpler but not as interesting explanation ;-) ) > The above suggestions are possible, but my notion that Vlad has read at least part of /The Phoenix Guards/ is based on the fact that while the preface to FHYA does mention Paarfi's earlier work, /Three Broken Strings/ (apparantly an account of the life of the minstrel Beed'n), as well as his historical monographs, it also appears to state that Paarfi first used that style of dialogue which is so peculiarly and singularly verbose and roundabout (and by the way, I find myself wondering if perhaps Paarfi is in fact the "anonymous author" of /Redwreath and Goldstar have Travelled to Deathsgate/) in /The Phoenix Guards/. Vlad's "You must be sure to permit me to be cut into pieces for you sometime" sounds like a paraphrase of the line "Yes, my lady, and I shall only be happier than I am now on the day when you shall command me to be cut to pieces in your service", which I note does occur in /The Phoenix Guards/. Of course, a similar phrase might occur in /Three Broken Strings/; we shall likely never know. But it sounds more like the style of /The Phoenix Guards/. If Vlad has any extended interaction with Khaavren at all in /Tiassa/, I should think that the might well be tempted to comment on what he had read in Paarfi, if he did in fact read parts of /The Phoenix Guards/. Of course, Khaavren would no doubt simply glare at him in response and say something along the lines of "I don't want to talk about it".