On Mar 3, 2004, at 7:38 PM, Jerry Friedman wrote: > > --- Howard Brazee <howard at brazee.net> wrote: >> John Klein wrote: >>> On Tue, 2 Mar 2004, David Silberstein wrote: >>> >>> You know, I don't recall ever being involved in another discussion >>> group where an author says, flat out, that something is the case, and >>> debate then continues on whether it's /really/ the case. I suppose >>> this is a natural consequence of having a group based around a set of >>> novels that are naturally attractive to suspicious people... I mean, >>> lying to people in the course of telling a story is, basically, an >>> author's job, but lying to people randomly in interviews usually >>> isn't. >>> >>> (Maybe it's his hobby. Heh.) >> >> Or maybe Brust has had a history of having fun with what the truth is >> - >> in >> his books and even in his songs. > > Can anyone give me an example of his saying something about his work, > apparently seriously and not in fiction, that turned out not to be > true? > > And how much fun could it possibly be to tell someone that Devera's > (even mistyped) father was Kieron, or that she was the dragon, if > it's not true? > > Jerry Friedman > > The question really is, "what is the meaning of the Brustian pronouncements. For example, when a name is misspelled, is that an error or is he misdirecting? Similarly, "give the man a banana" is NOT a synonym for "yes".