---------- Original Message ---------------------------------- From: Philip Hart <philiph at slac.stanford.edu> Date: Tue, 30 Mar 2004 21:13:26 -0800 (PST) >On Tue, 30 Mar 2004, M J wrote: > >> >> ---------- Original Message ---------------------------------- >> From: Mark A Mandel <mam at theworld.com> >> Date: Tue, 30 Mar 2004 22:50:43 -0500 >> >> > [Philip Hart:] >> >#>While people are discussing Dragon swordfighting, perhaps someone could >> >#>explain something from _TPG_. When we first meet Uttrik, Tazendra >> >#>describes him (as he warms up for his duel with Khaavren) as striking >> >#>at the air and missing with every third blow. What does that mean? >> >> >#I always thought it meant that Uttrik was shadowfighting against an >> >#imaginary opponent. You know, like a practice dummy that happened to be >> >#invisible. You _know_ he's not that good if he's missing every third strike >> >#against an invisible practice dummy. He's only, say, three times as good as >> >#me, then, as opposed to Tazendra, who is approximately twenty-seven times as >> >#good as me. (Or Benedict, who is a bajillion million times better.) > >How can he miss an invisible, agile target? _EXACTLY_. - Oh, wait. I should've specified. He's fencing against an _imaginary_ opponent - that is, _he_ can see it perfectly well in his mind's eye, but onlookers are just thinking, "... now what in tarnation?" And his imaginary opponent is, or so Tazendra thinks, taking him to the cleaners. >> > [Jeff Gibbons:] >> >#Or perhaps he is stopping the attack as if he hit his opponent on the first >> >#two strikes, and on the third he acts as if he misses and then carries the >> >#move through to his next attack. I have done the same thing while shadow >> >#boxing. >> > >> >I like that! >> >> Ditto, but if in that case, why would it have been pointed out to >> Khaavren as something he shouldn't worry about? I'd interpreted the >> whole scene as Tazendra and Pel denigrating Uttrik's abilities to >> Khaavren, a la high school buddies roaring each other up before a fight >> in the parking lot. "You can totally take him, dude, he jabbed at that >> shadow and MISSED!" or the like. > >I have to note that I'm still confused, apparently in concert with M J. Man, Uttrik _is_ trickier than we'd thought at first. >> (Although Vlad, much less Pel, would never ever say "dude," and this >> makes me sort of sad.) > >Way off topic, but I recently saw a picture of a cartoon bunny with a tear >in its eye saying, "You suck, and it's sad". I completely failed to >convince my gf that it was hilarious. No accounting for taste. ! It sounds like something straight out of "Life in Hell." ¬ mj