On Tue, 19 Oct 2004, David Silberstein wrote: > Huh. I wonder if SKZB will deign to let us know if his intent was > for Tazendra to have been putting us on, or for Paarfi to have been > the one responsible for a certain inconsistency in the way he > portrayed Tazendra? I don't see her as being inconsistently portrayed - in my view she has certain cognitive deficits and certain cognitive talents which she is not in the habit of using. In academic situations as elsewhere one meets people who are smart in some ways and impaired in others - without having had access to math/engineering/science training they would probably be high-potential low achievers. Then again maybe Sethra is fond of her apprentice but found her trying in some ways and decided to exaggerate some of her foibles greatly. [From a meta POV, the other musketeers are all highly intelligent and the Author(s) needed to have at least one dumb character for balance; for reader access to the smart characters' thoughts by dumb or uniformed questions; for humor; etc.]