On 3/14/06, Scott Schultz <scott at cjhunter.com> wrote: > >People on the list will remember other cracks if they recall them; it's my > >sense that the story doesn't hang together well, but I could be biased. > >Even by the Paarfi-as-Dumas view, _FHYA_ couldn't be as wrong as the > >Aliera-related-to-Vlad version. > > Paarfi has the Orb moving to Adron of its own volition even though, as > Paarfi himself later tells us, the Cycle has not turned. Er. Why is it assumed that the Orb was moving "of its own volition" when Adron had just deployed a major work of Elder Sorcery whose sole purpose was to override the Orb, and force it to move to him (Adron)? > I can't imagine anything Aliera could say that could be more wrong than that... > [snip] > > The real question is "Why would Aliera lie?" To impress Vlad? I hardly think > so. She's plenty proud enough of her heritage without having to dress it up > for a Jhereg/Easterner. Whatever Aliera thought of Adron's plans, she was > never ashamed of him or his actions. She might not be "ashamed", but that doesn't mean that she has a clear grasp of what Adron did or what the surrounding events were. To quote the author on this very topic: (http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.sf.written/msg/10d47754d4d5b723?dmode=source&hl=en) [Begin Cite] Aliera got her stories tangled, is all. She's referring to the incident of the Goblets, which happened well before Adron's move, and only indirectly had anything to do with it. Aliera doesn't know as much history as she thinks she does, and tends toward tunnelvision. And, besides, Daddy couldn't have done anything really wrong. [End Cite] I suppose it's still possible to argue in favor of Aliera over Paarfi, if you still want to, but you might want to consider all of the ramifications of the above. > On the other hand, Paarfi is a novelist who needs to tell an entertaining > story. He has every reason to bend the truth. His story requires Adron to be > a noble idealist who brings about the ruin of the Empire through misguided > ideals and a case of extraordinarily bad luck rather than a simple desire > for power. You might want to read Paarfi a little more carefully. He can be quite tricky, sometimes. [Begin Cite] Whatever else he was, Adron was above all a human being, with all of the strengths and weaknesses that implies: there is no more reason to treat him as an inhuman monster than there is to present him as a military genius. [End Cite] Think about that sentence a bit. > I'm not sure how Paarfi could be considered anything like > authoritative, particularly in comparison to Adron's own daughter. > *Shrug*. Paarfi does some research, and alters the results of that research to fit the story he wants to tell. Aliera remembers events, or misremembers them, and colours her memories to suit her own needs and desires. Either way, exactitude is lost in favor of story. In this case, somewhat conflicting stories. Good luck trying to figure out who's more correct, or less wrong.