[Dragaera] Tiassa -- Chapter the Sixth vs Epilogue -- spoiler

[Steve Rapaport]

> 
> 
> On Tue, 19 Apr 2011, Scott Schultz wrote:
> 
>> 
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>>>>> Maybe the tiassa is Paarfi's source.
>>> 
>>>> I doubt it acted as a source for Paarfi, like an oracle or some such.
>>>> More likely it gave him literary insight that  he might not have had
>>>> without its influence.
>> 
>>> Beyond Occam, why?  It was present, or had access to the people involved,
>> and seems to have
>>> some agency, and certainly can read and write people's brains.  Maybe it's
>> like a GW and
>>> contains someone's soul.  More likely, as is claimed by its maker, it has a
>> good chunk of a god in it.
>> 
>> I think Occam is a pretty good reason, given that it dispenses with
>> unverifiable speculation. You can speculate about what effect a piece of a
>> God has in its composition, but unfounded speculation is all it is. The
>> effects of the Tiassa when it is in proximity to an artist are facts,
>> insofar as any of the story can be said to be factual.
> 
> These "facts" are I think entirely speculative.
> 

no. no no no.  i would lose my suspension of disbelief entirely if the tiassa also happened to have the power to silently gossip, or to shoot sock boomerangs from its wings, or to transform into a dinosaur, regardless of how many Goddess body parts it includes.  Its function is described three times, once by Devera, twice by Vlad. Ooh yes, and in the cycle poem. Four times.  It inspires artists.  it makes the subconscious available.  Tiassa dreams and plots are born.  I contend that any other abilities are not even hinted at, and go beyond speculation into uncoolness, fanfic, gizmoism, and unnecessary multiplication of entities.

One failing Zelazny had was how his last five books of Amber ended up expanding the gizmo power of all the gizmos to the point where the people became irrelevant.   it ended up being gadget wars in the last few amber books, and though Corwin's tale was sublime, Merlin's got boring.  Mr. Brust has carefully and deftly avoided crossing that line, and i hope he continues this way.