[Dragaera] Tiassa -- Chapter the Sixth vs Epilogue -- spoiler (fwd)

[Scott Schultz]

On Wed, 20 Apr 2011, Scott Schultz wrote:

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>You've inconveniently snipped what I was responding to - which was the
claim 
>that Paarfi is considered a master.  As far as I can tell the academy and
critics
> think he's more Danielle Steele than Stephen King, not to mention say
David McCullough.

Actually, Stephen King is who I had in mind to compare Paarfi to. King is a
popular writer, whom many "serious" literary critics condemn as being
unworthy of the popular acclaim he has. They consider him populist, as
opposed to masterful, and look down on his willingness to, as he puts it,
"go for the gross out" when nothing else works. Despite this, his book "On
Writing", is often recommended in writing circles as a must read for any
aspiring writer. 

>> Consulting a magic oracle

>Straw.

Okay. I don't see it but... *shrug*

>There are questions throughout all of Paarfi's works about sourcing.
>In this Text alone there are plenty of conversations involving Khaavren
that are hard to explain Paarfi knowing about.  >He knows (and publishes)
what one would expect to be state secrets, so either he makes a lot of stuff
up (which >makes it hard for us to understand his world) or he's a genius at
reportage or he has an in like Sethra or something.

It's clear that one of Steve's goals for _Tiassa_ was that it explain some
things about the Vladiverse that were semi-mysterious. I'm sure that this is
one of the reasons that he goes out of his way to acknowledge the fan work
behind the Timeline and Cracks and Shards, since they gave him the material
he needed to both choose what to write about and to give the appropriate
information about them.

>From that standpoint, this speculation may be entirely correct and Paarfi's
possession of the silver tiassa may be meant as a simple explanation for
just how he sources things like conversations between the Gods that take
place in the Halls of Judgement. Then again, we see from Chapter the Sixth
that Paarfi isn't above changing certain facts for literary effect and/or
because he simply doesn't know all of the facts surrounding an event.

You can't prove a negative. There is no evidence that can be used to say
"The silver tiassa is NOT an oracle." We only know how it DOES affect its
owners, and it seems that you, Phil,  are claiming that those sources are
unreliable. Given that, I can't see that it's worth continuing to speculate
about.

>I can think of half a dozen reasonable ways it could be
> wrong without working up a sweat - have you even tried?

THIS I have to take issue with. Devera clearly documents her travels through
time with the Tiassa. She even makes a point of saying that she is unable to
return to a particular time once she leaves it. The only way I can make this
doubt of yours work out is that somebody else takes the tiassa from Paarfi,
gives it to Vlad or plants it on him, then takes it back again and then
Devera takes it and gives to Vlad again, this time with his knowledge...

If you have some way of showing  how the Tiassa could possibly go to Vlad
before going to Paarfi without Devera being an outright liar, well, you
perceive that you interest me greatly. 

>We suspect Paarfi's Texts (those we've read, since his monographs 
>and _Three Broken Strings_ haven't come to us) are published after Vlad's
lifetime, 
>because they say they postdate Zerika's reign.  Per the intro to _TPG_, 
>Paarfi had been working on pre-Interregnum history beforehand, 
>and at the time of its publishing hasn't traced Khaavren & Cie's influence
as far as _FHYA_.

I'm failing to see how the above statement relates to the travels of the
Tiassa through time or to Paarfi's possession of it before Vlad's possession
of it (relative to the tiassa's own timeline). 


>And of course since we don't know when ST was written or 
>if the tiassa is moving strictly forward in time with Devera  
>we don't even have to worry about this if we don't want to.

You're suggesting that in between Devera's fetching and carrying of the
tiassa that some other time traveler she doesn't know about  is also
fetching and carrying it and then bringing it back to Paarfi, or that it is
popping around in time of its own accord? Because that's what it sounds like
you're suggesting.

I feel a bit like we're having a disagreement about whether the glass of
water I put on my desk is still there when I turn my back on it. I turn
around and see it and say "Yep, it's there," whereas you say "But you don't
know where it went while you weren't looking at it."