@lume:
Thanks for bearing my rudeness and hot headedness. I've been inconsiderate.
Well, I've read what you writen. Quite long!
First though, the maleability of the Courts. There might be a more simpler explanation. They are demons. They are strong, powerful, and could just steal materials anywhere. They number of these demons could do a lot of renovaton in a moment. It might not be because the area is maleable because of concentration of magic. It is because these demons is powerful enough that they can rend a human body in moments, break walls and bend inches thick metals all with just their bare hands.
Af for Tom and the ship, I thought it was a fault! The wood should have chared when Tom become the living flame.
Quote:So maybe animus manipulation can make wood, plastic, alcohol, et cetera work in the Abyss by willpower or by the equivalent to willpower saying "Do not be affected".
However, Also connected to point #1, from Animus and Mana account in the book (after chapter 54 in my copy):
Quote:Animus is the "energy of life" it is roughly speaking the spirit or soul, the "living" part of all living creatures. All things that are alive have animus. Animus inundates every cell and the very molecular and genetic structure of living creatures. It is what separates organic compounds from living organisms. When a creature dies, the animus leaves the cells of its body and either disperses into the world around or in the case of high animus concentrations, may travel to other locations or planes.
Animus is strongly associated with the living. Since wood, plastic, alcohol, et cetera aren't living they can't hold animus, unless object linked, and object links isn't suppose to do what you say it do.
Point #2. In Animages and Animagic account (after chapter 64 in my copy):
Quote:Animages are individuals who use their minds to manipulate their own personal animus. Using their animus, they can manipulate mana, and hence the elements and the physical world around them. For all practical purposes, animages are individuals who simply need concentrate in the proper manner to achieve magic or spell-like effects.
There are other part that indicates that manipulating animus requires constant mental effort and has no effect otherwise. Also in the same account:
Quote:Actually, this is a slight over simplification. In actual point of fact, an animage cannot simply will something to happen; rather he or she must manipulate his or her animus in such a way as to cause mana to behave in the desired manner.
So they just can't do the equivalent to willpower saying "Do not be affected" as you so stated. Also, higher up from your quote about Tom and the ship:
Quote:Maelen blinked suddenly realizing the problem. Edwyrd had so far contained his flame so that he did no damage to the deck or rail beneath and beside him. As he escalated his flame, that was no longer the case. Maelen shouted.
There is quite a more banal explanation as to why. He might be containing the heat so that it won't radiate and affect the wood.
Point #3 is moot as 1 an 2 isn't viable.
Also as I stated before, there is very few demon who can manipulate mana and even rarer, it seems, one that manipulates animus like Tom.
Lampshading
You said that the world has to be internally consistent. That is it must follow it own rules.
However you say:
Quote:I know that lampshading doesn't explain it, but if we have Tom notice the fact, notice that it doesn't matter, and then move on I'll be fine and consider the issue resolved because it works within the framework of the story
Lampshading doesn't explain the inconsistency, the reason why, therefore the world is still inconsistent. Just because a character notice that it doesn't matter doesn't means its consistent. Also, the issue here do matters. It is quite prevalent in the book and has social significance.
Also you're quote is quite incomplete and is taken out of context. The whole quote is:
Quote:Lampshade Hanging is the writers' trick of dealing with any element of the story that threatens the audience's Willing Suspension of Disbelief, whether a very implausible plot development, or a particularly blatant use of a trope, by calling attention to it and simply moving on.
Also adding the second pharagraph:
Quote:The reason for this counter-intuitive strategy is two-fold. First, it assures the audience that the author is aware of the implausible plot development that just happened, and that they aren't trying to slip something past the audience. Second, it assures the audience that the world of the story is like Real Life: what's implausible for you or me is just as implausible for these characters, and just as likely to provoke an incredulous response.
Also, your A and B interpretation doesn't apply. Not A because the issue here is not about presentation. You can change how this things are presented, say not putting too much attention to it, or use purple prose; the inconsistency would still be there.
And not B because the issue is not about the character. It is about the objects found in the Abyss. Be the characters present or not, the issue remains.
Fluid reality
Your difinition of fluid reality is a bit different from mine.
Fluid reality comes from a very weird Quantum Theory regarding subatomic particles and their properties. On example, you know that they act like particles at some instance and waves in another. The theory is that they have two realities, one is the particle, and the other one is the wave. It settles into one of the two realities if we observed it and the nature of the observation dictates the outcome. And the outcomes are mighty weird.
Think of this like this, you have a box that contains candy you brought from a store. There are many possiblities of what candy it contains, based on what the store sells. In quantum theory, the box contains all realities, all the kind of the candies. The contents of the box only settle to one of the reality or candy once you open it and observe what is inside.
That is very weird. It means that any part of the our world we are not observing doesn't settle into a reality, or is fluid. It is all the realities but none of the realities at the same time. It only settle down to single reality once we observe it. In another sense, the reality we know exist because we observe it. Once we are not observing it, it fails to exist.
Then there is this mystical notion like yours. Since observation dictates the outcome of reality, we can somehow harness our will to change reality.
Did anyone else get it? I don't. It just so weird. It make my head hurt.
@Tizzy
I think it is in the [BB/] button before the spell check. It is listed there.
Edited by user Thursday, December 18, 2014 4:14:14 PM(UTC)
| Reason: Not specified