Letters Column for July

Posted on August 2, 2004 by Jenna

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Thank you for your kind words,
Solarbird
Rene
Eric
Rana
Sparrowhawk
Tom
S
(unregistered) – “This is the best thing I’ve read all year.”
xx
BSD
BrandonQ
Requiem_17_23
November
BethL
incandescens
DrStalker
Dan

**

Is there anything else written in this world (horrors and variable-culture navies), or is this one of Rebecca’s one-shot creations?
— KarlBob

Nope! But this is a reflection of certain events broadcast on the news in the canonical universe.

**

I see no numerals in brackets… may we take this to mean that this is not a true history of the world? Because I’d be pretty disappointed if there WASN’T a giant lake of blood beneath Boston… how else could you explain why the Big Dig is taking so long?
— Pierre

The July 4th entry is in fact not canonical. I am sure that much of it is correct in the canon universe, but some things are off. It’s the price of looking at a world mostly through its fiction. :)

**

The last human was dead. The last human was already just a bodiless program.
— KarlBob

Why would you think that?

**

They may be rid of Satan, but the fact that they shot him tells me they haven’t eradicated evil.
— (unregistered)

Is shooting people evil?

**

Get this published somewhere, damn it, even if that means taking it down from here.
— S

I never can tell what people will like, I guess.

Sound off! Which kinds of entries would you rather I wrote more of?

**

“Mapping the empty regions.”

You know, empty regions are important too.
— pokeme

Indeed. :)

**

I’d bite them, but then I’d squawk a lot and try to bite them again! I think that’s better than just running away! ^_^
— Solarbird

Kids, can you see how Solarbird is deviating from the sanctioned McCarthy the Communism Dog Anti-Communism Safety Program?

**

It would actually be two thousand years between the Great Catastrophe and the time of Thundarr. Remember? “Two thousand years later, a strange new world rises from the old ? a world of savagery, super-science, and sorcery.”
— Tuxedo Slack

You’re forgetting that one thousand years have already passed since Thundarr first aired on the 1004 Saturday Morning Prophecy Hour.

Minor nitpick: it’s “Ariel! Ookla! *WE* RIDE!”
— S

Sure, that’s the usual translation, but the original Latin is ambiguous.

**

Can I check out the Throne of Skulls at one of Ikea’s stores(?)
— Sparrowhawk

Call ahead.

**

(Question about what it takes, besides “causing suffering deliberately,” to make a monster.)
— Pierre

I haven’t given a succinct definition yet. They suffer the burden of Amiel’s oath. They descend from the House of Atreus. If Mylitta and Nabodinus are correct, then monsters have chosen to inflict suffering on others.

**

Hmm. Is my theory valid, here? If it is, are other Ink legends connected to histories? Must reread Hitherby.
— Eric

:)

**

How do you go through a mirror without changing your handedness?
— GoldenH

Don’t reflect on it too much.

**

Why would schools for ragged things be allowed to exist, if they are so dangerous?
— Sparrowhawk

Well, they won’t get you, as long as there aren’t any mistakes and you aren’t in the wrong place at the wrong time. So they’re not that bad. :)

**

Jane forgot the toothpaste, didn’t she?
— Fodder Boy

:)

**

Although I would argue that a Buddha would be an answer to suffering in a sense, he would seemingly not be the type of answer that Maya wished to produce.
— Eric

The Buddha is in fact explicitly an answer to suffering. But you’re correct: he’s not the answer Maya wants.

I find your speculation on Jane, Martin, and Liril interesting, and invite you to continue, but will not comment at this time.

**

Silly question: does this make the Buddha a Demon in Hitherby cosmology?
— Sparrowhawk

Nope.

The “lesser vehicle” answers emptiness as it answers many other things—with the eightfold path. This is something that’s a lot more about right action and right mindfulness and right meditation and such than it is about acceptance. The greater vehicle is much harder to explain in a letters column, and I don’t know it as well. The Diamond Path … is a matter for another day.

**

I didn’t think HD was about historical events.
— Vaxalon

The shark king isn’t Bush.

The story acknowledged the ability to draw an analogy, but, really, it’s not an analogy I’d make. :)

**

ally plants?
— KarlBob

Plants that the shaman considers allies. Probably hallucinogenic or narcotic, but they could just be cute little herbs and ferns that squeaked, “Burn me! Burn me! I’ll give her the *best* vision!”

**
That’s it for now! Thanks for reading, thanks for commenting—even if you didn’t get thanked for a compliment or picked for a specific response—and see you again this coming month!

Rebecca