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marycatelli'cause aesthetics is still a branch of philosophy.
Just got the end of Turn Coat, which means I'm not up to reviewing them as I haven't read them twice, but it inspires some meditations.
It's rather a polyglot cosmology. Vampires, werewolves, the White Council are one thing. But the Fairy Courts, angels, Knights of the Cross, the loa are on a different level because of what they imply about metaphysics. More to the point, what they collectively imply about metaphysics is not logically consistent.
On the whole I think it works, by the simple expedient of working low enough that the metaphysical questions do not arise as story questions that have to be answered before the end, either because the reader's too curious or because it will actually determine the outcome of the climax.
Summer Knight on the other hand -- the Fairy Courts don't just go with the seasons. They control them. Winter Court has power during the winter, and Summer Court during the summer. Aurora's stunt, if she pulled it off, would have resulted in climate change. There had to be other Powers that Be that would object to that. If nothing else, since we have the Knights of the Cross, and this would pretty well violate, "As long as the earth lasts, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, Summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease." they ought to be interested.
And what, pray tell, happens in the southern hemisphere?.
Just got the end of Turn Coat, which means I'm not up to reviewing them as I haven't read them twice, but it inspires some meditations.
It's rather a polyglot cosmology. Vampires, werewolves, the White Council are one thing. But the Fairy Courts, angels, Knights of the Cross, the loa are on a different level because of what they imply about metaphysics. More to the point, what they collectively imply about metaphysics is not logically consistent.
On the whole I think it works, by the simple expedient of working low enough that the metaphysical questions do not arise as story questions that have to be answered before the end, either because the reader's too curious or because it will actually determine the outcome of the climax.
Summer Knight on the other hand -- the Fairy Courts don't just go with the seasons. They control them. Winter Court has power during the winter, and Summer Court during the summer. Aurora's stunt, if she pulled it off, would have resulted in climate change. There had to be other Powers that Be that would object to that. If nothing else, since we have the Knights of the Cross, and this would pretty well violate, "As long as the earth lasts, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, Summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease." they ought to be interested.
And what, pray tell, happens in the southern hemisphere?.
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no subject
Date: 2009-08-13 02:31 am (UTC)Michael was, despite not being a trained spellcaster at all, able to do things that Harry, or the Faeries or Vampires for that matter, could never do. His abilities were not merely magical, but miraculous.
This metaphysical problem is also why most authors avoid introducing the Christian metaphysic at all, because if introduced as being even near-miss the way it works in real life, it trumps all other arcane sources of power.
Mage cleverly (or stupidly) got around this by making the Celestial Chorus just another Paradigm you could select. D&D avoids this by have a Crystal Dragon Jesus in the pantheon (Pelor, Lathandar, Serenrae, etc). In both of those cases, though, I'd argue that the Christian metaphysic is *not* being introduced into the setting, just a superficial pastiche of it.
no subject
Date: 2009-08-13 02:36 am (UTC)Which is why I think only Summer Knight had real metaphysics problems.
the southern hemisphere
Date: 2009-08-13 12:49 pm (UTC)Re: the southern hemisphere
Date: 2009-08-13 02:07 pm (UTC)You may be amused by my Story of Soap (http://anasteuart.livejournal.com/2330.html).
Re: the southern hemisphere
Date: 2009-08-13 02:26 pm (UTC)Re: the southern hemisphere
Date: 2009-08-13 02:25 pm (UTC)0:)
Re: the southern hemisphere
Date: 2009-08-15 04:54 am (UTC)Re: the southern hemisphere
Date: 2009-08-15 05:23 pm (UTC)In order to test this hypothesis of yours we need someone with as perverse an imagination, but more of it, and someone with no more but even more perverse. . . .