HFQ Official Snippet #17

Do you think that RFC could be so cunning as to deliberately structures his books so that apparently sequential expository snippets turn out to be tantalizing and misleading? Would he be that sneaky? It sort of feels like the tail wagging the dog!
Philip (the cynic) Stanley

Philip Stanley wrote:Do you think that RFC could be so cunning as to deliberately structures his books so that apparently sequential expository snippets turn out to be tantalizing and misleading? Would he be that sneaky? It sort of feels like the tail wagging the dog!
Philip (the cynic) Stanley

No. He cleverly structures the books so that sequential chapters turn out to be tantalizing and misleading. The fact that it leads to cleverly tantalizing and misleading snippets is only a bonus as far as he is concerned.

Agree.

Now, he has posted "mini-snippets" that have been misleading but IMO the larger sequential snippets accurately reflect what he had written in the book.

Of course, he does include surprises in the books themselves.

fallsfromtrees wrote:

Philip Stanley wrote:Do you think that RFC could be so cunning as to deliberately structures his books so that apparently sequential expository snippets turn out to be tantalizing and misleading? Would he be that sneaky? It sort of feels like the tail wagging the dog!
Philip (the cynic) Stanley

No. He cleverly structures the books so that sequential chapters turn out to be tantalizing and misleading. The fact that it leads to cleverly tantalizing and misleading snippets is only a bonus as far as he is concerned.

Philip Stanley wrote:Do you think that RFC could be so cunning as to deliberately structures his books so that apparently sequential expository snippets turn out to be tantalizing and misleading? Would he be that sneaky? It sort of feels like the tail wagging the dog!
Philip (the cynic) Stanley

fallsfromtrees wrote:No. He cleverly structures the books so that sequential chapters turn out to be tantalizing and misleading. The fact that it leads to cleverly tantalizing and misleading snippets is only a bonus as far as he is concerned.

DrakBibliophile wrote:Agree.

Now, he has posted "mini-snippets" that have been misleading but IMO the larger sequential snippets accurately reflect what he had written in the book.

Of course, he does include surprises in the books themselves.

I just went back and reread the LAMA snippets (particularly 6 and 7) as well as some of RFC's comments. I would note that his comment that Irys' instructor in #6 was not Merlin or one of his alternate personalities is strictly speaking true, it was extraordinarily misleading, verging on a very grey area, since in fact it turns out the instructor was Nimue - who formed the basis for Merlin's personality. I am wondering if he is not doing something of the sort here.

JimHacker wrote:
[snip]

There is no such thing as overkill; there is only "open fire!" and "reload!". Something I heard once

While I'm sure they may have wanted to use as much explosive as possible, they will have been limited by certain factors - such as how much was available (if a new explosive), how much a person could safely carry/swim with/handle/set in this particular mission, and conserving supply (if a new explosive produced in small quantities).

I remember reading a conversation somewhere which went something like:

"Isn't that a bit like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut?"

"Well, if you've got a sledgehammer handy and you don't much care what happens to the nut, there's not much wrong with it."

fallsfromtrees wrote:And how many of the testers made it into the field? The grunts on the ground are going to use their black powder standards, regardless of what they are told.

I believe there's a story about how some segment of the French Resistance got their first supply of (the newly developed) plastic explosive. They didn't think the suggested amount looked enough to really damage a railway line, so put what they thought was a sensible amount on instead. They retreated to a safe distance, got their "BOOM!" and discovered they made a small crater where the railway line used to be!

runsforcelery wrote:

Duckk wrote:There was a convention in Ohio I didn't know about? Noooooooooooo!

My bad. The con was in Williamsburg, Va. Don't know how Ohio got in there, except that I spent quite a while talking to other guests who were from Ohio (which also happens to be the state in which I was born).

Sorry!

Why, David!

And here I thought that you were born in a State of Grace.
(grin)

dreamrider

I asked one of my confirmation kids what grace was expecting God's Riches At Christ's Expense.

Instead, what I got was "Grace is a tall, blue eyed blonde." Guess where his mind was at...upon Grace!

Don

hmmm... I've been wondering for years who Grace was, and what made her so amazing.

maybe now I'm finally on the right track

n7axw wrote:I asked one of my confirmation kids what grace was expecting God's Riches At Christ's Expense.

Instead, what I got was "Grace is a tall, blue eyed blonde." Guess where his mind was at...upon Grace!

Don