FIRST TIME HERE?
The News From Now
Characters
Amaranth
Caron
Celia
Coach Callahan
Dee
Feejee
Finbar
Gladys
Gloria
Hazel
Honey
Ian
Iona
Jamie
Kai
Kiersta
Leda
Lee Jenkins
Lynette
Mackenzie
Maliko
Mariel
Mike Gregory
Moeli
Ms. Carter
Ms. La Belle
Oru
Pala
Professor Bohd
Professor Goldman
Professor Hart
Puddy
Rocky
Sara
Semele
Shiel
Sooni
Steff
Suzi
Tara
The Man
Trina
Two
Twyla
Viktor
Recent Comments
- Wysteria on 453: Big Trouble
- Brenda on 453: Big Trouble
- Oitur on 453: Big Trouble
- Oitur on 453: Big Trouble
- Rin on 453: Big Trouble
It’s not a bad update but the professor’s speech needs to be edited. Not for mistakes, but for characterization. It doesn’t read like a lecture at all, it reads like a DM explaining magic at the table in her own narrative voice.
I think you’ve done a lot better AE.
No, it sounds exactly like an excellent professor having a Q&A session, not a lecture. See my previous ref. to Feynman and Knuth.
I’d hazard that you had very different lecturers in college than I did, and also that you’ve never sat at my game table.
I love this chapter specifically because it reminds me almost EXACTLY of the way my current Chemistry Professor teaches!
“But there’s nothing you can’t accomplish with names that you can’t accomplish by skipping the middleman and going straight for what the name means.”
nothing you “can” accomplish with names, I think
I love infinity and math.
Let’s say I have an infinite pile of numbered marbles. I hand you all the odd-numbered marbles. We now both have an infinite number of marbles. Infinity – infinity = infinity!
You then give me every other odd-numbered marble … we both still have an infinite number of marbles. Infinity + (infinity – infinity) = infinity.
infinity – infinity is undefined.
If we say infinity 1 is greater than infinity 2, then the result is positive.
If we say infinity 1 is less than infinity 2, then the result is negative.
If we say infinity 1 and infinity 2 are equal, then the result is zero.
However, infinities cannot be compared. One infinity is neither more nor less than two infinities or infinity + 1. And the actual value could be not just +/- infinity or 0, but any value from -infinity to +infinity, since infinity + x = infinity for any real number x.
first of all. thank you so much for using my question, if this page ever got into one of your books I’d probably buy multiple copies to give to my friends and family.
See, i remember doing this sort of thing in a few of my math classes, (high school) and that one question where you have to chart 1/x , when we asked where to line goes near 0 ( never touching) he said that ” it goes through all the number till it reaches something that easier to describe as a place rather then a number.”
I would talk more magic influenced math but I’m still too overwhelmed that you actually used my question.
THIS… is awesome lol
“One infinity is neither more nor less than two infinities”
That’s practically wrong in several cases. There are infinities larger than others. For example, if there’s an infinite number of stars in the universe and each star has five planets revolving around it, then there are exactly five times more planets than there are stars.
ok, so try this:
inf3 = 3 * inf1
inf4 = 2 * inf2
where inf1 and inf2 are both infinity.
Which is greater inf3 or inf4?
All 4 are equal (inf1 = inf2 = inf3 = inf4). They’re each infinity. Try inf5 = inf3 x inf4. That’s still equal to each of the others. This is based on the use of set theory to measure the sizes. Look up “infinity” in Wikipedia and go down to the section under “set theory”. There are other ways of looking at infinite quantities.
There is, in fact, a category of mathematics, called Transfinite Mathematics, that exists specifically to address this situation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transfinite_number
There are five times more planets than stars, but it’s difficult to say if there are more planets than stars. You imagine running around the universe and spray painting every star with a (natural) number, and every planet with a (natural) number. So there are as many stars as natural numbers, and also as many planets as natural numbers.
Not IF, but for this excersize we assume infinity stars each having five planets. If there’s infinite, and then there’s infinity times five, then the second is larger
“mag-fi”
It’s interesting that a term would develop in a culture where you have what we would call “science fiction” being referred to as fantasy. You think they would just refer to fiction involving magic as fiction, since it would be a world of fiction without magic that would be fantastical.
Science and a specific brand of magic traded places. So you have “magic fiction” involving advanced (or even fantastical) magic, and “science fiction” which is a subset of “fantasy”. I suppose there’d also be “hard mag-fi” as well, which would be mostly written by thaumatologists and based around what they consider probable advances in magic. I’m not sure if fiction involving other magic systems would be “fantasy” or “soft mag-fi”.
Then why do we have science fiction?
Either someone wants a story about a fancy but realistic technology that doesn’t exist in the presented form or avalability today, or someone wants to just make shit up and set it in space.
…So, who else hates Puddy? Anyone?
The question I had asked turned out to be stupid, heavily relying on the importance of names. But AE did answer the other questions I wanted to ask… The questions asked satisfies my curiosity… for now. Thanks AE!
As I read through this chapter, I wondered whether the subject of academic turnover would come up. As Niels Bohr once commented, quantum theory didn’t become generally accepted by winning over doubters and opponents in the establishment; instead, it seeded itself through the younger generation of researchers, and waited there until the doubters and opponents retired or died.
Which leads to the question of how quantum theory would have fared if its opponents had been immortal…
I really do wonder, in a world so influenced by magic, assuming that at the least some fundamental laws of our worlds are the same. how high of an education can a math major get. I mean in this world you can get pretty important and rich if you can crunch numbers in your head. So I wonder would they have Mathematicians in the MU world, meaning a totally different thing.
once again excuse my poor english
Well, there’s been a lot of occult math stuff – circles with significant numbers of points, numerology – in our world. I think it’s been mentioned that higher math is a weird hobby for some people, not something taught rigorously?
well I guess, what i mean is the main reason that math is important here is something that exists in the MU world too. Money. I’m sure banks still use math for loans, inverters, calculating return revenue on potential future endeavors, or do banks just use diviners to know what to do with their money.
we have those in our world too. they’re either the guys that manage investment accounts or the guys on TV telling us not to buy tech stocks
I’m not quite sure what you’re trying to say there. I believe I said that we have those things here, what i was wondering is how you would learn to be an accountant or an architect, or any number of jobs that need a high understanding of math, I mean yes i bet you can solve it with magic, but unless the building is to be always supported by magic, then it still has to adhere to certain math related rules. Stuff that’s not exactly taught at a lower level.
basically I’m just wondering where the line is drawn between where “okay 2+2 is 4 that okay that not weird” and ” that guy is into some weird voodoo stuff called ‘kalculass’”.
I get an impression that the professor and his subject could be simply states as being, “The more precisely you attempt to define something, the less precise it is. Sort of like limits in Calculus.
Two, played much D&D Miss Aerin?
I didn’t read all the comments, so I may have missed someone mentioning this. But apparently the wizard Lehane was batshit insane?
You’ve done a very fine job as always with one of your creation stories. Seems you like to blend a lot of sources. That early war you keep referring to sounds a lot like the early chapters of the Silmarillion. And the water and the chaos seem to be threads from a few different cultures, Innunit, Norse, Celtic and Egyptian seem to be the dominant ones. It could have been an unholy mash up but you’ve balanced it well.
” Et koldt bord” is what you referred to when you wrote koldtbord it´s a danish concept…
first time i ever replied, couldn’t help it since I’m danish
I believe ‘koldtbord’ is the Norwegian name for the same thing. See http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koldtbord This makes sense, given that Pala uses Norse words elsewhere (alfr being the other, immediate example in this chapter)
I always took Pala as more heavily influenced by the older Nordic culture, especially with her use of the Old Norse alfr. In which case, the best (linguistically speaking; it’s got cultural overtones and is anyway technically an invented tradition) cross-cultural example would be þorramatur.
Then again, as an Icelander, I’m nice and biased.
Nice update – good to see Pala again.
The “Nauseous” link (not sure why that’s surprising) covers a couple pages.
Also: “Right, but it makes people care about all that less,” I said. “I don’t need her following me around, Ian. She’ll just be in the way.”
– I think Ian is saying the first part.
And: I honestly couldn’t picture her being picked on. If anything, she seemed like the type who’d be picked on herself, if anybody would dare to.
– I think the first one should be “picture her picking on anyone.”
Typo Report:
Well, that covered most of the typos I noticed. The “Nauseous” link never closes and runs clear down until it runs into the “Hearts of Clay” link. I fully agree on the other two typos reported as well. The only other typo I noticed was this one:
I believe the phrase you were looking for was “smooth things over”. I may be mistaken. i suppose it’s possible you did actually mean “soothe”, which’d be a turn of phrase I’ve never heard before and don’t readily understand, but in any event I’m really quite sure “thing” should be plural.
That was a good read. Thanks.
it seems strange for Ian to call Mack “honey”
that is more amaranth’s style for addressing her…
Yeah, that threw me for a minute there too. Has he ever addressed her that way before?
It was meant to add a conciliatory tone to his words, but after re-reading it, I agree.
“and as a surprise, he brougth with him the half-giant gladiator, Pala.”
Letters transposed in ‘brought’
I really love the dialogue with this one – several parts made me laugh out loud.
Mack needs to get over herself. Prejudice can be a two way street and I think I’d enjoy seeing Pala have a more active presence in the story. Perhaps one of the reasons why Mack is disliking her is because her naivety is like a mirror to Mack reminding her how naive she was not that long ago.
This was a good chapter. I’m glad Pala is back. And I’m happy to see Ian around a little more. I also think it’s nice to see Mack getting her act together a little more.
Quick question. Do you want everyone pointing out typos and grammatical errors??
I felt the need to comment just to say how much I enjoyed this update. Thanks for writing.
I normally do not feel like a bad influence type of person, but I’ve never wanted to personally corrupt someone more than Pala.
This looks like either an extra line, or a missing line:
“None of that makes me more vulnerable or less strong,” I said. “Or flamey.”
“Right, but it makes people care about all that less,” I said. “I don’t need her following me around, Ian. She’ll just be in the way.”
I think Mack isn’t actually prejudiced here. I think it’s a more visceral reaction to Pala’s sheer size. Consider that when Mack first came to her Grandma, Mack was considerably shorter and lighter. And since Grandma subsequently started emotionally and physically abusing her, she has made a stronger association between size and threat.
Basically, Mack is uncomfortable around Pala because at some level she’s afraid of her. So we see here one of Mack’s good points; the struggle to understand herself and her reactions. Mack, incidentally, is frighteningly intelligent and an incredibly fast learner. Though in real time, her journey of self discovery has proceeded over years, all this development has, in universe, taken just under three months.
Actually, it’s only been a month and a half since classes started. This is Wednesday of week six.
“Mob mentality”:
An oxymoron with the
Accent on moron
Another minor typo, in the first sentence: “The campus had grown so eerily quiet over the past few darys”
The link to the livejournal entry takes it back to the top of the chapter here.
“The campus had grown so eerily quiet over the past few darys”
Not too often that you start the story off with a typo.
that felt good to read.
I’m thinking the “nauseous” ought to link to the Fantasy in Miniature you wrote on the subject of nauseous/nauseated.
Just for the lulz.
I agree!
I think that “alfr“/”half-r” is wicked
-ly witty.
I’m sorry to post this here when it isn’t about the chapter, but how does one get to More Tales from here? Is there a link on the site somewhere?
I couldn’t find it on the main page, but this is the link: http://more.talesofmu.com/
That is a problem – I had a hard time finding it, because there is no “Other Works” link on the ToMU page itself. There is on the other pages.
I’ve been crook(ill) for the last few days, and Two made me smile.
Thanks.
Seeing Pala again sure is nice indeed; she is as Mack said herself an inherently sympathetic character. There is one other character I would kind of like to see even more though.
I’ve been reading the story from chapter 1 again and it occurred to me that, while she was a fairly significant presence early on in the story, we haven’t seen or heard from Celia in, what, 60 chapters? Something like that anyway. I’m really rather curious what she’s been up to.
Love that Pala–she gets to my Scandinavian-American pride. I keep picturing this chapter as it might be filmed–with Pala’s head & shoulder’s outside the top of the frame.
AAauuuugggghhhhh!!!! Head & shoulders–no apostrophe!! I hate seeing that!
I’m going to put in a vote for splitting the chapter. Bite sized pieces are nice.