![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
( spoilers for Corambis )
Q: Where does Felix's last name come from? Anything to do with a gate?
and
Q: Nitpicky detail, but is there any backstory to Felix's last name? I've always been a bit curious about it, especially given the references to Melusine's gates, both in reality and in Felix's oneiromantic forays. Since some Lower City denizens have surnames and some don't, did he make it up himself or did someone else (his keeper, Lorenzo, Malkar) name him?
A: Firstly, I got Felix's last name from the English city of Harrogate (and subconsciously, probably from Harrogate, Tennessee). Also the school, Harrow, and then of course the noun harrow (as in the toad beneath the harrow) and the verb, as in the Harrowing of Hell (and there's a terrible pun on "harrowing" in The Yellow Submarine, too). There's also a Harriers' Gate in the Mirador. So, like almost everything else in the Doctrine of Labyrinths, Felix's name is a pun.
Secondly, internal to the books, Harrowgate is the name Malkar chose for him; I don't think this is ever specified, but Mildmay's example makes it clear that kept-thieves don't have surnames. (I've wondered occasionally if Felix was the name he was born with, or if Keeper or Lorenzo chose that--Vincent knows him as Felix, so it was obviously his name pre-Malkar, but I don't know if it's the name Methony gave him or not. He won't tell me.)
Q: Is the ability to use magic a innate one? In other words, is it true that annemers can never learn to use magic in their lives?
A: Yes. You either are a wizard or you aren't one. Abilities usually manifest at or around puberty.
Q: Why is Felix the most powerful wizard in Mirador? Is it because he's very talented and was taught by Malkar?
A: He's the most powerful wizard in the Mirador because his innate ability to do magic is very powerful. There's a tautology for you. Sorry. But it's an inherent quality of an individual wizard's magic. Being taught by Malkar allows him to look at problems in a different way than the orthodox wizards, and thus frequently to be able to solve problems his colleagues can't, but it has nothing to do with his power--except insofar as his power is what drew Malkar to him in the first place.
Q: Can Felix control his true dreams to help him witness or find out the truth about a certain part of the past?
A: He could, but he never has. And I'm not 100% convinced it would be a good idea.
Q: Why was Mildmay so interested in Felix from the first time they met? Is it because Mildmay was quite... well, desperate at that time, so that he was thrilled to see a person that was related to him, even if that person was a hocus and crazy? Or, and this is what I think, he just natrually tends to symphathize with people in a disadvantage place, and Felix looked scared to death.
A: When Mildmay and Felix meet, Mildmay is very much adrift: in a strnage place, with people he doesn't trust and his whole life in ruins around him. Felix gives him (a.) a way to displace all the stuff he doesn't want to think about into worrying about someone else and (b.) lets him feel needed, which is Mildmay's weak point. And, yes, Mildmay is by his nature a champion of the underdog.
( spoilers of varying intensity for Corambis )
Q: I'm curious...in The Mirador, you added a new narrator, Tabby, alongside Felix and Mildmay. Did you find that more or less difficult? Did you worry how the fans would accept a new narrator?
A: Mehitabel was very hard to write, for reasons I've talked about in earlier Q&As. I had a hell of a time finding a way to distinguish her voice from Felix's.
And I expected that fans would resent her. I just hoped she'd be able to win them over, and from what I've seen, by and large she has.
Q: Also, was there any point where you had the thought and feeling of, 'I cannot write anything else in this world...'?
A: Starting somewhere in the second draft of Corambis and continuing on to the present, yes. *g*
Q: Now that I have Corambis and have finished all 4 books I am going back and re-reading them all one by one. I'm back in Melusine when Felix is in his "insane" period. Felix seems to see people and things with an uncanny perception for their genuine nature. Are the things he sees his own personal feelings of the people and situations, or is his strong concentration of Aetherealness guiding him to see their true nature? (bears, dogs, etc) I was really quite fascinated by this and wonder if you could elaborate some on how and why Felix became (for lack of a better word) "insane".
A: No, Felix is seeing something that's really there, although his interpretations are strongly colored by the fact that he is, as Mildmay would put it, completely batfuck insane.
And, yes, although I did not have the concept worked out at the time, what Malkar did to Felix, in sundering him from his magic, left his strong aethereal talent wide open, with neither protection nor filters, not even the intervention of his rational mind. That's why he sees ghosts and auras and these weird symbolic animals.
[Ask your question(s) here.]
Q: Where does Felix's last name come from? Anything to do with a gate?
and
Q: Nitpicky detail, but is there any backstory to Felix's last name? I've always been a bit curious about it, especially given the references to Melusine's gates, both in reality and in Felix's oneiromantic forays. Since some Lower City denizens have surnames and some don't, did he make it up himself or did someone else (his keeper, Lorenzo, Malkar) name him?
A: Firstly, I got Felix's last name from the English city of Harrogate (and subconsciously, probably from Harrogate, Tennessee). Also the school, Harrow, and then of course the noun harrow (as in the toad beneath the harrow) and the verb, as in the Harrowing of Hell (and there's a terrible pun on "harrowing" in The Yellow Submarine, too). There's also a Harriers' Gate in the Mirador. So, like almost everything else in the Doctrine of Labyrinths, Felix's name is a pun.
Secondly, internal to the books, Harrowgate is the name Malkar chose for him; I don't think this is ever specified, but Mildmay's example makes it clear that kept-thieves don't have surnames. (I've wondered occasionally if Felix was the name he was born with, or if Keeper or Lorenzo chose that--Vincent knows him as Felix, so it was obviously his name pre-Malkar, but I don't know if it's the name Methony gave him or not. He won't tell me.)
Q: Is the ability to use magic a innate one? In other words, is it true that annemers can never learn to use magic in their lives?
A: Yes. You either are a wizard or you aren't one. Abilities usually manifest at or around puberty.
Q: Why is Felix the most powerful wizard in Mirador? Is it because he's very talented and was taught by Malkar?
A: He's the most powerful wizard in the Mirador because his innate ability to do magic is very powerful. There's a tautology for you. Sorry. But it's an inherent quality of an individual wizard's magic. Being taught by Malkar allows him to look at problems in a different way than the orthodox wizards, and thus frequently to be able to solve problems his colleagues can't, but it has nothing to do with his power--except insofar as his power is what drew Malkar to him in the first place.
Q: Can Felix control his true dreams to help him witness or find out the truth about a certain part of the past?
A: He could, but he never has. And I'm not 100% convinced it would be a good idea.
Q: Why was Mildmay so interested in Felix from the first time they met? Is it because Mildmay was quite... well, desperate at that time, so that he was thrilled to see a person that was related to him, even if that person was a hocus and crazy? Or, and this is what I think, he just natrually tends to symphathize with people in a disadvantage place, and Felix looked scared to death.
A: When Mildmay and Felix meet, Mildmay is very much adrift: in a strnage place, with people he doesn't trust and his whole life in ruins around him. Felix gives him (a.) a way to displace all the stuff he doesn't want to think about into worrying about someone else and (b.) lets him feel needed, which is Mildmay's weak point. And, yes, Mildmay is by his nature a champion of the underdog.
( spoilers of varying intensity for Corambis )
Q: I'm curious...in The Mirador, you added a new narrator, Tabby, alongside Felix and Mildmay. Did you find that more or less difficult? Did you worry how the fans would accept a new narrator?
A: Mehitabel was very hard to write, for reasons I've talked about in earlier Q&As. I had a hell of a time finding a way to distinguish her voice from Felix's.
And I expected that fans would resent her. I just hoped she'd be able to win them over, and from what I've seen, by and large she has.
Q: Also, was there any point where you had the thought and feeling of, 'I cannot write anything else in this world...'?
A: Starting somewhere in the second draft of Corambis and continuing on to the present, yes. *g*
Q: Now that I have Corambis and have finished all 4 books I am going back and re-reading them all one by one. I'm back in Melusine when Felix is in his "insane" period. Felix seems to see people and things with an uncanny perception for their genuine nature. Are the things he sees his own personal feelings of the people and situations, or is his strong concentration of Aetherealness guiding him to see their true nature? (bears, dogs, etc) I was really quite fascinated by this and wonder if you could elaborate some on how and why Felix became (for lack of a better word) "insane".
A: No, Felix is seeing something that's really there, although his interpretations are strongly colored by the fact that he is, as Mildmay would put it, completely batfuck insane.
And, yes, although I did not have the concept worked out at the time, what Malkar did to Felix, in sundering him from his magic, left his strong aethereal talent wide open, with neither protection nor filters, not even the intervention of his rational mind. That's why he sees ghosts and auras and these weird symbolic animals.
[Ask your question(s) here.]
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif){kind=small}