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I'm going out of order here, because this is a follow-up question to yesterday's:
Q: I still think that you wrote more into Mildmay, magicwise. Xanthippe said the casting Thamuris worked normally took four celebrants and a caster and Thamuris just used Mildmay. So either Mildmay is a hellofa big anchor or he could access something four celebrants together could do. Also, why did the Kloidanikos notice Mildmay at all, let alone create a link to him in the garden of dreams and then keep the link going for years after Mildmay had left the physical garden? Third thing I am wondering is, I think it was the Tibernians who defined the Virtu as a monumental working of noirant and clairant magics or some such, should go dig my book out and check, but, well, it's late. So when noiarant Felix went to fix the Virtu, he would need access to a clairant channel or something he did not have to fix the damn thing, wouldn't he? And he told Mildmay he only needed him. Why was that? Anyway, thanks for all the lovely books and for being accessible to your fans and I look forward to reading your books in the future.
A: That's supposed to point you toward something important about Thamuris's power, not Mildmay's. And the symbolic link between Mildmay and the Khloïdanikos is via Felix, probably partly because of the binding-by-forms (and Thamuris's symbolism). (Also, that's dreamwork, not necessarily magic, and everyone in the Doctrine of Labyrinths has symbolic dreams. It's the way my fiction works. See also The Bone Key.) Felix explains why he needs Mildmay to mend the Virtu on p. 347 of The Virtu (394 of the paperback), and it's explicitly because he isn't a wizard. It's not about noirant/clairant, it's about having enough psychical/physical reserves that Felix doesn't, quite literally, kill himself in the process. Also, noirant and clairant aren't immutable categories and don't work quite the way you have hypothesized. (Remember, it's all metaphors. None of it is literal truth.)
I really don't want to get into the technical nitpicky details of the magic system, especially when I can't guarantee that I remember everything accurately (seriously, I had a hard time articulating it at all, and still have to walk through it in my head to remember which is thaumaturgical architecture and which is architectural thaumaturgy).
Your original question was, why don't Mildmay's magical powers show up in Corambis? My answer is, because he doesn't have any. I understand that I cannot control how you interpret the text; all I can tell you is that your interpretation has no relationship to what I intended for the books, and there's no argument you can make that can convince me I intended something else.
Okay. Back to answering in the order in which questions were received.
Q:
( spoilers for The Mirador )
Q:( spoilers for Corambis in the lead-up, but none in the actual question ) Do you/did you enjoy teaching? Is it something you'd want to do again or are you happy with it being part of your past?
A: My attitude toward teaching is very conflicted. I do enjoy the actual act of helping someone learn. I think that's awesome, and there's some evidence to indicate I don't completely suck at it, although I'm not a gifted teacher the way my friend![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
heresluck is. But I came to hate teaching when I was a teaching assistant--and I mean real, visceral, miserable loathing. The work load was back-breaking; the position pinned between professor and students, neither quite one nor quite the other, was uncomfortable; and the responsibility imposed by the grading system was insupportable--not to mention the effect it had on the students' attitudes.
I've had the chance to go back and teach since I got my doctorate, and that semester was actually much more enjoyable--and (probably not coincidentally) much more about actual teaching. But I could feel the old anxieties crawling up to get their stranglehold around my neck toward the end of the semester. And for me, teaching is very hard work.heresluck finds it energizing; I find it draining. And when I'm teaching, the work of thinking about my teaching expands to use all the available resources in my brain, and it gets harder and harder to find the time and the energy to write. And not writing makes me profoundly and chronically unhappy.
So for one semester every two or three years, it's okay. And my answer might be very different if the system were different, if both teacher and students could concentrate on the learning process instead of on jumping through these stupid quantifiable hoops.
Q:You said, in Q&A 5 that your architecture always has some source of meaning. Can you please delve into this? Are these meanings based on scholarly ideas(i.e. the genders of Greek Columns? Or the use of the Gothic Revival in the Nineteenth Century?) or more of an emotional basis
A: I meant mostly, though not exclusively, that labyrinths and mazes are a dominant motif throughout the books. And also, the idea of thaumaturgic architecture/architectural thaumaturgy means that human-made structure are always important. However, it's also important that the Mirador has no external windows, that almost all buildings in the Lower City have roof accesses, that the Mirador in itself is an archaeological dig waiting to happen. I'm not, myself, well-versed enough in architectural schools and history to go much farther than that. (Although, when I said the churches in Mélusine are Gothic, I should add that St. Kirban's is definitely Romanesque.)
Q: I know you have a broad understanding of the Latin language. Can you tell me how this effected any of the Doctrine of Labyrinths.
A: Well, there's the geeky multilingual puns (Virtu, Cade-Cholera, etc.). I also use Latin to represent the principal language of most of Kekropia (Troian (Greek) is really only spoken along the coast), and thus the lingua franca of the international scholarly community. (Ergo, the book titles in Latin.) So, yeah. Pretty much woven into the fabric of the books, would be the answer.
( spoilery for The Mirador )
( spoilers for Corambis )
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: I've answered this one before (that's information--you can go look for the previous answer--not me whingeing)--Malkar gave it to him; it's Caloxan. It's also symbolically and thematically appropriate to him, and, yes, that pleases me.
( and spoilers for The Mirador )
Q: You mentioned in the recent crapstorm about Amazon that you don't like them- do you mind me asking why? I've heard some anti-Amazon sentiment in the past, but it started when I was in high school and I thought it was the best thing since the printing press. However, if it is bad for writers and/or readers etc I will stop giving them my money.
A: I don't like Amazon because I don't like their privacy policy and I don't like their business practices (i.e., the infinite expansion of the products they sell, their schlumphing over ABE Books like a Gelatinous Cube, etc.). I prefer to buy books from people who care about books, which I don't think characterizes Amazon at all. (Support your local indie bookstore!) But this is all purely on the personal level as a consumer. To my knowledge, Amazon is no worse for writers or readers than Borders or Barnes & Noble.
However, if you would like an alternative, may I suggest Powell's?
[Ask your question[s] here.]
Q: I still think that you wrote more into Mildmay, magicwise. Xanthippe said the casting Thamuris worked normally took four celebrants and a caster and Thamuris just used Mildmay. So either Mildmay is a hellofa big anchor or he could access something four celebrants together could do. Also, why did the Kloidanikos notice Mildmay at all, let alone create a link to him in the garden of dreams and then keep the link going for years after Mildmay had left the physical garden? Third thing I am wondering is, I think it was the Tibernians who defined the Virtu as a monumental working of noirant and clairant magics or some such, should go dig my book out and check, but, well, it's late. So when noiarant Felix went to fix the Virtu, he would need access to a clairant channel or something he did not have to fix the damn thing, wouldn't he? And he told Mildmay he only needed him. Why was that? Anyway, thanks for all the lovely books and for being accessible to your fans and I look forward to reading your books in the future.
A: That's supposed to point you toward something important about Thamuris's power, not Mildmay's. And the symbolic link between Mildmay and the Khloïdanikos is via Felix, probably partly because of the binding-by-forms (and Thamuris's symbolism). (Also, that's dreamwork, not necessarily magic, and everyone in the Doctrine of Labyrinths has symbolic dreams. It's the way my fiction works. See also The Bone Key.) Felix explains why he needs Mildmay to mend the Virtu on p. 347 of The Virtu (394 of the paperback), and it's explicitly because he isn't a wizard. It's not about noirant/clairant, it's about having enough psychical/physical reserves that Felix doesn't, quite literally, kill himself in the process. Also, noirant and clairant aren't immutable categories and don't work quite the way you have hypothesized. (Remember, it's all metaphors. None of it is literal truth.)
I really don't want to get into the technical nitpicky details of the magic system, especially when I can't guarantee that I remember everything accurately (seriously, I had a hard time articulating it at all, and still have to walk through it in my head to remember which is thaumaturgical architecture and which is architectural thaumaturgy).
Your original question was, why don't Mildmay's magical powers show up in Corambis? My answer is, because he doesn't have any. I understand that I cannot control how you interpret the text; all I can tell you is that your interpretation has no relationship to what I intended for the books, and there's no argument you can make that can convince me I intended something else.
Okay. Back to answering in the order in which questions were received.
Q:
( spoilers for The Mirador )Q:
( spoilers for Corambis in the lead-up, but none in the actual question ) Do you/did you enjoy teaching? Is it something you'd want to do again or are you happy with it being part of your past?A: My attitude toward teaching is very conflicted. I do enjoy the actual act of helping someone learn. I think that's awesome, and there's some evidence to indicate I don't completely suck at it, although I'm not a gifted teacher the way my friend
heresluck is. But I came to hate teaching when I was a teaching assistant--and I mean real, visceral, miserable loathing. The work load was back-breaking; the position pinned between professor and students, neither quite one nor quite the other, was uncomfortable; and the responsibility imposed by the grading system was insupportable--not to mention the effect it had on the students' attitudes.I've had the chance to go back and teach since I got my doctorate, and that semester was actually much more enjoyable--and (probably not coincidentally) much more about actual teaching. But I could feel the old anxieties crawling up to get their stranglehold around my neck toward the end of the semester. And for me, teaching is very hard work.
heresluck finds it energizing; I find it draining. And when I'm teaching, the work of thinking about my teaching expands to use all the available resources in my brain, and it gets harder and harder to find the time and the energy to write. And not writing makes me profoundly and chronically unhappy.So for one semester every two or three years, it's okay. And my answer might be very different if the system were different, if both teacher and students could concentrate on the learning process instead of on jumping through these stupid quantifiable hoops.
Q:You said, in Q&A 5 that your architecture always has some source of meaning. Can you please delve into this? Are these meanings based on scholarly ideas(i.e. the genders of Greek Columns? Or the use of the Gothic Revival in the Nineteenth Century?) or more of an emotional basis
A: I meant mostly, though not exclusively, that labyrinths and mazes are a dominant motif throughout the books. And also, the idea of thaumaturgic architecture/architectural thaumaturgy means that human-made structure are always important. However, it's also important that the Mirador has no external windows, that almost all buildings in the Lower City have roof accesses, that the Mirador in itself is an archaeological dig waiting to happen. I'm not, myself, well-versed enough in architectural schools and history to go much farther than that. (Although, when I said the churches in Mélusine are Gothic, I should add that St. Kirban's is definitely Romanesque.)
Q: I know you have a broad understanding of the Latin language. Can you tell me how this effected any of the Doctrine of Labyrinths.
A: Well, there's the geeky multilingual puns (Virtu, Cade-Cholera, etc.). I also use Latin to represent the principal language of most of Kekropia (Troian (Greek) is really only spoken along the coast), and thus the lingua franca of the international scholarly community. (Ergo, the book titles in Latin.) So, yeah. Pretty much woven into the fabric of the books, would be the answer.
( spoilery for The Mirador )( spoilers for Corambis )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: I've answered this one before (that's information--you can go look for the previous answer--not me whingeing)--Malkar gave it to him; it's Caloxan. It's also symbolically and thematically appropriate to him, and, yes, that pleases me.
( and spoilers for The Mirador )Q: You mentioned in the recent crapstorm about Amazon that you don't like them- do you mind me asking why? I've heard some anti-Amazon sentiment in the past, but it started when I was in high school and I thought it was the best thing since the printing press. However, if it is bad for writers and/or readers etc I will stop giving them my money.
A: I don't like Amazon because I don't like their privacy policy and I don't like their business practices (i.e., the infinite expansion of the products they sell, their schlumphing over ABE Books like a Gelatinous Cube, etc.). I prefer to buy books from people who care about books, which I don't think characterizes Amazon at all. (Support your local indie bookstore!) But this is all purely on the personal level as a consumer. To my knowledge, Amazon is no worse for writers or readers than Borders or Barnes & Noble.
However, if you would like an alternative, may I suggest Powell's?
[Ask your question[s] here.]
