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truepennyMy question post is now on its seventh page of questions. Thank you all so much for playing with me!
Q: My first question is, and maybe it has already been answered in your books, but sometimes my memory fails me like a tea-strainer: is The Virtu a construct perhaps made by those you call Virtuers? I noticed you explaining to us that Cymellune of the Waters was the mother continent of both Troians and Mélusiniens alike, and the Corambins also claim Cymellune as their background. (By the way, I love how you make an eclectic world filled with almost untracable historical undercurrents, just like our own world)
A: Nope. Q&A 19 explains the etymological link. Virtuer is a Corambin term and has nothing to do with Mélusine or the Cabal (the Cabal being the seven people who made the Virtu).
Q: And secondly: Is there a sort of symbolism to the word ´Virtuer´? Beside the fact that of course the French word means ´truth´, but I mean, this is the title of those wizards we encounter lastly , namely in your last book! And not to mention, perhaps most importantly, Felix becomes a Virtuer (and gets to live in a Lighthouse...).
A: Is the French word you're thinking of vérite? So far as I know (and so far as my dictionary knows) "virtuer" is not a French word of any kind.
I needed a word to indicate a Ph.D. level magician. In the first draft I had something awful and awkward as a placeholder (I've forgotten what it was, and I'm okay with that); I don't remember how I came up with "virtuer" exactly--because of vi, most likely, and the fact that I'd sensitized myself to puns on "virtue." But as soon as I thought of it, I knew it was right.
Q:Do you watch "The Big Bang Theory"? Coz Sheldon reminds me(us) of a certain someone. :)
A: Nope.
Q: Felix and the ghosts in the Mirador. I'm in the midst of a first read through "The Mirador". Felix is concerned that Malkar/Strych will come back as a ghost and so he is looking for a ghost or two to talk to and learn how he might prevent Malkar from rising again. However, in "The Virtu", when Felix lays the ghosts and ghouls by eliminating the necromantic foundation of the Virtu, did that not mean that all the ghosts and whatever undead else haunting the Mirador crossed into the 'other world' after they walked the maze he draws in the Cordelii crypt? If Felix is looking for ghosts again, does this mean that the maze wasn't completely successful in ridding the Mirador of hauntings? Or is this a contradiction you meant to write in? Or will I find out by the end of Book 3 or in Book 4?
A: The maze Felix makes in The Virtu lays to rest specifically those undead who were caught in the necromantic foundations of the Mirador. That's far from being all of the Mirador's ghosts.
Q: There are a very large number of common sayings and similes, metaphors and other figures of speech in the four Labyrinth books which involve cats/kittens (also dogs and bears appear to a lesser extent [clockwork bears pop up a lot]). You included one such (very) roughly every 40 pages. The four POV characters have names which are cat-related as well: Mildmay the Cat Burglar; Felix (the name of a well-known cartoon cat); Mehitabel (ditto); and Kay whose nickname is Cougar--which is another name for a mountain lion.
Was all this intentional? Were you aware that you were doing this?
A: I like cats. And animal metaphors--unlike many other registers--translate pretty easily from one world to another. Also, Mildmay and Felix both being urban creatures, feral cats are the animals they're most familiar with. With dogs second and bears third, specifically because of bear-baiting, which we know is popular in the Lower City. I don't think there's any particularly deeper meaning than that.
Felix was named in spite of Felix the Cat, not because of.
Q: How do you reconcile the existence of human suffering with an omnipotent diety?
A: Being an atheist, I don't try.
But, really, the problem isn't reconciling human suffering with an omnipotent deity. The Old Testament, for example, is just fine with that. The problem is reconciling human suffering with an omnipotent and omnibenevolent deity. And I don't know what you do about that.
Q: Do you have any plans to return to the world of Mélusine, possibly after a break? "Corambis" was open-ended, and there seems to be a number of issues still unresolved.
A: That's a big fat "maybe."
As far as I'm concerned, the story of the Doctrine of Labyrinths is over; the open-endedness is because, in my view, that's much better than too much closure (like the Victorian novels that end with the firecracker string of marriages). People's lives don't end just because a particular narrative has ended. (Or if they do, it's a very different kind of story than the one I was trying to tell.) I wanted to let readers have the feeling that Felix and Mildmay's lives continued off the end of the last page, the way real people's lives do. That doesn't mean I know anything about how their lives are going to go, or have any interest in finding out.
Right at the moment, I'm tired of Felix and Mildmay, much as I love them, and I'm tired of Meduse. If that changes in the future, I won't fight it, but I'm also not expecting or actively courting it. I want to do something different now.
Q: So what DOES happen to the annemer half of the obligation d'ame if the wizard is executed for treason? It's clear at the end of The Mirador that it's something nasty, but that leaves the options pretty wide open.
A: Think about how Mildmay reacts when Felix is hurt. Then imagine what would happen to him while Felix was burning to death and he was actively being prevented from saving him. I think he'd end up dead of it, one way or another, and it would be a really bad way to die.
Q: What is a porpentine? And, since I just reread "Wait For Me," about Booth--is/does/will he ever change his pattern of interacting with the world? Or have I been given a false sense of progression/potential character development by the fact that I read The Bone Key as a book instead of as a collection of discrete stories?
A: Early modern word for porcupine. See Hamlet; also my series of "fretful porpentine" icons.
Booth is changing, but as a process, it's (a.) slow, (b.) subtle, (c.) prone to backsliding. But when I write about him now, he's not quite the same person he was in "Bringing Helena Back."
[Ask your question(s) here.]
Q: My first question is, and maybe it has already been answered in your books, but sometimes my memory fails me like a tea-strainer: is The Virtu a construct perhaps made by those you call Virtuers? I noticed you explaining to us that Cymellune of the Waters was the mother continent of both Troians and Mélusiniens alike, and the Corambins also claim Cymellune as their background. (By the way, I love how you make an eclectic world filled with almost untracable historical undercurrents, just like our own world)
A: Nope. Q&A 19 explains the etymological link. Virtuer is a Corambin term and has nothing to do with Mélusine or the Cabal (the Cabal being the seven people who made the Virtu).
Q: And secondly: Is there a sort of symbolism to the word ´Virtuer´? Beside the fact that of course the French word means ´truth´, but I mean, this is the title of those wizards we encounter lastly , namely in your last book! And not to mention, perhaps most importantly, Felix becomes a Virtuer (and gets to live in a Lighthouse...).
A: Is the French word you're thinking of vérite? So far as I know (and so far as my dictionary knows) "virtuer" is not a French word of any kind.
I needed a word to indicate a Ph.D. level magician. In the first draft I had something awful and awkward as a placeholder (I've forgotten what it was, and I'm okay with that); I don't remember how I came up with "virtuer" exactly--because of vi, most likely, and the fact that I'd sensitized myself to puns on "virtue." But as soon as I thought of it, I knew it was right.
Q:Do you watch "The Big Bang Theory"? Coz Sheldon reminds me(us) of a certain someone. :)
A: Nope.
Q: Felix and the ghosts in the Mirador. I'm in the midst of a first read through "The Mirador". Felix is concerned that Malkar/Strych will come back as a ghost and so he is looking for a ghost or two to talk to and learn how he might prevent Malkar from rising again. However, in "The Virtu", when Felix lays the ghosts and ghouls by eliminating the necromantic foundation of the Virtu, did that not mean that all the ghosts and whatever undead else haunting the Mirador crossed into the 'other world' after they walked the maze he draws in the Cordelii crypt? If Felix is looking for ghosts again, does this mean that the maze wasn't completely successful in ridding the Mirador of hauntings? Or is this a contradiction you meant to write in? Or will I find out by the end of Book 3 or in Book 4?
A: The maze Felix makes in The Virtu lays to rest specifically those undead who were caught in the necromantic foundations of the Mirador. That's far from being all of the Mirador's ghosts.
Q: There are a very large number of common sayings and similes, metaphors and other figures of speech in the four Labyrinth books which involve cats/kittens (also dogs and bears appear to a lesser extent [clockwork bears pop up a lot]). You included one such (very) roughly every 40 pages. The four POV characters have names which are cat-related as well: Mildmay the Cat Burglar; Felix (the name of a well-known cartoon cat); Mehitabel (ditto); and Kay whose nickname is Cougar--which is another name for a mountain lion.
Was all this intentional? Were you aware that you were doing this?
A: I like cats. And animal metaphors--unlike many other registers--translate pretty easily from one world to another. Also, Mildmay and Felix both being urban creatures, feral cats are the animals they're most familiar with. With dogs second and bears third, specifically because of bear-baiting, which we know is popular in the Lower City. I don't think there's any particularly deeper meaning than that.
Felix was named in spite of Felix the Cat, not because of.
Q: How do you reconcile the existence of human suffering with an omnipotent diety?
A: Being an atheist, I don't try.
But, really, the problem isn't reconciling human suffering with an omnipotent deity. The Old Testament, for example, is just fine with that. The problem is reconciling human suffering with an omnipotent and omnibenevolent deity. And I don't know what you do about that.
Q: Do you have any plans to return to the world of Mélusine, possibly after a break? "Corambis" was open-ended, and there seems to be a number of issues still unresolved.
A: That's a big fat "maybe."
As far as I'm concerned, the story of the Doctrine of Labyrinths is over; the open-endedness is because, in my view, that's much better than too much closure (like the Victorian novels that end with the firecracker string of marriages). People's lives don't end just because a particular narrative has ended. (Or if they do, it's a very different kind of story than the one I was trying to tell.) I wanted to let readers have the feeling that Felix and Mildmay's lives continued off the end of the last page, the way real people's lives do. That doesn't mean I know anything about how their lives are going to go, or have any interest in finding out.
Right at the moment, I'm tired of Felix and Mildmay, much as I love them, and I'm tired of Meduse. If that changes in the future, I won't fight it, but I'm also not expecting or actively courting it. I want to do something different now.
Q: So what DOES happen to the annemer half of the obligation d'ame if the wizard is executed for treason? It's clear at the end of The Mirador that it's something nasty, but that leaves the options pretty wide open.
A: Think about how Mildmay reacts when Felix is hurt. Then imagine what would happen to him while Felix was burning to death and he was actively being prevented from saving him. I think he'd end up dead of it, one way or another, and it would be a really bad way to die.
Q: What is a porpentine? And, since I just reread "Wait For Me," about Booth--is/does/will he ever change his pattern of interacting with the world? Or have I been given a false sense of progression/potential character development by the fact that I read The Bone Key as a book instead of as a collection of discrete stories?
A: Early modern word for porcupine. See Hamlet; also my series of "fretful porpentine" icons.
Booth is changing, but as a process, it's (a.) slow, (b.) subtle, (c.) prone to backsliding. But when I write about him now, he's not quite the same person he was in "Bringing Helena Back."
[Ask your question(s) here.]
