flemmings | (no subject)

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Hm. For October, 31_days has themes from the Hyakunin Isshu. I wish I was still writing, or you know, had something I was dying to write about.

Well I do, sort of. I want to do a Points ficlet, but teasing out How Things Work from the text is beyond me right now. I mean, what's the deal with the Ghost-tide? The timely dead come back, OK (supposing we can agree on a definition of timely dead) so why are there these people who keep showing up to insist that their sister or whatever has been murdered? If she's there, she hasn't been murdered; or if she has been, then she somehow felt she ought to have been murdered-- like Philip's former comrades killed in the wars. But the untimely dead? When do they show up? Any old time at all?

I'd like a bit more meta and no one's giving me it grump.

Strange Horizons review

Tor.com review of Point of Knives

Scott makes my head spin with astrology signs

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I would like to read such a ficlet from you, however. :)

The fact that we have necromancers around, and that the necromancer and magist perform some sort of binding ceremony over the area that the villains of the first book died (and the orrery got destroyed) does suggest to me that the untimely dead can show up. But we lack any real further information that I can remember.

I've not read the books and from the contents ... I'm not even sure I'd be able to find them. *sigh* ... they look very good and delicious to read though.

However ... I was wondering about ghost-tide ... it sounds like the Seventh month Ghost Festival (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_Festival) thing when the gates of hell open and you honour your dead with theatre, food and material goods. They do also say the vengeful ones come back to exact revenge/retribution or some such, and some come back to poke at those remaining to say ... 'hey you remember me-eeee mwahahahahaha!' kind of thing.

I might go and see if I can somehow find these delighful sounding books.

I vaguely recall that the king and his servant who haunt b'Estorr were murdered or something: the North being a violent place and all. In fact the Ghost-tide is specifically said to be the only time that the timely dead *can* appear. Any other appearances argue violent death. But we still don't know if the untimely dead appear to ordinary people, or only to necromancers.

The Ghost-tide reminds me very much of Japanese o-Bon, when family just comes back to say hello and all. It's quite domestic in Japan, much less Confucian-ancestor-respecting than the Chinese versions.

There are second-hand copies all over the place here, more of Point of Hopes than of the hardcover Point of Dreams (though PoD is being reissued in trade paperback, I believe.) It helps to read Hopes before Dreams, just to get a grasp on the world-building. I read Dreams first, which is by far the better book, and so was a little disappointed in Hopes. And like everyone I wanted a lot more details of Rathe and Philip's affair than either book gave me. The affair didn't even start until after the end of Hopes.

That rings a bell, yes.

I would think that they can appear to ordinary people, but I admit that is totally my supposition. (You could always ask the author? :))

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