September 18th, 2015
19 Sept 2015 · page 524 of 1306
And the word of the day is...
Cast: Henry Barber, Isabelle Holt
Comments (52)
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She has some amazing hair.
What witches? (Not to be confused with _Which Witch?_ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Which_Witch%3F_(novel)").)
Or even Witch Watch:
[http://www.smashwords.com/b...](http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/133832 "http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/133832")
This all seems very witchy-washy...
Guys. Seriously. Don't drink and drive fly.
[https://w4.kunstnet.org/277...](https://w4.kunstnet.org/27781/dont-drink-and-fly.JPG "https://w4.kunstnet.org/27781/dont-drink-and-fly.JPG")
Everything starts with witches.
Especially little witches.
Witches, eh?
No good comes from meddling in their affairs. Not subtle in the least, they.
They're a lot subtler than wizards, though
I ATE'NT DEAD
/still
I sense two or three pages of exposition and background.
Hush! Don't jinx it. I'm going to get some cake. But I bet she will get interrupted, and all we will get is one half of a frame.
Your mother's family name redeemed? I bet there's a story there...
She must science as hard as she can and restore honor to her family!
Verbing nouns stranges language. Yet, I approve.
I don't opinion this problems as much you comment it does.
s/this/these/
Let's stick to some rules while modifying them.
I think "problems" there is a verb... as I read it, his mistake was leaving out an "as".
His comment has the form (and meaning) of "I don't think this matters as much you say it does".
Ahh[s](http://selkiecomic.com/comic/selkie525/ "http://selkiecomic.com/comic/selkie525/"). Makes senses. Is reads its as plurals rathers thans conjugations.
So we have Ms Ashwin telling a story about someone telling a story - about someone telling a story. Wonder how many layers down she can get? Ever read Neil Gaiman's Worlds' End?
Nested stories are very, very old. In English alone they go back as far as... well, as non-Saxon English literature, really: the Canterbury Tales. But if you want a more deeply nested version (with a twist...), try the Little Harmonic Labyrinth in Hofstadter's Gödel, Escher, Bach.
If you want a deeply nested story with a fantasy element, look for The Last Arabian Night, book 3 of Craig Shaw Gardner's Arabian Nights trilogy.
Or you know....the Arabian Nights themselves? A story about a woman telling stories, which usually contain people telling each other stories.
The Panchtantra, an ancient collection of Indian tales has tales within tales.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wi...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panchatantra "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panchatantra")
OOOOOOOOOOooo shiney.
...or try reading the actual 1001 Nights Arabian Tales... (nsfw, btw)
Especially Burton's translation. Enjoy the footnotes on lesbianism in harems.
I've always wanted to, but never got around to it. All I've read was a (sloppy, I suspect) Dutch translation of a small selection of the more... prurient ones. So much still on the To-Read stack...
Here, have a deeply nested ghost story courtesy of the wonderful John Finnemore:
[https://www.youtube.com/wat...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtN3xqsSh5c "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtN3xqsSh5c")
Jan Potocki was kind of a real-life Henry Barber (see, for a start, https://en.wikipedia.org/wi... "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Potocki#Life)"). He wrote a novel called The Manuscrript Found in Saragossa, which is famous for having nested stories in stories in stories. I've counted seven levels deep at one point. It's a surprisingly good novel, but you'd need a lot of time to read it.
...and if your want a nested story that descends into a complete mess and never quite digs its way out again, try 'Melmoth the Wanderer' by Charles Maturin.
...Geez, at this point they're going to have to land the Sailfin and go find a vicar that will helpfully backdate the banns-reading paperwork.
Oh! Storytime! :-)
WItches?! Time to break out the pitchforks, burning torches, bonfires and marshmallows! Though I expect in Ms Ashwin's Universe they won't be that sort of witch.
Witches, secret societies and cyclists, they are responsible for pretty much every major catastrophe in the history of mankind.
Cyclists: feet always on the pedals of disaster.
Flashback images, within an story of old memories, within in a world set 200 years ago....
When are we? I'm so confused!
Bad Kate!
You're s'posed to be only able to keep up with part of the story arc. There's been a build-up to this in all of it for some time now. Keep up or let Kate drop the mind-bomb on ya at the last moment. In either case...you ought to find real entertainment here.
Flashback within flashbacks! Yay!
(no, I really didn't mean to upvote my own comment. >.< Silly touch screen.)
Hmmm... I wonder if there are people that deliberately have spirits posses them. Presumably in such a way that they retain agency (unless they're really stupid), but if you did it right, then the person might get magic powers or some such. Even if all they got was the emotion, that could be a way to treat someone who was mentally ill.
Diagnosed with clinical depression? Go see a wizard and have them put a purple hippo of happiness in your brain! (This could explain Wolfe, honestly.)
Anyway, that would be an interesting question. If, say, Pride was possessing someone, would they become perfect or would they just think they were perfect? Or would it be a "little from column A, little from column B" sort of deal?
Pretty sure they'd just think they were amazing. After all, pride isn't directly connected to skill. Though technically that would make it Hubris, not Pride. But then, Christian tradition doesn't seem to distinguish between the two. Of course, increased self-confidence might make them better at some things... or make them so over-confident they messed everything up. It might even depend on the person you infused. More research!
Well, the various spirits clearly have powers related to their emotion. I mean, being envious of others doesn't usually allow you to steal their innate character traits either. The Deadlies also seem to have general Spirit Powers too, since Greed was able to lay a "bones to dust" curse on someone and Gluttony was able to time travel. So, I think it would be reasonable to assume that Pride could make you better at something, while also making you insufferable.
Thinking on it further, Pride might do a "you're as good as you think you are" thing, where your awesomeness is fueled by your own Pride in yourself. Which could be really useful for some people, but it would be prone to fail unexpectedly.
Did the Envy-Voss arrangement count as possession? I thought that was a pact. I hadn't considered there being a power transfer; I was thinking about what happens when you infuse an object with the emotion - the train line moved faster due to impatience, but most of the other infusions just invoked that emotion in others. Sloth infused oil made people sleepy, hunger infused bread made people want to eat more, etc. So I thought possession would basically be a very strong infusion directly into the person instead of via an intermediate. Of course, I could be completely wrong and they're actually very different. It would be interesting if possession actually gave the target powers... or completely replaced their soul with the deadly in question, with all their powers intact... Hm.
Recursive flashback time?
Doesn't it always?
I don't mean to be mean, but why is the wine green ?
And, you don't drink that much neat -- absinthe in water goes milky. :)
However, things like elderflower or spring (nettles and a lot of other green herbs) cordials and gooseberry or greengage wines? Possible.
Lore! Lore! Lore! Lore!