Re: Closing

From: TTrotsky_at_aol.com
Date: Wed, 6 Jan 1999 18:33:37 EST


In a message dated 6/1/99 10:55:19PM, you write:

<< Me>> _If_ the Closing affects swimmers and ships alike _and_ Belintar knew the
>>secrets of negating the closing while swimming _then_ it follows that his
>>secrets would be effective in helping ships defeat the Closing, no? >>
 

> I don't see why that follows at all. It's entirely consistent with the
>premises that Belintar's technique works only if you are swimming and/or
only
>affects approximately man-sized objects.
 

 So using Belintar's secrets and sufficent endurance spells, you can swim to Pamaltela?>>

       That's one possibility, yes. Indeed, if you're right about the Closing not affecting swimmers, then the same fact would hold.

<< Or use a canoe which is certainly man-sized?>>

      I'd agree that its unlikely that the secret (if there was one) would rely solely on the object being man-sized.  

 <<>Furthermore, unlike Dormal's ritual,
>it might be something that only a powerful HeroQuester can do, making it
less
>useful to the majority of people. It might even have been a one-use power
that
>he gained in his earlier life.
 

 Which is something that needs to be demonstrated. It is insufficient to show that the proposition that the Closing affects only ships (my position) is wrong (as Philip claimed). >>

      He did - I didn't. I simply said that there was an alternative possible explanation that fit the facts you had given, and therefore that the argument that Belintar (not exactly a normal person) was able to swim through the closing does not prove that the closing does not affect normal swimmers. I specifically stated that it did not prove the opposite, either - or indeed anything very much by itself.

Forward the glorious Red Army!

     Trotsky


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