7.4 KiB
UNSONG Chapter 27: The Starry Floor, The Watery Shore
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Author: u/None *
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URL: http://unsongbook.com/chapter-27-the-starry-floor-the-watery-shore/
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Score: 41
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Created: 2016-07-03T21:03:52
Post:
Comments:
u/Chronophilia [+35] sci-fi ≠ futurology (20 minutes later)
“The blue sail?”
“…is a good Roman Catholic,” said John, smiling. “It only responds to the prayers of a priest.”
“What? Why?”
“It is,” he said with some chagrin, “a Mass-energy converter.”
This story in a nutshell.
u/scruiser [+10] CYOA (3 hours later)
This story in a nutshell.
Needs a dash of black comedy that is then revealed to be not funny at all and totally horrible.
u/boomfarmer [+8] Trying to be helpful (19 hours later)
Have you seen what happens when something gets crammed into a nutshell?
It dies, scruiser.
It dies.
u/TK17Studios [+4] Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning (2 days later)
u/Themnos [+2] (5 hours later)
I think this is the best pun so far, it just has this beautiful simplicity.
u/ThatDarnSJDoubleW [+17] (11 hours later)
So Ana was studying theodicy, started at Ithaca and is now on a journey back to her comfort zone, summoning winds given to her by a mystical figure, with the boat's captain being nobody?
u/Escapement [+13] Ankh-Morpork City Watch (31 minutes later)
Simeon is now the least trustworthy character in Unsong. Less trustworthy than Thaumiel or Satan. Interestingly, the biblical origin of his name sometimes is "he who listens [to the words of God]" and sometimes "there is sin". So it would be a great name for a traitor, but also for a theodician.
(I was just going through Pratchett's Maskerade recently, and the practice of telling a person's character by testing the firmness of their handshake and looking deeply into their eyes is remarked upon repeatedly in that book; want to guess how trustworthy the guy described as "giving [...] a firm handshake and looking [...] squarely in the eye" is?)
Also, the Mass-energy converter pun is bad and Scott should be ashamed of himself. I laughed, a lot.
Finally, colours of sail:
Red - Normal wind
Orange - Placebo
Yellow - Kabbalah
Green - Singing?
Blue - Prayer
Violet - Angel
Black - The Comet King (?)I myself can't really reliably tell Indigo from Blue/Violet interface, so I'm totally fine with not having an Indigo sail.
The Comet King sail seems like the sort of plot hook where it will ultimately be driven by Cometspawn, maybe.
u/DCarrier [+5] (46 minutes later)
Or by Aaron when he becomes the new Comet King.
u/ZeroNihilist [+7] (14 hours later)
I suspect that the black sail is driven by an action, much like the others. Even the violet sail is powered by the angel conducting the heavenly power, not just being an angel.
What we know is that the Comet King drew his sword. It doesn't mention anything else, but I suspect it's something specific. For example, the true and honest intent to defeat Thamiel and save the victims in hell.
u/boomfarmer [+9] Trying to be helpful (19 hours later)
Expecto Patronum?
u/LiteralHeadCannon [+3] (16 hours later)
Might need nephilim power.
u/TK17Studios [+3] Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning (2 hours later)
I read recently that, when Newton first popularized thinking of the spectrum as having seven specific bands, "blue" was the label for what we'd now call cyan, and "indigo" was the label for a deep, rich, dark blue. So ... maybe you can tell indigo apart?
u/None [+2] (17 hours later)
What if Simeon is Thaumiel, trying to reach and kill Metatron? What if he can power the black sail?
u/None [+4] (a day later)
[deleted]
u/None [+3] (a day later)
Or even Edgar Crane is the villain on the ship, and this is a case where the story isn't following story logic.
u/None [+2] (2 days later)
Im pleased to see we are now inching towards the (a?) plot
u/LiteralHeadCannon [+1] (2 hours later)
If you are aware that there is a fun-theory-compliant positive afterlife, then annihilating the people in Hell would be horrible, because you're signing away the possibility of transferring them to Heaven in 3 ^ ^ ^ 3 years for currently unforeseen reasons, destroying infinite utility. Hold out hope.
u/ScottAlexander [+4] (10 hours later)
http://slatestarcodex.com/2016/06/28/survey-results-suffering-vs-oblivion/
u/hxka [+4] I Have No Time, and I Must Read (a day later)
I'm in a bit of a pickle, can you give me $10? I'll return $3^^^3 tomorrow, promise!
u/None [+1] (20 hours later)
What if they are transferred into super-hell in
3^^^3years?
u/LiteralHeadCannon [+1] (21 hours later)
There's no reason to believe in such a place. I'm assuming that Heaven and Hell are knowns - as of now in the story, Hell seems to be a known and Heaven seems to be a probability but not a known.
u/None [+1] (22 hours later)
What if super-hell is created for currently unforeseen reasons?
u/LiteralHeadCannon [+1] (23 hours later)
This is a technical possibility but seems less plausible than Hell residents being sent to Heaven.
u/None [+1] (a day later)
Alright, I'll stop being facetious.
The problem with this line or reasoning is exactly the same with any argument that deals with tiny probabilities: you are so focused on the values inside the argument that you neglect considerations outside of it. I don't know what you'd consider to be the chance of hell's residents achieving heaven, but
1/3^^^3would seem to be somewhere in that ballpark. Tell me, weighing every assumption and prior that when into your calculation of this number, do you honestly think the conjunction is anywhere near1/3^^^3, let alone less than it? I'd sooner expect problems in your metaethical theory, or model of reality, or literally anything else than seriously consider any probability outputted that exceeds the probability I assign to the conjunction of all my assumptions in the first place.Edit: you know what? I just remembered this is fictional world, so there is no uncertainty about the ontics of reality. Disregard my whole position.
u/LiteralHeadCannon [+2] (a day later)
I'm basically just saying that the eternal nature of Unsong Hell seems pretty doubtful, and you'd need to be quite certain of it to justify annihilation of Hell residents.
u/None [+2] (a day later)
This is a metaethical problem, one I don't expect to be easily (or ever, potentially) solved. Remember the post Scott linked you too? I fall pretty squarely oblivion side of this issue, to the extent that I'd think a significant fraction of humanity would be better off having never existed. (Though like most antinatalist I don't actually think we should kill them, and I am uncertain whether they would be better off having stopped existing (as opposed to having never existed) which is subtly different).