>I don't think he's wrong in his portrayal. I think he's ambiguous in his
>portrayal, and I can't tell whether it was supposed to be that way to trick
>the reader.

Here, Ken, tell you what, I'll do you a favor. The very next arc I write, I'll
have Peter stand there on page one and say, "Okay, just so nobody gets confused
by the mystery that follows, that normally we would unfurl slowly so you can
follow the red herrings and twists and turns and enjoy the roller coaster, with
lots of guessing and possibilities but always playing fair with the readers,
we're going to tell you the whole thing up front, right here on page one, so
you don't have to fret that maybe it won't all add up. Far better that way
than risking the possibility that people might actually have some fun along the
way playing the guessing game.

"Oh, and from this point on, we're going to define science as either *weird*
science or *normal* science, despite the fact that neither term has any
relavance to the real world, to actual scientific method, to...well, to
anything, actually...but there are always some people who just don't understand
the process, and as a result if what they see doesn't match what they *think*
science is, as opposed to what it really is...well, they get kind of confused,
and we have to be good to those people, right? Like the kid in school that was
slower than everyone else and the teacher kept saying, Hey, throw him the ball!
and we all did it because we were supposed to, even though he couldn't actually
hold onto the thing, but it made him feel better, until we yelled Oh, look, a
pony! and he looked and we pantsed him, but that's not the point, because
really, making the slower kids feel like they're part of the team is important,
it's what we're here for, so everybody play along."

Yep. I think that's going to be the opening from Peter in the next arc.

It's either that or the old proverb, "A book is like a mirror. If an ass peers
in, you can't exactly expect an apostle to peer out."

Not that that has ANY bearing on the current discussion, mind, I'm just waxing
nostalgic for the days of pithy comments.

It's the waxy pithy buildup that kills you, and --

Oh, look, a pony!

jms

(jmsatb5@aol.com)
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