Cat-Tales 56: Armchair Detective

Re: Cat-Tales 56: Armchair Detective

feeds@yuku.com (SteelBlaidd) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 09:24:12 GMT

Ben hits my problem right on the head. I'm a student of languages, both human and computer. I have both professional and personal interest in how the brain deals with communication because of my sons learning disabilities. As such I see more contradictions between the observed behavior, much of which is necessary to make Cassie a viable character, and the proposed explanation.

Re: Cat-Tales 56: Armchair Detective

feeds@yuku.com (Chris Dee) — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 11:05:23 GMT

I would say the two of you have nailed it. It's not that an author can fall back on "because I say so" as an absolute, it is more like the String Theory explanation of magic. You decide what the rules and scales of measurement are in your world, and then you have to operate within them. In Star Wars and Star Trek, people could just walk on the floor in space ships and space stations. In Babylon 5, humans had ships with rotating sections to create artificial gravity....

Re: Cat-Tales 56: Armchair Detective

feeds@yuku.com (Coralskipper) — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 09:08:26 GMT

I could not possibly agree with you more Ben. So long as there is a plausible explanation within the world of fiction, that stays consistent you can get away with that. The problem starts when you can no longer be consistent with the internal logic of the story.

Re: Cat-Tales 56: Armchair Detective

feeds@yuku.com (BenRG) — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 06:09:23 GMT

That is why writing fiction is, in some ways, so liberating. Stuff in stories that you write works the way you say it does, not necessarily the way it does in the 'Real World'. This is something that I always try to remember when I see a strange cause-to-effect chain or completely wrong use of various technologies and sciences. "Remember, Ben! This is their story! It works because they say so!"

Re: Cat-Tales 56: Armchair Detective

feeds@yuku.com (The Thundering Monkey) — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 13:53:56 GMT

of the training method was that he essentially taught her sign language except it was one of his own devising using body action rather than hand words. By making it the first and only language she learned at the age when the brain learns best, she attained a very high degree of aptitude. I can see this as possible. All of us read body language to some degree or other. You know when in the context of an argument if someone starts to turn away, 4 times out of 5 the sucker punch is coming. You...

Re: Cat-Tales 56: Armchair Detective

feeds@yuku.com (Coralskipper) — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 12:46:00 GMT

Meh, it's fantastical fiction. They put up a plausible explanation that works for suspension of disbelief. I'm not too big of a fan of thinking about anything too deeply in such cases. I'd just rather sit back, and enjoy one of my favorite characters.

Re: Cat-Tales 56: Armchair Detective

feeds@yuku.com (Chris Dee) — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 09:10:17 GMT

Steel has excellent points there, and the reference to the "Dog Whisperer" has illuminated something for me in the Cassie situation, which you can either take as David Cain's idiocy or DC Comics's idiocy, either way, some "D.C." missed it big time.

The idea seems to be that Cass was trained the way you would train an animal, not the way you teach a human. The problem with that, is the way you train an animal is essentially doing what another of their...

Re: Cat-Tales 56: Armchair Detective

feeds@yuku.com (SteelBlaidd) — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 01:40:07 GMT

I'm sorry I missed the chat it looked lie a lot of fun. It's reassuring that Chris recognizes the Fridge logic inherent in the Posts version of Cassie's back story.

@BenRG:

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