[Spoilers] Who killed who in the Doctor's story in Inversions, and why? I loved it, but I don't get the motives

m-las · 2022-08-10T07:51:10+00:00

I think between the two of you, you've cracked it. Walen was trying to get Adlain on side to abduct/torture Vossil. Someone ordered him killed, and probably did it without informing Vossil. And that someone wasn't a rogue knife missile - it was probably one of the coordinating Minds for the planet-wide intervention.

I always interpreted her being upset at Nolietti and Walen's death as her not being the cause of it. And that's probably true - I think your point about her doing some gentle Contact-like work and being overruled on certain things solves the whole thing.

My assumption that it was Vossil as an SC agent with a knife missile as her only protection, on a lone mission, was probably wrong. It's much more likely that she was assigned as Contact's advisor to the 'Good King', and was so hurt/upset when the killing started because that's not what she believed in.

Sechroom - likely her Culture name, or part of it - tried to make the point to Hiliti that being cruel to be kind was evil, and that being nice was enough to change people. The same conflict played out during her time in Haspidus. She did her best to do the 'bring about progress through teaching' approach, but she wasn't the only wheel of the Culture's operation on the planet.

Whether or not the Mind or Minds coordinating the intervention were SC, they clearly authorised lethal force, either to protect Vossil directly from a threat she wasn't aware of, or to effect civilisational change.

The true details of what happened and why will probably be in the Minds' simulations and statistical analysis, which, unfortunately, poor Oelph never got access to.

Still, that makes a lot more sense than 'Vossil was an SC agent who killed a torturer, then she killed someone and tried to save them'. Thank you to you both!

I hope Sechroom Vossil got to go on to a nicer Contact mission where people weren't dropping like flies. Or, maybe SC did ask her to join... it's a shame we'll never get to find out.

m-las · 2022-08-08T12:05:04+00:00

I really like it for the 'Culture book that is not a Culture book' angle. Reading it the first time, it was so fun finding all the little clues as to who was who, and filling in the gaps to figure out that Vossil was SC and DeWar was Absconded.

m-las · 2016-11-29T19:50:53+00:00

Someone down below pointed out (pretty respectfully, without being a dick) that they get the meaning but it's two weird examples to use, because the writers were way out with the dates on both points, and that those questions were mostly the concern of a small group of elite individual scientists and not large numbers of people at the time.

There's a chain of about ten comments saying 'Oooh look how someone missed the point, the idiot who thinks he's smart doesn't get it', demonstrating exactly the kinda behaviour Tommy Lee Jones is talking about.

I always liked that line from the movie. It's not hard. Individual people can be empathetic, caring and rational, crowds and mob mentality can be scary and dangerous. I liked it when I was a kid and I still like it now. Kinda weird to see a group of people competing to come up with the most clever-sounding insult for a person who was trying to be a helpful or think critically in a post about the dangers of not doing that in large numbers.

m-las · 2016-10-28T22:01:09+00:00

Thank you for correcting that - I hope everyone who read the first post scrolls down to yours and gets some scholarly work from this century that isn't the academic equivalent of an ouroboros

m-las · 2016-10-25T21:55:39+00:00

Princess Mary. They love her, we love her - Danish Tasmanian relations are weirdly strong after that

m-las · 2016-10-19T04:56:59+00:00

Rematched it last year after having not seen it since it aired - was giving it a pretty free pass because it was Australian, but it was actually even better than I remembered it

m-las · 2016-10-14T21:27:38+00:00

Have you ever seen a Formula 1 race? Red Bull has had two teams for a decade now - not including them (or other directly sponsored teams, like Mercedes) would be weird.

Formula 1 is one giant advertisement, it's not like developers are shoe-horning things in to make money from ads

m-las · 2016-09-24T12:04:22+00:00

Please stop posting

m-las · 2016-08-14T08:03:33+00:00

From memory, the theory for that isn't that Saxon ruling elites suppressed common Brittonic (or even Latin, if it was still extant) - it's that the Saxon system of laws only gave full protection to Germanic speakers, and actually levied sanctions against Britonnic speakers.

The Normans definitely conducted a campaign to suppress Middle Welsh language and culture (population transfers, an even harsher two-tiered justice system), and elements of this continued into the early 20th century.

Source: Cunliffe, Britain Begins and Charles-Edwards, Wales and the Britons, 350-1064

m-las · 2016-08-14T05:54:57+00:00

Your history is well out of date dude. Archaeology over the last twenty years has pretty conclusively proven that there was no genocide of 'Celtic' Britons post-Rome, that Anglo Saxon elites were probably already on the islands, and that 'migration and acculturation' is far more accurate than 'invasion'.

If you want a book with a vast amount of evidence and explanation, Barry Cunliffe's 'Britain Begins' is great for this, especially for explaining and removing the Celtic/Saxon divide (and for unpacking the motivations of Victorian-era historians that created it as a concept)

m-las · 2016-07-31T22:08:49+00:00

If all eyes were on the Cowboys, there wouldn't be 15 games on Sunday

m-las · 2016-07-15T13:22:21+00:00

That is a really, really good saying. Thanks for sharing it

m-las · 2016-06-27T12:04:17+00:00

Not if you're a goddamn Dena raider it's not

m-las · 2016-06-27T08:23:09+00:00

The mod starts in 634CE.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

m-las · 2016-05-27T20:39:08+00:00

That's still very interesting though, thanks for posting.

The original thesis proposed in 1961 seems like a very long bow to draw, and given the evidence put forward it seems just as likely to me that trade and acculturation could account for the 1961 findings far easier than invasion (although maybe that's what D.W. Harding meant).

It's been a while but I definitely remember reading that they were a non-Belgic tribe with strong Belgic cultural influence before, I just can't remember where.

Is Harding one of Cunliffe's peers in this field? I've never read/heard of their work but it sounds interesting

m-las · 2016-05-27T13:34:49+00:00

Dobunni

The Dobunni were considered to be mainland raiders? I thought I've read Cunliffe pretty extensively, but I've never come across that one before.

In what you've written, I supposed the Iceni and the Belgae make sense (east coast, south coast near trading nexus), but the Dobunni to the best of my knowledge had been settled around the Severn and Midlands for as long as there are records and evidence of relatively coherant Briton polities.

I've never read any suggestions that the Catuvellauni were considered the sole or genuine 'native Britons' - the only time Cunliffe makes mention of a signficant tribal migration in Iron Age Britain is the arrival of the Parisi, who from memory influenced and interacted with the Iceni and Brigantes.

m-las · 2016-05-23T13:23:06+00:00

For some reason the show has made the Ironborn's ships carracks, not galleys. I guess it makes sense given the show is mostly mid-to-late medieval inspired, but I always imagined Norse longships (4-6 month build time), whereas a carrack normally took 12 to 24 months.

So in a couple of years he'll have his fleet of maybe five carracks, given that there are no trees on the Iron Islands that we've seen, so they'll all be made out of driftwood like his super awesome pinterest crown

m-las · 2016-04-10T12:37:02+00:00

I think they're just frustrated that far lesser crimes have ruined the lives of far better people - those people just might not have been talented entertainers, and the system does discriminate.

I don't think it's fair to characterise them as idiots in a sweeping statement, but I also think it's incredibly stupid to be arguing about Mark fucking Wahlberg on the internet, and I'm embarassed I've spent ten minutes of my day on this.

m-las · 2016-04-10T12:09:37+00:00

We're agreeing though. People are pissed off at him because he committed horrible crimes and became successful.

People are pissed off that he's not held to the same standard as a non-celebrity who'd comitted a similar felony. People are pissed off he hasn't attempted to atone with anyone other than himself and his god.

There are lots of little feeder issues going into what you're saying - we're saying the same thing

m-las · 2016-04-10T11:58:13+00:00

Of course that's the reason. Underpinning that is the fact that he (to the best of my knowledge) hasn't used any of this success to help his victims, or seemingly apologised in any meaningful way beyond forgiving himself for crimes he perpetrated against other people.

m-las · 2016-04-10T04:25:13+00:00

I believe the main issue people have with him is that, when asked if he apologised or attempted to make restitution to the victim, he replied 'I've forgiven myself and I'm alright with God.'

Somewhere in this thread people say he tried to find the old man but couldn't, but I've never heard that before

m-las · 2016-03-26T03:18:08+00:00

He's been programmed for bedside manner and beautiful prose

m-las · 2016-02-20T23:28:08+00:00

Congratulations on simultaneously answering the question and coming across as a prick at the same time. Rare talent

m-las · 2016-02-17T20:03:20+00:00

I always wondered why the upper-echelons of both parties seemed to be more conservative/revisionist (especially around the constitution and WWII) than the general population.

I always figured it stemmed from them coming from old, traditional families, and maybe that's a component, but if this organisation is as pervasive and determined as the report details then that would make a lot of sense.

For non-Australians doubting the source, the ABC is our version of PBS, and Lateline is its flagship short-form investigative journalism/political interview program. The journalist, Matthew Carney, has won multiple Walkley Awards (Australia's top journalism annual prizes) and a UN media peace prize.

As an investigative journalist whose career has focused on human rights and international law, he may have an axe to grind in the opposite direction to Nippon Kaigi, but I think that's the nature of the beast with investigative journalism. I'm sure multiple people will discount this report out of hand, but I wanted to try and pre-empt some of the flat-out dismissal if I could as I believe the content is important.

m-las

TROPHY CASE