ThursdayNext : www.jasperfforde.com
A discussion of all things Thursday !
If people can just jump in to books...
Posted by: emily (---.proxy.aol.com)
Date: August 03, 2002 08:51PM
<HTML>Ok, so if someone read a book, and didn't realise they could not get inside it, then as children many of us could have visited best loved stories (I know I offen tryed to meet the characters in the books and imitated some of there actions). In which case could childrens books could be constently altered by unsuspecting visitors? If this is true (and I hope it is) why is this accurance so un-detected by the average reader? Or are we all too dull to notice?</HTML>
Re: If people can just jump in to books...
Posted by: Christian (---.cache.pol.co.uk)
Date: August 03, 2002 10:32PM
<HTML>Surely you'd notice the change of scenery? Or the 'fading' that Thursday perceives when making a first bookjump in Osaka? But still, I know what you mean, and I suspect we won't be the first or last to try ... ...
Bizarrely enough, Arthur C Clarke mentions this in his 'Rama' quartet, as one of the characters spent his youth chatting with "imaginary" Shakespeare characters. The plot thickens ...</HTML>
Bizarrely enough, Arthur C Clarke mentions this in his 'Rama' quartet, as one of the characters spent his youth chatting with "imaginary" Shakespeare characters. The plot thickens ...</HTML>
Re: If people can just jump in to books...
Posted by: ben (---.cache.pol.co.uk)
Date: August 28, 2002 12:27AM
<HTML>The changes visitors might cause to books would only occur to their books - only changes to the original manuscript (or original revisions) affect other books. Hence changes would only be noticeable if you compared two copies, and who bothers to do that? Anyway, haven't you ever noticed something new in a much-loved book that you never saw before?
Also, as adults rarely read kids books without at least the pretence of reading to their child, they would never read the book whilst the child was in there, and hence never notice a child who had read themselves into a book - they would simply assume the child had found something other than reading to do. Again, have you ever been moaned at by your parents for dissappearing when you were busy reading? Perhaps you should leave a copy of 'The Erye Affair' about the lounge so they might finally realise where you were.
Perhaps, also, books are resistant to change in the same way that the past appears to be. Thursday's father managed to stop French revisionists from assassinating Wellington, but this made no material change to the outcome of the wars, or to Thursday's own here/now.
I only wish Icould make these explanations magically twinkle...</HTML>
Also, as adults rarely read kids books without at least the pretence of reading to their child, they would never read the book whilst the child was in there, and hence never notice a child who had read themselves into a book - they would simply assume the child had found something other than reading to do. Again, have you ever been moaned at by your parents for dissappearing when you were busy reading? Perhaps you should leave a copy of 'The Erye Affair' about the lounge so they might finally realise where you were.
Perhaps, also, books are resistant to change in the same way that the past appears to be. Thursday's father managed to stop French revisionists from assassinating Wellington, but this made no material change to the outcome of the wars, or to Thursday's own here/now.
I only wish Icould make these explanations magically twinkle...</HTML>
Re: If people can just jump in to books...
Posted by: ben (---.cache.pol.co.uk)
Date: August 28, 2002 12:28AM
<HTML>The changes visitors might cause to books would only occur to their copies - only changes to the original manuscript (or original revisions) affect other books. Hence changes would only be noticeable if you compared two copies, and who bothers to do that? Anyway, haven't you ever noticed something new in a much-loved book that you never saw before?
As a child, book reading is new, so you wouldn't 'know' that you can't read into a book. At the same time you wouldn't 'know' that the fading wasn't normal for a reading brain to perceive. Hence you wouldn't notice anything strange, and would have lost the talent without ever knowing of it.
Outside the book, as adults rarely read kids books without at least the pretence of reading to their child, adults would never read the book whilst the child was in there, and hence never notice a child who had read themselves into a book - they would simply assume the child had found something other than reading to do. Hence the ability of believers to read into books remains unnoticed. Again, have you ever been moaned at by your parents for dissappearing when you were busy reading? Perhaps you should leave a copy of 'The Eyre Affair' about the lounge so they might finally realise where you were.
Perhaps, also, books are resistant to change in the same way that the past appears to be. Thursday's father managed to stop French revisionists from assassinating Wellington, but this made no material change to the outcome of the wars, or to Thursday's own here/now.
I only wish I could make these explanations magically twinkle...</HTML>
As a child, book reading is new, so you wouldn't 'know' that you can't read into a book. At the same time you wouldn't 'know' that the fading wasn't normal for a reading brain to perceive. Hence you wouldn't notice anything strange, and would have lost the talent without ever knowing of it.
Outside the book, as adults rarely read kids books without at least the pretence of reading to their child, adults would never read the book whilst the child was in there, and hence never notice a child who had read themselves into a book - they would simply assume the child had found something other than reading to do. Hence the ability of believers to read into books remains unnoticed. Again, have you ever been moaned at by your parents for dissappearing when you were busy reading? Perhaps you should leave a copy of 'The Eyre Affair' about the lounge so they might finally realise where you were.
Perhaps, also, books are resistant to change in the same way that the past appears to be. Thursday's father managed to stop French revisionists from assassinating Wellington, but this made no material change to the outcome of the wars, or to Thursday's own here/now.
I only wish I could make these explanations magically twinkle...</HTML>
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