Did anyone else think that the Rambosians were a little pointless? They seemed to serve absolutely no purpose in plot terms - not ever Ashley did anything of note, as far as I recall. Are they being set up for something more important in later books, maybe?



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"We are born alone, and we die alone. In between, how about a drink?"
~ Mr. Nutty

Well it does say they're more dull than humans, so it makes sense for them to not be too involved in the plot. I think it's just the Ffordian habit of taking something that should be incredible and mindblowing and then just making it unremarkable.

For what it's worth, I seem to recall Rhambosians being mentioned by Emperor Zhark in one of the other books.



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Turn the silliness to eleven!

Jasper has to say something about him in the special features section - but I won't mention what.

Ashley is the alien sidekick of Colonel Brandt, Zhark's nemesis from the Space Corps.



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World is crazier and much more of it than we think



Post Edited (10-26-05 18:56)

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World is crazier and more of it than we think

Barefoot Andy: "Well it does say they're more dull than humans, so it makes sense for them to not be too involved in the plot."

Well actually, I have to correct you there, because it doesn't say they're "more dull than humans", it just says that they're "dull". I know it's a picky distinction, but in that clipping it also mentions that they're fitting very well into human society, but "the reason for this is unclear", implying that they are precisely as dull as humans are. After all, the reasons given for their dullness are "unable to plan long-term", "prone to put high importance on inconsequential minutiae", and "easily distracted from important issues", all of which are very familiar characteristics...

By the way, did anybody else find themselves picturing Ashley as looking kind of like Stitch from Lilo and Stitch? I've never seen the film, but he's small and blue, and it never mentions that he DOESN'T have four arms...



Post Edited (10-27-05 15:10)

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"We are born alone, and we die alone. In between, how about a drink?"
~ Mr. Nutty

I saw him more as one of the tall thin monsters with lots of arms from Monsters Inc. I think Stitch looks too cuddly petlike (even though I don't think he is in the film).

Doesn't it specify that Ashley is short? Or was he the tall one? I'd get the book down and look it up myself, but I've just tidied my room, and my books are neatly stacked on my shelves.

It's also because of the hanging onto the ceiling thing. I think Stitch does that (or at least, he does in the computer game my brother rented a bit back).



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"We are born alone, and we die alone. In between, how about a drink?"
~ Mr. Nutty

'The shorter of the two was pale blue in colour and had the body layout of a human except...'
So he is shorter than Gretel but that just means he is under six foot two, kinda leaves it open to interpretation - can be whatever height you like really. Could be a Pygmi.

I have never had the delight of playing that particular game but the roof thing makes the link understandable.

Does anyone remember Ambrosia crem rice? Is Rambosia an anagram?

Hmm, good thought there, especially since you just need to move the 'r' to get it.

~'The shorter of the two was pale blue in colour and had the body layout of a human except...'
So he is shorter than Gretel but that just means he is under six foot two, kinda leaves it open to interpretation - can be whatever height you like really. Could be a Pygmi.~

I thought there was an earlier reference, but I'm probably wrong.



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"We are born alone, and we die alone. In between, how about a drink?"
~ Mr. Nutty

I dunno, there might have been, I was just sort of scanning.

See, I kinda imagined him to look like the alien in Futurama. I can't remember his name now, but he was green and always seemed so depressed and was dating the girl from mars.

It also says that he only has two arms, two eyes, one nose, one mouth, two ears, two legs and presumably one other bit.



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'We're all mad here. I'm mad, you're mad." [said the Cat.]
"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "Or you wouldn't have come here."
- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures In Wonderland

Fforde has said that Ashley will play a role in the subsequent Nursery Crime books. So he may get a more prominent role than he had with the first book.

Well, isn't he just part of the team? does he really need to have a huge part in the book? For what it's worth, he entertained me.

I think that the whole flash of him and Mary Mary doing it might be worth something...who knows. I always imagined tall and skinny...obviously not as tall Gretel..about 5"11ish I actually had him pinned as perfectly human looking but had like 3 suction cuppy fingers because he can stick to the roof and stuff, but I imagined him like a pale blue.



SpecOps-27 Wordage is our business Grammar is our game.