In a message dated 12/6/2003 5:32:59 PM US Mountain Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
> > --- Jim Sharkey > > It seems to me that the most important trait to DB's > > protagonists is stubbornness. > > > Interesting! I certainly say so, explicitly, about > the character in KILN PEOPLE. And yet, I hardly > envision it as an unwillingness to contemplate changes > in tactics. I thought Maia changed tactics several > times. > > I guess I do see persistence in the face of pain to be > one of the 'classic' protagonist virtures that I find > most admirable. As opposed to other traits, such as > "inborn greatness". (OS Card's favorite.) > > I'd be interested whether others also feel I over-use > this technique. Hell yes you use it. But over-use? Nope. You have to blaintantly know that it's an idea being thrown right in your face. Brin seems to sneek it up on us. And without even thinking about it, that's the main quality I saw in Alvin, Mudfoot, and Huck, having built up a very sketchy (so far) outline for a novel based on Hurmuphta. Now the non-Alvinesque Hoon are stubborn in their own way. So stubborness in and of itself is not the virture. It's how they direct it. And as for change in tactics, with Mudfoot, I've taken his passion for his now meaningless report to the Tymbrimi on Jijo, and pointed him to the Rousit, that Hoon client race that everyone seems to forget about... All moot points, as I'm sure there will be a few more Uplift novels before our good Dr. can even think about the most backwater of hoonish colony worlds. I suppose stubbornness could even be the cause of "Between a Grok and a Hard Pace." ---which probably needs a disclaimer saying that it was conceived and written well before any Hummer TV commercial. Stubbornness still has a general negative ring to it. Hmm. How about "persistence through adaptability." William Taylor -------------------- That which does not kill us is just fodder for the novelist. _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
