[CT] "Strings, " critiqued, commented upon & pointlessly nitpicked

[Dan Moran]

wds wrote:

>1. The Steinman-McCarthy Bill... the first name keeps reminding me of
>Meat Loaf -- Jim Steinman wrote the lyrics and music for everything,

Some days I feel naked and transparent in front of you folks.

Yeah, Steinman was a reference to Jim Steinman, who I quoted in Emerald
Eyes. (And who I was listening to while I wrote this story the album
"Bad for Good," which is actually sung by Steinman.)

McCarthy wasn't an intentional reference to Senator McCarthy, however.
I'll change that before sending it out, since it does give you that vibe
and I didn't intend it.

>Isn't the name "the World" incredibly simple and generic?

"The chick in the tub thinks she's a mermaid. It's OK with us."

>3. Since I didn't know what was coming I didn't realize it the first
>time through, but upon rereading the story I find myself wondering
>why exactly Fagan bothered spending so much time in interview
>discussing matters which were destined to be utterly irrelevant and
>forgotten once he dropped all the bombshells at the end.

Irrelevant for the people who don't upload; critical for those who
choose to.

>5. "Michael wore a body and drove up Pacific Coast Highway in a Jeep
>to come see him."  I'm okay with the first part of that, but as to
>the second... how would Joe _know_ whether Michael really drove up,
>as opposed to just appearing (poof!) in a moving Jeep on the highway
>at the extreme range of Joe's simulated human perception (assuming
>that Joe happened to be looking in that direction at the time)?  Or
>is that what you meant, Dan?

Yeah, that's what I meant. If Joe had looked out the window (he didn't)
he'd have seen the Jeep approaching on PCH before coming up to the
house. Michael's not "in" the Jeep -- the Jeep is a low-resolution model
that doesn't improve in resolution until it gets closer to the house.
(Standard render practice even today.)

>Dan, did you _plan_ that echoing of the words "the end" like that?
>It's quite a nice effect, either way.

Yep. In an earlier draft Michael had a comment about "sometime before
the end" ... it nagged at me until I gave it to Joe and put it at the
end of the story. Then I liked it a lot.

Earlier in this thread someone pointed out that I liked strongly typed
languages -- you have no idea. There's not a language out there that's
as strongly typed as I'd like (that I'm familiar with, anyway) -- I do
think that strong typing immensely improves your chances of writing
robust code. I know people who disagree with me (and who I even respect)
... but they're wrong. ;-)

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