Reply below.
On 9/21/2018 11:32 AM, Matt Cutter via glencook-fans
wrote:
> On Thu, Sep 20, 2018 at 9:18 PM, Stacey Harris
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>> Wow. FInished it a few hours ago. Wow.
>>
>> Okay, I shoulda seen it coming. I was asking
myself all along, who/what IS this Mysterious Rain? I
can't make head or tails out of it. Shoulda twigged,
but > didn't. Just as well, that made it all the
more staggering when Laissa greeted her with "Koneko!"
>> and my rudimentary Japanese kicked in to
translate that as "Kitten". Wow, all making sense!
>>
>> That said.
> Nice bilingual bonus! I never would catch that.
>
> Since none of the back story matches up with
Whisper's notes, I wonder what's true. Maybe cleared
up by Pitiless Rain?
The note at the beginning indicates a suspicion that
the papers from the
Tower had been altered; the postscript indicates that
Imperial
historians still don't know which Senjak sister the
Lady was. That's
highly amusing given how all the baddies in the Books
of the South know
her true name.
The back story does give me some true name
indigestion, though. If
Howler and several other Taken were relatives of the
Senjak family, why
don't they know each other's true names? I'm OK with
the sisters knowing
(and there's some hints here and there that the family
deliberately
confused their identities), mostly.
Also, given the power of a true name and the relative
commonality of
sorcery, why in the world does any family ever use
someone's true name?
The mother and father could select a true name and
then employ a
use-name from then on; the family name, if it matters,
could function
likewise. One or two generations of the practice and
true names would be
nearly impossible to ferret out short of going to the
original namers
themselves.
It also makes me wonder why we don't see someone using
Tobo's true name
in an attempt to check his worst excesses. Maybe the
problem is that
everyone capable of doing so is occupied while he's
getting out of
control--that, and that they need him.
David
_______________________________________________
It would make sense if all the
Senjak-and-outlier families routinely muddled True
Names from birth, as so many of the family are
Talented. The real question, then, is why the four
sisters didn't more thoroughly cover their True
Names--all they did, it seems, is confuse which was
which. (Or maybe that's just a reading from a
time--Croaker's present--when those four names had
already been uncovered, just with uncertainty over
which was which. All the records that Raven
translates for us may have been done after those names
were uncovered.)
Maybe Tobo isn't anything but a
use-name; that would be sensible.
Does Booboo have a True Name?
Surely it's not "Booboo". Maybe Kina chose it? Being
a demi-god, she might have that ability.