Sometimes, I think Diaboli (or dues) ex machinae is something of a buzz phrase, and I am always loathe to use it, even if I agree with you that SWMNBN, Vidik Amar, and the Quellvisks were never, ever, ever, hinted at before AATE (the Clave Hymn withstanding). Here's why: That's how life works. Sometimes we stumble on things that we didn't know was there, even if it always was. It wasn't placed there by God, we just were never able to notice it before because of our limited frame of perspective. There are so many variables in life, we can not predict everything. So things just "pop up". This adds to the "realism" of the Last Chronicles, in my opinion.TheFallen wrote:O
Diaboli ex machinae - the sudden popping up of SWMNBN still felt stilted. SRD has traditionally been more than adept at tying the history of the Land together throughout all the Chrons, and certainly he's at his best in the LCs fleshing out and adding detail to historical elements that have been alluded to in Chrons 1 and 2. Although the she-bane's going to have an important role to play in TLD, she was thrust onto stage with no pre-announcement or hint. (The same's also true of the briefest of mentions of Jerrick, the Demimage of Vidik Amar and the Quellvisks he corrupted under LF's influence... huh? If either is going to appear in TLD, that's hardly seamless).
Edited to add the following example. According toWikipedia:
I personally do not see how this is a DEM, the problem is resolved within the internal logic of the story, there is no inexplicable outside forces that decide, "Ok, let's make everything better." And yet, someone out there decided this is still a DEM, despite evidence from the literature to the contrary (I only don't provide examples because I'm assuming that you agree with meIn Chronicles of Thomas Covenant fantasy series, Thomas Covenant is killed in the final battle with Lord Foul, but reappears as a manifestation of the series' recurring element of wild magic. Using the white gold ring of wild magic from Covenant's body, Foul attacks the apparition, which only grows stronger with each blow. At the same time, Foul is drained of all of his power and disappears. Shortly after, Linden Avery takes the ring and uses it to combine Findail, who is Earthpower incarnate, and Vain, which is the series' Lore incarnate (and, it should be noted, had his hand turned into the same wood that the series' original Staff of Law was made of), to create a new Staff of Law, which instantly restores the Land to its original, healthy state.
). DEM is starting to have not only the negative connotation, but a nebulous definition that anyone can evoke to criticize what they don't like. Incidently, I don't think many people in this forum have done that, at least they've been consistent. I just don't like using it because it has lost any practical meaning to me.Edited to further add: Upon reflection, I could concede the Quellvisk bones freeing Jeremiah's mind as being DEM. Still uneasy about it, but at the moment it seems to be a bonafide DEM (though not in the sense that I think it was lame... I liked it
)
. You're broaching a far wider subject - is it necessary or indeed desirable for art to imitate life slavishly? I'd say, dependant on the type of vehicle the artist has chosen for him-/herself, no. I can't accept your premise that just because life's full of the unpredictable, adding unpredictability into a novel makes it more "realistic". To use my much over-used reductio ad absurdum, on that basis, it would apparently make Last Chrons more "realistic" if SRD informed us every time Linden picked her nose, or Coldspray broke wind, or the Haruchai took a leak, or whatever. All those things are real world actualities that happen to us all in everyday life, but it doesn't mean that they should feature, because this would shatter tone and suspension of disbelief. Adding the really "real" does not inevitably make things more "realistic", I'm afraid.
