Another new chapter that raises a bunch of interesting questions! http://unsongbook.com/chapter-7-the-perishing-vegetable-memory/
Spoiler: chapter 7 spoilers Personally, I'm wondering if it actually has something to do with being an Apple. I mean, one of the earlier chapters revealed that the theonomic corporation that corresponds to our universe's Apple is called Serpens. Maybe there's some kind of intrinsic association with original sin/evil/the Devil that presents Apple computers being ensouled.
Spoiler No, Sarah is a Mac, so I don't think it's an Apple issue. The stuff about the laws of physics only being reliable when Uriel doesn't need to reset things might indicate some parallels. You would think that Divine Law should be reliable whether or not Uriel is having a bad day, but suddenly...
Mostly just that the failure of the laws of physics was brought up in the chapter, that they could not be relied upon to work because sometimes Uriel needs them not to. That Uriel has the ability and the authority to shut down any parts of the mechanism as needed, and that the only reason that the universe obeyed mathematical law was because it was a way to keep out the Devil. Most of physics still works. Uriel only shuts the really problematic parts down; most of the small stuff still runs as expected. But regardless, physics is no longer the Answer. So now the world runs by a new mechanism, which humans understand as the Kabbalah. And we have beliefs about how the Divine Names work, and we have belief that this understanding of the Divine Names is reliable since it is the new foundation for the world. Except now the Names, which have been reliable and are known to work, are suddenly not working as expected. And so the question is: why does the story talk so much about how physics stopped as expected and the replacement of physics with Kabbalah in the same chapter that the Names stop working as expected? The lesser Names still seem to work; they can still locate the Moon. But the name that could cause major difficulties to the mechanism of the world? Has stopped working.
New chapter! Spoiler “In my defense, if I had meant to offer the Senator a bomb removal squad, I would have said bomb removal squad.”
Spoiler Oh man, I remember having to memorize those phrases in Latin class. Talk about placebomancy. Also the contrast between kabbalah and magic is super interesting. One is basically mechanical in nature and nothing is ever a coincidence, and the other is ambiance-based and entirely made of coincidences. What permits magic to function in this universe? Is it Thaumiel? Is it simply the breaking of the mathematical machinery? Is it Uriel not having enough RAM to stop it? Or is it something that God allows, as a counterbalance to taking the Names in vain?
Spoiler: Spoiler Reality is pretty dumb if it's falling for the equivalent of alternative medicine. The fact that a terrorist can manipulate it is worrisome. How long can the world stay stable like this? What if AST's computer manipulates reality for some inhuman goal?
New chapter. Uriel is a bit like Sollux in that he is grouchy and as Luka called it, the "tech support of the apocalypse." I would consider this the funniest chapter so far. I think I would place the time Uriel substituted his own form of the universe for the old one as right after prophecies stopped happening.
http://unsongbook.com/chapter-10-bring-the-swift-arrows-of-light/ Looks like the real action is starting! Spoiler If you were AST in that situation, what would you do? I think if he said all but one letter of the Vanishing Name before descending into the laptop room, he might have had a chance. I commented as much under the name Barbara.
Spoiler Gahh! Aaron, you were expelled from Stanford for screwing with encryption! How could you forget to seed?! That's like the very first thing you learn when doing crypto!
http://unsongbook.com/chapter-11-drive-the-just-man-into-barren-climes/ Spoiler everybody is saying that Sarah brought itself to Ana. I personally don't think I would have stolen the money from the cash register. Maybe from somewhere else, like a fellow hotel goer's purse, since I would need the money to get to Aaron. Stealing from the register isn't just taking the money, it's potentially getting the person working there fired. But then again I'm not invisible so
Spoiler Yeah, stealing from the cash register is a bit much. Also "ABSOLUTELY NOTHING WILL GO WRONG." Apparently the Vital name does not grant genre-savvy. Or it does and someone is playing a long game.
Spoiler Sarah is naive because it literally was born yesterday. Also I'd like to see more testing on the invisibility. Is coughing ok? Whispering? Breathing through the mouth? Knowing whether you can breathe through your mouth before doing something strenuous like attempting a rescue sounds important. Also it looks like if you tell somebody what a name does, they don't get an "instruction video" the first time they use it. I guess UNSONG characters aren't really known for their careful planning and testing, now, are they?
Spoiler Yeah, apparently the scientific method has been tossed out with the rest of science. Probably at least partially because the corporations discourage private experimentation, but still.
Chapter 1 is now complete! There's also a Passover interlude chapter. I wonder what's up with the Comet King?
