Author: Eneasz

I admit I am disappointed with this episode.

(spoilers for chapter 96 below)

I love this chapter, I find it very emotionally compelling. But listening to it, it fails to evoke that same reaction, even on a smaller scale. This is where Harry discovers he’s not alone in the world. Finally, a confirmation that there are others who understand death is to be rejected absolutely. At the grave of his parents, of all places. And the narration just… falls flat.

After a couple listens I think I know why. Over the past dozen episodes or so I’ve been drifting into more of an announcer-style of voice. As someone declaiming to an audience, perhaps. That has a distance to it which doesn’t fit with fiction, at least not the more intimate scenes. I need to soften a bit, as if reading to a younger sibling before bed.

Unfortunately there’s not enough time left to re-do this episode. Chapters 97 and 98 are already (basically) completed as well, but the tone of those chapters is rather different (much of 98 is proclamations, literally), so I don’t think I’ll be re-doing those. But I think I can get 96 re-recorded within a couple weeks, so I’ll be shooting for that.

Hey that’s interesting… The People’s Podcast Awards have opened up nominations for 2013. I’m kinda partial, but I think HPMoR would make a could candidate for the Entertainment category. :)

I mentioned last week that I was asked to do a presentation on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality for a local con. I said ok and put together this little talk. It was fun meeting a few fans, thanks for coming out! The video’s about 25 minutes. It’s for the uninitiated, but I’m posting it here anyway. It was my first time doing public speak and I was crazy nervous. The next one will be better, but this ain’t too bad.

As mentioned in the podcast, I will be appearing at Myths & Legends Con on Saturday, Sept 28^th, at the Sheraton Denver Tech Center (7007 S. Clinton Street, Greenwood Village, CO). I’ll be giving a presentation on Rationalist Fiction, Rationality, and HPMoR. I’ll see if I can get someone to record it and put it on YouTube afterwards, but for anyone in the Denver area who would like to see me in person – come on down! Please feel free to come up to me and talk to me before or after, I’ll be more than delighted to hang out and chat with anyone. And of course there’s lots of other stuff to do as well.

(minor spoilers for the current chapter below)

As I just had to write a short presentation on rationalist fiction it’s right at the forefront of my mind. In my presentation I defined rationality as a systemized method for making good decisions, especially under uncertainty. The “rationalist” part of the conflict really shines through again in this chapter, as The Enemy is now specifically attacking Harry’s ability to make rational decisions. The hacking of the wards is a meta-attack, designed to make your opponent distrust his tools for gathering accurate knowledge about his situation; and even (in Harry’s case) to doubt the very integrity of his own memories and mental processes. How many other works of fiction feature this sort of attack? Where “destroying your opponent’s ability to make war” is literally an assault on your opponent’s basic epistemology? Not many. :)