(HP:PZ 2) Production Notes

Even when he’s not written by Eliezer, rational!Quirrell continues to be one of my all-time favorite characters. I love how well his cynical nature was captured in this dialog with Harry. In particular, the description of Muggle minds creeped me right the hell out. It closely resembled the description of human minds in Peter Watts’s “The Things.” For those who haven’t read it, it’s an amazing The Thing fanfic, which received critical acclaim and was nominated for the 2011 Hugo Award for Short Story. I consider it Rationalist Horror, and you’ll probably like it if you like rationalist fic and you’ve seen The Thing. I strongly recommend it! It’s also available in audio format, at the same link.

Thank you again to Alexander Wales for allowing me to podcast Philosopher’s Zombie. Further writings of his can be found here. “The Last Christmas” contains this awesome scene:

“I want Li Xiu Yang to be given a gift that will leave her permanently physically healthy, uninjured, and with a mental state that is within three sigmas of normal for her age, gender, and culture. I want her to be free from any disability or degradation of any of her senses, organs, or other body parts. Whatever solution you give should age her at the normal rate until her twentieth birthday, at which point she should cease to age.”

The elf gave him a funny look, then began to shape the ball of grey goop. Three minutes later, he presented Charles with a small pebble.

“This is it?” he asked. “And it won’t turn her into some kind of monster, or cause her unbearable pain, or anything like that?”

The elf sighed and took the pebble back, then after a few moments of reconstruction handed it back to Charles.