> Brad DeLong wrote:
>
> >> Charlie Bell wrote:
> >>
> >>>
> >>> ----- > >> I still can't figure out whether _Consider Phlebas_ has a
happy
> >>>>>> ending or not. In fact, I still can't figure out whether _A Player
of
> >>>>>> Games_ has a happy ending or not...
> >>>>>>
> >>>>> It's easy. NONE of his books has a happy ending.
> >>>>> That said, _A Player of Games_ doesn't have a sad ending.
> >>>>
> >>>> Spoiler space...
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> >>>> Genocidal war in the Magellenic Clouds? I'm not sure what Special
> >>>> Circumstances expected Gurgeh to accomplish, but did he accomplish
> >>>> it? And what was the cost to Gurgeh?
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> Brad DeLong
> >>>>
> >>>> GCU Categorical Imperative
> >>>
> >>> Gurgeh turned out OK... shaken but not stirred. And the purpose was to
break
> >>> the game, to cause the fall of the empire from within. Gurgeh did what
> >>> they'd hoped he could, but less than they expected, I think.
> >>
> >> But there's the comment in Excession about not wanting a rerun of the
> >> Azadian debacal. This suggests that either it didn't go to plan, or
the
> >> plan was considered inappropriate by the rest of society (my
interpretation).
> >>
> >> Claire Bickell
> >
> > What, then, does the rest of the Culture think that Special
> > Circumstancse should have done with Azad?
>
> Followed the establised procedure rather than a few Minds interferring on
> their own initiative and possilbely against the decisions made by the
> relevant committees. There's a strong sense of a conspiracy with SC in
> Flere Imsaho's rationalisation and justification at the end, and during,
> PoG. Whether you think they were right or not is another matter, but I
> think it's fairly clear that, by the time of Excession, what was done was
> considered to be wrong on some level, at least within SC itself.
>
> Claire Bickell
Then again... maybe Gurgeh did way more than they thought, and what was an
exercise in bridge-building turned disastrously wrong because Gurgeh won.
Anyway, the Azadians can get stuffed. Gurgeh was OK, more or less, and
that's all that matters... ;o)
Charlie
GCU Look at all those arrows...
