Catching up on a whole bunch of posts here...
Kathryn Andersen wrote:
But it's Avon's fault for listening to it. (Insert Biblical quote which I can't remember which basically refutes the argument "He tempted me" with the answer "You wouldn't have been tempted if you hadn't wanted to do it in the first place")
I most definitely agree that it was Avon who was morally culpable (or would have been if he'd actually done the deed). But I don't quite agree that he really wanted to do it, anyway. I do think it's notable that Avon *doesn't* come up with the idea himself, and that it takes Orac bringing it up to make him take action... Especially when you consider the fact that it seems to be very much the sort of thing Avon would be entirely capable of thinking of on his own (not unlike faking the running log in "Space Fall"). My personal theory is that Avon didn't *want* to think of it, and possibly wouldn't have allowed himself to think of it (at least not until the very last moment, if then). But once Orac brought it out into the open, Avon was forced to acknowledge it. And once he'd permitted the thought into his head, it would have gone against his entire self-image *not* to follow up on it.
And I suspect Orac knew all that, too. But then, I rather like to think of Orac as amoral, manipulative, and far more involved in things that he generally appears. Makes him a much more interesting character. :)
Helen Krummenacker wrote:
LOL. Betty, can that paragraph also be punctuated as, "Personally, I generally use "he" or "she" to refer to anything setient/sapient, so it'd annoy Avon. 'What? Do I care?'" After all, his persnickityness can actually make him a target of fun.
Yes, it quite probably *could* be validly punctuated that way. Annoying Avon, in fact, seems to have become something of a major hobby for me. :)
And Sally Manton wrote:
As I've mentioned before, Avon's impulse to discourage trust is very strong, moreso even *than* his self-interest, to the point where he will stir up distrust even when it's a bad idea ("I have to get rid of Blake first. You're next on my list." Cygnus Alpha). He wants to keep the others wary of him, wary of relying on him, wary of trusting him.
Most empathatically agreed. And I strongly suspect a lot of that is because he can't stand the guilt he feels when he lets someone who trusts him down (see: Grant, Anna). That and the fact that having to live up to someone else's trust can seriously put one's own skin in danger. I think I may have said this before at some point, but I see Avon's take on this as essentially "A man who is not trusted can never betray."
-- Betty Ragan ** bragan@nrao.edu ** http://www.aoc.nrao.edu/~bragan Not speaking for my employers, officially or otherwise. "Seeing a rotten picture for the special effects is like eating a tough steak for the smothered onions..." -- Isaac Asimov