Alicornutopia

Not having read the books at all but having caught a little bit of the hype around the movie - it seems like the answer to this should depend on what the bears are supposed to be a metaphor for and how the author's personal mythology works in general? Given how big of a deal was made about the movie being atheist I imagine there's supposed to be some message there.

The author doesn't actually endorse the spiritual views of the HDM world, IIRC. He's a strong atheist, and the HDM world is also very much anti-church, but the world is also very firmly Deist/spiritualist-positive (God personified does not exist, but a divine force definitely exists in the form of Dust). I'm not sure the armored bears are necessarily symbolic of anything except "I am setting out to write not-Narnia, there will be talking animals in it."

ÿ original comment: I expect I might not figure it out until I read the third book, but good point about potential metaphore.

It is amazing how atheist the series is for being a world where there is a God in (approximately) the Christian sense (or at least was, given what's revealed about him in Effulgence which I believe is canon for the third book). It's antitheist, not untheist.

After PDV: i thought the Authority was a literal personification of God (where “was” is actually past tense here).p

The Authority is the first angel ever 'born', who set himself up as God because he was an egotistical ass. No one created him; high concentrations of Dust spontaneously produce angels. (It's never really mentioned in the text, but the church in HDM is pretty much Satanism in disguise.)

How old are the planes and the first Daevas? It is possible for Daevas to run out of memory space? Does Fairyland has dinosaur-based fauna?

I don't have a specific age in mind. Certainly more than several thousand years, perhaps not more than several million. Daeva do not have special mnemonic advantages relative to humans. Fairyland fauna is not strongly correlated with Earth fauna, but some of it probably looks more like dinosaurs than anything else.

Alicorn wrote:I don't have a specific age in mind. Certainly more than several thousand years, perhaps not more than several million. Daeva do not have special mnemonic advantages relative to humans. Fairyland fauna is not strongly correlated with Earth fauna, but some of it probably looks more like dinosaurs than anything else.

Does the fauna evolve? did it evolve? Fairyland oceans have tides? Mineral resources are the same? does it have magical minerals?

It has magical flora (flower that gives you bug wings if you happen to not have them, such as if you're an ex-summoner); I would be highly surprised if there was no magical fauna or magical mineral.

DanielH wrote:It has magical flora (flower that gives you bug wings if you happen to not have them, such as if you're an ex-summoner); I would be highly surprised if there was no magical fauna or magical mineral.

Fairyland was described like this

Fairies are telekinetic and live in Fairyland and have an assortment of insectile wings. Fairyland is lively and full of interesting flora and fauna, including a plant that can be turned into a beverage that will cause an ex-summoner fairy to sprout fairy wings.

I think later in this thread Alicorn confirms that some of the animal and plants are magical but not *too much* and not in way that makes it remarkable for interdimensional trade. I don't think it is ever mentioned anything not-alive being magical.

Except for the "being an infinite flatland" thing, daevinity!Fairyland has no magical nonliving things and not all that many magical living things. I am undecided on evolution in Fairyland and its mineral composition, though its soil is more interesting in general than Limbo's.