The Dresden Files > DF Reference Collection
The YLC (Why Little Chicago) thread
Serack:
The purpose of this thread is to attempt to come up with theories that answer the doylist (tvtropes link warning) question, "Why did Jim spend so much effort on developing Little Chicago when it had such little play in the actual events in the series."
I am considering building this topic in more than one part, The first is to show the amount of effort that was put into building this massive Chekov's gun (2nd tvtrops warning) that sure didn't get a lot play compared to it's buildup. The second part I can think of putting together seperately is a list of things we know/theorize about LC. The last section will be dedicated to attempting to answer YLC.
So in effect this thread will serve 2 purposes. The first is to show the significance of LC, and to pull together all the great theories and conclusions we have already built. The 2nd is to try to push that theorizing forward and find out what this gun might be shooting at later.
Crafting the gun (and showing the significance of the question YLC)
First a list of a few other significant Cerkov's guns that got fired in a book other than the one where they were put on the mantle. To show that Jim likes to do this.(this will probably morph into it's own topic methinks)
* Harry's Familiarity with Demonreach
* The only sex scene that didn't fade to black when the bow chika bowwow started
* That helpful wampire at the vampire's ball
* Marcone's magical security consultant's company
* Lasciel's coin=>hellfire=>Lash's demise (resulting in lash's as per WoJ appearance in GS... yah that gun has a lot more rounds in it too)
* Dimetri & Persephone
Ok so here are examples of how much of a big deal was made about how much Harry poured into making LC.
* He continued to pauper himself dispite his increased fiscal security when he started collecting a wardens salary because he was financing the construction of LC.
* By PG, he had been "pouring energy into this thing every night for six months, Harry, and right now it's holding about three hundred times the mount of energy that kinetic ring you wear will contain." -bob
* Harry went through the effort of building "preventative spells" to keep energies from escaping the lab in case LC "went nova"
* Harry went through the effort of chipping bits off of every building and tree in chicago that was represented in LC for their thermatalogic link
* Harry went through continuing effort to keep the model up to date to account for changes in Chicago.
Here is what LC has been used for in the series:
* Tracking Molly's captors to the theater
* Tracking "Grey Cloak"
* Sending the Gruffs on a wild goose chase, via Mister. (thanks KevinSig)
* An attempted tracking in the short story Love Hurts
* And thats it...
Look there's a gun on the mantle Cluebats pointing at LC, and resulting theories.
Who Fixed LC?
Bob pointed out at the end of PG that between Harry almost using LC near the beginning, and him actually using it near the end, somebody fixed a critical problem that would have caused it to go nova. Here are some theories that have been put forth either attempting to explain whodunit, or to dig up clues that might help explain whodunit:
* AcornArmy's "Mab did it" thread The quacker's mab did it summary
* Time traveling character X did it theories (any links appreciated). Supported by the realitively unused "paradoxageddon" Chekov's gun in PG.
* X = timetravel Harry
* X = Alternate universe character
* X = Time Travel/Alt universe hybrid
* Thomas was probably there when LC was fixed
*
Other cluebats pointing at LC
* Why didn't Harry use LC to try to track down Thomas? (the Quacker has convinced me Mab did that)
* Lots more to come.
Edit: Thoughts based off of revelations in Ghost Story here:
Serack:
YLC?
So why did Jim put so much effort into developing LC only to destroy it in the conflaguration of Harry's appartment without getting a proportionate bang out of it first?
Someone asked Jim if it was destroyed in the fire and got this response (post #330)
--- Quote from: 2010 Bitten by Books Q&A ---#330 “Jim–someone else asked this as well, but I couldn’t see an answer: Little Chicago wasn’t mentioned in Turn Coat, and was barely mentioned in Changes… was it destroyed in the fire? Did the FBI notice it? It’s it gone for good?”
It was made of (mostly) pewter. The rest was plastic. Harry hadn’t taken steps to make it less destructible (which would have interfered with its function anyway–it was built to be sensitive, not tough). There was just no way it could have survived the fire. And no, the FBI didn’t confiscate it.
Changes is, in many ways, about loss. About encountering it and feeling its pain. That happens to all of us, sooner or later. There’s no avoiding it.
The real question is, how do you pick up the pieces and keep going, afterward.
--- End quote ---
#1 A weak attempt to to explain YLC
A sufficiently persistant theorizer could argue that Jim didn't say that it was destroyed, and that someone other than the FBI might have wisked it away... and thus it is still in play. Which might answer YLC, but that's kind of cheap, so what are alternate theories?
Edit: 6/25/13 I just had someone point out to me that Harry hadn't explicitly seen LC since Small Favor so it could have been wisked away books before Changes.
#2 Another attempt to explain YLC
The whole point of LC was to exemplify Harry's development in his stated magical strength. Thaumaturgy.
--- Quote from: Bob PG ch 6 ---"None of the evil geniuses I ever worked for could have handled something like this." He paused. "Though some of the psychotics could have, I guess."
--- End quote ---
A continuing theme in the series is that Harry is developing as a wizard. Jim is doing an amazing job of showing this development in terms of accomplishments, hard earned skills, tough lessons learned, reexamination of foundational principals while teaching a padawan, earning allies and markers... you know, power-ups that enrich the story rather than just advancing to super saiyan level 9000. The thing is, with the level of effort Jim put into this thaumatalogical "power up" I highly suspect he has something important that it is building up to rather than just a general goal of showing Harry is a more developed wizard. Which leads to answer #2 part 2
#2 part 2 LC v2.0
If the point of LC was to show that Harry was building thaumaturgy muscle (specifically with theater spanning voodoo dolls) and the logical progression after the first one was destroyed is that he would build a 2nd that is more ambitious, what will v2.0 be like?
I suspect that such a device would somehow be tied to Demonreach. There is good reason to believe that Harry will end up dwelling in the hut by the lighthouse, and that will be where his new lab will be... So I posit that either LCv2.0 will be one of 2 things.
* A portable model of Demonreach that he can carry around and use as a portable link to the benefits of that sanctum.
* A fixed model of something else (the world?) built in a new lab on Demonreach. This diserves some extra bullets
* Harry's new ability to go pretty much anywhere he wants via ways his mother found would certainly help facilitate gathering material for thaumaturgy links for such a model.
* Such a model might have some interesting interactions with Harry's Demoreach Sanctum benefits. Intelectus wherever the model goes?
#3 All this effort is turning it into a Red Herring (another tvtrops warning) (Thanks neurovore for pointing this out)
#4 The big firing of the Chekhov's gun happened off screen
So what if the hugely important YLC reason was something that happened off screen, like when it was fixed. Maybe someone really needed LC so they somehow got down into Harry's basement and fixed it in order to use it for some hugely important reason that only LC could satisfy?
One of the reasons why I like this idea is because this means that the YLC answer happened in the same book that LC was introduced, and most of the work placing it on the mantle was done. The flip side of this though is that for the gun to truly have been fired, it should be part of the story or what's the point. So this resonates strongly for me with the theories that Time Traveling Harry (TTH) fixed LC. But here's the twist this adds. TTH's fix of LC was NOT to save his own past self's life, but rather to use it "himself" for some earth-shatteringly important reason that we didn't see in PG. #4 is my own version of Cozarkian's theory layed out in reply#78
#4 also applies doubly to something Priscellie said in my LC fix timing thread.
--- Quote from: Priscellie on April 03, 2012, 04:09:23 PM ---Still, Jim is pretty good at keeping his books lean and relevant. If something isn't necessary for a book, why put it there? The Doylist argument of "He just figured this [time travel] out and wanted to show it off" doesn't hold up to me. I don't think he'd contrive to include a "this is how time travel works" treatise in PG if time travel wasn't crucial to the events of that novel.
--- End quote ---
#5 (added 4/24/15)
Harry's experiences with Little Chicago in White Night (and to a lesser extent Proven Guilty) seem to mirror some of his experiences in Ghost Story. Perhaps LC conditioned his soul somehow to prep him for being able to flit about in a naked soul in GS. (more thoughts on this in this post)
KevinSig:
--- Quote ---Here is what LC has been used for in the series:
--- End quote ---
Add sending the Gruffs on a wild goose chase, via Mister.
And it isn't so much a use, but you might want to add the tarp covering the set in Turn Coat, since it might be related (or not)
Serack:
--- Quote from: KevinSig on September 14, 2012, 03:04:59 PM ---Add sending the Gruffs on a wild goose chase, via Mister.
--- End quote ---
Thanks! This is a big project, and many of these are much better because of input like this :)
KevinSig:
I've never put forward a grand theory thread on this, but I have on occasion suggested an alternate take on time travel, which I'm happy to repeat.
Instead of traveling throught time directly, time travel is done in an alternate dimension. Thus, I've put up the idea that Harry himself didn't fix LC, but an alternative version of himself.
Likewise, he'll eventually return the favor & mess with alternate Harry's timeline.
Avoiding paradox issues & thus kablooie. (Edit: And I forget who mentioned it or where, but once when I stated this theory, it was mentioned that since the Earth is constantly moving through space, movement of some kind is required for moving through time. So the idea of jumping dimensions, is just a bit more of the same.)
And I'm not certain, but I think Chekhov's gun might be playing a part in the idea. The subjects of time travel & other dimensions, have both been subjects that Bob really didn't need to mention, considering the subject at hand.
In Proven Guilty, the subject of time travel did come up & then we get LC being mysteriously fixed. I know I've posted a thread on the minor possibility that Ghost Story took place in an alternative dimsion.
I really was just spinning my wheels & only half heartedly thought any merit in the issue, but I could try to dig up the thread, if you consider it relevant. (It might have to wait until later, since my lunch break is about done.)
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