The Dresden Files > DF Spoilers
Peace Talks snippet on Entertainment Weekly
Bad Alias:
I'd figure metal or stone tablets would be better than clay tablets, but I don't know a whole lot about where and tear on materials over centuries. Also, disseminating the information widely is probably better than putting it on a single tablet.
It's probably more likely that the books are leather bound because of time travel shenanigans or because Merlin exited the stage later than we guessed instead of them being the oldest leather bound books and being the first leather bound books.
Arjan:
--- Quote from: Bad Alias on January 31, 2020, 05:00:38 AM ---I'd figure metal or stone tablets would be better than clay tablets, but I don't know a whole lot about where and tear on materials over centuries. Also, disseminating the information widely is probably better than putting it on a single tablet.
It's probably more likely that the books are leather bound because of time travel shenanigans or because Merlin exited the stage later than we guessed instead of them being the oldest leather bound books and being the first leather bound books.
--- End quote ---
You can rebind a book if the old binding breaks down or is not to your taste anymore. It does not have to be the original book either. Someone might have made a copy to preserve the text. But copies create errors too.
morriswalters:
--- Quote from: Bad Alias on January 31, 2020, 05:00:38 AM ---I'd figure metal or stone tablets would be better than clay tablets, but I don't know a whole lot about where and tear on materials over centuries. Also, disseminating the information widely is probably better than putting it on a single tablet.
--- End quote ---
This is actually studied with respect to storage of nuclear material over the long spans required for some material to decay. In any case clay is easy to produce and easy to write on and easy to cure. It's also fairly durable, even more so if fired. Mainly it's expensive, which is why so much has been lost over time. No will to preserve. It's also why the Church was important.
If anyone is interested here is a link to a list of the worlds oldest books Including some made out of 24 caret gold. Including, wait for it, the Etruscan Gold Book at 2673 years old. Do you think Papa Raith read it?
g33k:
--- Quote from: Bad Alias on January 31, 2020, 05:00:38 AM --- ... Also, disseminating the information widely is probably better than putting it on a single tablet...
--- End quote ---
Merlin's secrets are probably too "sensitive" for broad dissemination. Like if DIY $50 WMD's were widely known.
Also, across 1500ish years, wide dissemination will lead to fragmentation and drift (unless some sort of magitech is used to guarantee perfect fidelity of copies... which, let's be frank, was totally possible for MerlinJim if it was an issue for him)
Bad Alias:
--- Quote from: Arjan on January 31, 2020, 04:13:57 PM ---You can rebind a book if the old binding breaks down or is not to your taste anymore. It does not have to be the original book either. Someone might have made a copy to preserve the text. But copies create errors too.
--- End quote ---
Hadn't even considered rebinding. I'd have to know more about the history of binding to know if a pre-leather binding bound book could be rebound with leather.
--- Quote from: morriswalters on January 31, 2020, 05:32:24 PM ---If anyone is interested here is a link to a list of the worlds oldest books
--- End quote ---
Yes, please. Check out the Celtic Psalter, which is in Latin using, roughly speaking, our alphabet as an example of how incomprehensible the text likely is even if written in a language Harry is familiar with. I could catch a few words. The Nag Hammadi Library shows that my first source had leather bound books about 100 years younger than they are. It also shows what a surviving leather bound book from Merlin's day would look like without some miraculous preservation.
--- Quote from: g33k on January 31, 2020, 07:08:49 PM ---Merlin's secrets are probably too "sensitive" for broad dissemination. Like if DIY $50 WMD's were widely known.
--- End quote ---
Yes, but if the information is worth writing down and preserving, one has to balance risks of dissemination with risks of the info being lost.
A lot of the problems with errors caused by copying and dissemination could be solved if the copying was done through magical means.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version