Re: Harry Potter and the God From The Machine

Here, Sean O'Hara <seanohara@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> In the Year of the ***, the Great and Powerful Andrew Plotkin declared:
> > In rec.arts.sf.written, Mike Schilling
> > <mscottschilling@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >
> >> This is made very clear in the first book, where Harry has to
> >> solve a logic puzzle, and Rowling does not give enough
> >> information for the reader to attempt it too.
> >
> > Although, as discussed at copious length a few years ago, she
> > gives enough information for the reader to determine that the
> > *characters* had enough information to solve the puzzle.
> >
> > I never quite worked out whether *that* was enough information
> > for the *reader* to solve the puzzle.
>
> No. You need to know the size of the various vials to determine the
> answer, and she doesn't give them. If there'd been an illustration,
> it would've been possible.

I'm not sure you're answering the same question I was asking. Is
knowing *that an illustration is enough information* enough
information?

It's *nearly* enough; it narrows it down to a small number of possible
arrangements. I don't remember whether that number is one.

--Z

"And Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these were the borogoves..."
*
I'm still thinking about what to put in this space.
.