(no subject)

[pushtheboatout]

Dakin has been reading through his vacation, with a vague feeling that he had to catch up to his peers by the time he got to Oxford. Milliways has helped with that--the extra time has made his long reading list much easier to deal with.

Right now, though, he's bored with books, and is just smoking and people-watching.

Comments

[scots_wolf]

"I don't know yet," Urquhart says. "So far, they just turned up as old skulls, ancient eggs, and tiny hatchlings. I have to read the next book to find out, I guess."

[pushtheboatout]

"It sounds intriguing," says Dakin thoughtfully. "I'm more interested in nonfiction than fiction but a good novel or two never hurts."

[scots_wolf]

"No, and that one's quite worth reading, if alone for the inventive bloodshed," Urquhart says.

[pushtheboatout]

Dakin laughs. "Inventive bloodshed? A war novel, is it?"

[scots_wolf]

"The war didn't even start properly at the end of that book, but I guess it will be, guessing from the titles of the sequels," Urquhart says. "But the bloodshed was already very inventive. I especially liked the barbarian chieftain pouring molten gold over the head of an obnoxious little squealer who whined for his promised reward."

[pushtheboatout]

Dakin winces. "That's very inventive," he admits, still grimacing.

[scots_wolf]

"I guess that's barbarian chieftains are like, even in worlds without dragons," Urquhart muses.

[pushtheboatout]

"Hm. That's why they call them 'barbarians.'"

[scots_wolf]

"No," Urquhart says. "That's because the ancient Greeks thought, in their very Greek-centric worldview, that every language that was not Greek sounded like 'bar bar bar bar', so everybody not Greek was called a 'barbaros'."

[pushtheboatout]

"Yes," Dakin says slowly, "but the term is applied to people who do barbaric things."

[scots_wolf]

"Barbaric meaning exactly what, by definition?" Urquhart smirks.