Lois’s answer to “Reading "Masquerade in Lodi" today, for the ninth time, it occurs to me that so far you've given us…” > Likes and Comments
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Thanks for the reply! I'm glad you haven't dismissed the idea of reaching back again to Penric's bachelor years. In such stories, I suppose he needs to avoid any long-lasting status changes: serious injury, marriage, or acquiring skills or knowledge that he obviously lacks later. I suppose this latter part is rather constraining.
The dual character of Pen-Des is great for imagining plots, where one thinks of a situation and then drops them into it, but it has to fit all the other constraints. And then there’s distant future Pen-Des - what will they be like after spending 70 or more years together? (We can hope.)
Looking into it, in Chapter 3 of "Penric's Mission" I read "When he'd first moved over the mountains a year ago … to take up his duties with a new archdivine, he'd found the heat of Adria's humid coastal plains oppressive." So it seems that he spent a year in Lodi before being sent on his mission to Cedonia. And he'd already spent four months in Lodi before the midsummer events of Bastard's Day. If 'midsummer' is in late June (the summer solstice), he must have arrived in Lodi in late February; it's rather odd that he was oppressed by the heat at that time of year, unless Lodi is a tropical city.
Actually I gather that "Mother's Midsummer" (when the Bastard's day is celebrated in Lodi) really is the middle of the summer, i.e. halfway between summer solstice and autumnal equinox. So it would be more like early August.
OK, Margaret, so in that case he arrived in Lodi in early April. If Lodi has a similar climate to Venice in our world, the average daily high in early April should be about 15°C (59°F).
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Jonathan
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Oct 12, 2022 10:44PM
Thanks for the reply! I'm glad you haven't dismissed the idea of reaching back again to Penric's bachelor years. In such stories, I suppose he needs to avoid any long-lasting status changes: serious injury, marriage, or acquiring skills or knowledge that he obviously lacks later. I suppose this latter part is rather constraining.
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The dual character of Pen-Des is great for imagining plots, where one thinks of a situation and then drops them into it, but it has to fit all the other constraints. And then there’s distant future Pen-Des - what will they be like after spending 70 or more years together? (We can hope.)
Looking into it, in Chapter 3 of "Penric's Mission" I read "When he'd first moved over the mountains a year ago … to take up his duties with a new archdivine, he'd found the heat of Adria's humid coastal plains oppressive." So it seems that he spent a year in Lodi before being sent on his mission to Cedonia. And he'd already spent four months in Lodi before the midsummer events of Bastard's Day. If 'midsummer' is in late June (the summer solstice), he must have arrived in Lodi in late February; it's rather odd that he was oppressed by the heat at that time of year, unless Lodi is a tropical city.
Actually I gather that "Mother's Midsummer" (when the Bastard's day is celebrated in Lodi) really is the middle of the summer, i.e. halfway between summer solstice and autumnal equinox. So it would be more like early August.
OK, Margaret, so in that case he arrived in Lodi in early April. If Lodi has a similar climate to Venice in our world, the average daily high in early April should be about 15°C (59°F).
