Harry reached up, wiped a bit of sweat from his forehead, and exhaled. “I’d like this one, please.”
Harry’s entire body was sheathed in sweat that had soaked clear through his Muggle clothing, though at least it didn’t show through the robes. He bent down over the gold-etched ivory toilet, and retched a few times, but thankfully nothing came up.
Hermione shut her eyes and tried to concentrate. She was sweating underneath her robes.
“Forget I said anything,” said Draco, sweat suddenly springing out all over his body. He needed a distraction, fast—“And what do we call ourselves? The Science Eaters?”
Children don’t sweat that much—it’s a physiological difference from adults.
(This is just the first page I found with a nice at-glance comparison table and a list of references.)
I have considered that this is a deliberate difference, some clue about the way magic effects wizards, like, magic increases body heat, and wizarding children get adult sweat-glands to compensate; this seemed interesting:
[Draco would have been dead], had his body’s own magic not been resisting the effects of the Blood-Cooling Charm.
But, in the end, I think not. No, it looks much more like exaggeration to convey the character’s state of mind; it’s normal practice in writing as I understand, but somewhat unbecoming in rationalist fiction, I think. It undermines the idea that causality isn’t violated for plot/writing reasons.
It doesn’t surprise me that the amazingly insightful critics of HPMoR who may have picked up on this couldn’t pinpoint it, though. Motivated cognition usually gets in the way.
Could you explain your last paragraph? Is it referring to any (sincerely or ironically) “amazingly insightful critics” in particular? What motivated cognition do you think might be their problem? (For the avoidance of doubt: I am not asking you to explain the concept of motivated cognition.)
The impression I get from that paragraph is that there are some specific people (maybe just one specific person) you have in mind, that you think their thinking is messed up, and that you’re indulging in a bit of snarkiness. But I am unable to come up with any coherent idea of what they might have said that would make much sense (ironically or otherwise, snarkily or otherwise) of what you wrote.
I think it works like this: this sort of thing can trigger some people’s bullshit detector. They sense that something is off when this ‘rationalist fiction’ tries to to claim some sort of special status, while still doing the usual writing tricks. Of course they fail to pinpoint the source of the contradiction (most don’t habitually look out for the ‘Is that your true rejection’ thingy—especially if they already have some reason to jump to an EY-bashing conclusion, mostly something status-based; I call that sort of thing ‘suspiciously self-serving’). Instead they offer less specific criticism, which of course will not be true, so it will be rejected by anyone else. Most of those who are not pre-disposed to negativity will simply ignore the sense of unease, if they have it at all.
Now, I could have said as much without the snark. I was trying to create an ugh field for the ‘euthanistic critics’. I would not have my comment waved as banner in the “Yudkowsky’s writing sucks” camp—call it a personal preference. Yeah, I’m probably overestimating the gives-a-shit quotient here.
Also I have criticized a few people for jumping to the conclusion of writer’s mistake, when I thought there was more to it, so when I show how what I think a real mistake looks like… yeah, guilty of pride. And since that may make me look like more of an idiot, if Eliezer completely ignores this… that’s why ‘suspiciously self-serving’ can be a problem; if it’s not connected to reality, it’s bound to flop. :(
I tried not to have anyone specific in mind when I wrote the comment, but I was most likely primed by mention of DLP.
I think EY might just not be familiar with the physiology of children. Didn’t the original version of chapter 7 imply that Draco couldn’t get an erection? Puberty is nothing resembling a requirement for those. And the alternate version of “boy who lived gets Draco Malfoy Pregnant” had female Draco as 13, when it would have made more sense for Harry to be the older one (boys hit puberty later on average than girls).
Re: revisions
Children don’t sweat that much—it’s a physiological difference from adults.
(This is just the first page I found with a nice at-glance comparison table and a list of references.)
I have considered that this is a deliberate difference, some clue about the way magic effects wizards, like, magic increases body heat, and wizarding children get adult sweat-glands to compensate; this seemed interesting:
But, in the end, I think not. No, it looks much more like exaggeration to convey the character’s state of mind; it’s normal practice in writing as I understand, but somewhat unbecoming in rationalist fiction, I think. It undermines the idea that causality isn’t violated for plot/writing reasons.
It doesn’t surprise me that the amazingly insightful critics of HPMoR who may have picked up on this couldn’t pinpoint it, though. Motivated cognition usually gets in the way.
Could you explain your last paragraph? Is it referring to any (sincerely or ironically) “amazingly insightful critics” in particular? What motivated cognition do you think might be their problem? (For the avoidance of doubt: I am not asking you to explain the concept of motivated cognition.)
The impression I get from that paragraph is that there are some specific people (maybe just one specific person) you have in mind, that you think their thinking is messed up, and that you’re indulging in a bit of snarkiness. But I am unable to come up with any coherent idea of what they might have said that would make much sense (ironically or otherwise, snarkily or otherwise) of what you wrote.
I think it works like this: this sort of thing can trigger some people’s bullshit detector. They sense that something is off when this ‘rationalist fiction’ tries to to claim some sort of special status, while still doing the usual writing tricks. Of course they fail to pinpoint the source of the contradiction (most don’t habitually look out for the ‘Is that your true rejection’ thingy—especially if they already have some reason to jump to an EY-bashing conclusion, mostly something status-based; I call that sort of thing ‘suspiciously self-serving’). Instead they offer less specific criticism, which of course will not be true, so it will be rejected by anyone else. Most of those who are not pre-disposed to negativity will simply ignore the sense of unease, if they have it at all.
Now, I could have said as much without the snark. I was trying to create an ugh field for the ‘euthanistic critics’. I would not have my comment waved as banner in the “Yudkowsky’s writing sucks” camp—call it a personal preference. Yeah, I’m probably overestimating the gives-a-shit quotient here.
Also I have criticized a few people for jumping to the conclusion of writer’s mistake, when I thought there was more to it, so when I show how what I think a real mistake looks like… yeah, guilty of pride. And since that may make me look like more of an idiot, if Eliezer completely ignores this… that’s why ‘suspiciously self-serving’ can be a problem; if it’s not connected to reality, it’s bound to flop. :(
I tried not to have anyone specific in mind when I wrote the comment, but I was most likely primed by mention of DLP.
I think EY might just not be familiar with the physiology of children. Didn’t the original version of chapter 7 imply that Draco couldn’t get an erection? Puberty is nothing resembling a requirement for those. And the alternate version of “boy who lived gets Draco Malfoy Pregnant” had female Draco as 13, when it would have made more sense for Harry to be the older one (boys hit puberty later on average than girls).