Megalextoria
Retro computing and gaming, sci-fi books, tv and movies and other geeky stuff.

Home » Archive » net.sf-lovers » Re: Help with button: "The Imp of the Perverse"
Show: Today's Messages :: Show Polls :: Message Navigator
E-mail to friend 
Switch to threaded view of this topic Create a new topic Submit Reply
Re: Help with button: "The Imp of the Perverse" [message #118716] Tue, 24 September 2013 14:33
Anonymous
Karma:
Originally posted by: @RUTGERS.ARPA:hester@uci-icse
Message-ID: <878@topaz.ARPA>
Date: Tue, 5-Mar-85 13:40:14 EST
Article-I.D.: topaz.878
Posted: Tue Mar  5 13:40:14 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 6-Mar-85 05:20:58 EST
Sender: daemon@topaz.ARPA
Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.
Lines: 29

From: Jim Hester 

I wasn't implying that the name was not used in some SF work, just
suggesting how the author probably (no pun intended) came up with it.
Your belief that it was a personificatin of Murphey's Law does not
refute (in my opinion, it actually supports) this suggestion.

If the imp is a personification of Murphey's law, then it seems likely
that the author of the story used the term 'imp' in reference to
Maxwell's Demon, since this demon IS the personification of Murphey's
Law!  It is the malicious sentient being on which we lay the blame for
an otherwise impersonal law by saying that the demon alters probability
in order to bring about possible although improbable misfortunes or
calamities.  The correspondence between names and occupatins is nearly
perfect; the only question is whether it was intentional.

In addition to being a fun and convenient scapegoat, the demon is a
literary device for saying things (particularly bad ones in the case of
the demon) do not happen by accident in the universe.  I adhere to this
philosophy at least as far as puns and allegories in literature go.  I
assume that an SF author is literate enough to be aware of the demon,
and to use the term 'imp' based on that.  S/he may have chosen the name
out of the blue, but to assume that is to make a negative assumption
about the author's writing abilities.  I am hesitant to make such an
assumption without overwhelming evidence of incompetance.

Sorry I couldn't supply the requested pointer, though.

	Jim
  Switch to threaded view of this topic Create a new topic Submit Reply
Previous Topic: The Forbin Project
Next Topic: Re: Help with button: "The Imp of the Perverse"
Goto Forum:
  

-=] Back to Top [=-
[ Syndicate this forum (XML) ] [ RSS ] [ PDF ]

Current Time: Thu Mar 28 07:07:16 EDT 2024

Total time taken to generate the page: 0.02472 seconds