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Author: PaulA

Oct 10th 2011 at 8:17:29 PM

So far, nobody seems to be on the same wavelength as me on this. Maybe I'm just bad at explaining, or maybe this isn't a thing after all.

[=69BookWorM69=], I should have spoken up earlier to say that you're barking up the wrong tree. (Which is not to say the thing you're thinking of isn't a trope, but it's not the thing I'm thinking of.) This is not about the ''characters'' passing off a supernatural event as a mundane one; the characters never even notice. It's not spelled out. This is a hidden bonus thing, for any reader who notices it to be able to feel smart about. ([=TBeholder=], lightning is far too obvious to be an actual example.)

In ''Soldier of the Mist'', nobody actually talks about post-traumatic amnesia; doctors in Ancient Greece didn't know about that stuff. It's only that the reader is told that the protagonist has a memory problem, and also incidentally that the protagonist has a whacking great head wound, and then is left to put them together and think "Hey, that's a coincidence".

In ''Odd and the Frost Giants'', nobody remarks on the ice being a triangular prism; the story's set long before Newton. The way it's written never implies that Odd's explanation of the event is wrong. It's just an interesting coincidence for the reader to notice.

In ''The Curse of Chalion'', when I say the details of the tumor fit with medical science, I mean our medical science; the medical science of Chalion says that tumors are caused by demons, and there's no reason given to suppose it's wrong.

It is related to MaybeMagicMaybeMundane, but that's not exactly what it is. The magic explanation is true: Latro is cursed by the gods, the rainbow is magical, Caz does have a demon. It's just that in some way it matches the mundane version as well.