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Laura Ackerman writes...

A few weeks back you posted an explanation for Goliath and crew speaking modern English that you had seen and liked. It involved Demonia casting a spell before they awoke. There are a few problems with that theory, (sorry, I seem to live for nitpicking).

The most notable problem is how to extend it past the original seven that woke up in Manhattan. Excluding modern World Tour characters, who, it can be argued might have spoken English and were being polite to the Avalonauts by using it, (a stretch, but not the worse one to make, especially after hearing how Bushido orriginally started;), most everyone else had some connection to Avalon. I would find it easy to argue that the magic of Avalon made different languages moot, but only while on Avalon. Though I have been raised a Trekkie, a Universal Translator without explanation doesn't really fit into the Gargoyle world (IMHO).

Also, if there was a magic that acted on the Island (maybe extending to the skiff on the way to and from) there could have been fun effects of Angela suddenly being heard in a Medieval Scottish French blend, which Goliath doesn't realize is incomprehesible to Elisa. If I wanted to get fancy I would say that the Avalon clan was raised by a noble and would then have french and germanic languages, as well as possibly Latin, and thus made modern English less difficult to pick up- but there would still be a time of confusion.

Basically, I wonder if there is a way to explain the language problem away, or is it best left as a known element of suspension of disbelief? [Sorta like the scale in the Cloisters in Temptation :)]

Greg responds...

Michael Reaves idea, which I only heard second hand, is pretty new to me. So I don't pretend to have fully thought it out. I feel like there's something in it. But I just haven't dedicated the time to doing that mindwork yet.

Response recorded on September 06, 2001