Wait a Second! (Spoilers for TaT)

[ninedaysaqueen.livejournal.com]

I just realized Eugenides sent a near-sighted person to go keep a lookout for ships. Uhhhh... Am I the only one who sees a problem with that? He knows Kamet can't see a thing. A spyglass is not the same as corrective lenses. Speaking from experience, binoculars are not a substitute for my glasses, and I can see much better than Kamet!

I mean... maybe he could ask other people, but him telling everyone something along the lines of... Hey, if anyone sees any ships sailing towards Attolia, let me know, kay? ...would definitely defeat the purpose of keeping this observation point a secret.

I know I said earlier that Kamet could've done this job on his own and Costis wasn't necessary, but no, he absolutely cannot watch for ships on his own. So either this job wasn't a real thing at all, just a safe place to send Kamet or...

Was the king already planning to send Costis to Roa and knowing Kamet wouldn't want to stay in the Attolian palace, asked him first? So, maybe it wasn't so much Costis following Kamet as Kamet following Costis to help him keep his cover? Their cover is translating/copying the scrolls, right?

Costis was detached from the Guard in KoA. He swore an oath to Eugenides, the god, and did not die from a fall that should've killed him. The Mede Empire has been weakened, not defeated. Wouldn't there still be important missions for Costis? Would Gen really just let his best man sail off to a place that wasn't important and would Costis go with his family, monarchs, and country still in danger, even if it did mean he and Kamet would stay together?

Gen always has a PLAN, so was it always his intent to see if he could integrate Kamet into his spy network? He should know Kamet has the potential for it. Is this Roa thing more important than we realize?

Just when I thought I knew what was going on...

Comments

Fellow short-sighted person...

[an-english-girl.livejournal.com]

You're right. There'ssomething going on here. Not least because Kamet in his letter describes Costis having located the "observation points he wants". ie Costis, not Kamet.
Hmm... and I still maintain Dite has role in Ferria too :)

Re: Fellow short-sighted person...

[ninedaysaqueen.livejournal.com]

*high-fives fellow near-sighted reprobate

It kinda hit me that I need my glasses to clearly identify a distant object, such as cars further down the highway, and I've never had trouble seeing people's faces from across the room.

If Kamet needs a "good glass" to see any ships, all he's gonna see is little fuzzy blobs and with the spyglass, big fuzzy blobs. He may not be able to tell that they are even ships much less identify any flags that tell him who's ships they are.

I would need my glasses to be able to do this job, and most of the time I can function just fine without them, so something is not right!

I do hope Dite and Sejanus are in the next book!

[inkasrain.livejournal.com]

....Huh.

Is it at all possible telescopes compensate for near-sightedness? I know that microscopes do, it was always weird to take my glasses off in lab and be able to see through the scope just fine.

If not, it probably is Costis who is handling the lookout side of the spy work, while Kamet takes the listening and reading elements. Now I want an old-timey buddy cop show with the two of them.

[ninedaysaqueen.livejournal.com]

I love that we're all nearsighted. XD

It's a concave lens that corrects nearsightedness. A concave lens is the opposite of a magnifying glass.

From doing some quick reading on telescopes, it sounds like they use either convex lenses or concave mirrors to enhance images. The concave mirror ones are the really big sit inside ones, so I'm guessing Kamet would have to be using a convex one?

Not that I knew that before looking it up just now... Any lens experts around here?

I've never looked into a microscope so I wouldn't be able to comment on that angle, but I think microscopes can have many different types of lenses, some of which I'm sure are concave and can correct nearsightedness.

In my personal experience, modern binoculars can help a little if they have a focusing dial. The type of binoculars they have at viewing platforms, like piers, just make little fuzzy blobs into bigger fuzzy blobs for me.

They need their own buddy cop show. I would watch it!

[r.j. anderson (from livejournal.com)]

I too am nearsighted, but with binoculars I can see perfectly clearly. You just have to adjust the focus to compensate for the nearsightedness. So with a decent spyglass, Kamet could spot ships as well as anyone... though it wouldn't exactly be subtle, so he'd have to do it from a hidden vantage point.

[freenarnian.livejournal.com]

Oh, I very much assume Costis and Kamet are both part of Gen's "spy network" at this point (and probably in the future). I like the idea of Dite being involved as well!

Reading TaT, I kept forgetting how poor Kamet's eyesight was, even though he keeps bringing it up. I think this played a part in how easily I missed some of the plot twists, it failing to occur to me that Kamet might have met Gen in the past and not realized it, etc. *failure to relate!* Who knew 20/20 could be such a disadvantage! :p

[ninedaysaqueen.livejournal.com]

What the nearsightedness points out to me is that Gen never planned to send Kamet out on this mission alone, and if he was always planning to send Costis (or someone else he could trust), it must be pretty important.

It's not an afterthought of... well, I guess you could go here if it's not too much trouble. It means something and will probably play into the final book.

I kept forgetting about it too, and I'm nearsighted in one eye! XD Thus, it only dawned on me now the problem with sending a nearsighted person to go play lookout.

[filkferengi]

These days, I need the bifocals to see my own feet. Otoh, I still read without glasses, just several inches closer than formerly.

Sometimes, a near-sighted person can see better than normal-sighted folks. I know, on road trips, being so much more used to squinting & recognizing words by their shapes, I spot roads, etc. faster than friends do.

[ninedaysaqueen.livejournal.com]

Used to squinting... XD

I'm always annoying people by asking them what that sign over there says. I don't feel like putting on my glasses, okay!

[filkferengi]

I found glasses very useful, back in college days. There were days I was very grateful to be able to see [or not] the cafeteria food. ;)

Nowadays, glasses are useful during walks. My spouse frequently asks whether I'm getting eye-bugged. Usually, I'm not. Yay!

[mary-j-59.livejournal.com]

That's really interesting, and I didn't think of it. However, it's my understanding that you're supposed to take off your glasses when using a telescope or binoculars. The lenses correct for the nearsightedness. What they don't correct for, at all, is astigmatism. You need glasses or contacts for that.

And it wouldn't surprise me at all if Kamet were astigmatic as well as nearsighted. So yes, he needs help.

I must say, I'm very glad this isn't the last book in the series. I'd like to see Dite again, and Sophos and Helen, of course! And also Ion.

[ninedaysaqueen.livejournal.com]

I think I have an astigmatism too, so maybe that's my problem!

Is that just for modern telescopes or did early telescopes also correct near and far sightedness? Kamet's vision just seems so bad that I find it hard to beleive anyone would send him by himself to be a lookout, even if a "good glass" could help him see more than fuzzy blobs. He probably has an astigmatism as well, I imagine.

[mary-j-59.livejournal.com]

I'm honestly not sure, but I think perhaps they did. The very earliest telescopes used the same kind of lenses that correct short-sightedness, but it does not state whether they could be focused. You obviously have to be able to focus them before you could see anything at all if you naturally have blurry vision! Also, it seems glasses to correct vision were invented a good while before telescopes. Give our noble Mede spy a pair of glasses, oh brilliant author!

Here is the link:

http://www.antiquetelescopes.org/history.html

[(Anonymous)]

Oh, my, I totally missed the correlation between Costis surviving the fall and his dedication to Eugenides.