Remember what I said about the relative value of the pinky finger?

[conuly]

Here it is again! I'm reading this new book, and bam, not two chapters in some doofus is mindcontrolling a kid to cut off part of his own pinky.

What did I tell you? Go for the point finger. It looks worse, but it's actually better, so it's like a double win.

(Then later in the book our dubiously moral protagonist drops in a Farscape quote, so all is forgiven.)

Comments

[marahmarie]

Remember what I said about the relative value of the pinky finger?

I do, I do! *waves*

Is there any chance the author *wanted* to maximize the damage the kid did to himself by getting him to chop off not just any digit, but that one?

Outside of that yeah, point (how punnish of me) taken.

[conuly]

Nah, but the villain in question is a total douche who probably didn't do any research first.

[marahmarie]

Well, "villains" and "research" don't always go hand-in-hand (see: "dumb criminals").

[conuly]

Yeah, but this is a supervillain book, and he's a supervillain.

Anyway, I'm blaming him for this instead of the author.

[jessie_c]

Pinkie fingers and their value in grip make up a large plot point in Jennifer Roberson's Sword Sworn (Tiger & Del #6).

[lilysea]

This was news to me!

I thought the little finger [the finger furthest away from the thumb] was the most superfluous of all the fingers...

[conuly]

Everyone thinks that, which is probably *why* fictional villains chop off pinkies all the time. I thought that until Angel's accident last year, and then I learned a lot about fingers in a very short amount of time.

But while it's understandable for the villain and even the protagonist to think this, it's a good idea for the writer to have a better grasp of physiology.

[conuly]

Sweet - and if it's book 6, am I to assume the series is worth reading?

[conuly]

(I just realized you're not on my access list and might have missed all my posts about their accident. Short story shorter, if you're going to garden in the nighttime, don't use clippers.)

[oloriel]

When we were translating Anglo-Saxon law codes, the entire class (including the prof) was surprised that the pinky finger was almost as expensive (if you had to pay damages) as the thumb. Since I was practicing kendô and had been using a pickaxe during our construction work at home, I had recently found out how much you need the pinky, so I could explain it...

[wpadmirer]

ARGH.

[conuly]

It is amazing how much such an itty bitty finger affects grip strength.

[conuly]

I can see now that I'll spend the rest of my life trying to get the word out.

[oloriel]

Seriously! If you think about the physics of it for a second, it makes sense, but... you don't generally think about the physics.

[jessie_c]

Yes. It starts off with a spectacular lampshade hanging upon the entire patriarchal Sword and sorcery genre (arrogant swordsman must duel a woman) and gets better from there. The last book sends up the 'chosen one who will bring change' trope.
And Tiger's horse is the best character of the lot.

[marahmarie]

And the author created him, so...