Guards! Guards! -- this city is lousy with magic.

[RathDarkblade]

So, I just had a thought ...

1. In G!G!, the Elucidated Brethren of the Ebon Night need magic items to summon the dragon.
2. A-M is lousy with magic.
3. Brother Fingers (alias Bengy "Lightfoot" Boggis, IIRC?) can steal a book from UU.

So ... why didn't he try to steal anything else (i.e. magical)? For instance ... let's see ... wait until the Arch-chancellor was sleeping, and then take off with his staff? IIRC, G!G! takes place before Ridcully takes over as Arch-chancellor, and in those days all the Arch-chancellors were sleepy blokes in a big hat. Should be a cinch to steal a staff, right?

.....right?

All right, back to reality. Obviously any Arch-chancellor would be careful about stuff like that. But UU is supposedly crammed with magical things, so why didn't Bengy -- if he's such a good thief -- go back there and take his pick?

And how, if the Library's books are so hostile that they have to be chained down, did Bengy steal Thee Summonynge of Dragons anyway? *shrug*

These are the sort of thoughts that have prevented me from becoming the CEO of the FDA by now.

 

[=Tamar]

Everything else was protected. But nobody thought anyone would want to steal one of those books. The other books weren't threatened, and they probably were glad to be rid of it as a neighbor, damaged as it was.

 

[RathDarkblade]

I'm sure the Librarian thought otherwise. *G* But then, why should no-one want to steal one of those books? *curious* All knowledge is dangerous, as the Librarian knows (or should know) better than anyone -- and how to summon a dragon is more dangerous knowledge than most.

Is it simply that no-one tried to do it for centuries and centuries, so no-one even remembered that the book was there?

 

[=Tamar]

That, plus the Why factor. Like the time when a man climbed into the lion cage at the London Zoo and was mauled. When people asked why it hadn't had more difficult barriers, the zookeepers explained that they hadn't thought anyone would want to climb into the lion cage because, y'know, "It's full of lions."

 

[RathDarkblade]

That, plus the Why factor.

Good analogy! Or, as Terry puts it in one of his books: "...Like trying to beat a tiger to death with a rattlesnake."

...The time when a man climbed into the lion cage at the London Zoo and was mauled.

Which one was this, then? The one in 1994? Or in 2011? Or 1992? Or in South Africa in 2015? Or that time in 2019?

People are truly unoriginal. At least the "eccentric" priest who entered the lion enclosure in the 30s, so he could be like the Biblical Daniel, had an air of refreshing farce about him. (I forget his name, sorry).

 

[=Tamar]

The one in 1994 that you linked to was carrying a Bible, so I assume he was also identifying with Daniel.

 

[RathDarkblade]

Yikes ... I hadn't heard of anyone beside that original priest in the 1930s -- aha! Found him: The Rector Harold Davidson, Rector of Stiffkey. His life appears to make for quite an entertaining story, though with a tragic ending. His behaviour as rector (which led to him being defrocked) appears to have been both inappropriate and unwise, though not criminal or unethical.

At any rate ... you may call it common sense or a lack of adventurousness, but I'd prefer not to go anywhere near large and dangerous animals, especially wild ones.