This one I pulled because somebody was looking for it specifically and emailed me over it; since I’m processing it anyway, I should put it up. Let me reveal the punchline, for anybody not steeped in In Nomine fanon: there was a theory among IN fans that Raphael, Archangel of Knowledge and Jean, Archangel of Lightning were somehow linked (I typically just treated them as ‘husband and wife’ and was done with it). Which was particularly interesting because both Archangels were Elohim, which in IN means that they were supposed to be perfectly objective Spock-types… this explanation is getting long. Buy the book!
Anyway, the ‘she’ at the end refers to Raphael.
the-spark-jeans-desk-google-docs
The Spark (Jean’s Desk)
Daniel now had to locate a chair; all the blood in his legs seemed to be rushing into his brain.
“If that is true,” he said, “then everything you proved before about point objects – for example that they move along conic section trajectories – “
“Applies without alteration to spherical bodies.”
“To real things.” Daniel had a queer vision just then of a shattered Temple reconstituting itself: fallen columns rising up from the rubble, and the rubble re-aggregating itself into cherubim and seraphim, a fire sparking on the central altar. “You’ve done it, then… created the System of the World.”
– Neal Stephenson, Quicksilver, page 686
Continue reading In Nomine Revisited: The Spark (Jean’s Desk)