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I know I promised some thoughts arising from Death-Watch 2 this evening, but I've been too tired between bouts of German vocab-learning, so no great essay from me.
A little more on what I meant by my Orac-as-Avon's-daemon concept. This idea draws from Philip Pullman, except that rather than expressing the nature of Avon's soul, Orac represents what Avon wants to be. I've always felt that he liked to tell himself that his scheme to defraud the Federation's central bank was mainly intended to demonstrate how easy it was for him to do; that he would become rich was, he liked to think, merely a pleasing side-effect. On board Liberator, Avon tries to play down his humanity, manifested by his overt rejection of social ties - a method that immediately fails as if he really was a loner, he wouldn't need to keep demonstrating to everyone that he was.
Avon envies Orac's capabilities as the most advanced computer ever built; and Orac's professions of his own superiority mimic and thereby undercut Avon's own. Once Avon has the responsibility for the Liberator that he has craved - and also for its crew - he almost immediately tries to emulate Orac's actions in 'Orac' and 'Redemption' by identifying a chain of cause and effect and seeing where it will lead. Yet Orac's prediction, apparently showing the destruction of the Liberator, was wrong, at least immediately; and Avon's is wrong too, leading him not to Blake but to Servalan.
A little more on what I meant by my Orac-as-Avon's-daemon concept. This idea draws from Philip Pullman, except that rather than expressing the nature of Avon's soul, Orac represents what Avon wants to be. I've always felt that he liked to tell himself that his scheme to defraud the Federation's central bank was mainly intended to demonstrate how easy it was for him to do; that he would become rich was, he liked to think, merely a pleasing side-effect. On board Liberator, Avon tries to play down his humanity, manifested by his overt rejection of social ties - a method that immediately fails as if he really was a loner, he wouldn't need to keep demonstrating to everyone that he was.
Avon envies Orac's capabilities as the most advanced computer ever built; and Orac's professions of his own superiority mimic and thereby undercut Avon's own. Once Avon has the responsibility for the Liberator that he has craved - and also for its crew - he almost immediately tries to emulate Orac's actions in 'Orac' and 'Redemption' by identifying a chain of cause and effect and seeing where it will lead. Yet Orac's prediction, apparently showing the destruction of the Liberator, was wrong, at least immediately; and Avon's is wrong too, leading him not to Blake but to Servalan.