Talk:Book:I Shall Wear Midnight/Annotations

The idea of Simon becoming the Stephen Hawking of the Discworld is certainly a beguiling one and fits the character as we saw him in Equal Rites, quite admirably. Especially since our own S.H. would be dead by now were it not for the attentions of a series of nurses/care assistants/wives who have devoted themselves to doing the things he cannot do for himself - with a certain associated controversy. (One alleged mental and physical cruelty; another, a Cambridge physics postgrad herself, is allegedly whispered to have given him her ideas to develop...)

But two things leave me wondering.

At the end of Equal Rites, after his visit to the Dungeon Dimensions and Esk's rescue of him, Simon is apparently cured of all his ailments, allergies and stammer -

"They seem to have all gone, sir!"

Secondly, since Moving Pictures, Ponder Stibbons has progresively filled the niche for super-intelligent research wizard. The H.E.M. has increased in importance, especially after HEX and the Template:SOD series, and if there were a "Stephen Hawking" in residence at UU, he'd have been known about before now? Stibbons might find the academic rivalry jarring, but he'd be sensible enough not to let such a fantastic theoretician go by un-used.... but we haven't seen a sdign of this, so far? (OK, we are told Esk and Simon went off touring and researching together for an unspecified length of time. And it is posible Simon might have followed "Henry" in the brain-drain to Brazenose... but nothing has been said of this.)

It would be fun to develop - Windle Poons' wheelchair comes out of mothballs and is given a speech recognition unit somehow linked to HEX (an imp and an oscilloscope fragment?) Simon stirs the imp by means of a keyboard, which taps a corresponding part of the imp's body, who then assembles the knocks into speech...--AgProv 10:24, 10 September 2010 (CEST)