Editing 2741: Wish Interpretation
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Having persuaded his wisher to retract the original request, the genie now has to deal with two rather ''too'' open-ended, generally pessimistic requests in a similar vein. Exactly what Black Hat "deserves" is possibly subjective; and someone "getting what they deserve" tends to be a rather negative outcome. To this, the genie seems dismayed at Black Hat essentially wishing for a bad outcome (with nothing to twist to serve a moral lesson), but the genie still seems to have enough latent sympathy to be concerned about the trouble being invited, assuming that it was a particularly unintended turn of phrase. | Having persuaded his wisher to retract the original request, the genie now has to deal with two rather ''too'' open-ended, generally pessimistic requests in a similar vein. Exactly what Black Hat "deserves" is possibly subjective; and someone "getting what they deserve" tends to be a rather negative outcome. To this, the genie seems dismayed at Black Hat essentially wishing for a bad outcome (with nothing to twist to serve a moral lesson), but the genie still seems to have enough latent sympathy to be concerned about the trouble being invited, assuming that it was a particularly unintended turn of phrase. | ||
| β | Undaunted, the next version of Black Hat's revised wish | + | Undaunted, the next version of Black Hat's revised wish invokes an even less ambiguously perilous wording. The suggestion of "what's coming to" someone is frequently used as a threat (or menacing promise) of violence. Taken literally, though, it would either be meaningless (Black Hat would receive whatever fate would have befallen him without the wish, and the genie would have effected no change), or it would be tautologous (whatever is coming to him is whatever the result of the wish is, so how is the genie to decide what that should be?). Regardless of the outcome, Black Hat is wishing for something already negative with no room for a moral twist, or something that is essentially tautological. This disheartens the genie even more, given his apparent obligation to be inconveniently literal and problematic in interpreting wishes. |
Clearly outclassed in his attempt to establish his ability to cause problems, or perhaps out of pity for Black Hat's self-destructive wishes, the genie gets frustrated and backtracks rapidly. He offers just $20 (a token amount of money, possibly out of his own pocket in order to completely avoid using his potentially dangerous magical abilities) to get himself out of the original formulaic deal and permanently away from having to be under Black Hat's influence. | Clearly outclassed in his attempt to establish his ability to cause problems, or perhaps out of pity for Black Hat's self-destructive wishes, the genie gets frustrated and backtracks rapidly. He offers just $20 (a token amount of money, possibly out of his own pocket in order to completely avoid using his potentially dangerous magical abilities) to get himself out of the original formulaic deal and permanently away from having to be under Black Hat's influence. | ||
