The cause of Covenants leprosy

Post by **Revan** » Thu Feb 27, 2003 10:27 am

just to let you know, i'm the same person as first mark tuvor 4. i

Post by **hamako** » Thu Feb 27, 2003 9:32 pm

OK, try this

in the chronicles, there's the recurrent theme that creation always has flaw in it, hence the creation of Lord Foul - arising from the imperfection in the Creator's work.

TC is part of the Arch, his leprosy is the flaw - some have also argued that the leprosy also equates to Foul. NOtice that no-one/nothing could remove TC's leprosy, not even the banefire ro his own wild magid,.

The leprosy is the necessary flaw that give TC the ability to heal/erase Lord Foul. Otherwise he'd be to pure/perfect to do anything - maybe like the Elohim. They are so evidently purity incarnate that they can't really do anything significant.

Aah, the stimulating power of wine....

Post by **lillianrill** » Fri Mar 07, 2003 10:11 pm

Just a short side track here... (and i hope this hasn't been thought of before...please disregard this if it has)

To me Covenant's leporacy has always seemed sort of a personification of Lord Foul, and the White Gold ring a constant reminder of the creator.

Here's where i get experimental...as far as the third chronicles go would it be plausable that because Covenant has no white gold anymore that his leporacy would dominate him sort of turning him into a Lord Foul type person... Hahaha who knows...maybe the 3rd Chron will be about the land trying to save Covenant from the ravages of leporacy...?

It always surprised me that Lord Foul didn't use TC as a biological weapon...why make his White Gold more powerful when you could give the entire land leporacy???

Just some thoughs :-S

Cheers!

KaosArcana · Post by **KaosArcana** » Fri Mar 07, 2003 11:41 pm

lillianrill says:

It always surprised me that Lord Foul didn't use TC as a biological weapon...why make his White Gold more powerful when you could give the entire land leporacy???

Hurtloam cures leprosy.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sat Mar 08, 2003 12:03 am

Physically it does...but i do believe the disease affected Covenant as much mentally as it did physically...

The leporacy was an undeniable apsect of his psyche.

Post by **lillianrill** » Sat Mar 08, 2003 12:05 am

sorry...that post above was me...silly logging on thingy

Post by **[Syl]** » Sat Mar 08, 2003 5:25 am

I think SRD using leprosy as a biological threat would've been counterproductive to the contrast of the Land's manifest health and TC's inner sickness (in the first chrons, at least. in the 2nd chrons Foul's goal was to strike the land with the environmental equivalent of leprosy). It would also contradict the mysterious nature of contracting leprosy, as any type of contagion would be unfounded by medical science... unless Covenant went around urinating on people... nasty thought, that.

In the third chrons, I really hope TC doesn't have to worry about leprosy. He's dead.

Post by **lillianrill** » Sat Mar 08, 2003 5:46 am

Sylvanus said:

unless Covenant went around urinating on people

LMAO!!!!

wait a second...he had to go to the toilet somewhere didn't he?? I did sense a lack of detail about sanitation in the land...not to say it wasn't there though...hrm....

Post by **Skyweir** » Sat Mar 08, 2003 12:06 pm

if someone with Hansens disease urinates on me .. I will catch leperosy??

I didnt think it was that contagious .. unless you are exposed as a child .. isn't this one of the myths of that perpetuates the stigma of leperosy
.

where is amy when we need medical insight here??

Post by **[Syl]** » Sat Mar 08, 2003 3:58 pm

It's not a proven vector, only a suspected one.

Post by **danlo** » Sat Mar 08, 2003 4:54 pm

Also interesting 2 note, along these lines, that TC's leprosy went in 2 a type of 10 year remission state at the same time as the Land was Wounded, or in the process of being wounded...(Syl: "don't touch me or I'll whip it out!!!

)

Post by **lillianrill** » Sat Mar 08, 2003 11:47 pm

Maybe that is proof that the land was a figment of Covenant's imagination...

Maybe being so isolated and segregated from the world caused his over active imagination to become reality. I know that is abit of an airy fairy explanation for the land but maybe the Creator and Lord Foul were created as a by product of Covenants natural and un-natural self, i.e Natural: The Creator, Lord Foul: Leporacy.

There are many unanswered questions about Linden Avery and the Cult people following Lord Foul, however we could choose to see Linden as the woman missing in TC's life and she was therefore drawn into the Land(metaphorically healing the sunbane and physically healing TC's psyche)...and the other people in reality that were following LF, maybe Covenant's Leporacy through LF needed to resist TC's healing in some way.

I know i'm personifing leporacy, as well as making it practically sentient, but looking at Lord Foul HE IS the personification of leporacy: Leporacy is incurable - Lord Foul cannot be killed - Lord Foul is incidious - Leporacy is very incidious. Maybe i'm reading too far in hehehe!

If you can understand what i'm talking about above you deserve a medal!!

I guess i'm just trying to argue that if I got leporacy and lost my family that I might have a Land waiting for me too!!!

KaosArcana · Post by **KaosArcana** » Sun Mar 09, 2003 3:30 am

I guess i'm just trying to argue that if I got leporacy and lost my family that I might have a Land waiting for me too!!!

Heh.

I think that if Thomas Covenant got leprosy nowadays he probably
would have become an internet junkie.

"Hellfire! I can't get this site to come up!"

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sun Mar 09, 2003 3:45 am

I reckon...!

I could definately see TC busting his nut over Yahoo Chess!!! lol!!

Post by **[Syl]** » Sun Mar 09, 2003 5:27 am

We must have different definitions of that phrase. Eww.

That is a very interesting idea, though. Would Covenant be drawn to the internet? Can an exile find acceptance on-line? It's not so different from his foray to the bar.

"In cyberspace, nobody knows you're a leper."

Of course, I think TC's answer would be, "That's too easy." Even if you find acceptance among a great group of people like here at Kevin's Watch, it doesn't take away from the sting of knowing you're not accepted in the real world.

I guess I'm kind of speaking from personal experience. Since I've been here in Illinois, I haven't really got to know anybody on a personal level (I find it self-defeating to make good friends when you're in such a transitory position. focusing on the home life, etc.) It's good to have friends here at the Watch or buddies back home, but sometimes it'd be nice to go over to a friend's house and drink some beer and play some playstation or something. I can't wait to finally settle down in Virginia.

So I guess that is a very mild version of what Covenant must have felt. That and having his wife and kid abandon him. The everpresent question, where the heck are TC's folks? It's almost like Covenant just suddenly sprung into existence a few years before he met Joan (am I the only one that constantly adds a mental "b*tch" after that name?).

A high price to pay for a ticket to the Land.

Post by **danlo** » Sun Mar 09, 2003 7:45 am

Assuming TC was, say 34, in 1977, his dad was killed overseas in WW2 shortly after he was concieved in 1943, his mom had an aspiring career as a screenwritter in Hollywood but was blacklisted by the "McCarthyists" simply by mentioning the words "consciencious objector" @ a dinner party @ Adolph Green's house. She was last seen on the road 2 Mexico, and never heard from again...(Dang is TC 60 years old 2day?

)

KaosArcana · Post by **KaosArcana** » Sun Mar 09, 2003 11:09 pm

danlo:

Assuming TC was, say 34, in 1977, his dad was killed overseas in WW2 shortly after he was concieved in 1943, his mom had an aspiring career as a screenwritter in Hollywood but was blacklisted by the "McCarthyists" simply by mentioning the words "consciencious objector" @ a dinner party @ Adolph Green's house. She was last seen on the road 2 Mexico, and never heard from again...(Dang is TC 60 years old 2day? )

I thought Covenant was exactly 30 years old when _Lord Foul's
Bane_ started.

For Donaldson's story to work the way he wanted it to, Covenant's
parents are dead. Given that we don't ever hear Covenant talk about
how screwed up his parents were, I'm guessing that they were dead
and just didn't abandon him once he got leprosy.

Post by **danlo** » Mon Mar 10, 2003 2:19 am

I must always miss that...I believe u...just have 2 look up the passage...so he's 56 now--faily close 2 SRD's real age. His book was so personal perhaps it derived from angst and self-pity re: the loss of his parents...

Post by **robo** » Mon Mar 10, 2003 4:14 am

I'm pretty sure that Leprosy in itself is NOT contagious. The thing is that people, because of Leprosy, usually contract other diseases, which may themselves be contagious.

Post by **hamako** » Tue Mar 11, 2003 10:35 am

As far as I understand, leprosy is only contractable thru long term exposure to the disease, under normal conditions. I think that this is why people who chose to work in the old leper colonies thru history have been held up as very selfless.

It's a case of not getting it from contact, like flu etc, but more gradually and constantly over time.

exception being that if you got a cut or similar infected.