TMOHD Prologue and Chapter 1: Calling

Mordant's Need group reads

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What is this story really about?

a spoilt little rich girl?
2
10%
the importance of intimacy?
0
No votes
the need of human contact?
5
25%
the need of a fathers love?
0
No votes
the dangers of neglect?
0
No votes
the dangers of neglect?
0
No votes
how not to approach parenting?
1
5%
all the last options apart from the first
9
45%
none of the above
3
15%
 
Total votes: 20

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Earthblood
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Post by Earthblood »

If I told you that, I'd have to ...
Spoiler
Use a spoiler - keep reading!!!!!
"You're afraid of yourself."
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matrixman
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Post by matrixman »

Deep psychological discussion here--and it's just the beginning of the story! So, Terisa "was held prisoner by enchantment." In the real world, we might construe that as a euphemism for brainwashing. Indoctrination. Fun stuff cults do.

Anyway, Terisa lives her life in an empty, trance-like state. It twists my mind to imagine someone who is unsure of her own existence. After all, our sense of ourselves is something we take for granted everyday. The part of Terisa that is unique to her alone--her "soul" perhaps--is divorced from her somehow, or asleep. The calling of the horns seems to awaken her true self, if only momentarily. I like how the sound of the horns suddenly changes Terisa's perception of her world: the drab environment and people around her suddenly come alive and take on meaning and purpose. It's like one moment she sees only the limitations, the next she sees the possibilities.

Terisa's parents seem to be the kind of people I can't stand: social climbers. Fake smiles, handshakes, platitudes. This scene basically sums up the bastards:
In her mind, with her eyes closed, Terisa would be a child again, six or seven years old, and she would hobble into the huge dining room where her parents were entertaining several of her father's business associates in their best clothes--she would go into the dining room because she had fallen on the stairs and scraped her knee and horrified herself with how much she was bleeding, and her mother would look at her without seeing her at all, would look right through her with no more expression on her face than a waxwork figure, and would make everything meaningless. "Go to your room, child," she would say in a voice as empty as a hole in her heart. "Your father and I have guests." Learn to be like me. Before it's too late.
Reminds me of author Tom Wolfe's jibe at the ultra-thin women of high society who starve themselves to fit into the latest fashions: he called them a bunch of "social x-rays." Give the food to me, I could use dinner.
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duchess of malfi
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Post by duchess of malfi »

Oh, her parents are actually even worse than that...her memories are heartbreaking. :cry:
They ARE the shallow social climbers you describe...but her father is actually evil, IMHO... :-x
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Revan
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Post by Revan »

I agree... though I don't know what happens in the beginning of the Second book in which he features... But I hate what I've heard of him.
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dANdeLION
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Post by dANdeLION »

Vile, I know I'm not supposed to spoil it for you, but here goes. Teresa's dad takes off his mask to reveal he's actually
Spoiler
filipin
, who has been the guy behind the attacks on Orison all along!


I'm sorry, what are we talking about? :screwy:
Dandelion don't tell no lies
Dandelion will make you wise
Tell me if she laughs or cries
Blow away dandelion


I'm afraid there's no denying
I'm just a dandelion
a fate I don't deserve.


High priest of THOOOTP

:hobbes: *

* This post carries Jay's seal of approval
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Post by Guest »

Its been 14 years since i read this book so i have to base all of my thougths on what I've read in this forum. I do plan on getting the book again to read :)


...

The mirrors are very significant in her psyche. I have a personality refered to as Schizoid Personaility. Since I haven't read the book in so long I can't say if she has that or not, but I think she has some kind of personality 'disorder'. Many times people with certain types of personality disorders feel as if they are looking at the world through mirrors. They have a disconnected feel to the world. The vast majority of the time when I am sitting at a lunch table with people I feel like I don't really belong there. It seems as if I am looking at the world through a glass wall. There is definatly a feeling of disconnectedness.

With the mirrors might be a way that she can visually see that she is actually there, that she does exist and that she isnt' just looking in on the world.
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duchess of malfi
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Post by duchess of malfi »

That is exactly what Terisa uses the mirrors for, Guest. To make sure that she is actually still there. The poor girl keeps thinking she is literally fading away into nothingness...her father has a lot to answer for in his abuse of her. :-x
Love as thou wilt.

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Revan
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Post by Revan »

hmmm.... I hope her father dies painfully... anyways... I think Terisa was a bit insane... at first... if you think about it... someone who questions their own existence is insane... But then she came back. :)
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danlo
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Post by danlo »

Darth wrote:someone who questions their own existence is insane...
You mean you've NEVER done this? I certianly have and know a number of people who have also. :?
fall far and well Pilots!
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Revan
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Post by Revan »

Yeah, but have you looked in the mirror for hours on end just to make sure you don't fade away?
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danlo
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Post by danlo »

Where exactly does it say that about Terisa? Please reprint that quote. Looking in a mirror too long is VERY dangerous. 8O
fall far and well Pilots!
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Post by duchess of malfi »

I think you are being a bit harsh on Terisa. She thinks she might be fading away as a direct emotional reaction to the abuse that was handed to her as a child.
Once she is removed from that situation, from her expensive prison, and gets a chance to grow and learn, those feelings lessen as time goes on. In the end she doesn't feel them at all anymore. But I am starting to get pretty spoilerish, so I will be quiet now. :wink:
Love as thou wilt.

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Loresraat
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Post by Loresraat »

Elements of Terisa's personality remind me of certain people I've known who are...I don't know what the proper diagnosis would be, but it's like they're spiritually codependent. They don't seem to have any core personality of their own. Instead, they pick someone around them and mold themselves entirely in the other person's image, like the other person defines who they are. You can never figure such a person out, because they're insubstantial as mist. My initial impression of Terisa, having just started reading MoHD, is that it's as if Terisa suffers from this disorder, but she is so isolated that she has nobody to model off of and she is therefore completely adrift. I could definitely see this emotional disorder as being related to some form of depression and/or abuse.
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matrixman
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Post by matrixman »

Thanks for adding your thoughts to this long-dormant dissection, Loresraat. Always glad to see another reader willing to try Mordant's Need. I think you've made a keen assessment of Terisa's character. I identify with her feeling of being adrift in the world, of living life in a kind of emotional stasis.
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Post by Loresraat »

Alas, I am currently suffering from a severe case of Chronicles withdrawal after finishing FR. Requiring treatment, I quickly rushed to my local library for more SRD to read! :D Thus far, I'm really enjoying Mordant's Need.

I also find myself sympathizing strongly with Terisa. For me, it's the way she is haunted by the question of whether she really *means* anything. I can't say I've ever felt like I'm fading out of existence, but I have had hard bouts of wondering whether my life will ultimately, truly matter. The further I read the clearer it is that Terisa has been deeply emotionally wounded.
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TMOHD Prologue and Chapter 1: Calling

Post by Cord Hurn »

I finally participated in this poll, Sky. Other options looked good, but her need for human contact especially struck me. Just my opinion, of course.
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TMOHD Prologue and Chapter 1: Calling

Post by wayfriend »

Agency.

The word has more formal connotations now than it did in earlier times, or maybe the formal connotations were known only among a more limited set of people.
In behavioral psychology, agents are goal-directed entities that are able to monitor their environment to select and perform efficient means-ends actions that are available in a given situation to achieve an intended goal. Behavioral agency, therefore, implies the ability to perceive and to change the environment of the agent.
Agency refers to the idea that people make their own decisions and are responsible for their own actions. Some sociological theories are accused of being deterministic, that they suggest that human behaviour is inevitable and predictable. Interpretivists stress that people have agency and can choose.
'Character agency' in fiction is used to describe the ability a character has to take action to affect the events of the story.
Or
Agency is the sense of control that you feel in your life, your capacity to influence your own thoughts and behavior, and have faith in your ability to handle a wide range of tasks and situations.
The last one applies to Teresa's story best, I think.

Agency: the feeling of control over actions and their consequences; the ability to change your world to get what you need; the ability to choose, and have your choice matter. This is what Teresa utterly lacks at the beginning of the story. This is what she acquires as she grows as a character. This is her prize at the end.

(This is also the central theme of the Chronicles. But Donaldson takes on the same topic a different way in Mordant's Need.)
.
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