"Penance" in Reave the Just and Other Tales

[danlo]

Penance is one of my favorite stories in Reave the Just and Other Tales! Almost feels like it could be set somewhere in the Mordant's Need world...alas poor sick Scriven (what a cool name)! Scriven sorta reminded me of TC, but even in a more pathetic way-hiding from humanity-feasting on Duke Obal's enemies in the dead of night-shunned by all. The church almost felt like it was located in the same town as the one in Ser Visal's Tale from Daughter of Regals--even tho Reave and Daughter were written over 15 years apart. If you remember Ser Visal's Tale let me ask you this: Have you ever seen the more recent movie version of Joan of Arc w/LeeLee Sobrieski? If so doesn't Joan's trial and the basillica and the way the clergymen sit around it remind you exactly of the inquisition in Ser Visal's Tale? It sure does to me! I could even see Peter O'Toole playing the Chief Inquistor...

[caamora]

Here I am, Danlo! Sorry - I didn't catch onto the hint to go to this other forum! I am a natural blonde and every once in a while it kicks in! "Penance" was a great story! I liked the different twist on vampires. I'm on the last story right now "By Any Other Name" but I got side-tracked by LFB!

[Lord Chris]

I thought "Penance" was great and I also enjoyed "The Killing Stroke".

[danlo]

The Killing Stroke is mindblowing! For me, at least, it's, technically, the best short story SRD has ever written. I'm really looking forward to his 3rd set as it seems his style gets much better as time goes by...

[aTOMiC]

I found Reave the Just on the whole a very entertaining collection of stories. My only complaint was that there were no stories featuring monkeys with machine guns for hands. (I enjoyed “Animal Lover” from DOR.) Maybe next time.

[danlo]

WHAT no MONKEYS!!! **sets fire to his copy of Reave...** It did have pigs, however...

[Ryzel]

There seems to be a lot more of martial arts in SRD's later work. Both "The Killing Stroke" and "The man who fought alone" features martial arts quite prominently. I guess it is natural that SRD should write about martial arts, being one himself.

I hope we get some more insight into the martial arts of the Haruchai in the 3. chronicles.

[Guest]

I personally enjoyed reading RtJ, as well as the last story in the book...can't remember the name, but it was about the merchant and also starred (albeit unnamed) Reave the Just. That character, as one-dimensional as he might be, just seemed so cool in that he's a guy who can never be forced to do anything against his will...despite the fact that he actually does very little, that one trait makes him larger than life and incredibly heroic...

hmmm...eventually I might have to come up with a username for this board, but using the name "UrLord" as I do on every other board seems inappropriate, eh?

[birdandbear]

Yes, please join! You'd be most welcome. And what's inappropriate about Ur-Lord? I checked just to make sure, and it's wide open.

[UrLord]

ah, well...looking through the names I realized it wouldn't be terribly out of place anyway, and I don't like inventing new user names to remember so I went ahead and registered the name.

[Mhorram's Revenge]

Reading through Reave the Just for the first time at the moment, and I have to say I'm finding Penance a real drag compared to the stories before it, esp. The Killing Stroke. I've probably read too much vampire fiction to find it a particularly fresh or original piece, unlike killing stroke or the story Reave the Just.

[Rigel]

Question about "What makes us Human":

Why is it called this?

It was apparently about the meeting with a non-living vessel, but I was never sure that there weren't living beings on it. After all, it was capable of things that the Asterians never imagined being possible (specifically, FTL travel). And the defining characteristic of the two main characters seems to be their willingness to take extreme risks. Is that supposed to be the defining attribute of humanity - that we'll take extreme risks when "logically" we should back down?

And on another story, in "The Woman who Loved Pigs":
Did Suriman transfer his intelligence to Fern at the end, so they both lived in her head? Or was the silver glint in her eye a mark of his having changed her life?

Frankly, this story disturbed me quite a bit. Almost like "Flowers for Algernon", except with Charlie begging to be stupid again.

(Not that I didn't like it - I'm smart enough to realize the distinction between being disturbed by something and not liking something ).

[amanibhavam]

I was musing the other day that nowadays even the phonebook could be made into a film if there were a vampyre in it, so this would be the perfect time for someone to take Penance and turn it into a movie...

[Avatar]

It would actually make an awesome movie. Short enough that they can't spoil it too badly.

--A

[Orlion]

It would actually make an awesome movie. Short enough that they can't spoil it too badly.

--A

Just so long as they didn't decide to try and resolve the external conflict and kept it what it's actually about...

[Cord Hurn]

"Penance" is my favorite story from Reave the Just and Other Tales. It has SUCH a powerful theme about the blinding effects of prejudice, as Scriven/Aposter the vampyr is more moral than a "human" character like Cardinal Straylish or Lord Numis, though people in this story had been taught otherwise about all vampyrs, naming them damned. I enjoyed Scriven's account of his spiritual awakening.

"I cannot tell how others of my kind make their way. I suspect that we are diverse as ordinary men, and that some of us cut as wide a swath as they may, while others covet more timid existence. For myself, I had learned as I roved that places of worship provided congenial feeding grounds. In such places men are plentiful--and careless of their safety, thinking themselves protected by their gods. For the same reason, when a community comes to fear one of my kind, it seldom searches its sanctuaries and chapels. In lands to the east and south of Sestle"--lands which had not been enfolded by Mother Church--"I had lived well and long by secreting myself and selecting my prey within places of worship.

"That was my intention in Sestle. Avoiding the great cathedrals , I chose a decrepit chapel immured among the city's multitudinous poor in a region named Leeside, where the worshippers were at once devout and defenseless, and where any number of unexplained deaths might pass unremarked. At first I made my home among the nameless graves in the chapel basement. Later, however, I learned that the chapel;s builders, dreaming of grander sanctuaries had given the edifice lofts and attics among the high rafters, and there I eventually took up residence. From above I could watch and hear what transpired below me, among the worshipers. This greatly improved the efficacy of my position.

"I believed that I had found a place where I might live for many years and be secure.

"However, its effect was not what I had imagined. From my lofty perch, I watched and heard--too much.

"The congregation I observed comprised little more than human refuse, more ruined than their house of worship, reduced by poverty and near-starvation to the semblance of vermin. And yet the devotion on their faces, the simplicity revealed through their grime and pain, the untrammeled trust of their hymns and prayers--these things touched me as I had never been touched before.

"Must I speak the truth, my lords? Then I will acknowledge that I saw myself in them. My homelessness and wandering, and my ceaseless isolation, had taught me to understand their deprivation. And my kind is always hungry.

"As I watched my intended prey, there reawakened in me a yearning which I had ignored for so long that it seemed to have no name, a longing of the heart to stand among other men, other folk, and call them mine."

Hearing whispered opprobrium and doubt, I admitted, "I am well aware that I revolt you, my lords. Throughout my life I have known only revulsion. It is the fact around which my existence revolves. Yet the truth remains. In that chapel I ached to join the congregation, and give myself up to be healed."

Then I resumed.

"As I say, I saw too much when I watched. And when I listened I heard too much. For the first time, I attended to the conduct and attitudes of my prey. Their priest--an old man called Father Domsen--was no less ruined than they, no less tattered and besmirched, no less stricken by want. But he was also no less devout, and his love of Heaven seemed to shine like a beacon in the dim sanctuary. Again and again, day after day, he spoke of love and acceptance and peace, and of an immortal joy beyond the smallest taint of earthly suffering, and in his faith I heard intimations of an ineffable glory. I was persuaded by it, my lords, when I had not known that I could be moved at all.

"The alteration in me was gradual, but it brooked no resistance. At first I was hardly conscious of the change. Then I found that I had grown loathe to prey on those who worshiped in my chosen home. This required me to search more widely for sustenance, and to accept more hazard. Nevertheless I gained a comfort I could not explain from the knowledge that the chapel's congregation was in no peril. And for a time that contented me.

"As I listened to the priest's kind homilies, however, and to his gentle orisons, and heard the heartfelt goodwill of his blessings, I came to desire a deeper solace. I wished for the more profound balm of standing shoulder to shoulder with men and women who did not abhore me, and of sharing their simplicity."

This story is beautifully done, and I found it very moving.

[dlbpharmd]

I read this on he flight home yesterday. It's every bit as good as "The Killing Stroke."

[rdhopeca]

I've always enjoyed his short stories, including this one...time for a re-read perhaps

[Cord Hurn]

Lowering his arms, Duke Obal returned to me. With a few strides, he crossed the rugs between us until he stood near enough to place his hands like an embrace upon my shoulders.

"Then, Scriven," he proclaimed so that none would mistake him, "I say to you before all these witnesses that you are my trusted friend, and I am honored by your service. Be welcome in Mullior. Be at home. As you keep your vows, so will I keep mine. The House of Obal stands by you. While I live, you are safe among us."

In the grip of his strong hands, I straightened my back and met his gaze as best I could.
"Thank you, my lord. I will keep my vows."

He deserved better gratitude, but I had come to the end of what I could do. I had begun to weep, and had no heart to stanch it.

He was more than a good son of Mother Church. He was a man of faith.

Emotionally satisfying, considering all that Scriven has endured. He has a real home with acceptance at last. This is not only my favorite Stephen R Donaldson short story, it is one of my favorite SRD works, PERIOD! Powerful from beginning to end.

[Cord Hurn]

It would actually make an awesome movie. Short enough that they can't spoil it too badly.

--A

I certainly agree with this!