The reason for removing "Gilden Fire"

[Borillar]

Hey all,

If I remember correctly, SRD explained that he had to remove "Gilden Fire" from the Illearth War because writing it from the perspective of Korik violated the principle of Covenant's Unbelief, namely that the Land was an illusion. Yet isn't there a chapter told from Hile Troy's perspective? Is that chapter only acceptable because Hile Troy is at least theoretically from the "real world"? [/b]

[kevinswatch]

I think you just answered your own question. Heh. Nice work.

But yeah, I remember reading before something from SRD that explains it just as you have. Apparently it was OK for Troy because he was from the "real world" while the Bloodguard were still a part of the "dream world".

I still think the main motivation for dropping Gildenfire out is because he simply couldn't make the book that long. The Illearth War + The Gildenfire chapters would have been huge.-jay

[Revenant]

Talking about perspective, here's little parts from LFB, Ch.7 (Lena's rape scene):

For an instant, her courage stumbled; she felt the river and the ravine closing around her like the jaws of a trap.

As she caught her balance, got one last, clear, terrified look at him, she felt sure that he meant to kill her.

Seems a quite early inner perspective from a Land's inhabitant, as it's clearly not what Covenant thought she felt.

[Sheol]

Yes, but Covenant was there in that scene. He was not with Koric and the others. So on the border line I think this is still somewhat Covenant's perspective.

[drew]

Well Half of TPTP is from Mhorams POV, without TC's knowledege of what was even going on up there.

[balon!]

Well i always was under the impression of Publisher influence. Just like the terminator book, he had to cut off his own ending because the publisher put a page limit. Mabye the same thing? Id like to ask but wouldnt really want to pose such a trivial question to SRD.

[Alynna Lis Eachann]

Actually, if you feel like slogging through the whole GI, you will probably find the answer. I think at some point SRD says that he feels guilty that we paid to read things he'd originally put in the trash. I think it was a combination of the original manuscript being too long, and the chapter not fitting with the main thrust of the book (it was quite the rambling side-story, really).

[Nav]

Yeah, he gives quite a good explanation somewhere. Isn't it at the beginning of Daughter of Regals? Basically Del Rey wanted SRD to cut TIW by about 70 pages (or something, I'm making up the figures as I go along) . Gilden Fire, being about 50 pages, was the first cut made as it wasn't an essential passage and he wasn't happy with the story being narrated by a Land-native (this coming before Mhoram's bit at the beginning of TPTP of course).

[marshm]

SRD has stated he initially thought the original series might be four books. He also stated that Lester DelRey insisted the Second Chronicles be a "trilogy".

[variol son]

Well Half of TPTP is from Mhorams POV, without TC's knowledege of what was even going on up there.

Yeah, but SRD says in Gildenfire that Covenant's Unbelief was important in the first two books, not so much in the third.

After all, it is in The Power that Preserves that Covenant realises that the question of the Land's existance is irrelevant and that he can save it regardless of whether it is real or a dream.

So having those five chapters from Mhoram's point of view doesn't undermine the story like it would have in the two previous books.

Sum sui generis
Vs

[drew]

I agree with you there VS. ALl I meant is that I dobt if the lack of TC's point of veiw wasn't the only thing that kept Gilden Fire from the book.

I like what Nav had to say...

Yeah, he gives quite a good explanation somewhere. Isn't it at the beginning of Daughter of Regals? Basically Del Rey wanted SRD to cut TIW by about 70 pages (or something, I'm making up the figures as I go along) . Gilden Fire, being about 50 pages, was the first cut made as it wasn't an essential passage and he wasn't happy with the story being narrated by a Land-native (this coming before Mhoram's bit at the beginning of TPTP of course).

[/i]

[marshm]

Mhoram's POV in TPTP is not the only one in that book alone. Recall Triock's travails to the Unfettered One's cave and visit by your firendly neighborhood raver - all from Triock's POV.