2nd Chronicles Health-sense.

[The Somberlain]

I don't have the book on me, but I don't think he did: Atiaran gets all flustered about the storm and Covenant says something like "Don't you get rain in spring?", to which she replies, "Yes, but not from the east." (or words to that effect.) He just thought it was a springtime rain shower.

[Xar]

I don't have the book on me, but I don't think he did: Atiaran gets all flustered about the storm and Covenant says something like "Don't you get rain in spring?", to which she replies, "Yes, but not from the east." (or words to that effect.) He just thought it was a springtime rain shower.

I think you're missing an important idea in here... in the First Chronicles, Covenant does not know about the health-sense and what it means. He believes he's in a dream, and even though he has seen a few strange things (graveling, Trell's remaking of the vase, hurtloam...) he doesn't know the world at all. He's persuaded the Land is a dream, and he just wants to go with the flow so the dream will end soon. As I recall, in LFB, the health-sense shows up gradually, beginning with feelings of "wrong" and "healthy" (which undoubtly he at first thought to be simply his own feelings about the events) and then blooming in tune with his own recognizing something was going on. In short, in LFB, he was not aware of his health-sense until it became too strong to be ignored. Vice versa, in TIW, he knew about the health-sense, and so he didn't ignore it or fight it when it came to him.

In TWL, Linden cannot follow the same path Covenant did: while Covenant's health sense awoke slowly and at first it was indistinguishable from a simple feeling of "this land is beautiful", her health sense awakens in a world caught in the grip of the Sunbane, a world where Earthpower itself has been perverted. Obviously, she can't "ignore" this health-sense any more than she could ignore a wound on her arm. Plus, as soon as she reveals she has it, Covenant is there to explain what it is and guide her through the initial shock, which also helps.

In short, I don't think that Covenant's health-sense needed to be awakened by wild magic: not only the theory doesn't explain why he recovered it so quickly in TIW, or how did Linden gain hers in TWL, but also, throughout all the First Chronicles, Covenant doesn't control wild magic, it acts unpredictably and based upon his visceral instincts: during the storm, he only wanted the storm to go away, and that's what wild magic did. He didn't wish to see the world more clearly, or to gain the same sort of sight the people of the Land possessed. And since we have no indication elsewhere in LFB or TIW that Covenant's wild magic could do complex things for him without his wishing for them (consciously or not), I simply think that his health-sense came as a result of being healed by hurtloam, and the reason why it showed up slowly in LFB is because he didn't know of it and didn't realize it was coming to him until it was too strong to ignore.

[KAY1]

I agree Covenant became aware of his health sense gradually. I thought it was the hurtloam that kick started it but perhaps not. It was probably just that he didn't understand what he was feeling, especially as he was overwhelmed by the feelings of his re-awakened fingers and toes. Im sure though that once he had 'used' the wild magic on the storm he was aware it was now 'normal'.

[Xar]

Well, the hurtloam did kick-start it - it did the same in TIW, and the lack of hurtloam in TPTP and the SC is the reason why Covenant's health-sense doesn't return (apparently the health-sense can only be obtained by non-lepers - I wonder if it is because a leper with health-sense looking upon himself would suffer too much...). My idea is simply that in LFB he didn't become aware of the health-sense he had gained after being treated with hurtloam, because he didn't know he would gain it and because he was still too busy focusing on getting to Revelstone and thinking it all a dream. After the storm, which was the first great manifestation of "wrongness" he was witness to after hurtloam had been used on him, and especially after the murdered Waynhim, he gradually realized there was something more going on than simply "hunches", and realization hit him just as the health-sense became too strong to ignore.

[wayfriend]

Consider the following, immediately before the storm:

When they reached the open valley, they found dark clouds piling over them out of the north. Tensely, Atiaran looked at the sky, smelled the sir; she seemed distraught by the coming rain. Her reaction made the boiling thunderheads appear ominous to Covenant, and when she turned sharply down the valley to resume her northward path, he hurried after her, calling out, "What's the matter?"

"Ill upon evil," she replied. "Do you not smell it? The Land is unquiet."

"What's wrong?"

"I do not know," she murmured so quietly that he could barely hear her. "There is a shadow in the air. And this rain-! Ah, the Land!"

"What's wrong with rain? Don't you get rain in the spring?"

Donaldson could have mentioned Covenant sensing the illness with his heath-sense, , or even grant him a vague impression, but he does not. Atiaran's reaction, on the other hand, indicates that the feeling of ill is very strong - ill upon evil - and that she expects anyone would sense it - Do you not smell it?. But Covenant does not, despite Atiaran bringing it to his attention.

Immediately after the lightning blast,

The blast threw him up the hill to his right. For uncounted moments, he lay dazed, conscious only of the power of the detonation and the flaming pain in his hand. His wedding ring seemed to be on fire. But when he recovered enough to look, he could see no mark on his fingers, and the pain faded away while he was still hunting for its source.

He shook his head, thrust himself into a sitting position. There were no signs of the blast anywhere around him. He was numbly aware that something had changed, but in his confusion he could not identify what it was.

He was numbly aware that something has changed. Donaldson tells us pretty directly that something happened here which changed Covenant. This is reiterated a few paragraphs later.

Toward evening, he had regained enough of himself to be glad when Atiaran found a Waymeet, and he checked over his body carefully for any hidden injuries while his clothes dried by the graveling. But he still felt dazed by what had happened. He could not shake the odd impression that whatever force had changed the fury of the storm had altered him also.

Covenant's 'sense of mental dullness' is gone the next day. When it wears off, a couple of paragraphs later:

The next day broke clear, crisp, and glorious, and he and Atiaran left the Waymeet early in the new spring dawn. After the strain of the previous day, Covenant felt keenly alert to the joyous freshness of the air and the sparkle of dampness on the grass, the sheen on the heather and the bursting flavor of the treasure-berries. The Land around him struck him as if he had never noticed its beauty before. Its vitality seemed curiously tangible to his senses. He felt that he could see spring fructifying within the trees, the grass, the flowers, hear the excitement of the calling birds, smell the newness of the buds and the cleanliness of the air.

Clearly, Coventant now has the health sense. And it didn't come on him gradually, it struck him. Not in only a small portion, but keenly, with all his senses.

Later on, we again encounter another feeling of illness. Exactly the same thing that happened on the previous day, except this time Covenant's response is notably - contrastingly - different.

Then abruptly Atiaran stopped and looked about her. A grimace of distaste and concern tightened her features as she sampled the breeze. She moved her head around intently, as if she were trying to locate the source of a threat. Covenant followed her example, and as he did so, a thrill of recognition ran through him. He could tell that there was indeed something wrong in the air, something false. It did not arise in his immediate vicinity-the scents of the trees and turf and flowers, the lush afterward of rain, were all as they should be-but it lurked behind those smells like something uneasy, out of place, unnatural in the distance. He understood instinctively that it was the odor of ill - the odor of premeditated disease.

One day, Covenant cannot sense ill, even when it is pointed out to him. The next day, he can, and he even understands with a thrill of recognition that this is a new experience, not felt before. And then Covenant makes an intuitive leap.

A moment later, the breeze shifted; the odor vanished. But that ill smell had heightened his perceptions; the contrast vivified his sense of the vitality of his surroundings. With an intuitive leap, he grasped the change which had taken place within him or for him. In some way that completely amazed him, his senses had gained a new dimension. He looked at the grass, smelled its freshness-and saw its verdancy, its springing life, its fitness. Jerking his eyes to a nearby aliantha, he received an impression of potency, health, that dumbfounded him. His thoughts reeled, groped, then suddenly clarified around the image of health. He was seeing health, smelling natural fitness and vitality, hearing the true exuberance of spring. Health was as vivid around him as if the spirit of the Land's life had become palpable, incarnate. It was as if he had stepped without warning into an altogether different universe. Even Atiaran -- she was gazing at his entrancement with puzzled surprise -- was manifestly healthy, though her life was complicated by uneasiness, fatigue, pain, resolution.

There are no earlier hints at having health-sense; just the recognition of the beauty of the Land which is evident to even mundane senses. Then, in the span of about one day, Covenant has gone from no perceptible health-sense to heightened, vivid, manifestly present health-sense. Covenant is changed, the change is palpably evident, and he knows he's changed, and he knows it's due to the storm.

Do we have any reason to doubt Covenant's impressions?

The only question left is, what was it that changed Covenant? Was it the evil storm, created by Drool? Was it the wild magic? Or was it merely coincidence that the change occurred at this time? Could Foul have construed this to occur by guiding Drool's hand?

I choose to believe that the wild magic, which ever operates unconsciously on Covenant's behalf, was triggered when it became obvious that Covenant lacked any health-sense, and that he was endangered thereby, and it 'healed him' in a way similar to the way it healed him on Kevin's Watch in the Second Chronicles.

[Hope]

More than any other aspect in the Covenant stories I find "health sense" the most appealing. Probably because it is relational. Not only are dulled eyes and heart treated to the bliss of nature's beauty but intimacy between people is acutely hightened.
I am reminded of CS Lewis' _The_Great_Divorce_. He was describing a visit to heaven and how people are transparent there. Completely transparent...meaning motivation, emotion, powerlessness. A new arrival freaks out saying that it is far worse than being naked on earth. Her immediate response was to try to hide.
If Covenant had understood that his illness was shriekingly visible to everyone he encountered he'd have probably freaked too. He might have muttered "don't look at me!" Or not. I can't remember if it was in LFB or IW where he rides with some dude to a bar, but he ached for companionship yet feared rejection. Lucky for him the Land was not populated by folks like the Sherriff.
Doesn't some form of elevated awareness follow in SRD's other works? Terisa's power to change mirrors? Morn's use of the zone implant to boost or change her natural perception? Is this simply a device to convey to the readers extra knowledge through the characters' thoughts--Dios' enhanced sight--for instance or does the idea call to the author?
Finally, have any of you experienced a wonder akin to this? Have you ever been suddenly and inexplicably overcome with beauty...where life itself seems more alive, tangible? And when it is gone you feel somehow dead?

[Relayer]

More than any other aspect in the Covenant stories I find "health sense" the most appealing. Probably because it is relational. Not only are dulled eyes and heart treated to the bliss of nature's beauty but intimacy between people is acutely hightened.

YES!!! This was the thing that really "transported" me to the Land way back when... the ability to truly see the world in all it's beauty, and to sense what is around us and within us.

If Covenant had understood that his illness was shriekingly visible to everyone he encountered he'd have probably freaked too.

But it wasn't visible. Everyone from Atiaran to Mhoram told him "you are closed to me" ... in other words, their health sense could not penetrate him. He looked to them as we all look to each other in this world. Except, to them, this was an unknown and shocking experience. To NOT be able to see the health or wrongness of something??!!?? I think somewhere later in LFB, he finally realizes the import of this, that he is "safe" because no one can see his leprosy (or read his intentions/duplicity).

Finally, have any of you experienced a wonder akin to this? Have you ever been suddenly and inexplicably overcome with beauty...where life itself seems more alive, tangible? And when it is gone you feel somehow dead?

I have. Not to the depth of the Land's health sense, and not regarding everything I see. But I have walked through the forest, and suddenly one tree, or a grove, stood out in grandeur. I sensed the trees reaching for the sky, anchored in the solidity of the earth... the root sap coursing upward in the heartwood... the leaves taking in the nourishment of the sun (and no, I was not on drugs at the time). I have felt the ancientness of rocks along a riverside... hundreds of millions of years of time held in the crystals of the earth... felt the infinite depth of intimacy joining my soul and another.

And no, I don't really feel dead afterwards, or the rest of the time. It's as if I know that it's there, that "Stone and Sea are deep in life" though I don't sense it consciously. It could be because it doesn't happen long enough or often enough for it to truly become a part of me that I miss later. I haven't yet learned how to see whenever I want to. It's more like a beautiful gift that I get to experience from time to time.

R

[Cmdr_Floyd]

Wayfriend wrote:

Quote:
The blast threw him up the hill to his right. For uncounted moments, he lay dazed, conscious only of the power of the detonation and the flaming pain in his hand. His wedding ring seemed to be on fire. But when he recovered enough to look, he could see no mark on his fingers, and the pain faded away while he was still hunting for its source.

He shook his head, thrust himself into a sitting position. There were no signs of the blast anywhere around him. He was numbly aware that something had changed, but in his confusion he could not identify what it was. (italics are mine)

everyone seems to think that the blast was lightning hitting Covenant....

Fighting his way to his feet, Covenant roared at the rampant clouds, 'Hellfire! You can't do this to me!

Without warning, just as his fury peaked, a huge white flash exploded beside him. He felt that a bolt of lightning had struck his left hand.

I believe this was Covenants first use (admittedly not known at the time) of wild magic and this hastened his attunation to the Land.

[wayfriend]

I believe this was Covenants first use (admittedly not known at the time) of wild magic and this hastened his attunation to the Land.

I choose to believe that the wild magic, which ever operates unconsciously on Covenant's behalf, was triggered when it became obvious that Covenant lacked any health-sense, and that he was endangered thereby, and it 'healed him' in a way similar to the way it healed him on Kevin's Watch in the Second Chronicles.

I think we are on the same page here.

[tonyz]

Linden's abilities seem considerably stronger -- I suspect that this is simply her native form of power; as a doctor, she's trained to diagnose and heal, and this percipience manifests in the Land as health-sight to a vastly greater degree (I think) than anyone in the Land had had earlier. Certainly her ability to reach out through her sense and heal people just by willing it is rather stronger than we see in anyone else (compare the huge amount of effort needed by the Unfettered Healer in Morinmoss).

[wayfriend]

Certainly her ability to reach out through her sense and heal people just by willing it is rather stronger than we see in anyone else (compare the huge amount of effort needed by the Unfettered Healer in Morinmoss).

Heal people just by willing it? When?

She used wild magic to heal people several times in TOT and WGW. But the only time I can recall her trying to heal people just by willing it was when she was trying to keep Covenant alive in the Mithil river. And it was far from effortless as I recall.

But the wild magic is not her own ability (until Covenant gave her the ring). It is an ability she gained through posession. Possession, on the other hand, is her own ability, gained through her percipience.

[tonyz]

There's a number of occasions in <i>The One Tree</i> and <i>White Gold Wielder</i> where she does things without using wild magic.

[Zarathustra]

This is a very interesting discussion. Wayfriend makes a powerful, convincing argument. However, I'd like to present an alternative interpretation.

How often do we think of our own health? How often do we take note of the feeling of being well? Well, depending on our age, we might think about it quite often. But we don't start out this way. We take our health for granted until something happens to bring it to our attention. A wound is usually our first experience which causes us to think about something that was always-already there, if we'd only known what to look for. We take our health for granted in much the same way that we take our washing machine for granted . . . until it breaks down. Once that happens, we realize that there was something there all along which we didn't have the correct reference frame to appreciate. Some things are so "right," that we take them as mere background conditions for existence . . . until they are "wrong." Like the storm.

In fact, he didn't even realize that his "normal" sense of touch was coming back until Triock cut his hand with the knife. It took a wound to make him notice his feeling. His regaining his sense of touch closely mirrors his gaining the Healthsense. Like the first tingling of his palms, his Healthsens is slow to develop to a point where he notices the significance of the change. I don't think this mirroring is accidental; they are thematically related.

I believe that it is plausible that TC's Healthsense--like his sense of touch--was awakened by the Hurtloam, but he was too distracted by that-which-was-wrong being made right (his leprosy being healed) to take note of the general rightness all around him. After all, we DO have ample evidence that--after the Hurtloam--the Land affected TC more strongly than his own world:

He was lost in wonder, in unanswerable questions about the strange potency of this Land . . . He could not remember ever wanting food as much as he now wanted that fruit--the sensations of eating had never been so vivid, so compulsory. He snatched his arm away as if he meant to strike her, then abruptly caught himself.
What is this? What's happening? (p.56)

What was happening? Wasn't it that his senses were beginning to be heightened, but he had no reference frame to gauge it? Read on:

He felt somehow taller than before, as if the hurtloam had done more to him than simlpy heal his cuts and scrapes. (p59)

Covenant felt that he was alive to every gradation of the change, every nuance of the lowering altitude. Through the excitement of his new alertness, the descent passed quickly. (p60)

The Mithil was narrow and brisk where the path first joined it, and it spoke with wet rapidity to itself in a voice full of resonances and rumors. But as the river drew toward the plains, it broadened and slowed, became more philosophical in its low, self-communing mutter.

Under the spell of the river, Covenant became slowly more conscious of the reassuring solidity of the Land. It was not an intangible dreamscape; it was concrete, susceptible to ascertainment.(p60)

. . . Covenant was too immersed in the twilight sounds around him to say anything. The swelling night seemed full of soft communions--anodynes for the loneliness of the dark. (p62)

Her voice brought back the scintillation of Covenant's nerves. (p.66)

This combination of sympathy and anger tightened his nerves still further. He vibrated to a sharper pitch, trembled. (p.71)

Covenant had downed a fair amount of it before he realized that it added a still keener vibration to his already thrumming nerves. He could feel himself tightening. (p74)

If he was actually changed instantly--as Wayfriend suggests--and not gradually, then why can he not sense the change in the storm after his "incident?" After being struck down, a few paragraphs later we read:

He was taken aback by his failure to recognize the change in the storm for himself.

In fact, he failed to notice something that you don't even need Healthsense to notice:

Atiaran had told the simple truth. the wind had shifted and dropped considerably. The rain fell steadily, but without fury; now it was just a good, solid, spring rain.

So the "change" wasn't exactly instantaneous, even if we accept that it started when Wayfriend says it started. He still needed Atiaran to point out even the most obvious aspects of the world.

But SRD does seem to indicate that SOME change has occurred to TC after the storm. If it is not the sudden, instantaneous acquisition of Healthsense, then what was it? Perhaps it was the fact that he'd actually used--or at least tapped into--his ring. And since his ring represents his passion, it is apt that this would be related to a deepening of his recognition of beauty. His passion, like his capacity to recognize beauty/health, was always there. But both needed a catalyst to make them explicit to TC. And this coming to realize it was the change that he thinks about the next day, not the sudden acquisition of either in themselves.

SRD uses Healthsense to highlight how we ourselves take things like beauty for granted. It's not that there isn't beauty in our world to equal the beauty of the Land, it's just that we don't take the time to allow ourselves to appreciate it. Healthsense is a symbol for the mental transition which is available to us at all times: to see objects as things of beauty and inherent worth in themselves, rather than as things of monitary or practical value for us personally. It is a view of the world which can be triggered. More often than not, it is triggered by a negative experience. For instance, there wasn't an environmental movement until the Industrial Revolution when we started cutting down the trees en mass.

The final "proof" I'll offer for this theme of slowly developing Healthsense is the song Lena sings just after TC is healed, after he awakens from the Hurtloam induced sleep:

Something there is in beauty
which grows in the soul of the beholder
like a flower:
fragile--
for many are the blights
which may waste the beauty
or the beholder--
and imperishable--
for the beauty may die,
or the beholder may die,
or the world may die,
but the soul in which the flower grows
survives.

Surely it is no accident that SRD chooses for Lena to sing about beauty growing in the soul of the beholder precisely at the point where TC receives his dose of Hurtloam.

[wayfriend]

The quotes you are using above are, for the most part:
- references to regaining feeling in his nerves
- references to the beauty and healthiness of the Land
- references to accepting that the Land is not a dream
- references to feeling intoxicated by springwine

All of these are attributable to Covenant without needing Covenant to have any health-sense. You're applying backwards logic: you presume that Covenant is acquiring health-sense, and so you are attributing every vague sensation which Donaldson describes as the health-sense being acquired. As such, it's not convincing logic.

If you consider how explicitely Donaldson describes what health sense is like, then you would not accept these other blurbs as health sense: "He was seeing health, smelling natural fitness and vitality, hearing the true exuberance of spring. Health was as vivid around him as if the spirit of the Land's life had become palpable, incarnate."

Donaldson also speaks directly to what the the transition to health-sense feels like, and how fast it came on: "In some way that completely amazed him, his senses had gained a new dimension... It was as if he had stepped without warning into an altogether different universe."

Given these very concete, very precise statements, I don't find your references very compelling. As I said, you're trying to make things fit what you want to see, rather than seeing what is there.

If Donaldson had wanted to convey that the health-sense was coming on gradually, why would he not relate it more explcitely? I think that he could, and I think that he would. And why, also, would he describe the *sudden* impact of health sense after the lightning? It doesn't add up. You're assumptions seem to imply that Donaldson would choose to make vague references instead of explicit ones, but that just is not his style.

[Zarathustra]

If Donaldson had wanted to convey that the health-sense was coming on gradually, why would he not relate it more explcitely? I think that he could, and I think that he would. And why, also, would he describe the *sudden* impact of health sense after the lightning? It doesn't add up. You're assumptions seem to imply that Donaldson would choose to make vague references instead of explicit ones, but that just is not his style.

Isn't "explicitness" the antithesis of "gradual?" I think the explicitness you've noted with your quotes can be attributed to exactly that: "explicitness." This is the point in the text where it becomes explicit to TC himself. But this doesn't mean that it's the point where he acquires it. Doesn't his healthsense appear to grow even after the point you've referenced? Andelain makes it even more explicit. So obviously, there are levels to which one may make his own healthsense explicit, depending on the intensity of that which is being sensed.

I've shown that SRD already does this with the process of TC regaining his tactile sensations: gradually, then with a sudden catalyst by which TC realizes it explicitly. So there's already a narrative precident. SRD does in fact work this way.

Also, you haven't accounted for the lag between the triggering event and the acquisition of healthsense. Why must TC sleep on it?

I don't think you can account for this quote by TC regaining his sensation:

Covenant felt that he was alive to every gradation of the change, every nuance of the lowering altitude. Through the excitement of his new alertness, the descent passed quickly. (p60)

Why is his alertness new? What has changed for him? Well, he got healed. But having leprosy healed wouldn't make you more alert to gradations of change and nuances of lowering altitude. As for

references to the beauty and healthiness of the Land

, well, that's indistinguishable from healthsense, isn't it?

references to accepting that the Land is not a dream
- references to feeling intoxicated by springwine

TC is nowhere near accepting the Land is not a dream. And the potency of Springwine is more magical than alcoholic (SRD says it reminds TC of aliantha). Being sensitive to magical properties is something we'd attribute to healthsense.

[wayfriend]

Isn't "explicitness" the antithesis of "gradual?"

Absolutely, resoundingly not. Gradual does not imply obscure, vague, or hinted; Explicit does not imply rapid or sudden.

I've shown that SRD already does this with the process of TC regaining his tactile sensations: gradually, then with a sudden catalyst by which TC realizes it explicitly. So there's already a narrative precident. SRD does in fact work this way.

No, Donaldson documents how Covenant's nerves begin to work again quite explicitely (you yourself quoted the lines), even though Covenant doesn't immediately make the connection.

Why is his alertness new?

He was just healed by the hurtloam. His leprosy and his impotence are gone, and hurtloam also provides you with refreshment and a sense of well-being.

well, that's indistinguishable from healthsense, isn't it?

No, it's entirely distinguishable from health-sense. The Land is very beautiful compared to our world. In the second chronicles, when Covenant didn't have health-sense, and still had leprosy, even then sights such as Andelain could stir him through their innate beauty.

TC is nowhere near accepting the Land is not a dream.

My statement is only predicated on Covenant finding the Land to be a very real-seeming.

[Zarathustra]

Gradual does not imply obscure, vague, or hinted; Explicit does not imply rapid or sudden.

Was his recovering tactile sensation explicit? If so, the one person who missed this explicit fact was the very person to whom it was happening--which is impossible. Since the only way to tell the reader that it was happening to TC would be to describe TC's actual sensations, any description to the reader would have to be at least as explicit to TC as it was to us (otherwise, there wouldn't be any feeling to be explicit about). In fact, it would have to be even more explicit to TC, since it would be his own experiences to which the text was referring--and surely the experience of a sensation is more explicit than a mere description of that experience. The fact that he missed it conveys the fact that SRD didn't want it to be explicit. No, his recovery of feeling was at the same time gradual, vague, and hinted--despite your claim that "gradual" does not imply these things.

Don't you think that thematically, the two scenarios are related? A leper regaining feeling, and a "real world" person gaining healthsense? Don't they fulfill the same role in the story? They both imbue a closed-off, alienated character with a newfound "vulnerabilty" to both pain and beauty, forcing him to feel again in both the literal and figurative sense.

So if these scenarios are both utilized by the author for similar reasons, then what narrative purpose would it serve to separate them in both cause and "style" in which they develop? Wouldn't it rather underscore SRD's point to have them both start at the same time and to both be rooted in the same source and procede in a similar, gradual manner that is only made explicit by way of a negative trigger (knife cut/storm)? Why have one be the result of healing, and the other the result of a violent outburst of an unnatural storm? It doesn't make sense. I think that with such an obvious parallel available, SRD would obviously choose this parallel to reinforce his thematic, narrative point. It simply serves no point to not take advantage of this linkage.

What thematic point does your interpretation serve? What justification (in terms of narrative goals) can you bring to bare on the choice to NOT link these two similar concepts via cause and method? The knife cut by Triock and the outburst from storm are too similar to ignore: they both make new perceptions explicit. The pain of the knife cut is analogous to the burning of his ring: one is literal pain, the other is spiritual pain.

Clearly, it makes a better story to link them in this way, and I think I've built a convincing case from text quotes (despite your doubt) to justify this.

[Edit: is there any point in the book where these two concepts are not joined together? Is there every a time when TC has healthsense and yet still has numb fingers/toes? No. This can't be coincidence.]

[wayfriend]

Gradual does not imply obscure, vague, or hinted; Explicit does not imply rapid or sudden.

Was his recovering tactile sensation explicit?

Yes. Donaldson explicitely (that is: clearly) stated this for the reader.

If so, the one person who missed this explicit fact was the very person to whom it was happening--which is impossible.

Very possible. Third person omniscient. There's nothing preventing Donaldson from writing "Covenant's senses were being restored, although he was not aware of it." Which proves that it is not impossible.

Don't you think that thematically, the two scenarios are related?

Yes. The Land is health incarnate, the opposite of leprosy. This leads to two things: health is visible, and leprosy can be cured.

I do not believe that they are related in that gaining health-sense is merely an exension of eliminating leprosy, as you are suggesting. For one thing, people in the Land have health-sense, and strangers from the Land (Haruchai) don't have it, but gain it when they live there long enough. But only when they are there long enough. Therefore, health-sense is a gift from the Land to it's people. And no one in the Land has leprosy.

So the only relationship is that Covenant is coincidently a leper, a stranger to the Land, and the weilder of wild magic: one allows him to be healed of leprosy, the second means that he does not have health-sense initially, and the third means he can gain it through magical means.

It simply serves no point to not take advantage of this linkage.

It would serve the point if the matters involved were complex enough, and novel enough, that inter-relating them would be detracting from the readers ability to decipher what is happening.

Is there every a time when TC has healthsense and yet still has numb fingers/toes? No. This can't be coincidence.

It is not coincidence. This is merely what is mandated by the linearity of time: he gained his health-sense after gaining his normal sensations. So this proves nothing.

I would even grant you that curing leprosy is a requisite to gaining health-sense, although there's no necessity for this, as Covenant's other senses were not impaired by leprosy, and it is these other senses, especially sight and smell, which seems to convey the health-sense. But I wouldn't argue against that theory.

[Zarathustra]

Yes. Donaldson explicitely (that is: clearly) stated this for the reader.

Well, I think he made it just as explicit as he made TC's inchoate, burgeoning healthsense. Before TC has his fingers cut, the most we got from SRD was tingling palms. It is not clear that he is regaining sensation (though it's not hard to figure out, either).

There's nothing preventing Donaldson from writing "Covenant's senses were being restored, although he was not aware of it."

Granted. However, there's nothing preventing Donaldson from writing, "Covenant's healthsense was growing, although he was not aware of it." So, we've established that neither is impossible.

I do not believe that they are related in that gaining health-sense is merely an exension of eliminating leprosy, as you are suggesting. For one thing, people in the Land have health-sense, and strangers from the Land (Haruchai) don't have it, but gain it when they live there long enough. But only when they are there long enough. Therefore, health-sense is a gift from the Land to it's people. And no one in the Land has leprosy.

Well then, how did he gain healthsense? You suggested earlier that he gained healthsense by healing himself with the white gold. But if lacking healthsense isn't a disease or illness--as your Haruchai example illustrates--then this theory doesn't make sense (not to mention that it's completely unsupported by the text). Is there something to heal, or isn't there?

I think we can agree that healthsense is connected to Earthpower, and since hurtloam imparts its effects through Earthpower, it is not unreasonable to suppose that a fundamental healing on the magnitude of curing leprosy would open one to Earthpower in such a way that healthsense would also be imparted. It's not the leprosy, per se, but "being touched" by earthpower in such a fundamental way that the "doors of perception are cleansed," to borrow a phrase from Huxley.

And your theory doesn't explain how he regained healthsense the second time.

[I'm Murrin]

It has been established in the series that it is Covenant's leprosy blocks the healthsense when in the Land. In the first two books, after being exposed to Hurtloam, his leprosy is removed, and his healthsense only emerges after that has happened. When Hurtloam is unavailable to restore his nerves--as in the third book of the First Chronicles, and the entirety of the Second Chronicles--he is unable to gain the healthsense.