Leprosy and the Ritual of Desecration

[Atrium]

I dont know if this has been debated before here. But since we still see a lot of speculations about the land being a reflection of Thomas Covenant, or being a dream hes dreaming, has anyone bothered to look into a possible timeline connection between when he was hit by leprosy and when Kevin unleashed the ritual of desecration in the land? IF the land is just a dream dreamt by Covenant (and maybe Linden) such a connection would seem logical. Im not a big fan of the "subconsciuos" theory myself, but the thought struck me that it must be possible to pinpoint this. We are told that the RoD happened what, 1000 years before Covenant was summoned? How long is this in "real world" time?

[Turiya]

Interesting theory, though probably not possible. Only three or four thousand years passed in the Second Chrons for ten years our time, and there's no real indication of how much time TC spent with leprosy (though it was probably six months (in the leprosarium) plus divorce proceedings).

Anyway. . .I could be wrong, but I don't think TC spent 3+ years with leprosy before being summoned to the Land; he was too bitter and maladjusted--which in a "normal" person would mean that the onset of the disease and its consequences would be relatively recent.

Still, I've been wrong. Often. Ask SRD himself in the GI if you want, since this is the type of question he tends to like answering.

[dlbpharmd]

Don (dlbpharmd)

Mr. Donaldson, as many have said above, thank you for writing my all-time favorite story, and thank you for continuing that story. I'm on the edge of my seat waiting for Runes to be published!

It seems, particularly in the 1st Chronicles, that so much of what is happening to Covenant physically is mirrored in the Land. For example, when his leprosy is at its worst, the Land is suffering under Foul's winter. My question: Is there any correlation between the onset of Covenant's leprosy and the enacting of the Ritual of Desecration?

When I planned the first "Chronicles," the relationship between Covenant's leprosy and the Land's plight was foremost in my mind. In fact, I designed the Land as a reverse reflection of Covenant's dilemma; and as the story progressed I consciously brought those two opposing images closer together until they were virtually superimposed.

However, the specific detail that you're asking about never actually crossed my mind. It's embarrassing, really, since it seems so obvious now that you raise it. But I didn't think of it for the same reason that I can't write prequels: as I suggested in an earlier answer, all of my attention is focused *forward*, on the ending. So I set up my reflections and then pursued their implications. I never asked myself about the implications of what might have happened *before* my starting point.

Everything that I've ever created about "the past" in any of my stories is there because it helps me get where I'm going: it doesn't exist for its own sake. In this important sense, if in no other, the Land is less "real" than, say, Middle Earth. Its history does not exist independent of "current events."

(04/13/2004)

As much as I like this theory, the timeline doesn't work out - we know that Roger is 21 years old at the start of ROTE, and he is still an infant when Joan leaves Covenant (immediately after his diagnosis,) AND we know that Joan and Roger were visiting her parents when Covenant became ill, there is just no way that the RoD coincides with Covenant's leprosy.

[Atrium]

Thanks, i almost guessed that someone must have thought about that connection before. Nice to see an answer from the highest authority! A pity though, i would have liked if there was a connection...

[CovenantJr]

That's one of the down sides of the Gradual Interview. There's always someone who can kill the fun speculation by saying "Actually, SRD refuted that idea on 7th March..."

[vt53]

I started a thread, years ago, pointing out that many aspects of the first chronicles where allegorical to the physical and mental process of a lepers journey through life.

do not remember how to post a link to that limited discussion, but on reentry to the land I was able to find it, amazing things these boards and their backup mechanisms.

[Bran Pendragon]

Yeah, the GI's a bugger when through it SRD disproves some of your favourite surmises about the story. I'd previously taken the appearance of Foul in the council as the beginning of the leprosy in TC and the RoD the hospitalisation, amputation of fingers, the desertion of Joan and the destruction of life as he'd known it that followed relatively shortly afterwards.

That sort of thing falls down a bit once more of the history gets fleshed out - what was happening to TC when Berek was fighting his war, or when the humans, under the Ravers urging, destroyed most of the old forest - maybe that was when he learnt that Santa wasn't real and so lost his innocence forever!

I like reading the GI, but when it especially disagrees with something I like to interpret out of the story, I take SRD's advice that laughter is in the ears that hear, and that while he certainly retains ownership of the intellectual property etc, how each of his readers react to his creation is up to them. So I keep on thinking what I want!

[dlbpharmd]

I like reading the GI, but when it especially disagrees with something I like to interpret out of the story, I take SRD's advice that laughter is in the ears that hear, and that while he certainly retains ownership of the intellectual property etc, how each of his readers react to his creation is up to them. So I keep on thinking what I want!

Well said!

[emotional leper]

I like reading the GI, but when it especially disagrees with something I like to interpret out of the story, I take SRD's advice that laughter is in the ears that hear, and that while he certainly retains ownership of the intellectual property etc, how each of his readers react to his creation is up to them. So I keep on thinking what I want!

Well said!

No matter how much you want to think that Sauron was the Hero, that doesn't make it true.

That is me making a joke, btw.

[Wyldewode]

I'm not certain where this has been officially stated (though I am certain I am not the first to think it) but I always view poetry and prose as a collaborative effort between the author and the audience. For without a reader, what is the story? Likewise we all bring our own experiences to the table, and they flavor and enrich the opus. As Tennyson wrote in Ulysses,

I am part of all that I have met;
Yet all experience is an arch wherethrough
Gleams that untravelled world, whose margin fades
For ever and for ever when I move.

By bringing our own experience, our weltanschauung, and our dreams to the effort we play a integral part in the creation of the work itself. It truly does become more than the sum of its parts.

[Prebe]

By bringing our own experience, our weltanschauung, and our dreams to the effort we play a integral part in the creation of the work itself. It truly does become more than the sum of its parts.

beautifully put! I DO love it when you write in German!

[Wyldewode]

Why, thank you!

[Unfettered One]

I'd have to go back and do some research, but I do recall that in ROTE maybe, Linden says that TC said that 1 day in TC's world was 1 year in the Land.

Now that rings true for the time spacing between the Chronicles... approximately 10 years = 3,650 days = roughly 3.5 millennia in the Land.

So, if it was 1,000 - 1,500 years from the ROD to TC's first summoning, that would put the ROD at 2 years 9 months to 4 years 1 month before his summons.

Maybe we can just say that's when he contracted leprosy, but didn't start showing symptoms until later? That's what I think I'm going to believe.

[Bran Pendragon]

He was in the leperasium for quite a while before he came home, and again he'd been home for a while before the story began. 3 years seems about the longest those periods combined could be, but not impossible. RoD is the initial bombshell of finding out he had the disease, the stricken land and faltering recovery afterwards were him trying to adjust.

[Mr. Broken]

I would have to say that there are too many variables to make the comparison, the ROD being a willful act, and leprosy being (hate using this expression) an act of god. Choice is the difference.