Where is the Magic?

[shadowbinding shoe]

In the first chronicles you knew you entered with Thomas Covenant into a magical land of wonders filled with vitality and peoples of surpassing qualities. Any price was worth paying to save it.

In the second chronicles the land was still very magical and wondrous in a sick kind of way and its pain wrung your heart. The world around it was filled with eldritch powers both good and evil. Who wouldn't want to heal it of its woes?

In the third chronicles... well I felt a lot of the 'magic' missing from this Land. The peoples are blind ignoramuses, the architectural wonders of it are soulless derelicts, the forests of it are just mindless tangles, the giants are an indistinguishable group of swordwomen, and the bad guys are too busy arguing amongst themselves and playing at power games to make an impact on us as truly evil or scary.

Are the sandgorgons high on news that was old for the past 1000 years? Is the Land (and its world) still that wondrous and magical?

[Orlion]

That is perhaps one of the main tradgedies of the Last Chronicles. No longer are our heros fighting for the beauty of the Land but for what it ought to be and will probably never be again...it's kinda depressing.

The power games of the bad guys remind me of the climatic gun fight at the end of The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly... each one of them wants to blast the other, but if they do, they leave themselves open to be offed by another villian.

[Fullmetal660]

IIRC (which I doubt), didn't one of the books state that the earthblood/earthpower had become tainted by foul and the sunbane?
Perhaps some of this taint has remain, denying the land its magic.

The masters also taught the people of the land that the earthpower was too dangerous (thus their dislike of anele), maybe all the ways of tapping into the earthpower to create magic have been forgotten because of this.

Either way, theres still that room (can't remember what its called) under revelstone where loads of scrolls and artifacts are (its the room where vain found the arm/ankle rings). Maybe the key to restoring the magic to the land is hidden there.

[wayfriend]

I agree with the sentiment, SS. We really haven't seen the Land in it's glory since The Illearth War. That's a looonnnggg time. I was kind of hoping, and kind of needing, a shot of Land Love in the Final Cs. Looks like we're not going to get it.

[Rigel]

Oh, we'll get it alright.

Once the Land is completely, totally, and utterly destroyed, then the heroes will manage to go through some sort of paradigm shift, learn to see that Foul was the good guy all along, and appreciate the destruction of the Earth as a Wondrously Good Thing(tm).

[Fist and Faith]

Yes, this problem is what's wrong with the Haruchai. It began when they decided to keep information from the New Lords, and we now see the ultimate horror of their attitude. The original army took the Vow because they were so taken by the glories by the Land. But the way they and the future generations of Haruchai have decided to preserve this thing they love also takes away the glories they were so taken by. If that original army came to the Land of the Masters, they certainly would not have taken a Vow to preserve it.

[Usivius]

yah, Foul and the Hurachai have to take blame for the lack of narrative beauty amd magic. It has been surpressed for so long! But recall that chapter where Linden bathes in the Glimmermere... wow .. that was a spark of days past! And I have a feeling we will see more in the books to come! It will be a cascade of wonder that explodes over the pages!... (it's my theory. I made it up! <ahem> Ms. Anne Elk.)

[finn]

Maybe one could compare that with how we view life as a whole as we age? We start with a perspective that shows wonders, everything is magical and new, then we get a bit older, life is still magical but we start to see other aspects and facets of that magic. Then we age further and we see the magic for what it really was, the external projections of will, lust for power and grasping to hold onto that which is, by its very nature, unchainable.

Are we seeing the skeptic, the cynic and the bitterness of ageing showing through from the Author; the land greying, slowing and weakening as does he, or are we seeing these things in ourselves reflected back at us from the Land?

[Fullmetal660]

Good theory finn, works pretty darn well.

[Rigel]

The lost glory of the past is actually a common theme in many fictional works. Donaldson has repeatedly stated that things run down, entropy exists, et cetera.

Once something is broken, it can never be repaired such that it equals the original.

Of course, if we're in for a hopeful ending (and despite my other threads, I believe we really are) than the synthesis and apotheosis at the end, resulting in "all things being made new", should be worth the wait.

[Fist and Faith]

Once something is broken, it can never be repaired such that it equals the original.

If can if you use a spell of Patterning.

[finn]

The lost glory of the past is actually a common theme in many fictional works. Donaldson has repeatedly stated that things run down, entropy exists, et cetera.

Once something is broken, it can never be repaired such that it equals the original.

Of course, if we're in for a hopeful ending (and despite my other threads, I believe we really are) than the synthesis and apotheosis at the end, resulting in "all things being made new", should be worth the wait.

Following the same theme I used above, the "new hope" is generally in regeneration, ie offspring and when they grow up their offspring. Many Grandparents have really tight, two way bonding with their grandkids, perhaps re-living the magic before it fades away for good.

When something is broken it can be replaced and in regeneration the replacement has the potential to surpass the original.

[Brasidas]

Yes, this problem is what's wrong with the Haruchai. It began when they decided to keep information from the New Lords, and we now see the ultimate horror of their attitude. .

But look at it from the Haruchai point of view. Every time Magic or Power gets used, there are terrible consequences. The Desecration, the Corruption of the Illearth Stone, the tragedy of the Giants, the horrors of the Sunbane - if the Haruchai/Masters have left the people of the Land slightly lessened, haven't they done this to protect them from some other horror just waiting to be unleashed by misuse of the Magic which can also produce stunning beauty? They're walking a terribly thin line.

[Fist and Faith]

But much of what was so glorious that the original Haruchai took the Vow existed because Magic or Power got used. And, they were incredibly impressed with these people who would not fight the Haruchai because their power was so great they would have destroyed them. 2,000 years later, Bannor is still in awe.

[Rigel]

The greatest tragedy of the Masters is that they protect us from ourselves.

[Brasidas]

But much of what was so glorious that the original Haruchai took the Vow existed because Magic or Power got used. And, they were incredibly impressed with these people who would not fight the Haruchai because their power was so great they would have destroyed them. 2,000 years later, Bannor is still in awe.

Agreed. But when this glorious magic gets misused? that's how I see the problem arising. The Haruchai see magic as dangerous when used wrongly even with the best intentions. And given all what's gone before, who's to say they are wrong?

[Fist and Faith]

Thay aren't wrong. Earthpower is often used in ways that cause harm, intentionally or not. But I'll bet at least a few people in the USA died in car crashes while I was typing this. Do we remove all things that can cause a significant amount of death or harm? Which means we'd still be in the stone ages. ”If perfection is stagnation, then heaven is a swamp! And the Is ain’t hardly no swamp-cookie.”

[wayfriend]

I think it's wrong in a much more profound and deeper way.

The people of the Land are not allowed to be who they are. How can they be true to themselves if they cannot be themselves, or even know who they really are? And if they cannot be true, how can they defend the Land or do anything of significance or even live a fulfilling life?

[Rigel]

They can't defend the land. That's the whole point.

They merely exist. As TC put it in the first Chrons, "I live."

(I love Foamfollower's response: "With two words, a tale sadder than the first. Say no more, friend, or with one word you will make me weep!")

[ellll]

I see no loss in magic and being,..of, and in ...The Land...

I find the I and II of the last chron. to be most complete and exciting...that simple...Make it complex if you want...but these musings mean little to THE LAND....

ellll