And right from the beginning, Donaldson seems to be acknowledging the magnitude of what he’s doing in the prose:
“The shock was too great. Linden was too human: no aspect of her body or her mind had been formed to accommodate such a sudden and absolute transition.”
And SRD wants to make it clear that this isn’t like being translated to the Land, or traveling back in time via a caesure. This, as he says, was utterly different. That in itself is strange. One would think that being translated out of her “real” world into this “fantasy” world would be, in metaphysical terms, orders of magnitude greater than merely moving about within that fantasy world, even back and forth through its time. But this is worse.
It’s interesting that Donaldson chooses to explain this transformation in physiological terms. His language here is different than anywhere else in the Chronicles. It’s downright clinical.
“. . . her optic nerves could not accept the change,” “Every neuron in her body except those that acknowledged the Staff refused to recognize where and who she was.” “An autonomic reflex shut her eyes against the concussive dazzling that seemed to fill the whole inside of her head like the clamor of great incandescent bells.”
Wow, now that’s a sentence worthy of admiration! I bet that one makes him smile with well-earned pride.
I also love: “With her eyes closed and her entire sensorium stunned . . .” Sensorium. That’s a word going into my personal word-toolkit. I’m definitely going to find a way to work it into my own writing.“She might damage her retinas.”
I’d like to note the hints Donaldson gives us concerning Covenant. I'm going to try not to spoil things, but if you're not a little curious about Covenant at this point, you're simply not paying attention.
That last hint is so obvious, I can’t believe I had any skepticism left at this point during my first read.
Theomach: “And do you not fear that I will reveal you?”
Theomach: “But she does not know us,” said the stranger chuckling. “Would you prefer that I speak on your behalf?”
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Interesting.Covenant: “You people might as well be that ‘darkness’ they keep talking about, that shadow on their hearts.”
This sets up some interesting questions. Months ago, Romeo proposed that Covenant never intended to do what he later revealsTheomach: Also, I do not desire the destruction of the Earth. The peril of your chosen path I deemed too great.”
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Theomach: If ever she obtains that which will enable her to bear her strengths, your chagrin will provide my people with vast amusement.”
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Covenant: “If that ever happens—which is won’t—your people will be frantically trying to stop her, just like everybody else. Only in their case, it’ll be sheer greed. They’ll want all that power for themselves.”
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The knowledge of its touch?Theomach: “Sadly, it is incomplete. Your need is great. You will require puissance. I return this implement of law to you with my thanks for the knowledge of it touch.”
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I also like how both men have issues with being introduced. They both have reasons to mislead her, and those reasons are plausible, not mere writer’s tricks to fake out us, the audience. This was well thought out. Masterful writing. They both had something to gain by mystifying her.
There is one curious thing about the danger of Linden knowing the details of the Theomach’s identity--possibly the most important detail of this chapter. Theo explains this danger to Covenant—who, as a being melded with the Arch of Time, really should know this already.
Now that’s a puzzle. I could have accepted if Donaldson had merely said, “her knowledge must follow linearly from her experiences, rather than artificially augmented by a perspective that transcends her own temporal flow.” But that’s not what he said. He said that her mind can’t be distinguished from the Arch, as if her consciousness itself was the Arch itself. I know I’m probably reading that description too literally. But the language Donaldson uses invites such a literal reading.Theomach: “Because she is here. In this circumstance, her mind cannot be distinguished from the Arch of Time.”
Then the Theomach goes on to ask: “Do you dare to acknowledge that you do not comprehend this?” See, Covenant should know it. That’s why, a few paragraphs earlier, Linden wonders:
Donaldson is offering this to us as an explanation for Covenant’s ignorance,He was part of the Arch of Time. And he had suggested that he knew—or could know—everything that had ever happened. Could he see the future as well? Or was his vision constrained by the present in which he had reified himself?
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The first sentence is talking about her experiencesShe has experienced the distant outcome of events which transpire in this present. If she is given knowledge which she cannot possess by right of that experience—knowledge which may alter her understanding of her own past—a paradox akin to the paradox of wild magic will ensue. Her every deed will have the power of wild magic to undo Time.
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Also, she knew who Berek was. This didn’t harm anything. Is it simply the fact of learning something that would alter her understanding of her own past? Why is altering her understanding of her past not dangerous when Stave tells her in the proper time?
And would it *really* alter her understanding of her own past to realize that this guy she's talking to is someone she has already met? How would it change that in any way? If it's not a paradox to talk to someone you've already met, surely it can't be a paradox to know who they are when you talk to them.
One final point--Roger knows who the Theomach is. How did he learn it? Why doesn't his knowledge make a paradox?
So which is it? The Theomach ensuring that no harm will come? Or the fact that she will do no harm? If the Theomach can correct her ripples, what does it matter what she does? How could her knowing who he is allow her to do something he couldn’t correct?Theomach: Yet, if she acts freely, without incondign comprehension or suasion, her deeds will do no harm. That I will ensure.
What if she commanded to know who the Theomach was?Theomach: Therefore you must permit her to command—aye, and to make demands—as she chooses.
Why wouldn’t wisdom be possible for one such as him? Are we merely talking about what an asshole he is? Or is there another implication?Theomach: I have said that I do not desire the destruction of the Earth. If you are wise—if wisdom is possible for one such as you—you also will not desire it.”
Covenant replies that of course he doesn’t want the destruction of the earth. And the Theomach doesn’t raise an objection. Yet, the Theomach clearly has doubts about this very issue, because he thought Covenant was dangerous enough to divert his path for this reason. Again, I ask, what was so dangerous about his original path and why is this one less so? The answer may lie here: the stranger, the Theomach, had challenged Covenant to introduce him as a kind of test. Perhaps his entire purpose in diverting Covenant and Linden to this time was simply show Linden that Covenant didn’t know everything like he claimed. Specifically, he didn’t know something about time and being who he claims to be, he should. And perhaps this one thing is the change in Covenant’s plans the Theomach wished to produce all along: doubt in Linden’s mind.
What obstacles has the Theomach removed? I don’t remember this ever beign addressed. Also, less perilous for whom?Theomach: If you will but consider the path which I have opened to you, you will recognize that you have no cause for anger. True, I have presented new obstacles. But others I have removed. And my path is indeed less perilous.
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Covenant threatens with, ”What I have in mind for you is going to be worse than the destruction of the Earth. I’m going to make you and all your people and even the damn Elohim irrelevant.”Can any of you make sense of this one? It does seem to contradict
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Jeremiah says, ”It’s a good thing those ur-viles attacked when they did. I didn’t want to have to call for help.” I think we all know now who he would have called.
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Well, this is getting long. I’ll leave some for the rest of you. I’m stopping on page 130, if anyone else wants to pick it up from there. There’s one final point that really fascinates me. Linden’s thinks she may have enabled something bad to happen to Jeremiah by giving him the racetrack. She freed him, or gave him the means to free himself.
Going to the Land was an escape, a running away. Rather than being a means of healing, like it was for Covenant and Linden,. . . she had supplied her son with an alternative to ordinary consciousness, ordinary responses and emotions; ordinary life. She had made it easier for him to escape than to strive for a more difficult and precious form of recovery. It was conceivable that Linden had failed her son as entirely—and as unintentionally—as she had failed Joan.