Who among you can really relate to Thomas Covenant?

[Flasharino]

I will never forget being so totally engrossed while reading the first Chronicles all those years ago. I could really relate to TC - his isolation, his losses, his hidden power. After having read that trilogy for the fist time I remember asking one of my fellow sci-fi/fantasy loving friends if he ever felt like Covenant - if he could relate to him. His response was a vehement "Covenant - no way - are you crazy!?" I suppose that being in the shoes of a lonely leper has limited appeal for most people.

I have thought about this quite a bit since then. Why the character is so close to my heart. How my own life has lead to my relative isolation, yet knowing in my heart that should I need to defend myself or perform some immense act of necessity that it was withing me to do so; also of course knowing the frustration of being unable to call upon such power at will.

I don't know how many fellow readers relate to Covenant on any level whatsoever. If they merely enjoy watching the dilemmas of his life and death like one watches a dark comedy - glad it's not them in the role, or as they might watch a freak show - fascinated by the oddity and grotesqueness of the spectacle. All I know is that the experience is very visceral for me.

Stephen, you have struck a vital chord in me. Thank you for all your work and for sharing your art with me and the rest of the world. Through your books I have had many, many hours of enjoyment and you have helped me to gain insight into myself and others. I anticipate the coming Last Chronicles books as an ardent (argent? ) fan.

[Menolly]

Be Welcome to the Watch, Flasharino.
Be Well Come and True.

Terrific first post.
Even if it did take nearly 18 months for it to happen.

[Flasharino]

Terrific first post.
Even if it did take nearly 18 months for it to happen.

Weeeeeeeeell, I didn't believe for a long time.

[Avatar]

Welcome to the Watch. Here, everything is true. Or nothing is. (I haven't quite decided.)



--A

[Cagliostro]

Welcome.

I suspect this poll is going to be a bit one sided, as those that couldn't relate to Thomas Covenant probably were not fans, and therefore wouldn't be here. I mean, I remember my years as a leper and when I went to the Land, I really struggled with being cured as well. It was great finding a book about someone else who had gone through the same thing. I kept a much lower profile though - probably because I didn't bring white gold with me.

[Avatar]

--A

[aliantha]

I'm surprised danlo hasn't been in here yet to tell about how he identified so much with Covenant that he considered cutting off his fingers. (True story. He's told it here on the Watch before.)

Okay, not the leprosy thing. But feeling like a pariah, like an outsider looking in, and feeling like people expect way more of you than you believe yourself capable of delivering -- I think those are probably universal human experiences.

[wayfriend]

Thomas Covenant, when we first meet him, represents an example of an "ironic mode" protagonist.

The ironic mode often shows the death or suffering of a protagonist who is both weak and pitiful compared to the rest of humanity and the protagonist's environment; [...] At other times, the protagonist is not necessarily weaker than the average person yet suffers severe persecution at the hands of a deranged society.

Covenant's journey transforms him into a "heroic" protagonist. Indeed, he demonstrates the possibility of such a transformation.

I think we can all identify with an ironic protagonist, at least if we feel from time to time inable to cope and at the mercy of the world's irresistable forces.

I think we can all be inspired by someone who could become a hero in those circumstances, at least if we dream about surpassing what the world stacks against us.

[Mr. Broken]

I think its important to consider this as well, even if you cant relate to Covenant himself, relating to the characters that surround him is very easy. Even if we arent much like TC , I think its safe to say we've all known someone like him.

[lucimay]

the very idea of relating to a bitter leper is bizarre to me.
i cannot relate to his feelings about himself or the world he sees.
i cannot relate to how he reacts to the land or much of anything
in it.
(nor can i relate to linden in these matters either)

thats the attractiveness of the story to me no doubt.

a point of view that is alien to me is more interesting to me than
a more relative one.

(thats not to say i don't like a story with character i can relate to, i
read malazan for that)

[StevieG]

I hadn't thought about it that way. I actually voted yes, I can relate, but really, I think perhaps I understand why he reacted certain ways and made certain choices, but didn't actually relate. Is that the same thing? Dunno. I think I'd probably vote no now...

I agree also that part of the attraction of the story was that I had no idea what he'd decide to do next, or how he'd react because I just wasn't on his wavelength. It was usually after an event that I could look back and finally understand his reasoning...

[lucimay]

well i'll tell ya, the rape of lena has never made much sense to me.
yeah yeah i've read all the "he was impotent for so long" explanations.
that still just doesn't fly to me.
it's a justification to say that he didn't believe the world was real.
rape is rape. its preditory, it's control issues, it's angry and cruel.
the man is transformed (if thats what you can call it) to another
place and time, another world, and the first thing he does right off
the bat is rape a defenseless girl?
yeah, no, there's nothing i can even understand in that, much less
relate to.

[aliantha]

Of course not, and that's the point. It's a testament to Covenant's reawakening humanity that he spends the whole rest of the 1st Chrons beating himself up over it.

I can't emphatize with TC, either. But I get why SRD used the rape as a dramatic device.

[wayfriend]

I don't think that anyone who can relate to Covenant needs to have directly comparable experiences to relate to. They need not have been a leper, or a raper, to relate.

What you can relate to with Covenant is being an outcast, or suffering from circumstances beyond our control, or being trapped in a small, confined life, or dealing with regret of the bad things we have done, and wondering why we have done them. We can relate to the conflicts of sticking to ones principles vs capitulating to society's demands.

And we can relate to the dream of transcending these things.

I think if you have a debilitating disease, or have commited foul crimes, or have been an actual pariah, then perhaps these correspondences make it easier to relate. But they aren't necessary. With a little willingness, and a little ability to see abstract connections, almost anyone, I feel, can relate.

( Personally, it's the people who can't that I worry about. )

[High Lord Tolkien]

I cut off two fingers on both my hands, killed a horse and raped my sister before I finished the end of the Illearth War just be be like TC.

[aliantha]

And now you're chief proselytizer for THOOLAH. I'm seeing a connection there...

[wayfriend]

:waves Staff-like stick:

[High Lord Tolkien]

:waves Staff-like stick:

Dude, are you saying I'm giving you a woody?

[wayfriend]

Begone!

[lucimay]

so...you're worried about me?

i've been an outcast, or...perhaps misfit is a better word, all my life.
i've done things i've regretted. not nice things.

i understand your correlations way...and i still cannot relate to covenant nor linden either.
(even tho i am capable of thinking in the abstract)

i do not see the world as they see it. i cannot relate to those pov's.

whatever happened to me did not manifest in my psyche the way it manifested in theirs.

that prolly means i'm more eff'd up than either of them and you prolly SHOULD be worried about me!