Well, if you want to make that leap, then you will land in that conclusion. I don't credit that hypothesis enough to make that leap myself. I can't think of any times Donaldson called attention to something by not writing about it.Zarathustra wrote:I'm not criticizing Donaldson for leaving it out. I'm saying that perhaps it was intentional ... to call attention to the fact.
There's some chance, though, that the Roger/Thomas final confrontation will involve a lot of Roger/Thomas exposition, that may have been deferred until the last book. However, that doesn't seem too plausible either - groundwork would have been laid by now, I feel. Also, there's the issue of Thomas's memory at this point, which makes exposition (from Covenant's POV anyway) a difficult matter.
We do know, from the GI, that Roger is the way he is because he only had Joan.
But that's still not the same as saying that Covenant lacked all inclination of paternal responsibility. It only says that, for whatever the reason, the result was that he was not in Roger's life. And ... possibly ... you can consider that a reason as to why Donaldson wanted Roger isolated from his father - so that he would be who he is now.Stephen R Donaldson, in the Gradual Interview wrote:But you might try thinking of Roger as his father's doppleganger. Roger has inherited his mother's legacy of fear (and self-abhorrence) rather than his father's (learned) legacy of courage. In that, Roger is rather like Linden--without the benefit of Covenant's intervention; without spending crucial time in the company of characters who are motivated by love rather than by fear. You could say that he just doesn't know any better. Fear, I think, is a natural and inevitable part of the human condition. But being ruled by fear is a choice. And it's unfortunately true that choices can be very hard to see or understand if people haven't been taught that those choices exist; if people lack role models for making those choices. I knew as soon as Joan decided to abandon Covenant that Roger would follow his mother's example. It's the only one he's had.
(03/05/2008)