The destruction of causality

[Mighara Sovmadhi]

Lifted by fire, Covenant, Linden, and Jeremiah stepped into the wake of the [Worm of the] World's End and rose like glory.

... Together in deep night, Thomas Covenant, Linden Avery, and Jeremiah walked west from the slopes of Gravin Threndor through the enduring woodland of Andelain.

So quite a few people have expressed some dismay at the gap between these two sentences. There's been this expectation or impression that SRD ought to have described what took place in this instance. However, does that make sense?

The Worm consumed the Arch of Time, the structure of the Land's Earth's cause-and-effect sequencing. Under such circumstances, how could the inversion of this process be written in words that would refer to causes and effects?

I feel like the last sentence of the last chapter would best be visualized as if everything faded out into bright light.

[mod edit - to remove spoiler tags]

[earthbrah]

And that is pretty much exactly how I visualized that sentence. Almost like the end of whatever season of Lost it was when the bomb went off and the screen went all white. I saw the three of them-Linden, TC and Jerry-surrounded by white firelight which flooded the whole scene when they "rose to glory."

[lurch]

earth you bring up Lost..and thats a good point you mention....The readers, like the viewers of Lost, seem to have a expectation of having all their concerns and questions answered. The slightest " mystery" left unsolved is blasphemy. Well kudos to LOST and Kudos to Donaldson for saying,,,No,, Mystery is what it is about.. the Unknown of Who You Are.. the Unknown of ones Humanity in this Modern technical world,,is exactly the Point.. No,all the Mystery Will Not Be Solved because you Are a Mystery yourself.

Just like the ending of Lost..when its left by the author for the reader to fill in the blanks..there will be those who demand that author has failed,,with out realizing it is the reader who fails the authors challenge.

[Zarathustra]

There is mystery enough in reality without the exaggerations of priests and wizards.

[lurch]

" rose to glory" quite the metaphor for achieving the Surreal..extra real..higher reality..

The problem is..the word..Surrealism...early on, folks poo poo'ed the concept out of not understanding or just feeling threatened. After all..it calls for a new way of thinking and perceiving,,so as to not to be come so easily predictable and thus controlled. Then WW2 came knocking on Modern Man's door..Half of the original Surrealists ran from fascism to the Ideals of Communism despite the machinations of Uncle Joe. A few,,Dali, actually stayed with the fascists. Breton jumped to Canada and traveled America as well, during WW2..He denounced any who would incarcerate the Free Mind.

So the movement split,,but its foe's had a field day with those who chose to side up with Stalin. Intentionally, surrealism became associated with Communism by its foes.

So today,,any commercial artist is not one to use the word Surreal..Magical Realism is a close equivalent. Fantasy works. I remember the Producers of Lost calling it ..pseudo-science..never alluding to Surrealism until the show was over. So..Donaldson does not use the word Surreal. Yet his TCoTC bares all the tenets and properties of a work of Surrealism. Reality as Illusion, its real but its not True.. The search for Personal Identity..More choices beyond the opposite and contradicting Black or White, True or False, Yes or No.etc..Subjectivity of Time and Space. We are All Connected,," connectivity"...Less logic more Intuition..the importance of imagination and creativity to personal identity..the embrace of the Unknown,the Mystery...or Mystery for the sake of Mystery..leading to the Mystical quality of Love..Man as Whole instead of Divided

There are techniques of Surrealism..ways to get the mind out of the comfort of the mundane and into the excitement of exploration...juxtaposition of the in-congruent..(things in the frame of reference that do not belong there)..The message is in the Metaphor ( everything is of metaphorical value)...The use of Dark Humor,or what is referred to as..Black Humor. ..reliance on Feelings..etc etc..


Reading The Last Chrons has been a hoot because I find all of the tenets of Surrealism in the work. And as the author harps on...its a lot more fun and productive with Help. There is no way I can or could catch it all. What has been created by Donaldson continues , as we find our own Surreal while we chat about it all here.

[Zarathustra]

A wise questioner from the GI once wrote:

Maybe I'm overthinking this, but I have a strange question about the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics as it pertains to the logic of the Last Chronicles. Earlier in the GI, you have said: ". . . I was more concerned with trying to tell the truth about the Second Law of Thermodynamics (entropy, everything always runs down). . ." Well, the *truth* about the 2nd Law is that it implies an "arrow of time," a specific direction in which time flows. For this reason, we usually see things like cups falling to the floor and breaking, rather than shattered cups rising from the floor and spontaneously assembling themselves. The only time we'd witness such a reversal of entropy would be if we were watching a movie played in reverse.

So my question is this: if the Arch of Time is eventually broken, then won't the *arrow* of time also be broken? If the linear sequence of events no longer needs to flow in one direction, won't entropy be undone?

You have also said: ". . . it is the task of every caring being (that perhaps it is the entire purpose of life) to resist the process [of entropy] as much as possible; to preserve as much as we can for as long as we can."

So is the breaking of the Arch in itself an unexpected path to redemption? Achieving or fulfilling the "entire purpose of life?"

I like to think that this twisted logic might actually hold the key to the final "twist" at the end of this series--the way in which the Land is destroyed, and yet Lord Foul is defeated. Do I win? Did I guess the ending?




I accept your interpretation of the Second Law of Thermodynamics. (I'm no physicist, but it sounds right.) And I accept your conclusion that breaking the Arch of Time would break "the *arrow* of time," thus making entropy meaningless. But I don't think that any of us would like the results. As far as I can see, if entropy were rendered moot (by eliminating "the *arrow* of time"), the outcome would be...nothingness. Not freedom, not "redemption," not any concept that has human significance: just non-existence. Because if "the *arrow* of time" isn't pointing "forward," it isn't pointing anywhere, and nothing can ever happen. Ever again.

As a matter of principle, I like "twisted logic." But in this case: sorry, no bonus points for you. <grin>

(09/14/2006)

So, as far as I can tell, this WAS the ending. The destruction of causality is the destruction of the arrow of time, and in that interim, we saw the figurative cup rising from its own shattering on the floor to be reassembled, whole, on the table. That was the Land being rebuilt.

So, like the TV show Lost, the actual ending was guessed by the audience, and the author(s) simply denied it in order to preserve the surprise.

[Zarathustra]

Does no one else feel like this answer was disingenuous? Donaldson says that breaking the Arch wouldn't lead to freedom or redemption, but that's exactly what happens. And entropy was rendered moot, by magically remaking the entire world and putting the Worm back to sleep. Sure, things might very well still run down in the new Land, but our characters made the breaking of Arch and waking of Worm into nonissues, undoing their apparently inevitable consequences. If death is not inevitable even when the Worm of the World's End has ended the world, then how could he say that entropy being rendered moot wouldn't lead to redemption and freedom? You can't get any more free than having the freedom to escape the consequences of life and death.