The Gap Into Conflict: The Real Story - Chpt 16

[frankELF]

Chapter 16 of the Real Story, features Angus Thermo-Pile at his lowest point, nearing despair.
I will not do a summary of the chapter per se; I assume everyone has read it. If not, go back and do so before reading this any further.

In general, the Real Story is a puzzle to the reader, purposely so. Even by chapter 16, we still do not know what is really going on. We do know Angus the best of any character. Yes, he is an evil, vile, despicable, rotten, worthless, scumbag of a human being, but by now we know his background, and our disgust and anger is tempered by that knowledge. A measure of sympathy has leaked into our feelings. The mispronunciation of his name by Nick Succorso is actually a good description of a piece of Angus – he is a mass of seething anger, a pile ready to reach critical mass, which overwhelms any other emotions, even one he fights not to recognize – his admiration and “love” for Morn Highland.

Of course describing this as love is simplistic. Angus has been twisted by the tortures of his infancy - the crib – and only when he is horribly afraid is he at his best. In all the quick intuitive moves he has made throughout the book to enable his desperate escapes, near crazed fear is what has motivated him. And fear has made him successful, until now. What could have been real love is warped into jealousy, hatred of himself for caring about her, which translates into brutality towards her, and maybe some guilt? Though I see no literal evidence of guilt in the text, I think Angus realizes that nothing can change the way Morn feels towards him, nothing would ever be enough to overcome the vile way he has treated her.

His other, and unsullied, love, Bright Beauty, is now on its last legs, horribly crippled by Nick’s attack. Bright Beauty is a machine, with immense power until now, a machine that has fulfilled his needs, yet still a machine so it can not ever hurt him itself as could a human being. And now, in this chapter, he discovers that Morn has betrayed him – not that he deserves any better treatment, of course, - much, much worse in fact – but Angus is shaken and hurt to the core. Anger and sadness are often two sides of the same coin, just as the name Angus can refer to both Anger and Anguish.

Uncharacteristically, Angus does not know what to do for a bit, he is frozen when he discovers Morn has done something to “betray” him while he slept. When he discovers the stockpile of goods in his secret holds, he knows there is no way out. His ship is crippled and he knows the goods will be discovered.

He is bringing Morn to Mallory’s. Something is up. What it is we do not yet know.

P.S.
I find the analysis of the secret meaning of the earlier words from Nick to Morn unconvincing – quite a bit of a stretch, in fact. I would never have been able to glean anything like Morn supposedly did from his few sentences. Donaldson added Nick passing a note to her, which really is what told her what to do.

THE END
OF THIS REVIEW OF CHAPTER 16
Really.

[Cord Hurn]

His other, and unsullied, love, Bright Beauty, is now on its last legs, horribly crippled by Nick’s attack. Bright Beauty is a machine, with immense power until now, a machine that has fulfilled his needs, yet still a machine so it can not ever hurt him itself as could a human being. And now, in this chapter, he discovers that Morn has betrayed him – not that he deserves any better treatment, of course, - much, much worse in fact – but Angus is shaken and hurt to the core. Anger and sadness are often two sides of the same coin, just as the name Angus can refer to both Anger and Anguish.
Uncharacteristically, Angus does not know what to do for a bit, he is frozen when he discovers Morn has done something to “betray” him while he slept. When he discovers the stockpile of goods in his secret holds, he knows there is no way out. His ship is crippled and he knows the goods will be discovered.

This was the chapter that gave me a ray of hope, that Morn retains enough of her spirit to fight back, that Angus cannot have broken her. By this point, I was getting very tired of viewing things through Angus' eyes. The Real Story has been the dreariest Donaldson book I have read yet; sure hope the other Gap books are a lot better than this!

[Savor Dam]

Cord, just keep reading. Forbidden Knowledge is near. You will get additional perspectives there...in a variety of ways. Not saying you will be any more comfortable, but it will be different.

Ah, then the three books after that are a roller-coaster ride like nothing else Donaldson has done. As highly as I think of the Chrons, the Gap is absolutely SRD's best work.

[StevieG]

Cord, good to see you reading SRD's best work

It keeps getting better. Although I didn't have the same problem with The Real Story as a lot of others. I thought it was compelling, and there was no way I was going to put the series down after that!

[rdhopeca]

Cord, just keep reading. Forbidden Knowledge is near. You will get additional perspectives there...in a variety of ways. Not saying you will be any more comfortable, but it will be different.

Ah, then the three books after that are a roller-coaster ride like nothing else Donaldson has done. As highly as I think of the Chrons, the Gap is absolutely SRD's best work.

Could not agree more. Halfway through FK it takes off and you simply can't put it down.

[Cord Hurn]

Thanks to the three of you for your interest! I appreciate all the replies of encouragement, and am liking Forbidden Knowledge much better! I promise to keep at it.

[Edited to remove the crossed fingers at the end. I put that there to say I was hoping for the best, but realized that putting that symbol after making a promise could have conveyed the message I didn't intend to keep it (the promise). Not the message I was trying to send! ]

[dlbpharmd]

I need to give TRS another chance.

[rdhopeca]

The Gap is brutal...an absolutely brutal read. But if you can fight your way through TRS, and get into FK, and let Dios and Lebhowl and Donner into the story...and the Amnion...and....and...and...so worthy of what it takes to get there.

In addition, and I think SRD mentions this, he made some scientific errors in FK around speed near light and so on that made him not mention those sort of things in the following three books, which IMO made them much more human.

The intensity goes skyward and from the beginning of ADHGA to the very end of the last book it never lets up. Ever.

[Zarathustra]

I think my favorite is A Dark and Hungry God Arises (book 3), but the last book is an unbelievable climactic conclusion to the entire saga. It felt like the entire book was one long climax. This is when I believed SRD, when I took him at his word for claiming that the end was the reason for the story, where every sentence is aimed like a laser beam at the conclusion.

This series has his best characters, his best narrative structure, best dialog, his best pacing, his best scenes. It's a crime that it wasn't more popular. I've never read anything like this before, nothing else that pushed the craft of story-telling to such heights.