Kevin's Watch

Posted: **Wed Jun 02, 2004 5:21 pm**

dlbpharmd wrote:This answer makes all the sense in the world, and it's been proposed here on KW before, but I can't remember who said it. Stand up and be recognized!

*half-stands, and finds himself in an awkward bow-legged squat* Well, I'm one of many people who noticed that the nature of the progression between Wards might have denied the Lords knowledge of all the Words...so I'll sort of stand and kind of be slightly recognised

Good questions lately! I'm very impressed!

Posted: **Wed Jun 02, 2004 6:38 pm**

"Yes, CovenantJr brand toothpaste is recognized by the Council of Lords as a proven effective agent against tooth decay when used regularly. Also fights tartar and Corruption."

Posted: **Wed Jun 02, 2004 7:58 pm**

...but the names I want have suddenly fallen out of my head (except for the always stellar Morgan Fairchild).

Yeah, baby! That's what I'm talking about!!

(but you're all still going to make fun of me for adding Julie Andrews to that list in the other thread, aren't you?

)

Posted: **Mon Jun 07, 2004 12:37 pm**

C.S.: After having discussed this with my friends who have also read the Second Chronicles, we have agreed that the sole purpose of "The One Tree" is to create the availability of Nom for "White Gold Wielder". Is this true, or was there some deeper purpose that did not come across so clearly?

Please. Do you really I think I would--in effect--waste an entire book just so I could introduce one character? "The One Tree" is crucial to "The Second Chronicles" in far more ways than I could possibly list here. However, I'll just mention that if Vain weren't partially transformed by the crisis of the One Tree, and if Findail weren't forced to trail after Covenant and Linden for so long, the eventual creation of a new Staff of Law would have been entirely impossible.

Great answer to a bad question. But re: Vain's partial transformation, I have always regarded that as an accident. Was this in fact necessary for his ultimate transformation?

Posted: **Mon Jun 07, 2004 12:40 pm**

Good point. I always saw it as odd and kind of unecessary even.

Sum sui generis
Vs

Posted: **Mon Jun 07, 2004 12:58 pm**

It's a clue staring us in the face for an entire book, which almost no one picked up on -- if anyone. It's suspense, a mystery in need of resolution.

I'll have to reread WGW before having any other ideas.

Posted: **Mon Jun 07, 2004 2:14 pm**

Thing is, I got the Vain thing straight away. Just putting two and two together

Spoiler

(The heels and the wooden arm)

was enough. Findail I never guessed.
I think it was necessary - just as Mhoram (or was it Caer Caveral?) did. He told Covenant he would travel away then come back having not found what he sought. But he also said that this journey was necessary if Covenant wanted to win - precisely because of what happened at the One Tree (Findail was Appointed - he would have shown up eventually anyway, if not, as SRD says, in the correct condition to become the Staff). I think in the Second Chrons as much planning and prediction happened for cleansing the Land as usually happens for Foul's machinations (For example, Elena's Command was a fairly unlikely thing for Foul to guess (and even count on) in advance - if Foul can predict that as early as LFB, then the ones who made Vain (or at the least the ones who gave him to Covenant) could guess what would happen at the One Tree).

Posted: **Mon Jun 07, 2004 6:50 pm**

James: Greetings, Mr. Donaldson. Thanks much for allowing me to pose some questions.

(1) Why did Linden never make an attempt to use (or why did it never occur to anyone that she make an attempt to use) such things as the krill (which Covenant allowed Sunder to use), or Hollian's lianar (who died using it in an effort to alter the Sunbane), or Sunder's orcrest? At least until the time came for her to have to make use of Covenant's white gold ring.

(2) Vain demonstrated his ability to defend himself and others mightily on several occasions. Why did he refrain from going back into Revelstone or near the Clave the 2nd time? Couldn't he have used his hand gestures of power to protect against attacks aimed at him?

(3) How was the Creator able to offer to do certain things for Covenant at the end of The Power that Preserves (or able to heal Covenant from his deadly reaction to the antivenom in the "real" world), and not break the Arch of Time in so doing?

(4) How is "Atiaran" pronounced?

Thanks again!

James

OK, here goes.

1) There are too many reasons to list here (mainly because I'm sure I'll forget some of them), but I'll give you a few. a) Linden is hanging by her fingernails trying to cope with her vulnerability to the Sunbane, and she can't handle much more. b) She fears Covenant's surrender to Lord Foul, and all of her attention is focused on him. c) Nothing in her background or personality has prepared her to be a "warrior," and the whole idea of using "implements of power" as weapons goes against her nature. d) None of the "implements" you mention *belongs* to her. She isn't the kind of person who just takes precious things away from other people. e) The idea of "power" itself is foreign to her, and she has no inherent grasp on how to use it or what it can do. Only her desperation in Kiril Threndor, and the oblique knowledge gained by being possessed by a Raver, enable her to use Covenant's ring, and then the new Staff, at the end of the story.

2) Vain certainly has the power to defend himself. But he is, in a manner of speaking, a robot with very limited programming. He protects himself, and attacks Sunbane-warpped ur-viles: that's it. (With the one obvious exception that Covenant is allowed to command him once.) Other than that, he only does what he has to do to serve the purpose for which he was made. So, for example, he enters Revelstone the first time because he needs the iron heels of the old Staff, but stays outside the second time because (in terms of his programming) fighting the Clave is irrelevant to his purpose. Covenant and Linden are irrelevant to his purpose. Only Findail and the ring matter. (Remember that Vain's makers don't want to expose him to dangers--e.g. the full force of the Banefire--which may be powerful enough to damage him.)

3) OK, that does it. I'm not going to answer any more questions about the Creator(s). I think I've figured out what's wrong (I mean intellectually wrong) with this line of inquiry. It's rather like asking me whether Patrick Stewart and Leonard Nimoy ever get together when their Federation duties send them to Earth. An important and necessary distinction between "reality" and "fiction" is being blurred. The Land, the Arch of Time, and the Creator do not exist: I made them all up. That's what gives fiction its power. When fiction "works," the author's imagination is speaking directly to the reader's imagination, and thus a community which enriches both is brought into being. But this process depends entirely upon imagination, fabrication, invention, "lies" (falsehoods which have the gift of being "true" instead of "factual"). So any question that implies some sort of necessary relationship between my "fiction" and our "reality" is inherently illogical.

As to your specific question: When the Creator addresses and even effects Covenant, Covenant is in a state of transition between my fictional worlds (my fictional "Land" and my fictional "reality"). He isn't actually in the Land, but he hasn't actually returned to his "real world" yet. Therefore things literally "could go either way." And the same is true for Covenant's physical condition in my fictional "reality." Just because he has a negative reaction to the antivennin doesn't mean he can't "pull through." Stranger things happen in *our* reality all the time.

4) As far as I'm concerned, you can pronounce anything in my books any way you want to. You earned the sovereign right to do so by reading the books. But I understand your curiosity. As it happens, I pronounce Hollian: holly-ann, with the emphasis on HOL.

(06/07/2004)

SRD's answer #1 makes perfect sense until

Only her desperation in Kiril Threndor, and the oblique knowledge gained by being possessed by a Raver, enable her to use Covenant's ring, and then the new Staff, at the end of the story.

LA used wild magic w/o TC's consent on at least 2 separate instances that I recall, so why would the circumstances make any difference in Kiril Threndor?

Answer #3 is absolutely hilarious!

Answer #4- not sure why SRD mentions Hollian. I pronounce Atiaran A-tye-a-ran, how do you all pronounce it?

Posted: **Mon Jun 07, 2004 7:57 pm**

I think it's the complex way in which Linden uses the ring and the staff at the end, which goes far beyond what she was ever able to do at any other point in the story.

Oh, I pronounce Atiaran as Ay-TEE-a-ran

Posted: **Mon Jun 07, 2004 8:20 pm**

I agree w/UrLord and I pronounce it the same way you do, dlbpharmd.

Posted: **Wed Jun 09, 2004 10:16 pm**

dlbpharmd wrote:LA used wild magic w/o TC's consent on at least 2 separate instances that I recall, so why would the circumstances make any difference in Kiril Threndor?

Because now she had learned (from her possession) when it is morally right, and when it is morally wrong, to use Covenant's ring. Particularly, that it could be morally right under the correct circumstances. And then the correct circumstances came along, and she was able to recognize them as such, and this left her free (as in morally okay with it) to do what needed to be done.

Posted: **Wed Jun 09, 2004 10:23 pm**

UrLord wrote:Oh, I pronounce Atiaran as Ay-TEE-a-ran

uh-TAY-er-in anyone?

Posted: **Wed Jun 09, 2004 10:24 pm**

I remember the one instance was when a giant was injured onboard the ship. (I'm thinking perhaps after they slammed into the ice? She was recovering from frostbite?) Linden had just been roused from a Diamondraught induced sleep, and took the power of the ring to heal the giant without asking or even almost without thought. I see this as a reaction, not a conscious use of power. Not quite what Covenant did when he unwittingly broke Drool's storm soon after he and Atiaran left Mithil Stonedown - but similar.

Posted: **Wed Jun 09, 2004 10:27 pm**

dlbpharmd wrote:re: Vain's partial transformation, I have always regarded that as an accident. Was this in fact necessary for his ultimate transformation?

I agree. If Vain needed to absorb some sort of One Sap to complete the Staff recipe, it's too obscure for me to notice.

Posted: **Thu Jun 10, 2004 12:38 pm**

Wayfriend wrote:
UrLord wrote:Oh, I pronounce Atiaran as Ay-TEE-a-ran
uh-TAY-er-in anyone?

I always pronounce it the Latin way: AH-tee-ahran

Posted: **Thu Jun 10, 2004 12:59 pm**

amanibhavam wrote:I always pronounce it the Latin way: AH-tee-ahran

I always say, when in doubt, go with the Italian vowels.

Posted: **Thu Jun 10, 2004 6:52 pm**

Variol Farseer wrote:
amanibhavam wrote:I always pronounce it the Latin way: AH-tee-ahran
I always say, when in doubt, go with the Italian vowels.

Ehm, that's what I do, maybe I wasn't clear.

Posted: **Thu Jun 10, 2004 8:13 pm**

Another 3 q's answered. His elaboration on word use is interesting.. pretty much what we've said before isn't it. I subbed my first question.. well more of a eulogy.. hope it gets answered

Posted: **Thu Jun 10, 2004 11:07 pm**

He answered my question. Although I already knew what he was going to say. Mine was the one asking him if he has another Sci-fi novel in que.

Posted: **Thu Jun 10, 2004 11:27 pm**

I asked him that ages ago! (and got the same response, of course)

Kevin's Watch

The Gradual Interview