Some Speculation on the Metaphysics of the Land's Reality
Moderators: Orlion, kevinswatch
For a long time in the past I was attached also to the 'dream/illusion' interpretation, especially after the Original Chronicles.
How great indeed it would have been if the reader had been left in total Unbelief her/himself in the end, unable to decide!
Of course it's possible to believe, even after the First Chronicles, that Covenant's mind invented all that: isn't he himself a successfull writer, a creator of worlds?
One could then argue about the different point of views that little by little come up during the first trilogy: from Covenant's quasi-exclusive (*) p.o.v. during LFB we get Mhoram's at the very end of TIW's Part I, followed by Troy's later, and then by some more in TPTP (Mhoram, Triock, etc).
But then what does that prove to us: by reading these different p.o.v. we might be reading what TC's mind is inventing along (in our own dreams, don't we dream sometimes from other's p.o.v? Or to put it another way, haven't any of you put yourself in 'someone else's shoes' to see how they see the world, or even see you?).
If one is then asked if TC knew about about Troy's forced march while he was miles away with Bannor and High Lord Elena, one could answer that Covenant's character in Covenant's dream didn't... but that the storyteller that is Covenant (or C's mind), yes, he could know about it (we could call him the meta-Covenant
)
We would then be reading the internal struggle of the Unbeliever.
Then comes the Second Chronicles.
Oh my!
Once Covenant is stabbed and goes unconscious in his reality and falls into the Land, from here on we could still say he goes dreaming again, even dreaming the p.o.v. of Linden, dreaming about her coming back to 'reality' at the end of TOT seing him stabbed and dying...
With the above interpretation, this still works: Avery's presence throughout the Second Chronicles, including all narrative through her p.o.v. could still be viewed as an internal creation of a very good writer/creator, the meta-Covenant (and, well, maybe it is... not from the meta-Covenant, but from the meta-meta-Covenant, i.e. SRD!).
Not only isn't there anything that proves to Covenant that it's the real Linden that accompanies him to the Land, but neither can it be proved to us.
Until, of course, the Second Chronicles ends, and we are left with Covenant dead, Linden alive.
Period.
I contend - and I may be freakin' wrong! - that only at the very end of WGW, at the last line, can we absolutely be sure that the Land is real.
Note this: if at the end of the Second Chronicles Covenant was still alive, and that it was Linden Avery that died (for whatever reason) without being able to talk to him and let him know that she had been to the Land, shared all these adventures, then we would have been left with another possibility of Unbelief on our part.
But that is not what happened of course. That was the final nail in the meta-Covenant dreamer theory, hammered down by Donaldson.
I do realise of course that this dreaming meta-Covenant theory is not very elegant, even after the Original Chronicles, and the more I think about it, the less appealing it is, especially because it makes SRD's writing look bad if this was confirmed.
And with the Second Chronicles, it becomes much worse, and annoying, from the very begining. And would make the writing look awful again.
I think that if SRD wanted us to maintain the 'dream theory' as a possibility, he's a good writer enough to make a better job and be more subtle and inventive.
(Note that from the p.o.v. of the Covenant character, amusingly, he can still think this is all a dream...)
(*) I said above that in LFB the p.o.v. was Covenant's quasi-exclusively, for at least at one point we have a glimpse of someone else's p.o.v.: Lena's, just before the rape, in Ch.7:
"As she caught her balance, got one last, clear, terrified look at him, she felt sure that he meant to kill her. The thought paralyzed her."
The narrator tells us what she thought, and how she reacted to the thought.
There might be other places in LFB where SRD relaxes his TC's p.o.v. exclusivity, I don't know.
How great indeed it would have been if the reader had been left in total Unbelief her/himself in the end, unable to decide!
Of course it's possible to believe, even after the First Chronicles, that Covenant's mind invented all that: isn't he himself a successfull writer, a creator of worlds?
One could then argue about the different point of views that little by little come up during the first trilogy: from Covenant's quasi-exclusive (*) p.o.v. during LFB we get Mhoram's at the very end of TIW's Part I, followed by Troy's later, and then by some more in TPTP (Mhoram, Triock, etc).
But then what does that prove to us: by reading these different p.o.v. we might be reading what TC's mind is inventing along (in our own dreams, don't we dream sometimes from other's p.o.v? Or to put it another way, haven't any of you put yourself in 'someone else's shoes' to see how they see the world, or even see you?).
If one is then asked if TC knew about about Troy's forced march while he was miles away with Bannor and High Lord Elena, one could answer that Covenant's character in Covenant's dream didn't... but that the storyteller that is Covenant (or C's mind), yes, he could know about it (we could call him the meta-Covenant
)We would then be reading the internal struggle of the Unbeliever.
Then comes the Second Chronicles.
Oh my!
Once Covenant is stabbed and goes unconscious in his reality and falls into the Land, from here on we could still say he goes dreaming again, even dreaming the p.o.v. of Linden, dreaming about her coming back to 'reality' at the end of TOT seing him stabbed and dying...
With the above interpretation, this still works: Avery's presence throughout the Second Chronicles, including all narrative through her p.o.v. could still be viewed as an internal creation of a very good writer/creator, the meta-Covenant (and, well, maybe it is... not from the meta-Covenant, but from the meta-meta-Covenant, i.e. SRD!).
Not only isn't there anything that proves to Covenant that it's the real Linden that accompanies him to the Land, but neither can it be proved to us.
Until, of course, the Second Chronicles ends, and we are left with Covenant dead, Linden alive.
Period.
I contend - and I may be freakin' wrong! - that only at the very end of WGW, at the last line, can we absolutely be sure that the Land is real.
Note this: if at the end of the Second Chronicles Covenant was still alive, and that it was Linden Avery that died (for whatever reason) without being able to talk to him and let him know that she had been to the Land, shared all these adventures, then we would have been left with another possibility of Unbelief on our part.
But that is not what happened of course. That was the final nail in the meta-Covenant dreamer theory, hammered down by Donaldson.
I do realise of course that this dreaming meta-Covenant theory is not very elegant, even after the Original Chronicles, and the more I think about it, the less appealing it is, especially because it makes SRD's writing look bad if this was confirmed.
And with the Second Chronicles, it becomes much worse, and annoying, from the very begining. And would make the writing look awful again.
I think that if SRD wanted us to maintain the 'dream theory' as a possibility, he's a good writer enough to make a better job and be more subtle and inventive.
(Note that from the p.o.v. of the Covenant character, amusingly, he can still think this is all a dream...)
(*) I said above that in LFB the p.o.v. was Covenant's quasi-exclusively, for at least at one point we have a glimpse of someone else's p.o.v.: Lena's, just before the rape, in Ch.7:
"As she caught her balance, got one last, clear, terrified look at him, she felt sure that he meant to kill her. The thought paralyzed her."
The narrator tells us what she thought, and how she reacted to the thought.
There might be other places in LFB where SRD relaxes his TC's p.o.v. exclusivity, I don't know.
Again, that would work at explaining all, if explanation is all we want.
But would that be good writing.
If SRD really wanted that to be the case, would that be how he would have written it?
E.g. Covenant still dreaming at the end of the Original Chronicles, not really out of his coma; and still dreaming at the very beginning of the Second Chronicles.
That would be like that infamous Dallas "Oh Bobby, you're still alive! It was just a dream!" episode, after a whole season of dreaming!
No. I have too much respect (still) for Donaldson to believe that.
But would that be good writing.
If SRD really wanted that to be the case, would that be how he would have written it?
E.g. Covenant still dreaming at the end of the Original Chronicles, not really out of his coma; and still dreaming at the very beginning of the Second Chronicles.
That would be like that infamous Dallas "Oh Bobby, you're still alive! It was just a dream!" episode, after a whole season of dreaming!
No. I have too much respect (still) for Donaldson to believe that.