Kevin's Watch

I'm truly puzzled why anyone would expect works of fiction to contain any element of human activity which isn't directly relevant to the story. Donaldson has already said many times that he doesn't create more than he needs. The shaving the beard detail isn't there to illustrate hygiene. I think you may have missed the point. It was there as a mundane ritual to confront his mortality (pre-Land), and then later as a proof that the Land wasn't real (TWL), and then later as proof of his self-control (TOT).

It didn't cross my mind once that the books were missing key scenes like crapping and shaving pits. I honestly didn't miss it.

These kinds of thoughts used to occur to me as a kid. I used to think, "Why doesn't Steve Austin (the bionic man) ever take a bionic dump? It amused me at 5. Not at 36.

Malik23 wrote:I used to think, "Why doesn't Steve Austin (the bionic man) ever take a bionic dump?

Because that would have required a Six Million Dollar plumbing clean-up.

The Pumpkin King wrote:

drew wrote:Here's an inconsintancy on a more serious note-not that taking a crap isn't serious-but how did any woodhelvins survive the sunbane?
OK we know how stonemight did it...but there were others-if all the wood rots during the sun of pestilence-what did they live in?


-I must now appologize to where this thread went with all of the...toilot humer. I have two small boys at home, so every joke I ever hear now, ends in the word, "Poop."

Maybe the wood they used was really saturated with (uncorrupted) Earthpower or something? And then, when the Woodhelvens themselves became a bit run-down, they chopped them up into parts and made those rickety huts that we saw?

I think they were woodhelvin in name and when they had wood probably were able to use some Lore to get out of it what they could before it rotted in the sunbanes Pestilence. .. They must have had something to keep the wood huts from melting ... It could be that they built the village in a valley that didnt get direct sunlight. I believe they took TC to the entrance of the village to sacrifice him and my impression of the area of stonemight woodhelvin was that it was placed in a Ravine, which might explain why the huts didnt deteriorate.

as for relieving yourself in the land.... I dont think there is any way to describe those functions without making the reader think "was that really Necessary?" To me about the closest to that i ever want to read is "when foamfollower re-emerged from the bushes they continued their arduous journey." I think that spells it out and leaves the embarrassing action out of it.
What i really dont want to read is how bad TC got the squirts from eating nothing but treasure berries two days straight.

Drew, my sons are going to turn 22 in December (twins) and the poop jokes have not slowed down. They have been joined by burping and flatulence jokes. Enjoy!

I remember reading Fellowship of the Ring where Aragorn and the hobbits are on Amon Sul. One of them finishes telling a long story. Immediately, Merry and Pip get up and walk away from the fire. There is no explanation, but I laughed because it was obviously to take a wizz.

I have to admit that when Covenant has been lying unconscious for a day or two, wakes up and does no more than "tuck in his shirt", I have to remind myself that a work of fiction will rarely get more detailed than that, but it does lack the texture of real life.

Among the many discomforts mentioned, chafing jeans and rotten socks are not among them. Linden never gets her - you know... not that guys would want to know, but it could at least be mentioned that being filthy, starved, and exposed to the elements for weeks at a time gets old. Rough skin, broken nails, torn clothes...

SRD once mentioned that he had got "roughing it" out of his system a long time ago, but I guess that doesn't extend to his creations.

If it's retained in her transfer back to real life, why didn't Covenant ever notice it in his various trips...

TC was not in any shape to notice his personal condition on his returns, besides whether he was even alive or not. I doubt he checked the mirror often.

OMG, just saw Wayfriend's quote about Marid's blood and the explanation for my question about Linden. Yikes. I guess I should not question things like this any more. Can't help it. It's the goof in me, I suppose. I do agree that if these kinds of details were in the books, we'd be saying "Did SRD really have to tell us that?" So he knows what he's doing by leaving out such things. It's a "do we really want to know" kind of thing.

Of course. If Donaldson really wrote about all that stuff ... would anyone want to read it?

Yea, TMI. And if you think about it, as deer said this stuff is generally never in movies or books, unless it actually relates to the plot (or is there for juvenile humor).

Borillar wrote:It's always bothered me that in all the post-LFB books, Covenant makes a big point about wearing the same clothes and matching his physical condition at the time he's going to exit the Land, but at the end of LFB, he himself notes that he lost his regular clothes prior to entering Mount Thunder, and exits the Land wearing the moss-stained robe. But he wakes up in the hospital wearing his normal clothes. And as someone else pointed out, just wearing the same clothes isn't going to cause things to align, since the clothes would certainly be in much worse shape after travels through the Land.

I've been searching around to see if anyone else has pointed this out. I had never thought of this before, but while watching FBH, episode 18, Heatherly and Julie discussed a very interesting point in regards to whether or not the Land is real: crusty old underwear.

Okay, so they were not discussing whether or not the Land was real, bu they DID talk about TC's crusty old underwear. If you trekked 300 leagues across country wearing the same underwear day after day after sweaty long day, your underwear is going to get shredded.

And not just the underwear. You can't do all that journeying in the outdoors without wearing out every article of clothing you wear. Your jeans and shirt are going to get stained and sun bleached. And you can't tell me that TC never walked a hole into his socks.

This thread acts as an exemplar of a point that I have made in another one (I can't remember which) that the presence of continuity breakdowns in any large scale litterary construction is not just likely - it is inevitable. I would look at it as something similar to the presence of 'uncertainty' in the sub atomic world of quanta. As such I have a suspicion that micro-analysis of this type can be less than helpfull in enhancing ones enjoyment of books like the Chronicles, and that sometimes the best thing is not to delve too deeply. Sure you don't want your stories to be inconsistent to the point of absurdity, but a little slip up here and there must surely be tolerated.

I like the self-referential nature of the title of this thread.