E-mail from Stephen R. Donaldson - Questions Answered

[Brinn]

Welcome to the Watch Kastenessen. We look forward to your insights and presence. Be welcome.

[Vain]

You guys think I should create a Countdown gadget?

"Only 600 days to go before...."? Or is it a bit early?

[Nerdanel]

Wow. Wow. Wow.

Four books. Not a trilogy but a tetralogy. Four. Presumably long too.

I expect major cliffhanger trauma in the future. I'm too young to have experienced in the case of Donaldson, and I usually try to avoid unfinished series from known-good authors in favor of reading it all at once later, but I may have trouble with my resolve this time.

I have been kept away from this site by real life and stuff, and then I see this... Makes it even harder to concentrate in school stuff. I can't even write well-structured message board posts anymore, until I recover at least...

[Guest]

Nice. I'm one of the Brit fans, possibly more a fan of Donaldson than simply just a TC follower. I've just started reading them again - it's been a few years and suddenly I'm immersed back in the land.

I actually read all the Reed Stephens novels recently as well (better than a lot of the criticism allows, imho), while the Gap series was sensational (after book 1... *cough*).

And while I'm trying not to be too OTT that Donaldson has not only confirmed the final chronicles but has taken the time out to write to the forum... well, it's hard not to just bow in adulation

Personally, and no doubt like the rest of you, I can't wait. I dont think I've ever been so excited about a book before... the ONLY thing I want to try to avoid is finding out TOO much about the alleged 'ending'. I sincerely doubt that SRD will end on a low of destroying the entire land without there being something in it for Covenant (remember how he ended the Gap books for Angus..., and, of course, the two previous trilogies for TC), but I think I'm going to duck whenever I see any more mention of land destroying ways!

(Fine forum, btw, well done.)

[Relim]

Oops... that was me

Login then comment, L-O-G-I-N then comment!

[The Theomach]

I came to the First Chronicles via the Science Fiction book club editions. I think i got all three for one price or something. I patiently waited for the books of the Second Chronicles to appear. Got TWL and TOT that way, but after the end of TOT, there was no way i could wait for the acid-paper/cheap binding book club version to appear, so i went out and spent twenty-somthing dollars (and those were 1980's dollars!) for the real hardback edition of WGW. I read it during lunch at work, driving to work, and during work at work....that place is now out of business, wonder if that's related? But now that one edition from a different publisher stands taller than the book club editions on my shelf. Oh well. The super-thin book of Korik's mission to Seareach (Gilden Fire) is taller still.

Re-reading for the fourth time or so. The crew is with the Elohim. I had forgotten the horrors of Linden's father's death. "Grim specters" indeed.

pax,
SS

[Earthblood]

Mouseglove ROCKS!!!!

Thanks for your efforts & carrying thru with your 'mission'!

Thanks also to SRD for acknowledging us & our interest in his writing(s).

Vain - start the countdown - 599 days.....(lol).

[MsMary]

COOL!!!

The stories are not about Joan, so I don't spend much time
telling her personal story. But anyone who sneers at her for divorcing
Covenant as she did is probably not the parent of a small child. The
protective instincts of parents are intense and compulsory.

Hmmm....this is the point I have tried to make in discussions about Joan in which people have tried to put her down for leaving TC.

~MsMary~

[Brinn]

You had it right all along

[aliantha]

This is what I get for taking a couple of weeks off for real life.... I end up missing e-mail from The Man Himself!

I join in the general approbration to Mouseglove! etc.

Anxiously awaiting late 2004!

[Hearthcoal]

...Aliantha. Take a few weeks off for real life and look what happens.

Well, as they say where I come from, "Glory be!"

- Hearthcoal

[Skyweir]

"Glory be!"

Hmmm....this is the point I have tried to make in discussions about Joan in which people have tried to put her down for leaving TC.

I was waiting for someone to gloat about that comment!! and strangely I just knew it would be you

However, as you know I do not agree with Mr.Donaldson ~ who is God~ .. on this one!

But anyone who sneers at her for divorcing
Covenant as she did is probably not the parent of a small child

Well I am a parent of a small child .. and I would do all in my power to protect my children. I am not only a parent though .. I am also a partner to a soul mate! Sure I would protect my child but without abandoning my soul mate! Especially considering that the doctors had already explained to me that my soul mate's condition is rare and not highly contagious. Nevertheless, I would probably not take any chances with 'our' child .. In Joan's position perhaps I'd ask the grandparents to care for the child while I support my soul mate through those very difficult hours, days and months, that he would have to face! I would not suffer that he walk this god awful path alone.

I would not leave him as she did, leave all my possessions and not even ring him on the phone .. for fear of catching leperosy .. from being that close to him, from possessions, clothes which were close to him, or from the phone line in someones elses home?? ... or even less believable .. to protect my child!!!!!

puhlease????

I do not sneer at Joan .. but I do not agree or understand her abandonment of her partner .. especially at a time he would need her support the most .. I do not agree at all ..

How would you feel if the roles were reversed? You discover you have leperosy and everyone chooses to abandon's you .. and then just to make sure you get that your abandoned ... DIVORCE you to boot???

How would divorcing TC serve to protect their child?

Does it do this by freeing up Joan .. to marry another and give the child a 'clean' father?

I do not sneer .. I am however critical of her lack of fealty .. her level of committment and love for the man she covenanted to share her life with ..

But beyond the paper that signified their contractual relationship .. what of their friendship???

I would have sought out ways of protecting the child .. without complete abandonment of the relationship they suppposedly shared.

At the very least she could have maintained contact with him .. at least by phone.

And that one phone call .. was just one phone call .. and TC was afraid that his knocking himself unconscious .. would have caused Joan to be angry with him????!!!!

where's the compassion!! my god!!

bad form Joan .. bad form!

[birdandbear]

I'm with Lord Sky on this one. I also am the parent of small children, and there's no way I'd dump my hubby so summarily for something he had no control over. (Said hubby happens to have grown up in Indonesia, where he saw real live lepers almost every day, and don't think it's never crossed my mind to wonder...) Neither do I sneer at Joan. I try never to condemn anyone offhandedly, no matter how thick they've been. I've done too many stupid things in my life to feel superior to anyone, and everyone is subject to irrational fears and desires. It's the finality of it that bothers me. Joan could be forgiven for a temporary panic. But never to think it through? Never to call, or try to help in any way? She's supposed to love this guy! What happened to "In sickness and in health"? The doctors told her the danger of contaigon was minimal - there could have been a hundred ways to protect her child without turning her back on someone who loved her, trusted her, when he needed her most. She actually seems to blame Covenant for contracting his disease!

I don't think Joan is a bad person for leaving Thomas the way she did, only a coward. Which makes her no better, and no worse, than anybody else. Cowardice is the natural order of things. It is instinctive to every animal in the world to flee from harm, and to almost every animal to protect it's young. Fear is a natural life preserving device. But Joan was a human being capable of rational thought, and for whatever reason, fear won out over rationality, for good and all, apparently without a struggle. Her reaction to Covenant's Leprosy was similar to that of a sixteenth century peasant, clutching a crucifix and flinging holy water at people for fear of vampires. Her divorce was a completely unreasoned repudiation of anathema. And sooner or later, she came to realize that fact, and paid for it every time she looked at her son, I wot. Paid until it drove her mad.

I don't damn Joan, I pity her. In the end she had to live with what she'd done. What a shame she never found the courage to face Covenant and apologize to him. It would have gone a long way toward healing both of them I think. But in the end, he was healed, and then he was free. And all hope of making any kind of amends was lost. And I think, in the final reckoning, her flight did much more damage to herself than it did to Covenant.

[Romeo]

Lots of different angles on this one. If my wife contracted leprosy, I would stick by her through everything. But if it was me with the disease, I'd probably freak and distance myself in order to protect the rest of the family.

Joan did what she did because of a kneejerk reaction. As I understand it, she did try to get into contact with Tom later when she realized her mistake. And I'm sure her parents and the church that she fled to helped keep her away. But I don't think she herself ever approved of her actions.

What do you think Joan would have done if SHE was the one who contracted leprosy?

[caamora]

I agree also, Sky. I never forgot that one phone call when Joan says something along the lines of Don't you know how hard this is for me? I wanted to slap her for that comment. She wasn't the one with leporsy!

Joan seemed to me to be very selfish. I also am a mother and although I would protect my children, I would not abandon my husband - especially in his time of need. Once the doctors told me that it isn't contagious there would be no problem.

[Skyweir]

I absolutely agree Caamora!! that one phone call really appalled me too!!

I'm sure living with her choices were hard for her .. no one can argue against that .. I mean the poor woman did suffer within herself as she struggled to come to terms with them.

Romeo you say she did what she did because of a knee-jerk reaction! Yes I think in part that is correct. The part that takes that term knee-jerk to the extreme is .. her resolve to have no contact with him over the months that passed since she first found out TC's dilema.

She made that one phone call that we know of .. one phone call??? many months after TC's diagnosis and stint in the leperosaurium .. and months of being at home alone .. and then instigating the divorce. To me that was the icing on the cake! Why pursue it sooo far??

We kind of get the impression that Joan was riddled with the same fear that the townsfolk were. Irrational fear and paranoia. But she had a different relationship with TC than the rest of the townsfolk had .. her relationship with TC was an intimate one. She didnt just walk to the other side of the street when she saw him coming .. she ensured there was no proximity between them.

She realised her mistake? I wonder? Even when she sought out TC as a member of that crazed group .. her intention was to kill him .. not to apologise or make ammends even with herself for leaving him to face his disease alone.

Yes I am sure you are right .. she probably did have those crazed religous folk and her parents possibly in her ear keeping her away from TC.

but she did make the initial decision herself .. in the hospital.

All I can see .. is poor TC .. no wonder he lost his ability to laugh .. and thank goodness for the Land. Would that all people shunned would have such a place to find themselves again.

[Skyweir]

no other comments??

[duchess of malfi]

To me its always been the finality of Joan's actions that have bothered me the most. Couldn't she have sent some pictures or videotapes of Roger to Thomas, xerox copies of his report cards, anything to let him know that his son was still alive and hopefully doing OK?
Maybe it's just me, but I think losing my children would be the most devastating thing I can think of ever happening.
So even if she was that afraid, why no such contacts? you can't get diseases by sending someone a packet of pics in the mail.
And if she thought it would be too painful for her to be in touch with Thomas, how did she think he felt to lose all contact with his only child?

I hate to disagree with the Master, but to quote Danlo over at the Hangar

that's too easy.

[amanibhavam]

for me Joan appeared to be the sort of person who always knows better what's "good" for other people; I felt it already when she packed up their son and left Covenant alone so that "he could work"; and that small, but so characteristic act, when she named Roger after his father, without even consultinh his husband...
I just could not care for her, really

poor Covenant was an extremely loyal type of guy; Joan did not deserve him

all very humble opinion, of course

[GSG]

I think Romeo has it right.

The doctors told Joan that it was contagious to children. I'm pretty sure there was good period of time while Thomas was recovering from surgery (24 hours?) where Joan knew about the leprosy and Thom didn't. I suspect that she was horrified and that her parents, doctors and the church all backed her up on the divorce idea before her husband even knew about it. Thom didn't put up a fight either which probably confirmed--for her--that she was doing the right thing.

But then she probably was really racked with guilt about it. There's the phone call in The Illearth War: What did she hear? Silence that she mistook for anger and remorselessness? As for The Wounded Land, would Foul have been able to touch her if she hadn't given herself to despair, had no answer for despite? She was probably crushed with her own guilt and remorse.

In addition to all this, they were still fairly newly wed and perhaps didn't feel an incredibly strong bond toward each other. Wasn't she fairly indifferent to his writing?

I think Joan was wrong, but I don't think her actions are unlikely. I know marriages that have ended with far, far less rationales (money, for example). Like SRD says, both Thom and Joan were young and didn't know each other very well. If you accept the fact that Joan was somewhat immature from a relationship standpoint, it all makes sense.