Kevin's Watch

Definitely the fundamental question of ethics

.....Um....... okay.Nom is by far the coolest beast in the second chronicles!!!NOM!NOM!NOM!NOM!NOM!NOM!NOM!NOM!

There was no specific passage when "I knew".

But one day I was thinking about it (and this would be after The Wounded Land and before The One Tree) and I realized that the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant was better than the Lord of the Rings.

That hit me hard. Until then, LOTR was the epitome of fantasy to me. So realizing that TCOTC was better also meant realizing that something could be better.

I felt rather bold, and somewhat blasphemous.

A lot of subsequent thinking about why TCOTC was better than LOTR made me the Watcher that I am today.

For me it was when SRD first introduced Linden Avery.

Wait...nevermind. I thought this was the "When were you completely and utterly repulsed by the Chronicles" topic.

-jay

guess we need to start a new topic.

kevinswatch wrote:For me it was when SRD first introduced Linden Avery.

Wait...nevermind. I thought this was the "When were you completely and utterly repulsed by the Chronicles" topic.

-jay

Post of the week.

The only thing that whines more than Linden Avery is Linden Avery haters, about Linden Avery!

Actually I do believe TC whinned more than anyone... of course that was mainly in LFB so we forget the mjority of it by the time linden is introduced.

Aelyria Mireiswen wrote:

Adept Havelock wrote:For me, it was as simple as walking with a Leper to pay his electric bill in a proclamation of his humanity.

Donaldson won me forever as a fan before I ever saw The Land.

Not unlike the wonderous feeling I found late one evening running and fighting in a graveyard with a certain apprentice to the Order of the Seekers of Truth and Penitence...But that is a tale of Urth, and not the Land.

Welcome, Adept Havelock! Or is it welcome back? Either way, nice to meet you.

Thank you kindly, Aelyria. Couldn't help noticing you too hail from the state of Misery. Where 'bouts if I might ask?

Ur Monkey wrote:

The only thing that whines more than Linden Avery is Linden Avery haters, about Linden Avery!

perhaps, but the people who whine most is those who whine about those who whine abbout Linden Avery... so there


Just kidding

Adept Havelock wrote:
Thank you kindly, Aelyria. Couldn't help noticing you too hail from the state of Misery. Where 'bouts if I might ask?

I live near Springfield. I'm about 20 miles out actually, in a town called Bolivar (after the Liberator, Simon Bolivar). You've probably never heard of it. But that's okay.

~Lyr

Iquestor wrote:

Ur Monkey wrote:
Quote:
The only thing that whines more than Linden Avery is Linden Avery haters, about Linden Avery!



perhaps, but the people who whine most is those who whine about those who whine abbout Linden Avery... so there


Just kidding

Ah - but mine,
Was a fine and sparkling whine,
Whilst thine
Was the same old thoolah slime!

"Children! He was the cause of their screams, and their agony. Foul had attacked the Woodhelven because of his white gold ring. Not again-- I wont-- His voice was empty of weeping
I will not do anymore killing."
--LFB - Chapter 17: End In Fire, 336

it just hit me that through all of this bitterness there is someone who really cares about his surroundings after so many times of saying he didnt. its the first sign of a character change from him about how he will accept the land (everyone please take into context that i havent read all of the chronicles, i just started..... hence i just read that part)

-s-

Didn't take me long to develop the addiction. I was hopelessly an addict about halfway through the first book. I don't know what on earth I will have to look forward to when the tenth book is done. Yes, I have read SRD's other works, except short stories published in magazines and such. I need to go through his web site and see if I can't find all those, too. He's just awesome

it took me a little while to fall truly in love with the the chronicles, I think I was too young to grasp a lot of the concepts when I first attempted LFB ..

I aborted attempts to read LFB on at least two occasions, once TC got to the Stonedown I kinda lost interest .. even at around 12-13 years of age though, I could see the promise of an amazing story sewn in the first few chapters ...

The indifference and discrimination practised against TC in the first two chapters, along with the graphic and at-times technical descriptions of TC's leprosy was grim-but-compelling stuff and obviously grounded the chronicles in a stark, mature reality that I hadn't previously encountered (and probably havent since for that matter) .. 'Invitation to a betrayal' was both surreal and unsettling, Covenant's helplessness, assailed by apparently malicious beings amidst strange void-like mists and caverns (which we of course later come to know as Kiril Threndor) both excited and confused me .. TC's descent from the Watch with Lena (and indeed SD's descriptions of the apparently-radiant Lena herself) also had me turning the pages with a swift voracity ..

however it wasn't untill I was 17 that I was able to progress through TC's long journey with dour Atiaran onto the much-celebrated introduction of Foamfollwer and further onto Revelstone and fianlly the Quest itself.
After that I read the 1st and 2nd chronicles straight through, my dad owned them and had recommended them to me ..

fast forward a million or so years to '07 ... I finally got around to reading Runes after hearing about it's emergence about a year prior .. I'd still thought of TC from time to time over those years, the chronicles remained undoubtedly one of the most intense and rewarding reading experiences of my life ... Runes was great, really enjoyable, but I'll leave impressions of that particular book for another thread ... after completion, I decided to go back and read LFB for the first time since I was 17 (ok, I'll confess; that'd be nearly 16 years ago) ..

Having *just* finished LFB again for the 2nd time, concepts, metaphors and words that I didn't understand when I was 17 became a lot clearer to me; and as such, happily my appreciation of TC has only increased over time ..

Some things that I gained fresh insight into :

* as a teen, I remember having the impression that despite it's beauty, the Land seemed almost a *lonely* place; Atiaran and TC walked for days barely encountering another person .. settlements seemed to be few and they were spread out from one another ...
But I'd never really appreciated the significance of the Ritual of Desecration, beyond thinking of it as cool legend/cautionary tale, mainly related to illustrate how bad-ass the Despiser is.
Now the Desecration-as-metaphor-for-Nuclear-Holocaust angle seems blindingly obvious, yet cleverly drawn; now I realise that the 'lonely' feeling of LFB is a symptom of the fall out from Kevin's decision ..
The historical significance of the Ritual of Desecration to the people (moved to take an Oath of Peace) of the Land is one of the strongest themes in the fist chronicles, and I never really 'got it' the first time 'round

* things like the function of the Staff of Law and the gift of Earthpower seemed a lot clearer to me

* these days I have more patience and appreciation of the serene; when I was 17, a chapter like the Celebration of Spring seemed a bit too 'flowery' to me; upon re-reading it a week or so ago however, I was struck by the magical, complex tranquility of the Dance of the Wraiths; the air of expectancy before the Wraiths appeared was beautifully described, it made me want to go outside and sit in the park at night

* as someone else earlier in the thread mentioned; the creepiness of Jehannum's appearance in Soaring Woodhelvin was a real highlight, one which really chilled me .. the story is only told 2nd hand (by Soranal), but the innocence and nobility of the Woodhelvinnin Heer telling the tale only makes it more frightening; these people aren't accustomed to dealing with sarcasm and scorn much less *evil*, and as such are easy pickings for psycho's like the Ravers - it was like having a serial killer come to town; 'they' could be right in your own neighbourhood and you could still be unaware of the potential danger ... great tale within the story

* Foamfollwer's legendary jest with TC; "... with one word I shall weep" - up untill that point there'd been little humour shown in the Land, Foamfollwer's clever little poke at TC lightened the story at a much-needed juncture; a genius moment from SD ..

sorry if I rambled and went a bit overboard in responding to an older thread; I've been reading thru various threads here at KW for a few weeks now but haven't found much cause to post; so much has been covered insightfully and thoroughly ...

TC's decent from Kevin's Watch. I suppose it was the descriptive language used there that told me that I wanted more of this.

SleeplessOne wrote:* these days I have more patience and appreciation of the serene; when I was 17, a chapter like the Celebration of Spring seemed a bit too 'flowery' to me; upon re-reading it a week or so ago however, I was struck by the magical, complex tranquility of the Dance of the Wraiths; the air of expectancy before the Wraiths appeared was beautifully described, it made me want to go outside and sit in the park at night ...

I'm a little over 2x17 and that scene has always seemed too "flowery" for me.

Okay revision.

I knew I was in love with The Chronicles when SRD described the mad beast that was Drool. He's awsome, easily one of my favorite baddies of all time. I mean, the name itself, Drool Rockworm is just perfect in my mind.

I basically started reading them and couldn't stop till I got to the end.

It was like that for me as well, although The point of no return would have been Lord Foul's prophecy to Covenant on Kevin's Watch. It was just so suggestive that I had to read on to discover all the history that it implied.