Kevin's Watch

TheWormoftheWorld'sEnd wrote:
How can something be AWESOME, BRILLIANT, and yet ALMOST everything we hoped for?

Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the very good.

"Almost everything we hoped for" doesn't have to be read as a criticism, you know. Glass half full, and all that.

Horrim Carabal wrote:

TheWormoftheWorld'sEnd wrote:
How can something be AWESOME, BRILLIANT, and yet ALMOST everything we hoped for?

Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the very good.

Right! So here's an illustration of how I thought SRD did with TLD over-all.

(Keep an eye on the upper right corner of the picture.)
i.imgur.com/jQczEdc.gif

earthbrah wrote:TheWormoftheWorld'sEnd wrote:

Of course we all feel guilt. But Covenant's is a religious-like conscience in which he - basically - compares himself to Satan. He acts like an adult who had a super-religious parent as a child who always scared him with the dire threat of Hell.

Perhaps he did have such parents. I'd bet not, but I just now realized that we never once learn anything about Covenant's parents throughout the entire Chronicles. Clearly they were never necessary for Donaldson's story, but it only now strikes me as strange that we know nothing about them.

I posted about TCs absent parents some months back. I don't think it's enough to say that they were unnecessary, rather their complete absence was necessary. I actually think that in some crazy way the creator is TCs dad. Anyone able to tell me what town TC comes from? His reak world resembles our world but I don't think it is our world.

earthbrah wrote:TheWormoftheWorld'sEnd wrote:

Of course we all feel guilt. But Covenant's is a religious-like conscience in which he - basically - compares himself to Satan. He acts like an adult who had a super-religious parent as a child who always scared him with the dire threat of Hell.

Perhaps he did have such parents. I'd bet not, but I just now realized that we never once learn anything about Covenant's parents throughout the entire Chronicles. Clearly they were never necessary for Donaldson's story, but it only now strikes me as strange that we know nothing about them.

I posted about TCs absent parents some months back. I don't think it's enough to say that they were unnecessary, rather their complete absence was necessary. I actually think that in some crazy way the creator is TCs dad. Anyone able to tell me what town TC comes from? His reak world resembles our world but I don't think it is our world.

I agree that TC's "real world" is probably not our world. Most likely some sort of parallel universe.

Horrim Carabal wrote:I agree that TC's "real world" is probably not our world. Most likely some sort of parallel universe.

I was curious about the physics. If the sun had really ceased to exist - at one point it was described as a star - then the planet would have frozen very quickly. And the gravity implications would have been rather dramatic too. And how did it come back? Was it an Elohim? Did one of the others replace it?

The answer for me is that physics doesn't apply because it's a fantasy world. A dream world only distinguished from a true dream by the laws it abides by. Break too many and it falls apart.

I note that the narrative structure of the story arc and the structure of the arch of time react to the breaking of rules in roughly the same way. I don't know if this was intentional but the narrative structure of the story also collapsed towards the end. Maybe SRD was trying to say something.

native wrote:

I note that the narrative structure of the story arc and the structure of the arch of time react to the breaking of rules in roughly the same way. I don't know if this was intentional but the narrative structure of the story also collapsed towards the end. Maybe SRD was trying to say something.

That is a very interesting observation! I hadn't thought of it, but you may be on to something. Essentially you are seeing (or drawing) a parallel between the Arch of Time and the story arc. I'm just ruminating here, but the Arch of Time serves to keep the Landiverse intact, and the story arc serves to keep the internal consistency intact. So as the Landiverse crumbles and collapses, the story arc follows suit. Or one is a reflection of the other. Blurry lines, indeed! I'll have to think on this some more, but I really like the comparison.

earthbrah wrote:native wrote:

I note that the narrative structure of the story arc and the structure of the arch of time react to the breaking of rules in roughly the same way. I don't know if this was intentional but the narrative structure of the story also collapsed towards the end. Maybe SRD was trying to say something.

That is a very interesting observation! I hadn't thought of it, but you may be on to something. Essentially you are seeing (or drawing) a parallel between the Arch of Time and the story arc. I'm just ruminating here, but the Arch of Time serves to keep the Landiverse intact, and the story arc serves to keep the internal consistency intact. So as the Landiverse crumbles and collapses, the story arc follows suit. Or one is a reflection of the other. Blurry lines, indeed! I'll have to think on this some more, but I really like the comparison.

Basic Instinct worked like that. It shows a man in a situation he cannot make sense of by having a plot that makes less sense as it goes along.

There's many interesting interpretations of TLD but as you read it they don't occur because events are moving forwards so quickly that your attention is focused on what you'll be shown next. Other chronicles tended to have a lot of mulling over time available. Publishers decision to make the book short was really unhelpful in this respect.

Publishers decision to make the book short was really unhelpful in this respect.

Do we know that this happened?

dlbpharmd wrote:

Publishers decision to make the book short was really unhelpful in this respect.

Do we know that this happened?

Personally I don't. Seems to be the consensus though.