Kevin's Watch

Hi everyone!

I've just started reading TCTC again for the umpteenth (OK probably 8th or 9th ) time and, to my delight, new thoughts are still occuring to me! This time: How on Earth did Covenant and Joan afford Haven farm? the first few pages introduced TC as having been a struggling writer, kept barely above the breadline by Joan's job 'breaking' horses, which she would then take for a gallop round Haven Farm.

Now, not sure what the score is in the US, but over here a farm with enough land to gallop a horse around, woods outside, and no neighbours for half a mile in any direction would not, shall we say, go very cheap. You're probably talking something to the tune of three quarters of a million. Pounds, that is. If you're lucky.

Even if it's relatively cheaper in the US because of all that extra space, I would still have thought such a property safely beyond the means of a newly married couple in their 20s, with only a modest single income wage...

Covenant and Joan clearly lived in Haven farm during the earliest times of their marriage, before Covenant wrote his bestseller. It led me to think that one of them must have inherited the place from Mummy & Daddy

What d'you reckon, me hearties?

There's no way to know for sure. We have very little information on Covenant and Joan prior to LFB. We know that her parents were still alive by the time of TWL, but that's it.

Yeah, I know we can't be sure. It's pure speculation for the fun of it! But I have to say, that's what I'd be thinking...

It all depends on where the story takes place. In some regions of the US, land is very expensive, while in others, not so bad. If however, TC had his big bestseller and a subsequent advance, he likely could afford to live just about anywhere he wanted (w/in reason) in what is beleived to be PA, or easter midlle-US which i believe is the common logic of where it takes place.

"struggling writer"?
from what i recall, didn't thomas write a very popular book? It sold tons apparently. We can assume part of the money is from that. Then after Joan left him, he still wrote and was successful (although not as much as the first).

no?

I infer from all the books, including Runes that it was Covenant's house. His 'fluff' bestseller paid for it...who knows where they were before that. My sister and BIL had a small farm near Allenton, PA which was afforded on a chiropractor and nurse's salary...and there was, in '78, a lot of land in the larger surroundings that was subdivided by farmers and sold at, relatively cheap prices.

As far as Joan goes, usually, an upbringing with horses either means that she was brought up on a ranch or her parents were wealthy enough to hobnob with the 'equestrian' scene. Who knows, before Rog was born they may have lived in a barn! (I know people who did...)

LFB pg. 3

Then his nearest neighbors, half a mile away on either side, had complained shrilly about his presence among them; and when he had refused to sell his property, one of them moved from the county.

mile-wide frontage! Big place!

I thought that he already had a bestseller when they moved there and he was working on his second book when he discovered the leprosy. I think the money came from the first bestseller.

It does say, as ur-monkey noted, that Joan supported them before his book was published. And that one paragraph, kinda, makes you infer that they were living on Haven Farm during that time. They could have lived where his studio was and she broke horses for the owner--after the book sold TC could have bought the place from the owner...

danlo wrote:Who knows, before Rog was born they may have lived in a barn! (I know people who did...)

Does that make Roger the Messiah?

**in Irish accent**hey dude I'm old but I didn't how J & M! Since The Golden Boy states that Roger's grandfather's name is the same, pretty soon we'll have a thread entitled: "What is the signifigance of the name Roger Macht?"

edit: OMG I'm really geeking out here-so Macht means power...so what does that mean? (also implies that Joan may be of German heritage)...I know there are threads somewhere around here with that info, and/or insight

Okay, here follows some Roger Macht speculation:

I wonder if there is any German person on this board. Namely, I'd like to know if Macht is a German surname that people actually have. I have never heard of anyone called Macht, but that doesn't mean there aren't any. This post hinges on that question...

Anyway, my theory is that "Roger Macht" is an alias. German Mr. X chose "Macht" because he liked the word and since he was immigrating to America he thought nobody would think anything of it. And as for the need for an alias, I'm suggesting that "Roger Macht" is Nazi in hiding. The timeline is plausible. Joan would have been born in the years not too long after WWII.

Now, consider that "Roger Macht" had a massive role in raising Roger Covenant and would have been the daddy to him... Why am I suddenly reminded of Stephen King's Apt Pupil? ... Well, considering the sort of parental flashbacks Linden had, I don't actually see this post as particularly implausible...

Heh. Sometimes I surprise even myself.

I had just assummed they were living in Haven Farm all that time and I did wonder how they afforded it before his first novel hit but now that I think about it, it doesn't definitely say that were living in Haven Farm allthat time does it? If they were though, how did they pull ot off?

I'd say TC probabl;y came from some priveledge, simply because people who come from financial hardship aren't the type to be neglectful of themselves.

On the other hand, rich people aren't often exposed to leprosy, unless some house servant passed the leprosy to him when he was a kid?

So I say flip a coin for TC.

Same for Joan. She seems to be pretty fragile. But you can be fragile from overexposure and underexposure to hardship alike.

I always got the impression that money for Covenant was not an issue. He was well off. Reasonably wealthy or upper-middle class would describe him, I would think. (One of his few consolations in 'our' existence.)