Kevin's Watch

G'day everybody. I am halfway through 'Fatal Revenant' and realised last night that the Internet is not referred to in 'The Runes of the Earth.' Surely it would have been a very useful resource for Linden and Jeremiah? After all, the Universe is digital. Beginning with a zero. Could someone here please pass this message on to Mr Donaldson? He might want to know . . . .

I believe SRD addresses a similar concern in the GI when somebody asked about the absence of mobile phones in ROTE. He answered that he deliberately wanted to create a timeless feel for the novel so he omitted such modern devices.

SRD's answer works for me.

But I agree that it's something interesting to think about. If SRD had gone the "total" Tolkien route and written a story that took place completely within a hermetically sealed fantasy universe, he wouldn't have had to deal with the headache of maintaining continuity between worlds. It might still have been a good story, too, had it gone the total Middle-Earth way. Thankfully, SRD went his own way and created something that differed from Tolkien yet honored the old master. The idea of a person from the "real world" being translocated to a "fantasy" world is not a new thing, but maybe it's the sophistication of SRD's approach to this idea - how deeply he has thought about the "mechanics" and implications of it - that makes the Chronicles so remarkable.

I'm glad that SRD has gone to so much trouble - just for the sake of telling a good story. Even if that means his construct may break down under the microscopic probing of obssessed readers like us. I guess that is the irony here: we endlessly poke and prod SRD's fictional world for inconsistencies precisely because we admire how well it holds up under such scrutiny. The fear is that we become so intent upon seeking out the flaws (or perceived flaws) that we ruin the simple pleasure of just enjoying the story. It's my fear, anyway. I've certainly been guilty of it too. It's Dorothy ripping away the curtain to reveal the Wizard; or Chronicles readers crashing the door down and catching Donaldson at his typewriter.

(Now has visions of Thomas Covenant ripping away Lord Foul's mask to reveal SRD. "Aha, you bastard! It was you all along!")

Well, if you think of the Illearth Stone as the leprosy of the earth, caused by the Despite inherent within himself, then Lord Foul really is just the personification of the habit of Despair that the mortal-bound can fall into. But SRD *promised* that there would be no Mr. Witherspoons at the end of Last Chronicles... so maybe we're looking at yet another metaphor wrapped in a simile posing as an analogy. Ah crap, I hate Englishical comparisons. Food comparisons are so much better... so, rather, with each bite of that literary 7-Layer Burrito, we enjoy a different flavor in particular, though it is the whole burrito that we truly admire.

dw

Thanks a lot, dw. Now I'm hungry.

Did anyone notice that Al Gore invented the internet right about the time that Staff-Elder Asuraka learned that messages may be spoken and heard through lomillialor?

Wayfriend wrote:Did anyone notice that Al Gore invented the internet right about the time that Staff-Elder Asuraka learned that messages may be spoken and heard through lomillialor?

Oh Lord!! Al Gore been translated to the Land!!!

--There WAS a cell phone in Runes...Lytton had one on his belt.

When would the Internet even come up?

Linden decided to fire off a quick email to all her friends that she might be dissapearing for while, but they'll find her bodyt in the woods?

Maybe Linden has Kevinswatch in her favourite sites folder. That would be a bit of a chicken egg sort of situation.

drew wrote:--There WAS a cell phone in Runes...Lytton had one on his belt.
When would the Internet even come up?
Linden decided to fire off a quick email to all her friends that she might be dissapearing for while, but they'll find her bodyt in the woods?

Nice spotting, and going to have to agree with you. The internets were not even relevant to anyone's situation. Unless Linden was doing medical research, perhaps? Which - since SRD knows his shit - the author did not bother writing about. It was simply irrelevant to the story.

What, Linden discovers that Lord Foul the Despiser is the only friend on Jerimiah's myspace page?

The Humbled wrote:What, Linden discovers that Lord Foul the Despiser is the only friend on Jerimiah's myspace page?

Don't make me do another photoshopping of myspace...

I agree...there's no need for mobiles or interweb in these stories...unless she took a laptop to the land and got a mysterious wi-fi signal and was able to communicate to some ethereal server under Doom's Retreat to dredge up all of flowers web searches (Posies and Me!, "Life and all things nice and Fluffy") to embarress(damn word can never spell it!) him into submission...

...who knows where that story would go?

Anyhoo...

Well, you know how many people walk around w/ their bluetooths glued to their ears all the time... Linden could've easily had hers on, hoping for any information, while she headed into the woods at Haven Farm.

"The Chosen's raiment is even more strange than we remember."

Relayer wrote:Well, you know how many people walk around w/ their bluetooths glued to their ears all the time... Linden could've easily had hers on, hoping for any information, while she headed into the woods at Haven Farm.

"The Chosen's raiment is even more strange than we remember."

I wonder what powers a blackberry would have in the Land?

FOUL: Oh, crap. Is that a Blackberry?

LINDEN: Uh, yeah. Why do you ask?

FOUL: You win. I give up. Here's your kid.

LINDEN: Wait, aren't we going to fight or something?

FOUL: Nope, no point. You've got a Blackberry. Jeesh. So long. See ya.

Do me a fvr & rd ths txt msg out loud dood!
nom

Every time I read that name I shudder inside, and frantically wonder how I will defend myself when the Sandgorgons come.

Make no mistake.

When.

Not if.

Relayer wrote:Well, you know how many people walk around w/ their bluetooths glued to their ears all the time...

Yeah, they look like aliens to me.

Where I used to work we called this one woman "Kim of Borg"