2009 Kevin’s Watch Awards (the Watchy) Official Ballot
Thomas Covenant, SRD and The Library Categories:
Best *Thread* in a Thomas Covenant Forum
- Darkdenubis: Ownership of the ring?
Lina Heartlistener: Possible reason why people can't get into LFB: *spoilers*
spoonchicken: Elohim vs. Staff of Law/2nd Chronicles
- wayfriend
jacob Raver, sinTempter
(all from Fatal Revenant: Part 2)
- Beyondthebreach>Chapter 9: The Long Journey of the Lost
wayfriend>Chapter 10: Struggles over Wild Magic
Furls Fire>Chapter 12: Trust Yourself
- Mysteweave:
Demondime-a-dozen spawn:Sarah: Hello!
You've said previously in the GI that when you came up with the idea for the First Chronicles, you knew how it was going to end, and worked backwards from there. Was it a case of working backwards through main story events until you reached a starting point, or was there greater detail involved in your thinking?
An example: In "The Power That Preserves", Covenant destroys the Staff of Law when he confronts Elena. Was that known to you as you thought out the story (backwards), or was it something that happened as you wrote? If it was the former, did you know that Elena was Covenant's daughter, and therefore that he would rape Lena?
Sorry if this is a difficult question to answer! And thanks for your time.
Well, I *do* have to reach back three decades....
Where the first "Covenant" trilogy is concerned, the "planning backward" notion applies in most situations. For example, I needed a final war to set up Covenant's confrontation with Lord Foul. I wanted that war to be as destructive (therefore as UNnatural) as possible. That led me to the misuse of Law, which suggested the misuse of the Staff. But of course Covenant couldn't get at Lord Foul without first facing the misuser of the Staff. And the misuser had to be a High Lord. Much better for the High Lord to be someone he knows: someone more than just a good-guy-turned-bad-guy. But not Mhoram, who didn't fit the role. Better for the High Lord to be someone with whom Covenant has a personal relationship. A very personal relationship. Who better than a daughter? But how was she turned into a bad guy? And where did she come from in the first place?
You see what I mean. At any rate, that gives you a rough idea of how my planning process worked in those days.
(02/04/2009)Greg O'Malley: Hello, Mr. Donaldson.
Thank you for the Land and its people. I consider your work a priceless gift to our world, present and future.
Recently, while discussing Fatal Revenant with another reader, I ventured an opinion that was rebutted by using a quote of yours from this Gradual Interview itself.
That seemed to settle the matter. However, being the pedant that I am, I began to think about whether the story as presented can (or should) be trumped by the author. After all, the argument I presented in no way contradicted the evidence in the book, and only your quote from these interviews negated it. (I am deliberately NOT going to provide the quoted passage. <grins>)
I feel that "if it isn't in the story, it isn't in the story."
I suppose my questions are these: What authority (if any) should an author have over his published work with regard to its *meaning* and its *facts*, and are you aware of any instances where any of your stories as written diverge from what you intended them to say?
PS. I also realize that there are still two books forthcoming, and what you stated here in the GI could simply have been an inadvertently dropped spoiler, but my questions remain.
Since I don't know what specifically prompted your query, I have no context for a reply. (As you intended. <grin>) But in general I'm on your side. Only the text matters. The way the author happens to view his/her work cannot and should not take precedence over the actual text--if for no other reason than because the unconscious mind (the author's as well as the reader's) works in mysterious ways, its wonders to perform. Virtually everything I've ever published means both more and less than I intended it to mean: a fact which delights me (although the "less" part can be disappointing <rueful smile>); and which explains, at least in part, why I try (with incomplete success) to avoid polemics.
Sure, I have opinions about what I've written. And my opinions are uniquely well-informed, since I'm the only one who has access to my own sources of inspiration. But those opinions are still...just opinions. They don't reveal the story (except, perhaps, occasionally and obliquely): they only reveal how *I* think about the story. As long as you "play fair" with the text, what *you* think about the story is surely valid.
The fact that different readers can read the same text and extract different meanings is one of the true glories of storytelling.
(07/07/2009)
- Angry Naked Insequent
Demondime-a-dozen-spawn
Savor Dam
Soft One
Stonemaybe
- Rigel: An observation on opinions…
TheWormoftheWorld'sEnd: Is there any truth to this?
- TheWormoftheWorld'sEnd
lorin
Best *Thread* in a General Forum
- Orlion: Board Games
Phantasm: The past decade and you
- Savor Dam
lorin
- Zarathustra: Health care reform: market solutions
ParanoiA: Obama Peace Prize response
Cail: The Audacity of Arrogance
- Sindatur: Seriously...Could we please get some more active liberals?
Zarathustra: Health care reform: market solutions
Cail: November 9th, 1989
Cail: The audacity of arrogance
Cail: Oh the sweet, delicious, juicy irony......
- Cail: Peanut Butter
ParanoiA: USS New York response
- ParanoiA
Syl
Zarathustra
Lucimay
- Cagliostro: Is science a religion?
Dromond: "Nonsense" about Christianity
lorin: This I believe
- rusmeister
Orlion
Fist and Faith
- Furls Fire
Lord Foul
- Vader: Ragù bolognese (ricetta tradizionale)
High Lord Tolkien: Porkgasm
Most Notable Contributor to The Waymeet
- Cail
Montresor
Stonemaybe
Best Gravin Threndor Deity
- Madadeva
Agapé
Zephyr
Tawhiri-matea
Bel
- Maddoc
Led Pighp
- Pantheon: Third Age, Calias mutation in to Vashitva by Nor Yekith (caamora and Loremaster)
Rogue Trader, Lt. Commander Zarkov: Dynastic Archives
- Xar
Loremaster
Montresor
Fist and Faith
- Pantheon: Third Age
Darkwood
Aesir
Acropolis
Best Poem
- Lord Foul: Wind
Lord Foul: Rain’s Voice
rdhopeca Hunter
Hyperception: Limericks
Lord Foul: Benediction
JazFusion: 10. fall from grace
- wayfriend: Nom’s Garden
Lord Foul: The Rooster
- Dread Poet Jethro: haiku
“Dread Poet Jethro
Writer of haiku and verse
For better or worse”
Zarathustra: “Be true”
- lorin:
(clickable thumbnail)
StevieG: Hugs and shit!!! ~ lucimay
Vraith: There's nothing you can do about the bullet with your name on it...it's the ones addressed "To Whom it May Concern" that should scare you.
DukkahWaynhim: "God is real, unless declared integer." – Unknown
(all clickable thumbnails)
Best Visual Art Piece
(all clickable thumbnails)
Visual Artist of the Year
- Blackhawk
Kevin164
- Cagliostro
Sgt. Null
Vader
High Lord Tolkien
Lord Foul
- dANdeLION
jacob Raver, sinTempter
- Prebe
Earthfriend
Durris
Bossk
- wayfriend
CovenantJr
Syl
Goatkiller666
dANdeLION
Cagliostro
Lord Foul
High Lord Tolkien
matrixman
Cail
- Menolly
wayfriend
Fist and Faith
Avatar
aTOMiC
- Montresor
Avatar
Fist and Faith
Loremaster
aliantha
Zarathustra
- Plissken
Cail
Lord Mhoram
lurch
Edge
The Esmer
- Avatar
aliantha
Cail
- Kaydene
Vader
lorin
Savor Dam
StevieG
- Furls Fire
wayfriend
Fist and Faith
matrixman
Syl