Kevin's Watch

Ok, I bet this question is answered somewhere in the Chronicles and I have just been to dozy to spot it, but can anyone tell me (or does anyone have any ideas, or are there any clues as to) where is the planet on which the Land is situated...errr......situated. I mean do we think it is somewhere within our own Universe, or is it in another dimension alltogether - some paralell universe forever closed off from our own - or come to that (and I am not at all sure as to the answer to this because the whole question came to me during a bout of insomnia and it may have been better left there!) do we even care!

Now for that nervous period of indefinite duration "Oh God - will anyone reply to my posting; Have I made a complete fool of myself in front of all those smart people who inhabit the watch"

Thank the Lord - Some one has replied to my posting. Oh bugger - it's me!

The Land resides in us all... and unlike other mystical and magical lands of fantasy, you don't have to believe in the Land in order for it to be within you!

Heh...you panicked about a reply in 5 minutes! You're way too tense!

If you're in the "unreal" school...well, it's inside TC's grey matter.
If not that, for a lot of reasons I'd say most closely related to "different dimension"...one of them being that, if it's in "our" universe, you'd have multiple "Time zones" [of a different sort than physics/relativity dictate] OR their arch is our arch, too...and when one world goes, they all do.

Why - it's so obvious. It is most definitely a moon

orbiting

Uranus!

AMOK wrote:Why - it's so obvious. It is most definitely a moon

orbiting

Uranus!

heh...looking for cling ons?

Near to where I live, in the district of Sherwood, is a park with adjacent pitch n putt course. It's a lovely spot where the local community can sit on the grass, read a book, picnic with the kids, walk their dog, run and play. But for some unknown reason to me the council had decided to plough several rectangular patches here and there. Not that it stops anyone from enjoying the park, it's just that the patches of ground look a mess and remind me of crop circles...only they're...well...not circles, but rectangles.

Perhaps the Trent University was granted permission to run some study on the weed that's growing in these patches. I don't know anything about botany so I can't tell you what the weeds are but they look remarkably like various types of miniature trees, about six inches high or so.

Between the park and the golfing course are real trees, and one in particular has long spreading branches low to the ground. Around this tree is a grass circle. And around the grass circle is the biggest of the rectangles. As its been baking hot recently it's a super cool place to sit in the shade; read a book, picnic with the kids, walk the dog, run and play -
It's also a good area to just sit and contemplate on the meaning of life, the universe, and everything.

As I walked back towards main path and across the weeded rectangles I thought to myself how nice it would be to have had a young son and what fun it would've been to visit the park with a bag full of toy soldiers tanks and cars animals and dinosaurs, and to sit and tell stories about how trees are as like the galaxies in the sky blue firmament their leaves the systems of stars and planets mapped out with points and junctions and how these relativities speak in whispers of a bigger meaning than the confines of a local park.

So yeah, the Land is in all of us and with or without us. And sometimes we walk through the Land and sometimes the Land walks through us. You just have to follow the lines on the map and sooner or later the lines on the map will follow you. Failing this, there's always other parks, other towns, cities, countries, worlds, systems, galaxies, swirls of cosmic dust...and ultimately - bedtime.

AMOK wrote:Why - it's so obvious. It is most definitely a moon

orbiting

Uranus!

AMOK???!!!?!?!????!!!!!!!!!???????????!!!!!!!!?!???!??!!!!!!???



Dude!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wayfriend removed this post because I was a bit to harsh on Amok (hey Big boys games, Big boys rules or what) and for this I hold my hands up in surrender (but it WAS funny - trust me) but I was going to delete the post alltogether but I can't seem to work out how to do it. Oh well - I guess its back to the corner with the D cap for me. ( )

Vraith wrote:Heh...you panicked about a reply in 5 minutes! You're way too tense!

Tell me about it man!
But back to the point - Haven't we established by the end of TPTP that the Land is for real and not just in TC's 'grey matter'.
The time thing should not be a problem either should it, for the Land to exist in our Universe - am I not right in thinking that time already moves at different rates in different places according to the prevailing physical conditions of that place. And who is to say that the Lands Arch of time is not also ours - does the Cosmology of the Chronicles ever go so deep as to make observations on this point.

Krazy Kat - there is something very poignant (intentional or otherwise) about your posting; I think I connect on the 'how nice it would have been to have had a son' thing. Be Lucky.

It's circling the Sun on the exact opposite side of the Earth.
That's why we never see it.
The Sun is in the way.

Spoiler

(elliptical orbits are a myth)

peter wrote:

Vraith wrote:Heh...you panicked about a reply in 5 minutes! You're way too tense!

Tell me about it man!
But back to the point - Haven't we established by the end of TPTP that the Land is for real and not just in TC's 'grey matter'.
The time thing should not be a problem either should it, for the Land to exist in our Universe - am I not right in thinking that time already moves at different rates in different places according to the prevailing physical conditions of that place. And who is to say that the Lands Arch of time is not also ours - does the Cosmology of the Chronicles ever go so deep as to make observations on this point.

It would certainly be surprise ending if the Land's arch and ours were one, and both worlds went kaboom [Ever see a film called "The Coca-Cola Kid? Light little comedy/romance, goes along La-de-da, guy and girl finally hook up at the end, and for no reason at all, with no connection to the story, no foreshadowing AN ATOMIC BOMB! I guess it means Capitalism and Coke are even destroying true love].
Anyway, time is relative in our universe, but only influenced by mass and velocity [which are related]...and in both cases it slows down with increase. In order for it to be here, it would have to have "anti-mass" or "negative velocity" in relation to earth, or something else that I don't know what they mean...zero mass/zero velocity don't make enough difference to account for the disparity that exists. [if something with no mass and no velocity can even exist...in my not-a-physicist/mathematician guesstimations.]
Oh yea...except the Land IS MAGIC. That messes everything up.

High Lord Tolkien wrote:It's circling the Sun on the exact opposite side of the Earth.
That's why we never see it.
The Sun is in the way.

Spoiler

(elliptical orbits are a myth)

You might be thinking of Gor.

I said

Why - it's so obvious. It is most definitely a moon

orbiting

Uranus!

Actually, I think the question about where the Land is located is a very good discussion point, and I hope that the original poster did not think I was making fun of him or his question.

I'm sure the person who discovered the planet "Uranus" had no idea it would be used as a punch line to a really stupid joke. But dang, I could not help myself - and my post was purely for humor, not to make fun.

(BTW - Wikipedia says it was William Herschel in 1781, and it was based on the Greek diety of the same name who was god of the sky, and just so happened to be father to Cronus and grandfather to Zeus)

One of the things I love to do is let my mind roam while I am reading, and the Thomas Covenant books always made that so easy to do. I enjoyed just thinking about where the land was, and how cool it would be to live there.

I cannot wait until I AATE gets released!!

AMOK wrote:I said

Why - it's so obvious. It is most definitely a moon

orbiting

Uranus!

Actually, I think the question about where the Land is located is a very good discussion point, and I hope that the original poster did not think I was making fun of him or his question.

Donaldson doesn't think the question is important. Is that evasive?

I have a theory that the Land is part of the Jungian unconscious of people in the "real" world.

TheWormoftheWorld'sEnd wrote:

AMOK wrote:I said

Why - it's so obvious. It is most definitely a moon

orbiting

Uranus!

Actually, I think the question about where the Land is located is a very good discussion point, and I hope that the original poster did not think I was making fun of him or his question.

Donaldson doesn't think the question is important. Is that evasive?

I have a theory that the Land is part of the Jungian unconscious of people in the "real" world.

Donaldson is always evasive on any point he doesn't wish to adress - its his right as author to be able to present a work as he see's fit and then leave the jaw wagging to the likes of us. I like the 'Jungian' idea of the Land as part of the collective unconciouss - that has a 'right fit' feel to me about it.

2nd star to the right, straight on till morning...

peter wrote:

TheWormoftheWorld'sEnd wrote:
Donaldson doesn't think the question is important. Is that evasive?

I have a theory that the Land is part of the Jungian unconscious of people in the "real" world.

Donaldson is always evasive on any point he doesn't wish to adress - its his right as author to be able to present a work as he see's fit and then leave the jaw wagging to the likes of us. I like the 'Jungian' idea of the Land as part of the collective unconciouss - that has a 'right fit' feel to me about it.

Donaldson frankly revels in ambiguity. But this only serves the necessity of choice, not only for Covenant or Linden. There is also a necessity in giving his readers the choice to believe in the Land or not.

AMOK wrote:Why - it's so obvious. It is most definitely a moon

That's no moon.....

Seriously, though, what does it for me is the time difference between Covenant's (and Linden's) "visits" to the Land. That alone suggests to me that the Land exists in some sort of parallel universe or dimension. Otherwise, if it was part of our own universe as we understand it, time would flow as it does for us here on Earth. The discrepancies in the stories' timelines most definitely suggest otherwise, and I personally find it very hard to assume that it is all in the characters' imaginations. However, I also have to agree with the point that our Arch and the Land's are somehow intertwined (or are even one in the same); what happens to one will most certainly affect the other.

An interesting question for sure, and I think one that most definitely deserves further discussion.