I'm posting this in the AATE forum, but it applies to the last two books as well. However, I noticed it while reading the What Has Gone Before of AATE. Here are a few quotes from the Last Chronicles portion of WHGB:
Read in summary, that's a hell of a lot of ignorance and ambiguity. And all of it is crucial to the plot moving forward at all--not because the characters have an intention of actually solving the mysteries these examples imply, such as a quest for a crucial answer, but because there would be no story without those instances of ignorance. If those instances of ignorance were removed, the characters would have no reason to go in the directions that they go. It is necessary for Donaldson, not for the characters.In AATE WHGB, SRD wrote:... one of the Elohim has visited the Land, warning of dangers, which include various monsters--and an unnamed halfhand.
... because she has no idea where Lord Foul has taken Jeremiah ... Linden decides to risk entering a caesure.
To her surprise, however, her caesure deposits her and everyone with her before the gates of Revelstone ... she and her companions enter the ambiguous sanctuary of Lord's Keep.
Cryptically, Esmer informs her ...
Instead, for no apparent reason, he tells her ...
Linden complies. She knows no other way to discover why and how her loved ones have changed.
Because she still has no idea where Jeremiah is hidden or how to rescue him, her stated intention is to reach Andelain ...
For reasons she does not explain, she also hopes to recover High Lord Loric's krill...
... the Harrow knows where Jeremiah has been hidden--and that Esmer intends to prevent the Insequent from revealing his secret.
Yet the Lords and the last Forestal and Covenant himself refuse to speak. None of them answer Linden.
I've stated elsewhere that Donaldson is a master of integrating this uncertainty into the plot as a necessary part of the story. And I still feel that way. A certain amount of uncertainty is always necessary for tension in any story--reading to find out what happens, to uncover secrets, is part of the fun. But despite his skill at handling this, at a certain point it starts to feel too contrived.
Esmer has a built-in character trait that justifies his own cryptic trickling/witholding advice: he must betray to balance his aid. Very good. And obviously, Linden's enemies have legitimate reasons to mislead her. But it starts to strain credulity when Linden--our POV character--begins hiding her intentions from the readers themselves (e.g. her trip to Andelain to resurrect Covenant). There is absolutely no reason in the plot itself for that ambiguity. It only exists to mislead us.
And finally, the refusal of TC, the dead Lords, etc. to withold information from Linden is just catastrophically unjustified. TC explains it (again) in AATE.
On page 10 of AATE, SRD wrote:"I couldn't tell you then, he said; groaned. "I couldn't say anything. None of us could." He meant the Dead around him. "The necessity of freedom--It's absolute. You have to make your own choices. Everything hinges on that. If I told you where to find your son--or warned you what might ahppen if you used the krill the way you did--I would have changed your decisions. I would have changed the nature of what you had to choose."
This just sounds like bullshit. How is a better informed person less free? Just because you have more information to make your decision doesn't mean that you can't still make it--it just means that you can make it more intelligently. Knowing the likely consequences of your choices beforehand is precisely what enables the choice to be either responsible or irresponsible. Think about voting ... would we really be more free if we didn't know the positions of the person for whom we're casting a ballot? Freedom--the basis of our democracy--is strengthened by an informed electorate. If we used Donaldsonian logic as the basis of our democracy, we'd all be voting for anonymous candidates.
If bystanders are going to withhold known consequences to Linden's choices, then THEY must accept responsibility, not Linden. And if you're not responsible for your actions, this is more like anarchy than liberty. Freedom can't be separated from responsibility. Let's imagine that I know that you have a bomb in your car, and I don't tell you, and you blow yourself up. Aren't I responsible? And more importantly to the subject at hand, how would you be less free if I told you about the bomb? Having the knowledge to save your own life makes you a pawn or a slave? How exactly?
Conversely, aren't I influencing your choices by withholding that information, because I'm determining that you can't make a choice relative to that knowledge?? In that case, withholding info is just as manipulative as giving info.
Also, SRD breaks his own rule. If the necessity of freedom is absolute, then why doesn't TC's cryptic advice in Runes violate this? There is no wiggle room when dealing with absolutes. You either can, or you can't. Yet TC tells her to "find me" and gives her other advice as well. If he's going to break his own rule, then he might as well tell her something useful.
Furthermore, people are already trying to influence her decisions all the freaking time! Mahdoubt tells her to beware of love. Infelice, the Ranyhyn, and others try to persuade her not to go through with her plan. How are these *less* influential than simply giving her the information so she can make an informed decision??
Besides, all the bad guys try to coerce her and manipulate her to do their will. In AATE, TC even admits that this is what Foul is doing:
Well then, godamnit, she's not free! If changing your choices is something TC can't do because it violates the so-called "absolute" necessity of freedom, then there is no way Linden can be free while LF is changing her choices. So much for necessity. So much for "absolute." She's already a pawn, according to these narrative rules. But, hey, at least she's not being influenced by the good guys! No, only influence by the bad guys is acceptable in the Chronicles of Inexplicable Secrets.On page 10 of AATE, SRD wrote:"That's what Lord Foul does. He changes your choices."