AATE Related GI questions and answers

[dlbpharmd]

Larry Cole: I have been reading your work since the 70's. I just finished "Against All Things Ending" and I wondered if you had the concept to allow the Haruchai to challenge the Elohim (Stave being able to resist the stasis the Elohim placed him in) and succeed from the beginning? It seems at long last they are merging as one of the people's of the land, gaining their own innate earthpower rather than being from outside.

I guess it depends on how broadly you define "the concept." Did I intend from the beginning (in this case, the original inspiration for the Second and Last "Chronicles") for the Haruchai to come into their own; to emerge from their rigidity to discover their true power? Yes. But did I have Stave's specific interaction with Infelice planned from the beginning? No. I "found" it along the way, as I was writing. For which I thank my unconscious mind daily. It's a much better storyteller than my conscious mind.

(12/29/2010)

[dlbpharmd]

Usivius: Hello Mr. Donaldson. So glad I finally got my copy of 'Against All Things Ending'. I am about half way through and enjoying it THOROUGHLY! However, as I read, I cannot help have many questions, all of but one I will not ask here. If I may ask, I have a question about what choices you make while writing, and it specifically has to do with a passage in Chapter 1 of Part 2:
TC has Linden cradled in his arms as he is seated on the sand against a bolder and the rising sun is slowly spreading across them. In a wonderful passage, TC speaks to her of how much he loves and respects her and her choices (as the others pretend not to listen). After this, they are forced to sit on the other side of the boulder to avoid the direct heat of the sun (and Stave helps TC move Linden).
I guess I can think of a reason why this might be here, but to you I ask: why write this section so that TC has to change his position with Linden and move to shade?
I know you do not write superfluously, and that you had a reason, so I am humbly asking what your reason was.
(It's a beautiful visual image, BTW)

An often-neglected aspect of storytelling is brute practicality. How long can Covenant sit with Linden in direct sunlight (which he naturally wants to do after the ordeal of the Lost Deep) without risking sunburn, or even sun-stroke? After all, at that point in the story no one has found water.

(12/29/2010)

[dlbpharmd]

Aidan Simmons: Hey Stephen, the first time I encountered the Chronicles was in year 7 in High School, I have really old school copies of the orginal Covenant books handed on from my Dad. Now 20 and at University they are still my favourite books of all time. I have a million questions about the Chronicles but will wait to see how events unfold in the next book and if they're not answered then you can bet I'll be back. I will satisfy myself with just this one though because its bugging me. One of the Characters in AATE is called "She who must not be named", have you read Harry Potter, because everytime I read it, I think of Voldemort, who is referred to in those books as: "He who must not be named" and it urks me because I don't want to be thinking of trash fantasy when I'm reading your books!!

This has come up before. And my answer is pretty much the same as my answer to the question, Why did I decide to write about a ring when Tolkien already did that? Well, I needed the ring more than he did. He could have used practically any personal object (necklace, torc, armband, whatever) without changing his story at all. My story *required* a wedding band. In Harry Potter, calling Voldemort "He who must not be named" is effectively meaningless, since people use Voldemort's name all the time without any consequences. If anyone ever spoke the name of *my* being, the consequences would be comparable to shattering the Arch of Time. The term, She Who Must Not Be Named, is *necessary* in my story. It's just a gimmick in Harry Potter.

(No offense.)

(01/19/2011)

[dlbpharmd]

Michael from Ohio: Dear Mr. Donaldson:

I'm currently on my second reading of AATE - first time through I was reading so fast I know I missed things - and wanted to say, first, wow and thanks. I loved how you took "known places" and made them richer, deeper, and more wondrous and dangerous than before.

A few quick questions:
1. Stave, near the beginning, says in response to Linden's arguments for her actions, "Then I am content".....echoing almost exactly Lord Foul's words at the beginning of ROTE. Coincidence?
2. At the risk of earning your wrath...will we, in the text of the series, have a definitive or conclusve answer regarding the absence of the old man/Creator this time around? I don't mean your story-external reasons or philosophy. I just mean will the characters in the book learn the answers to the questions they ask at the beginning of AATE?
3. Not a question, just a request....please please PLEASE give us at least one instance of Covenant kicking ass with the white gold again. Get that gun off the mantle and fire it!

More than anything, and again, thank you for these amazing works, and sharing your passion for stories with us.

1) Stave isn't the only one who says similar things. It's a recurring theme: therefore your observation is relevant. But I didn't intend it as an explicit "echo."

2) Who knows? Various possibilities exist. I'm still in the process of discovering certain elements of this story, and I can't yet say what precisely will be required to satisfy me in the end.

3) See 2).

(01/19/2011)

[lurch]

DLB...I hope you don't mind, but just to clear the air, I asked a question on the GI and SRD replied privately..of which I'd like to share with all.

SRD..Sir,Once again I am amazed by your mastery of the English language.I've read into some 150 pages of " Against All Things Ending". I asked awhile ago if the " castles ornate and majestic" was just a hint of what was to come and am very pleased with what you did with it. I actually felt the " magicks" of your prose carrying me off as the characters were. I stopped reading any further, taking a break to type this question, because I'm not sure what you would do to the Lost Deep and am not prepared for what you might do to it. But..or should I say butt?; ..the fart joke...? C'mon, you know what I am talking about," At the rear, Cirrus Kindwind herded the Cords ahead of her." You are a few years further on than myself and I was wondering,,if good Upper Sonoran food, while enjoyed over the years, has of late been rather excessively disruptive for you as it has for me? Also,,how is it that your readers, Eccker and Butler, and your editors and publisher let you get that joke in
there? Yet, it does seem quite fitting that a Lady Giant..not only farts, but her farts have a musical quality to them.How other could it be ? You have yet to cease to amaze me. Well done!

MEL

Tsk tsk. Fart jokes are in the nose of the beholder. I didn't smell any myself.

--Steve

[drew]

MEL, you are insane...you know that, don't you?? lol

[dlbpharmd]

"just to clear the air".....hilarious!

[lurch]

DLB...SRD's response absolutely slays! still lmao!

[Vraith]

heh...someone was pretty on the ball, I don't know how I missed this [did any watchers get it? did I miss or not recall them saying so, too?]:

Stephen,

At the end of White Gold Wielder, there is a scene where the Cavewights are attempting to resurrect Drool Rockworm and this attempt is frustrated. However, Linden (I think) makes the comment that they actually were awakening something else - something far worse than Drool Rockworm.

Is She Who Must Not Be Named intended to be that "something worse"?

You caught me. That's one of the ideas I planted in "The Second Chronicles" to prepare the way for "The Last Chronicles." But my thinking back then wasn't as explicit as you suggest. I was simply leaving a hint for myself, and for my readers, that there remained SOMEthing rotten in Denmark, er, I mean the roots of Mount Thunder. The details I figured out later. Hence the absence of any textual corroboration for your interpretation.

[Orlion]

heh...someone was pretty on the ball, I don't know how I missed this [did any watchers get it? did I miss or not recall them saying so, too?]:

Stephen,

At the end of White Gold Wielder, there is a scene where the Cavewights are attempting to resurrect Drool Rockworm and this attempt is frustrated. However, Linden (I think) makes the comment that they actually were awakening something else - something far worse than Drool Rockworm.

Spoiler

Is She Who Must Not Be Named intended to be that "something worse"?

You caught me. That's one of the ideas I planted in "The Second Chronicles" to prepare the way for "The Last Chronicles." But my thinking back then wasn't as explicit as you suggest. I was simply leaving a hint for myself, and for my readers, that there remained SOMEthing rotten in Denmark, er, I mean the roots of Mount Thunder. The details I figured out later. Hence the absence of any textual corroboration for your interpretation.

Yeah, most people ignore that part of the chronicles, and I haven't read the Second Chronicles since AATE came out, so... that's my excuse

Also, this is kinda spoilerish...so, you know... BEWARE!!!!

[dlbpharmd]

Michael from Santa Fe: Perhaps I just missed it, I did not reread TROTE or FR before AATE, and I will reread the whole series before reading TLD when it come out but what is the significance of Jeremiah's racecar? Specifically, in his construct near the end of AATE that traps/imprisons the Elohim? Why was it necessary for him to have it to complete the structure?

Loved the book by the way and I got one of those with the messed up covers. No way would I give it up for a new one...I kind of like the flaw: "Thomas Convenant"...sort of poetic I think...and a flawed cover is perfect to describe the flawed characters that inhabit the book. Again, well done!

First I have to say: I'm stunned that anyone thinks the Elohim were imprisoned by Jeremiah's construct. So stunned, in fact, that I've re-read the passage several times; and I simply don't see how you arrived at that conclusion.

Jeremiah's racecar is essential to his "escape" because it *completes* him (metaphorically speaking, of course). It reconnects, both thematically and physically, the disparate fragments of his life. After all, back in the "real" world, he used his racetrack construct to let his mind escape both his body and his mental prison. It seems only natural that he would need some piece of that same portal to both re-enter and release his mind.

(03/22/2011)

[dlbpharmd]

MRK: First of all, MEGA-SPOILER ALERT

I had to take a break from reading AATE for a while (I know I will eventually be able to resume) after the death of Liand. I never realized how profoundly I had connected with his character until he was so brutally removed from the field. I just wanted to let you know that I will be lamenting him (yes, an entirely fictional character) and was sorry to see him go. And no, I won't demand that you find a way to bring him back to life.

I do have a question though, regarding the goals of Roger Covenant and the Croyel. They apparently desire to "become gods", and of course Covenant says that being omnipotent, e.g. godlike, morally paralyzes you into taking little or no action in events (I also get the impression that since he WAS the arch of time for a while, he knows how everything turns out in the end, but for these ethical reasons, he's not telling). I'm sure if Roger wielded infinite power he wouldn't hesitate for a moment to use it so does Covenant's assertion really only hold true if you are a god AND have a moral compass? (i.e. I've thought for a while that a god capable of flooding the planet and keeping a boat filled with hundreds of animals alive for six months or more would have been able to come up with a better alternative to genocide in the first place)

Hmm. I thought Covenant was fairly clear on this point. Only a god with a "moral compass" has any qualms about using all that power. A moral compass, by its very nature, restricts action; and the greater the power to act, the greater the restrictions. "Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely." A moral compass is the only defense. This Covenant understands clearly. But of course Roger (like Lord Foul) sees matters differently. Having no moral compass himself, he naturally believes that *he* won't be restricted.

(03/22/2011)

[High Lord Tolkien]

Michael from Santa Fe: Perhaps I just missed it, I did not reread TROTE or FR before AATE, and I will reread the whole series before reading TLD when it come out but what is the significance of Jeremiah's racecar? Specifically, in his construct near the end of AATE that traps/imprisons the Elohim? Why was it necessary for him to have it to complete the structure?

Loved the book by the way and I got one of those with the messed up covers. No way would I give it up for a new one...I kind of like the flaw: "Thomas Convenant"...sort of poetic I think...and a flawed cover is perfect to describe the flawed characters that inhabit the book. Again, well done!

First I have to say: I'm stunned that anyone thinks the Elohim were imprisoned by Jeremiah's construct. So stunned, in fact, that I've re-read the passage several times; and I simply don't see how you arrived at that conclusion.

Jeremiah's racecar is essential to his "escape" because it *completes* him (metaphorically speaking, of course). It reconnects, both thematically and physically, the disparate fragments of his life. After all, back in the "real" world, he used his racetrack construct to let his mind escape both his body and his mental prison. It seems only natural that he would need some piece of that same portal to both re-enter and release his mind.

(03/22/2011)

I thought the same thing.
I think it's because Infelice was going crazy and then disappears at the same time he finishes the construct.
Was there anything that stopped her from acting against Jeremiah? I forget.

[dlbpharmd]

heh...someone was pretty on the ball, I don't know how I missed this [did any watchers get it? did I miss or not recall them saying so, too?]:

Stephen,

At the end of White Gold Wielder, there is a scene where the Cavewights are attempting to resurrect Drool Rockworm and this attempt is frustrated. However, Linden (I think) makes the comment that they actually were awakening something else - something far worse than Drool Rockworm.

Is She Who Must Not Be Named intended to be that "something worse"?

You caught me. That's one of the ideas I planted in "The Second Chronicles" to prepare the way for "The Last Chronicles." But my thinking back then wasn't as explicit as you suggest. I was simply leaving a hint for myself, and for my readers, that there remained SOMEthing rotten in Denmark, er, I mean the roots of Mount Thunder. The details I figured out later. Hence the absence of any textual corroboration for your interpretation.

Great q&a! Glad to see that particular "loose thread" tied up in some fashion. But, now I wonder: at the end of WGW, did Foul wake up Mrs. Voldemort (SWMNBN) by using so much wild magic against Covenant in Kiril Threndor?

[dlbpharmd]

SRD has been rocking the GI lately! Here's another great q&a:

bob: I have been reading your books since the first paperback edition of LFB and I was a kid. I almost flunked a class when "The One Tree" was published because I wanted to read it before someone at college spoiled it.

What I want to say is certainly not a demand, or even a request, it is a hope, maybe even a prayer. It is presumtuous in the extreme even to hint at telling an author what to write, but here goes anyway:

Where is the love for the land? Where is the joy for the ears that hear? The land in these books is a joyless, cold place and it is difficult believing that someone would even care enough to want to save it.

I guess I miss that feeling of love you obviously had for the land and the inhabitants. I am hoping to get a glimmer of that again in the last book.

I enjoy your books, I enjoyed AATE, I have always enjoyed the idea of a deeply flawed hero. The Superman/John Wayne figure never did anything for me. It didn't ever seem as real as a leper/rapist who stood up and saved the world.

I guess I'll dig out my old copy of Lord Foul's Bane, it's been a good 10 years, maybe by the time I get back to AATE it will seem different to me.

Thanks,

Hmm. I hardly know what to say. Your reaction is so far removed from mine, I can hardly believe we're talking about the same book. My knee-jerk response is, If joy is in the ears that hear, where's *your* joy? *I* haven't lost any of my love for the Land and its inhabitants.

But there's a valid point here, although I think about it differently than you do. One of the over-all themes of "Covenant" is: evil does real damage. Sounds simplistic when I say it that way, I know; but it can't be said too often (certainly not in *our* reality <sigh>). "Sic transit gloria munde." (I hope I spelled that right.) "Thus passes the glory of the world." Things become less. Entropy is one reason, of course. But a more immediate reason, I think, is: evil. (Well, evil, and the things evil feeds on: ignorance, greed, fanaticism, etc..) Certainly the world of the Land is breaking down because Lord Foul wishes it so.

In any case, no one needs love more than a person--or a world--that's dying.

(03/24/2011)

[thewormoftheworld'send]

Aidan Simmons: Hey Stephen, the first time I encountered the Chronicles was in year 7 in High School, I have really old school copies of the orginal Covenant books handed on from my Dad. Now 20 and at University they are still my favourite books of all time. I have a million questions about the Chronicles but will wait to see how events unfold in the next book and if they're not answered then you can bet I'll be back. I will satisfy myself with just this one though because its bugging me. One of the Characters in AATE is called "She who must not be named", have you read Harry Potter, because everytime I read it, I think of Voldemort, who is referred to in those books as: "He who must not be named" and it urks me because I don't want to be thinking of trash fantasy when I'm reading your books!!

This has come up before. And my answer is pretty much the same as my answer to the question, Why did I decide to write about a ring when Tolkien already did that? Well, I needed the ring more than he did. He could have used practically any personal object (necklace, torc, armband, whatever) without changing his story at all. My story *required* a wedding band. In Harry Potter, calling Voldemort "He who must not be named" is effectively meaningless, since people use Voldemort's name all the time without any consequences. If anyone ever spoke the name of *my* being, the consequences would be comparable to shattering the Arch of Time. The term, She Who Must Not Be Named, is *necessary* in my story. It's just a gimmick in Harry Potter.

(No offense.)

(01/19/2011)

tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/IKnowYourTrueName
"A true name perfectly describes something's essential nature; knowing a true name gives one power over the owner of the name."

This trope is used a few times throughout the Chrons, particularly with the Insequent. But instead of giving one power over the person named, in this case the person named gains power over herself when SHE regains her memory of who she really is.

[Vraith]

tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/IKnowYourTrueName
"A true name perfectly describes something's essential nature; knowing a true name gives one power over the owner of the name."

This trope is used a few times throughout the Chrons, particularly with the Insequent. But instead of giving one power over the person named, in this case the person named gains power over herself when SHE regains her memory of who she really is.

I think I commented at length about this topic somewhere. Most of the uses in the chron's are closer to the "speak of the devil" one...or a mix of the two...the namer gets a limited power/control, but the naming/namee is still a threat.

[thewormoftheworld'send]

tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/IKnowYourTrueName
"A true name perfectly describes something's essential nature; knowing a true name gives one power over the owner of the name."

This trope is used a few times throughout the Chrons, particularly with the Insequent. But instead of giving one power over the person named, in this case the person named gains power over herself when SHE regains her memory of who she really is.

I think I commented at length about this topic somewhere. Most of the uses in the chron's are closer to the "speak of the devil" one...or a mix of the two...the namer gets a limited power/control, but the naming/namee is still a threat.

"Nom" is closer to being the "speak of the devil" trope, correct? Because that one is the "summoning" trope - speak the devil's name and he appears. That's the only example I can think of in the Chrons.

[SGuilfoyle1966]

"Amok." said Elena.
And he appeared.

[SleeplessOne]

Aidan Simmons: Hey Stephen, the first time I encountered the Chronicles was in year 7 in High School, I have really old school copies of the orginal Covenant books handed on from my Dad. Now 20 and at University they are still my favourite books of all time. I have a million questions about the Chronicles but will wait to see how events unfold in the next book and if they're not answered then you can bet I'll be back. I will satisfy myself with just this one though because its bugging me. One of the Characters in AATE is called "She who must not be named", have you read Harry Potter, because everytime I read it, I think of Voldemort, who is referred to in those books as: "He who must not be named" and it urks me because I don't want to be thinking of trash fantasy when I'm reading your books!!

This has come up before. And my answer is pretty much the same as my answer to the question, Why did I decide to write about a ring when Tolkien already did that? Well, I needed the ring more than he did. He could have used practically any personal object (necklace, torc, armband, whatever) without changing his story at all. My story *required* a wedding band. In Harry Potter, calling Voldemort "He who must not be named" is effectively meaningless, since people use Voldemort's name all the time without any consequences. If anyone ever spoke the name of *my* being, the consequences would be comparable to shattering the Arch of Time. The term, She Who Must Not Be Named, is *necessary* in my story. It's just a gimmick in Harry Potter.

(No offense.)

(01/19/2011)

tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/IKnowYourTrueName
"A true name perfectly describes something's essential nature; knowing a true name gives one power over the owner of the name."

This trope is used a few times throughout the Chrons, particularly with the Insequent. But instead of giving one power over the person named, in this case the person named gains power over herself when SHE regains her memory of who she really is.

Foamfollower :

There is power in names. I do not wish to be invoked by any but friends.