AATE, Part 1, Chapter 1: The Burden of Too Much Time

ROTE, FR, AATE, TLD

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bossk
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Post by bossk »

Orlion wrote:
lurch wrote: o well..if it walks like a duck,,quacks like a duck...its probably a duck.
How very rational of you :P

In either case, one reason that I love the Chronicles so much is that its meaning varies between people... hell, it varies depending on your own life experience. There aren't many books out there like that.
And, as danlo pointed out, it even varies depending on what part of your life experience you're currently living. He read it in October and got something different than he did in May.

Having been a lit student back in the day, I actually don't clamor to dissect any more, but SRD is different, for exactly the reason you say: it means different things to different people. It's a point I fumblingly tried to make at Elohimfest. Some of us latch on to a certain character because we can understand his/her worldview, someone else will grok what the other guy is saying. I never get the sense that one character holds all the answers.
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Barnetto
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Post by Barnetto »

So far failed to start rereading in time to the dissections so nothing detailed to comment on but...

Like Danlo, I was blown away by this Chapter. Probably the strongest opening chapter of any book of any of the Chronicles IMHO.

In any event, I just loved it. I thought SRD dealt perfectly with the concept of an entity that has endured eternity in the Arch being resurrected and made mortal again. The plate tectonics of the mind subducting so much knowledge... Covenant being rendered more or less impotent by a surfeit of knowledge that his physical self could not endure. Just fantasticly realised.

And those tantalising snatches of the history of the land being dropped in to the text (in part to tease those who wished for the Last Chronicles to be a prequel.....?) - glorious.
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shadowbinding shoe
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Post by shadowbinding shoe »

lurch wrote:earth..to me..the author's use of " singular self" is demonstrative of the surreal concept of being Unified,,Whole. As Timewarden( thats not His name , thats a name others give him) TC is Whole,,time/space is all the same etc etc..but now resurrected in the 3D world of this fantasy ( I mean..the author is definitely getting our heads swimming),,he is no longer whole,,clearly divided between two realities..the Land of Linden's here and now and the Land of Memories...Fascinating it is,,but just a bit more than a whiff of it in chapter 1..is the part of all this,,that all is on equal footing with TC when TC is as the Timewarden. Even Foul is deemed necessary as a choice ,as a potential. How very Surreal.

Its not the reality of polarized Black vs White..Left vs Right..etc etc.the reality of conflicted existence ( Linden),,where any one's Truth, Wholeness is..but the reality of ones Imagination, intuition, and instincts where the black and white of any conflict is mixed and the individual's own " gray" is their reality.. keeping them " whole" or at least..in touch with their humanity. Chapter 1 plays out in Andelain and in TC's memories..conflicted for sure..but the bottom line is..TC hugging..TC caressing..TC extending himself to Linden's felt need. TC manages ..with compassion, wisdom and patient caring to set the Haruchai straight and..warn even US ..of some unpleasantries coming our way..all with equal responsibility. But,,Linden's self defeatism..as pointed out elsewhere and here also..her conflicted existence of being a " healer" and a " Killer"..TC just can'tget Linden to treat equally in her polarized, true false existence.One side always has to win out over the other..How sad.. She remains divided. polarized, conflicted.

As Cambo and Vraith point out..its that 3rd choice.. or 3 rd reality..or even a Choice one didn't even kno existed..that TC flip flops back and forth in..that starts here in Chapter 1. .." In some fashion, which was not yet awareness or true sensation, he recognized that he was surrounded by needs, by people and spectres who had gathered to witness Linden's choices."..The author''s " Some Fashion" being defined more in terms of what it is not,,perhaps he is being coy, but for the author who is known for his word smithy.." some fashion" sticks out like a red flag..imho anyway. o well..if it walks like a duck,,quacks like a duck...its probably a duck.
Hey wow, the AATC dissection has already started :evil: I need to catch up.

What you said here struck a chord in me. I remember thinking how much attention Covenant gives in this chapter (and at other points) to the smalltime unimportant characters. Surely Linden is the important one at this moment, not the disgruntled Haruchai, but Covenant stops to think about them as though they are just as important. Is this a glimpse into his timeless unmortal mindscape? Everything is just as important, because without time there is no organizing things from urgent to bothersome.

He sees the whole instead of the either-or. It's not the mortal problems that draw him but the stories each create, which are timeless. Linden is in trouble but the Haruchai's story has been stunted out of its proper direction and therefore is urgent.


Also, this chapter is an important clue to us on how vast the Land's world is. The (formerly? or eternally?) breath-taking Land is a speck in a vast world that Foul traversed in the distant past. There's more at stake here than we thought. More space, more history, more richness than we ever imagined.
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Post by wayfriend »

Well, there are about two years left before we will know all the answers. Which means that there are only two years left to enjoy speculating about them.

lurch, I commend you on your lead of this chapter. I, too, see lots of hope in this chapter. I cannot comment on the surreality of it, I am afraid, as I don't get surreal. But I have a long list of things I do want to say.

I really enjoyed this chapter. One can justly criticize it for being slow and overlong. But I find myself relishing the time spent - finally spent - in Thomas Covenant's head. Donaldson has so many, many plates in the air now, it's no wonder that everything has to be carefully, meticulously attended to in this crucial chapter.

Here we learn the consequences of Covenant's resurrection. He's "smaller" now, smaller than the Undead being which occupied the Arch of Time as the Timewarden. And this sudden un-vastening has cost him. He's had to give up most of who had been. He's had to give up his memories. (The devotionary of Nicolas Daru Ede, anyone?)

Donaldson opens up all kinds of possibilities here. For Covenant hasn't lost everything. Only most everything. Sure, he's even lost his knowledge of what he has lost and what he hasn't. He doesn't know what he doesn't know any more. But there are exciting possibilities laid before us, depending on what he does remember.

And he might remember anything. He was the Time Warden. He had seen everything, known everything.. The possibilities are enormous.

I'm excited.

And poor Linden. All she can see is that she has failed, and doomed the Earth as well.

But she has not earned the damnation that "What have you done?" has laid upon her while we waited three years to see how badly she has screwed up. Because one of the things Covenant remembers is this:
In Against All Things Ending was wrote:The fault of her plight was his. [...] Defying every necessity that sustained the Earth and the Land, he had pointed her toward the ineffable catastrophe of his resurrection.
Covenant had not been idle as the Timewarden - the epithet itself denies the possibility. He had seen everything, known everything — and had labored to preserve it. [...] Across the ages, he had wielded his singular self in defense of Law and life.

And ... He had pointed her. Think on that. Then think on who he was. The Timewarden. Omniscient. Laboring to preserve. And that being ... THAT being ... had pointed her to this moment. Surely, he knew the Worm would be roused. Surely, he knew that he would lose his godlike perspective on things when he became mortal, that he would no longer be able to understand everything that matters. Knew ... and pointed Linden on this course.

Isn't it possible that, as the Timewarden, he had planned this moment? Plans which he has devised from his omniscient perch on the Arch? He may have forgotten those plans, forgotten even that there were plans. But he would have taken his forgetting into account when he made those plans. Any such plans would remain potent and viable, for they would have been skillfully laid by the being he was, not the man he is now. A being who could go one on one with Foul when it comes to plotting.

I read this, and I thought to myself: for the first time in these final Chronicles, I see something to give me hope for the Earth.

And we are also told, in this chapter, that we have some time. Much must transpire before the deeds of the Chosen bear their last fruit. Time to alter the course of events. Time for a plan to turn doom into victory.

I am very excited.

There is one thing that Covenant regrets. That Linden feels the way she feels now. She had every reason to feel betrayed. Because Covenent had led her to this place, to this act, and he could no longer explain to her why she hasn't destroyed all hope. She is having her Isle of the One Tree moment. He's been there. And he wishes he could have spared her.

But Covenant is sure about one thing, if nothing else. Linden.
In Against All Things Ending was wrote:"But if the Earth has any hope — any hope at all — it depends on you. It has ever since Joan brought you here."
While everyone else is trying to decide in what order they should string Linden up, roast her over a fire, and bludgeon her, Covenant is trying to help Linden see, as best as he now can, that he had been trying to help her. He couldn't tell her anything useful while he was Dead, because of the Necessity of Freedom. And he can't now that he is alive, because he's lost most everything he knew. All he has left is his earnest assurance.

It's not her fault. He chose this.

He's thrown a Hail Mary. Now he's buried under the defense, out of the play. But he is sure ... still sure ... that Linden is Randy Moss.

But his assurances are stilted and abortive. Because mental ceasures are ripping through his mind, catching him and throwing him back into his memories. Memories that arise unbidden, like a nameless entity from a chasm, and snatch him from his present. Covenant is a walking collection of fragments that frequently collapses under its own weight.

But oh, the interesting things that turn up. In a few brief moments, we learn many things about the history of the Land, things we have not seen before. Foul's early doings. Kevin. Loric. The Demimages of Vidik Amar. Kasreyn's folk.

Clearly, Covenant retains significant information. He just can't control when he can access it. Donaldson has all kinds of interesting things he can do with Covenant now.

I am very, very excited.
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Post by Lazy Luke »

I vote this as probably the worst written paragraph of the entire Last Chronicles. As it's in the first chapter then there is yet time to find a worse one!
The Worm of the World's End was coming. It was holocaust
incarnate. He seemed to feel its hot breath on the nape of the
Earth's neck.
Of course on the other hand this is Stephen Donaldson having some fun, I believe, with Thomas Covenant the flawed writer.
Atlas must be turning in his grave.
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