AATE, Part 1, Chapter 1: The Burden of Too Much Time
Posted: Sat Apr 30, 2011 11:17 pm
Against All Things Ending
Part 1 " to achieve the ruin of the Earth"
Chapter 1 The Burden of Too Much Time
From the last of Fatal Revenant , Linden what have you done? we get an answer; a classic Donaldson TCoTC inside out upside down , rather least expected,,Linden," you are the only one who can do this." Inadequacy in AATE,is one of Donaldson's most exaggerated presentations, all the way to a dark humor perspective imho, with THE REAL Thomas Convenant( yes I got one with the book jacket in error!) ,,on his knees ,,with his " SELF" bleeding out of his now mortal body, like the pulp and seeds of a water melon that just came to know its role in Gallagher's stage act. From knowing everything,,being everything,,to transubstantiation by a large wood mallet forcefully redefining a melon. There is a play here,,in this upside down inside out existence known as the Land..From knowing,,being, everything..to knowing nothing or little.and admitting it to all assembled,,and...to saying,thats the way it Has to be. Of course Linden still has to say..No, thats not the way it is supposed to be, and its her fault for not doing it right.
Pretense comes from believing you know it all. TC knew it all, but as a mortal, can't contain it all. Linden's gambit is an act of self defeating..or at least,,pretensive self deception. By bringing back TC..he is made unable to tell her where Jerry is..ooopppps. Gallagher's act is that of a comedian. There is a irony ,a humor, here in chapter one with the contrasts,,with all the play of opposites, including: TC on his knees and the dead Lords standing tall, all the assembled , dead and " alive" having their say,,and Linden's simple question,,where is her son, Jerry,? unanswered,,and with the negation of " knowing" and the void being filled by the dependence on " feeling". TC " feels" the connections between the difficult to grasp reality of whats going on in Andelain and the memories starting with day one. How very non linear. How very Surreal. Lord Fouls origins and traverse, TC sees, feels, in Lindens countenance. There are " faults" , conflicts,,defined in chapter 1 and there are corrective actions, solutions suggested as well. PLACE,,again, is subtly emphasized, as in,,you can change places,, or, place the changes, when trying to deal with problems. Changing Places hasn't worked very well for Linden. By the end of this chapter,TC does make it clear to Linden,what she has to do, much to her horror. In dealing with ones pretense,,is the final hope of learning from the mistake of it. We can't know it all. We can't do it all. We are redeemed by doing as well as we can with our talents that we do have. That is anybody's Hope. Classic Donaldson paradox there..by admitting our inadequacies,,we increase our potential to become more adequate. Such is the taste of the fruit of freedom.
There are the antiquated words of the Land , the author uses to define or " set" the stage and atmosphere of The Land with. Some in this chapter include illimitable and frangible ( classic Donaldson antiques), monitory ( I do not recall SRD using this one previously but my memory is not qualified to say he hasn't)..orogeny and transubstantiation ( not antiques but not common words we use ever day either..hhmmmm)..then there is that..Surquedry..an arrogance..with the slightest suggestion of.sexual arrogance. Fascinating in its usage here: the narrator uses the word " surquedry" in what TC mite have been motivated by..if TC could have, he mite have acknowledged Infelice because...the worm would eat the Elohim first..thus their arrogance..their surquedry..would be answered appropriately. The perspective of this observation..and use of surquedry..is somewhat arrogant in its self..Again,,there is that Humor,,a black humor to my taste anyway..The Elohim would be the first to be F*#Ked over with the sleeping Worm now riled and on the loose. A nuance of the word surquedry,,that may not be available in any modern word?
The author ..imho, throws out some other good figures of speech as usual." ..as though he had fallen from the distance of eons ",I really liked that,,,great combining of time and space into one...".speech of mountains, world's glories,,like figures standing at the fringes of a dream.. He saw her clearly again, as if she had slapped away his confusion." Again there is that subtle surreal ..the truth of " feel"..the author begins to saturate us with in this book. " Feel" being a choice,,the other side to " to Know, reason, .".of the coin of perception. Interestingly..it takes TC 3 times to explain to Linden what /why TC did and is going thru..and 3 times Linden says" no." . Again, metaphors aplenty.,,as metaphor, this chapter points out that ,,choice..that possibility,,that answer to " Linden, What have You done? ,, Her failures..her inadequacies,,lead her to realizing she is " human" and thus her humanity is available to her as her redemption..Even " love" is made part of this realized humanity..Its not only OK to not know it all,,but much more positive,,productive,, to admit to not knowing it all. TC's return, his failure to be her needed answer.. in this chapter ,begins to be understood, as the best and thus necessary, answer for Linden. In this way..TC's failure,,the failure of knowing it all..brings Hope to Linden.
As for " The Burden of Too Much Time" as the first chapter., once again I am entertained beyond expectations. But..then again I don't think in terms of expectations. I take what it is as what it is. For a rather short chapter it is filled to the brim with mind stretching fun. Time and space are eloquently folded into each other within the context of the tale. The author succeeds with me,,anyway,,in getting me to feel the surreal...to being surreal.The all time line..in this chapter that backs that claim up , is.." As the structure of what he had known and understood and thought and desired failed, moment after unaccustomed moment, the sentience that had sustained him across uncounted ages became riddled with fault- lines and potential slippage . " WOW..letting go of logic, reason,,for the grasping of the intuitive, the " feel",,the instinctual, our humanity.. is excellently expressed in that line. If Andre Breton was alive today, Stephen Donaldson would have made Breton a very happy Surrealist with that line. Me? why I'd give Donaldson the Golden Sledge and Watermelon Award....
Onward.. The author reduces his use of antiquated or arcane words to just where they " work", answering a criticism of over using the olde words for decoration..if that is indeed a real criticism. ..yes a bit of sarcasm can be felt there. The tension..suspense..is set in this chapter well. Another different way of perceiving and " thinking" is introduced and the author means to tell us about Hope with it.....hhhhmmmmm..The Burden of Not Enough Time is...Hope.
MEL
[mod edit to correct the title]
Part 1 " to achieve the ruin of the Earth"
Chapter 1 The Burden of Too Much Time
From the last of Fatal Revenant , Linden what have you done? we get an answer; a classic Donaldson TCoTC inside out upside down , rather least expected,,Linden," you are the only one who can do this." Inadequacy in AATE,is one of Donaldson's most exaggerated presentations, all the way to a dark humor perspective imho, with THE REAL Thomas Convenant( yes I got one with the book jacket in error!) ,,on his knees ,,with his " SELF" bleeding out of his now mortal body, like the pulp and seeds of a water melon that just came to know its role in Gallagher's stage act. From knowing everything,,being everything,,to transubstantiation by a large wood mallet forcefully redefining a melon. There is a play here,,in this upside down inside out existence known as the Land..From knowing,,being, everything..to knowing nothing or little.and admitting it to all assembled,,and...to saying,thats the way it Has to be. Of course Linden still has to say..No, thats not the way it is supposed to be, and its her fault for not doing it right.
Pretense comes from believing you know it all. TC knew it all, but as a mortal, can't contain it all. Linden's gambit is an act of self defeating..or at least,,pretensive self deception. By bringing back TC..he is made unable to tell her where Jerry is..ooopppps. Gallagher's act is that of a comedian. There is a irony ,a humor, here in chapter one with the contrasts,,with all the play of opposites, including: TC on his knees and the dead Lords standing tall, all the assembled , dead and " alive" having their say,,and Linden's simple question,,where is her son, Jerry,? unanswered,,and with the negation of " knowing" and the void being filled by the dependence on " feeling". TC " feels" the connections between the difficult to grasp reality of whats going on in Andelain and the memories starting with day one. How very non linear. How very Surreal. Lord Fouls origins and traverse, TC sees, feels, in Lindens countenance. There are " faults" , conflicts,,defined in chapter 1 and there are corrective actions, solutions suggested as well. PLACE,,again, is subtly emphasized, as in,,you can change places,, or, place the changes, when trying to deal with problems. Changing Places hasn't worked very well for Linden. By the end of this chapter,TC does make it clear to Linden,what she has to do, much to her horror. In dealing with ones pretense,,is the final hope of learning from the mistake of it. We can't know it all. We can't do it all. We are redeemed by doing as well as we can with our talents that we do have. That is anybody's Hope. Classic Donaldson paradox there..by admitting our inadequacies,,we increase our potential to become more adequate. Such is the taste of the fruit of freedom.
There are the antiquated words of the Land , the author uses to define or " set" the stage and atmosphere of The Land with. Some in this chapter include illimitable and frangible ( classic Donaldson antiques), monitory ( I do not recall SRD using this one previously but my memory is not qualified to say he hasn't)..orogeny and transubstantiation ( not antiques but not common words we use ever day either..hhmmmm)..then there is that..Surquedry..an arrogance..with the slightest suggestion of.sexual arrogance. Fascinating in its usage here: the narrator uses the word " surquedry" in what TC mite have been motivated by..if TC could have, he mite have acknowledged Infelice because...the worm would eat the Elohim first..thus their arrogance..their surquedry..would be answered appropriately. The perspective of this observation..and use of surquedry..is somewhat arrogant in its self..Again,,there is that Humor,,a black humor to my taste anyway..The Elohim would be the first to be F*#Ked over with the sleeping Worm now riled and on the loose. A nuance of the word surquedry,,that may not be available in any modern word?
The author ..imho, throws out some other good figures of speech as usual." ..as though he had fallen from the distance of eons ",I really liked that,,,great combining of time and space into one...".speech of mountains, world's glories,,like figures standing at the fringes of a dream.. He saw her clearly again, as if she had slapped away his confusion." Again there is that subtle surreal ..the truth of " feel"..the author begins to saturate us with in this book. " Feel" being a choice,,the other side to " to Know, reason, .".of the coin of perception. Interestingly..it takes TC 3 times to explain to Linden what /why TC did and is going thru..and 3 times Linden says" no." . Again, metaphors aplenty.,,as metaphor, this chapter points out that ,,choice..that possibility,,that answer to " Linden, What have You done? ,, Her failures..her inadequacies,,lead her to realizing she is " human" and thus her humanity is available to her as her redemption..Even " love" is made part of this realized humanity..Its not only OK to not know it all,,but much more positive,,productive,, to admit to not knowing it all. TC's return, his failure to be her needed answer.. in this chapter ,begins to be understood, as the best and thus necessary, answer for Linden. In this way..TC's failure,,the failure of knowing it all..brings Hope to Linden.
As for " The Burden of Too Much Time" as the first chapter., once again I am entertained beyond expectations. But..then again I don't think in terms of expectations. I take what it is as what it is. For a rather short chapter it is filled to the brim with mind stretching fun. Time and space are eloquently folded into each other within the context of the tale. The author succeeds with me,,anyway,,in getting me to feel the surreal...to being surreal.The all time line..in this chapter that backs that claim up , is.." As the structure of what he had known and understood and thought and desired failed, moment after unaccustomed moment, the sentience that had sustained him across uncounted ages became riddled with fault- lines and potential slippage . " WOW..letting go of logic, reason,,for the grasping of the intuitive, the " feel",,the instinctual, our humanity.. is excellently expressed in that line. If Andre Breton was alive today, Stephen Donaldson would have made Breton a very happy Surrealist with that line. Me? why I'd give Donaldson the Golden Sledge and Watermelon Award....
Onward.. The author reduces his use of antiquated or arcane words to just where they " work", answering a criticism of over using the olde words for decoration..if that is indeed a real criticism. ..yes a bit of sarcasm can be felt there. The tension..suspense..is set in this chapter well. Another different way of perceiving and " thinking" is introduced and the author means to tell us about Hope with it.....hhhhmmmmm..The Burden of Not Enough Time is...Hope.
MEL
[mod edit to correct the title]