Terisa and Linden...and child abuse...

[duchess of malfi]

I was thinking about this a lot last night when seeing some of the responses to a thread in the TC forum about Linden Avery.

I know a lot of people find both Terisa and Linden annoying...

They are both women who have had to endure a lot in their lives, including surviving child abuse/neglect...

I find it interesting that of SRD's three major female characters, two have to deal with issues of child abuse, and the third, Morn, has to deal with current abuse in her story...

Anyone else have any thoughts about this?

[birdandbear]

Hmmm....I think Donaldson does an outstanding job of dealing with the lifelong psychological effects of abuse. I would be very interested in seeing the dynamic between those who are annoyed by Donaldson's abused women, and those who sympathize with them....and the ratio of experience with abuse in both groups.

But how to tactfully come by such information....perhaps an anonymous poll?

[aTOMiC]

I believe SRD wrote those characters to be the way are for good reason. He has a very good grasp of human nature and the driving forces that motivate people. Those characters may have been annoying at times but they wouldn't have been interesting otherwize.

[dANdeLION]

Does anybody wonder if SRD's next protagonist will have spent time as a child at the Neverland Ranch? In any event, SRD seems to want his characters to have that kind of background.

[DukkhaWaynhim]

Duchess, you are right in comparing LA and TM's histories of abuse/neglect. They are very worthy of discussion.

I think SHATTERSTAR pointed out that it is their pasts that make them especially vulnerable to the machinations of the plots they inhabit.

Notice that SRD has a way of taking damaged people and putting them into situations where not only does the kingdom get saved, but they themselves are healed/redeemed as well?

How catastrophically different would each story have gone if Terisa and Linden had switched places?

DukkhaWaynhim
[Weird, warped, and taking names!]

[dANdeLION]

I find Teresa annoying because she's not real, and I want to date her.

[dANdeLION]

Other than that, I only found her early vulnerability to Eremis to be annoying, but certainly not her fault. I never found Linden annoying at all.

[duchess of malfi]

Well, I don't find either one annoying, I have always thought that each does the best that she can given what she has gone through...
I have been glad for the group read of Mirror of Her Dreams because you can actually SEE Terisa become stronger, a tiny bit at a time, chapter after chapter...I agree that Eremis, preying upon Terisa'a innocence IS annoying...
Dukkha, just the thought of how potentially disastrous LA and TM would be if they switched places makes my head spin...Mordant needed Terisa's quietness, her observatory powers...the Land needed Linden's fiery stubbornness, her bonedeep urge to heal...
And, ROdAN, I have always been under the impression that both of the girls are beauties.

[Ryzel]

Agreed. Terisa could never have drawn the Sunbane into herself and made the Land whole again. She did not have that kind of attitude towards problems.

It is interesting to see how both women, and TC as well gain powers in the alternate realities that they are transported to which closely match their apparent vulnerabilities and that by learning to accept and live with these vulnerabilities they turn these powers to good use.

[dANdeLION]

Yeah; Teresa wouldn't have tried to take the ring from Thomas Covenant, either.