Haven Farm

[michaelm]

Now that I'm re-reading The Wounded Land, I'm thinking that the description of Haven Farm doesn't tally with my recollection of details from the other books. Didn't the earlier books say that he was a couple of miles from his nearest neighbors?

I just read the description of Linden's first approach to the farm and it's described as being about a quarter mile from the road and two other houses sharing a common unpaved road, but nearer to the main road.

From the first chronicles, I got the impression that it was an out of the way place with no nearby neighbors.

[wayfriend]

He was walking the two miles into town from Haven Farm in order to pay his phone bill.

[...] Then his nearest neighbors, half a mile away on either side, had complained shrilly about his presence among them;

So. In the first Chronicles, it was 2 miles to town, and 1/2 mile to the nearest neighbor.

In TWL, there are some houses seem like they should be closer to Haven Farm than a 1/2 mile.

After a couple of miles, she came to a wide field on her right, thickly overgrown with milkweed and wild mustard. Across the field, a quarter of a mile away against a wall of trees, stood a white frame house. Two or three other houses bordered the field, closer to the highway; but the white one drew her attention as if it were the only habitable structure in the area.

A dirt road ran into the field. Branches went to the other houses, but the main track led straight to the white one.

But I always accepted this change as new homes that were built over the ten intervening years. It's pretty common where I come from for old farmers, land-rich but otherwise poor, to sell off lots next to the road for a good price. The way this was described, as a field with houses near the road and an old farmhouse in the back, put this into mind without much thinking.

[Menolly]

But I always accepted this change as new homes that were built over the ten intervening years. It's pretty common where I come from for old farmers, land-rich but otherwise poor, to sell off lots next to the road for a good price. The way this was described, as a field with houses near the road and an old farmhouse in the back, put this into mind without much thinking.

*nod*

This has been my assumption as well.

[michaelm]

But I always accepted this change as new homes that were built over the ten intervening years. It's pretty common where I come from for old farmers, land-rich but otherwise poor, to sell off lots next to the road for a good price. The way this was described, as a field with houses near the road and an old farmhouse in the back, put this into mind without much thinking.

*nod*

This has been my assumption as well.

I've seen the same here, even with huge neighborhoods being built on half the farmland, but if the dirt road is shared and the Haven Farm sign is at the start of it, the assumption I made is that Covenant owns the land.

He doesn't need the money and he seems like the last person who would sell land and he's the last person anyone would probably want to buy from.

[IrrationalSanity]

Well, he may not have ever owned that part of the land. He bought the house to be a writer's retreat, not a working farm.

[aliantha]

He and Joan may have only ever owned the house, the corral for her horses, and presumably a barn to house them (which, come to think of it, SRD never mentions -- does he?).

[michaelm]

But that doesn't reconcile with the nearest neighbors being half a mile away when he already lived there in the first chronicles - these are only a quarter mile away.

I think I'm leaning towards continuity error right now.

[IrrationalSanity]

I don't think it is a continuity error.
1. His house is 1/4 mile in from the road.
2. Let's also, for the sake of argument, assume his property is roughly square, and that his house is centered.
3. There is therefore 1/4 mile to either side, plus 1/4 mile back into the woods and stream.
4. Even if the other houses "border" the field, they are at least 1/4 mile from the center line.
5. Let's also say that they aren't as far from the road, either.
6. 1/4 mile down the driveway, plus 1/4 mile to the edge of the property is 1/2 mile.

Of course, that's assuming the houses bordering the field are just barely within code of being the appropriate setback from the property line. If they are at a more reasonable distance, they may be much closer to be roundable to 1/2 mile.

And that isn't even allowing for (in the intervening 10 years) people to buy adjoining plots, build a house, and move out when they learned about the disease.

[aliantha]

I think out in the country, you measure the distance of neighbors between houses, not between lot lines. A fallow field or treed parcel wouldn't be considered your neighbor, no matter who owns it.

In the neighborhood where I grew up, there were (and still are) a fair number of vacant lots. It wasn't always clear who owned the lots, and we never considered those landowners "neighbors."

[michaelm]

And that isn't even allowing for (in the intervening 10 years) people to buy adjoining plots, build a house, and move out when they learned about the disease.

Actually that is a good point, I didn't think of that.

There's quite a bit of that near me - I live literally on the edge of the suburbs and beyond that it's country. There are lots of divided land plots with nothing on them and every once is a while a new house will go up.

People stay in them here as there aren't too many lepers living around me (to my knowledge anyway...)

[Avatar]

I never even noticed. And it's quite possibly a continuity error. It doesn't matter if it is, because we can quite easily rationalise it away, but I wouldn't be surprised at all if SRD himself had no idea.

--A

[michaelm]

Yeah, it's probably just me. Little details bug me more than they should, and when I read it I started thinking of two different pictures of Haven Farm between the first and second chronicles.

[aliantha]

You know what SRD says: "Internal consistency is a bitch."

[kevinswatch]

You know, now that I think about it, I believe I do remember noticing a change in Covenant's neighbors between the 1st and 2nd Chronicles.

Personally, I just assumed that the change was deliberate. It had been 10 years after all. Also, a big part of the 1st Chronicles that SRD emphasized was Covenant's isolation with the rest of society. This had basically been resolved by the end of the 1st Chronicles, yes? I mean, Covenant is writing book again and everything at the start of the 2nd. I just assumed that people moving closer to TC was just a sign of his reintroduction to society.

-jay

[michaelm]

Perhaps it was, although I am currently reading The Wounded Land and noticed that Dr Beresford notes that he is the only person that Covenant talks with and that he isolates himself from people. He made comments about how long it's been since Covenant interacted with people.

[kevinswatch]

Welp, nevermind then.

-jay

[wayfriend]

Well, maybe its a sign of his acceptance in society anway. He might not be talking to people, but they aren't afraid of him/disgusted by him any more either. He's been elevated to the status of unsociable crank.

[michaelm]

It's a good possibility. Maybe people even think that a quarter mile is safe enough to build a house and I'm sure that land around him would be cheap...

[aliantha]

He's been elevated to the status of unsociable crank.

[michaelm]

I thought about pulling over yesterday as I was taking my daughter to her horse riding lesson, and taking a picture of a white house on what was probably once farm land. The main reason I didn't was that there are not good stopping areas on that highway, but I might see if I can get a photo and post it here and see if anyone else has the same picture in mind for Haven Farm.