Kevin's Watch

aliantha wrote:Wayfriend!

mod edit: AATE spoiler

Spoiler

Kevin (Wayfriend): Dear Mr. Donaldson,

Thank you for writing your stories, especially the Chronicles. They are worthy of the time spent in understanding them more completely. And thank you for answering questions in the Gradual Interview. For insights into the author cannot help but provide insights into his stories. I wish you good fortune, and a simplified life.

Forgive me for taking advantage of your generosity one last time: Earlier in the GI, you had written "The term, She Who Must Not Be Named, is *necessary* in my story." Can you elaborate on this necessity?

There's at least one perfectly good reason why She Who Must Not Be Named must not be named. If anyone ever does anything that restores her name to her, the resulting explosion could well destroy the Arch of Time. She is, after all, a being who belongs outside Time. Her essential nature is too *big* for temporal reality, with all of reality's laws and restrictions. Forgetting who she is is the only thing that keeps her contained.


Sounds a lot like someone waking up to me.


(08/07/2011)

High Lord Tolkien wrote:

aliantha wrote:Wayfriend!

mod edit: AATE spoiler

Spoiler

Kevin (Wayfriend): Dear Mr. Donaldson,

Thank you for writing your stories, especially the Chronicles. They are worthy of the time spent in understanding them more completely. And thank you for answering questions in the Gradual Interview. For insights into the author cannot help but provide insights into his stories. I wish you good fortune, and a simplified life.

Forgive me for taking advantage of your generosity one last time: Earlier in the GI, you had written "The term, She Who Must Not Be Named, is *necessary* in my story." Can you elaborate on this necessity?

There's at least one perfectly good reason why She Who Must Not Be Named must not be named. If anyone ever does anything that restores her name to her, the resulting explosion could well destroy the Arch of Time. She is, after all, a being who belongs outside Time. Her essential nature is too *big* for temporal reality, with all of reality's laws and restrictions. Forgetting who she is is the only thing that keeps her contained.


(08/07/2011)

danlo wrote:Hey dude! Long time!

Jon Smith: Hi Stephen
its really sad to see the GI go as it was fascinating to dissect an discuss your fabulous work with the creator himself before it disappears completely i would like to ask a question on the nature of Covenants relationship with Elena
For me this was the key to falling in love with your work, the interplay between these two characters and their impossible situations made for such emotional and compelling reading that i almost speed read through the warwards march on dooms retreat to get back to the high lords quest. In lots of ways for me the issues, stakes and drama with the quest party exceeded the major battles going on at dooms retreat, i did feel a personal growing connection to the characters and their revealing flaws, vunerabilities and in a strange way the symbiotic relationship between Elena, Covenant and the Bloodguard. All three of the seperate parties pasts and futures were being shaped on the quest as if it were a crossroads. It spurred me on in a compelling way almost like a mystery novel and i felt i was always just around the corner to another profound surprise. I loved it.
To the questions:

Throughout the Illearth war he goes from anger at his summoning to being afraid of her effect on him, passionate desire for her, being at peace by her side, nurturing a daughter relationship and then just before they enter Melenkurion Skyweir after she shaves him an almost profound love for her. Just before her fall and certainly soon after he acts almost desperately to save her and proclaims he loves her and then as he leaves Mithil stonedown in The Power that preserves when Lena asks to marry him he shouts internally that she is crazy and its her daughter he loves. Does he still love her that way? Elena obviously had a huge impact on his change of attitude to the Land but covenant seems to almost forget her in future novels (yes i know she is dead) maybe i am too nostalgic
How does Covenant feel about his daughter?


There are some among the watch that castigate Elena as reckless, arrogant and someone who lacked the capability to perform as High lord. Personally i
I don't believe she was reckless, it was a one chance opportunity that could have made the difference in the war, she believed she had a responsibility to the land, her lordship and her beloved to use any weapon against despite, remember TC had no idea and had refused to wield the wild magic. Was she supposed to shrug and march back to Revelstone leaving such a potent weapon behind, knowing that the warward were fighting a desperate battle at the same time? I think she was definately sure of herself but not arrogant, as a highlord in a time of war and crises I think she needed to be, it was part of the reason she was chosen as highlord, as the other lords said she had inner mettle. I don't read arrogance in her character leading up to the tragic mistake she made. I read nothing but admiration for her in the other lords and people of the land. Even Covenant loves her, her affection for him and his abuse of that which he so desperately needed broke him. Amok may have cautioned it's use but he led her there because he knew the land was in danger, she was given a power without the necessary wards that were designed to stop this exact thing happening. She was responsible and she knows that but i believe Amok, Foul and Covenant pushed her to the edge of the precipice. She made the jump. I have only empathy for her, I really think she is misunderstood and unfairly judged by some.
Was this the way you wrote her motivations and character or was she the reckless and arrogant high lord some view her as?


Thank you so much for many fantastic novels, im sure you don't need me to tell you that reading the GI and having discussed many things on the watch that your work has touched a great many people in a very profound and personal way.

Jon

Here Endeth the Gradual Interview: a chance once again to return thanks to my readers. I'm grateful for all of the people who have stayed with me!

(But I'll continue to post news, progress reports, etc., whenever I have something of substance to convey.)

Perhaps it's fitting to end the GI with a question about Elena. (Of course, you've actually asked several questions.) First, the character herself. I think it's fair to say that she was "reckless" (rushing to use a power which she had never studied, never learned to understand) and "arrogant" (trying to solve the whole problem at one stroke by herself, so eager to save the Land herself that she never looked closely at the nature of Kevin's flaw). But that does not in any way invalidate your own response to her: a response which is widely supported by the text. Her fellow Lords were not fools. The Ranyhyn were not fools. Even Covenant, in his tortured fashion, was not a fool. They all saw in her the potential for greatness. "Save or damn." I see her as a tragic figure misled by her own virtues, her own unquestioning capacity for love. (One of the "points" of her story is that questions need to be asked, but she doesn't ask them.)

As for Covenant's feelings toward his daughter. I think it's important to remember that at this point in the story he is still significantly driven by a form of selfishness. He's still trying to "bargain" with a situation he finds intolerable. Even more than Lena (and by implication, Atiaran), Elena is teaching him to love. And that love is--in a manner of speaking--cleansed by the fact that she is his daughter. In his case, at that point in the story, parental love is less selfish (and hence more relevant to his relationship with the Land) than other forms of love. But he isn't *there* yet. He still sees in Elena an opportunity to avoid responsibility for his circumstances. He hasn't yet become the man he needs to be.

So why does she play such a diminished role in his emotions later on? Well, how could it be otherwise? a) Much of what he learned from her has been transferred to the Land: that love has gained a larger and less selfish outlet. b) Life goes on. People move on. After ten years in the "real" world, years during which he has no reason whatsoever to think that he'll ever see the Land or any of its people again--well, there would be something profoundly wrong with him if he had *not* moved on. Certainly he would not have become a man who could love Linden, a "partner" rather than a daughter: a love *chosen* rather than one determined by parental instincts.

AVE ATQUE VALE!
(And thank you, Google! <grin>)

(08/31/2011)

SRD wrote:AVE ATQUE VALE!
(And thank you, Google! <grin>)

wayfriend wrote:I am sad. I had thought, mistakenly, that he might resume the GI after TLD. Too, too bad.

I shall try to look on the bright side. I won't have more GI answers I need to memorize.

wayfriend wrote:I am sad. I had thought, mistakenly, that he might resume the GI after TLD. Too, too bad.

I shall try to look on the bright side. I won't have more GI answers I need to memorize.