So these are just random notes and thoughts that we began throwing around...
I wrote:
In Thus Spoke Zarathustra-Nietzsche refers to this higher mode of being as "superhuman" (übermenschlich), and associates the doctrine of eternal recurrence -- a doctrine for only the healthiest who can love life in its entirety -- with this spiritual standpoint, in relation to which all-too-often downhearted, all-too-commonly-human attitudes stand as a mere bridge to be crossed and overcome
That which does not kill us makes us stronger
Covenant is killed is beyond death thanks to Caer Caveral's (Hile Troy) ultimate scarifice in breaking the Law of Death: giving TC the power to act and still oppose Foul, as opposed to the rest of the Dead. TC infused with these powers and cleansed of venom and guilt in effect becomes the uberman (Arch of Time). Foul doesn't realize that TC, too, is the white gold & a part of him he can't deny--evil cannot exist without it's oppostion. Lucky Foul didn't attack Arch before he killed TC--why?
What is Linden's role in all this? Teaches her that her guilt, shame and lack of love is essentially false...
Then I threw out,
well not essentially false but unwarranted-in the big picture-she has beaten herself up for things she had no or little control of for a very long time
"His loathing of himself had grown so great that it had become a loathing of life. It had been like her mother's religion, only able to prove itself true by imposing itself upon the people around it. But it had been false; and she thought of him now with regret and pity which she had never been able to afford. He had been wrong about her: she had loved him dearly. She had loved both of her parents, although she had been badly misled by her own bitterness."-key point.
So in all the 2nd Chrons how exactly does Linden heal? Love--paradox of posession---Gibbon's threats and accusations--what about Mom? Is Ceer important that way? Yes but Linden was in odd state of post-Elohim "silence-coma" then...what else?
TWL attack on natural order/preversion of the Land
Dead-Vain
Gibbon-Linden
Haruchai service
Coursers-Sarangrave
Meeting the Search
caamora
TOT
Raver attacks-Nicor
Elohim-
(please feel free to mention what you feel are key points in all 3 books and I'll try to complete this...)
then,
and I said,Damelon wrote:How does she heal the land in the end? By acceptance, and by blind trust. She takes the Sunbane into herself and heals the Land through the power of the new Staff of Law, accepting the Sunbane into herself.
It seems that even up to the confrontation between TC and Foul that Linden has trouble with accepting others decisions. She seems to have a need for control. It is only in the end that she learns, through trusting TC to give up that need.
Well, just a couple of thoughts off the top of my head in response to you pm.
Let me think a little more on it.
acceptance? Giving up control? Accepting help? With TC it was taunting of Foul--Foul couldn't resist squashing those he deemed "tools" and "unworthy pawns" in the meantime TC's specter blocks AofT by his own acceptance and non-violence: "I'm not going to fight you...", but TC's dilemma is more complex than that--Mhoram: "You are the White Gold."
and,Damelon wrote:Ah but Foul doesn't see where TC's voluntarly giving up the white gold will lead...... any more than Linden does. She was ready though to trust TC enough to let him follow through with his plan. She accepted his decision in the end.
Also for Linden re the Sunbane: Acceptance -
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.....Horror raised mute cries of protest. In a sense, she would have to become the Land-to expose herself as fully to the Sunbane's desecration. It would be like being locked again in the attic with her dying father while dark glee came hosting against her - like enduring again her mother's abject blame until she was driven to the point of murder. But she had survived those things.
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also:
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But she had learned from Covenant, and from the Raver's possession. She did not attempt to attack the Sunbane. Instead she called it to herself, accepted it into her personal flesh
Duchess wrote:She has not only learned to trust TC, she has learned to trust herself. If she had not trusted herself, she would not have been able to pull the Sunbane into herself in order to defeat it. That was a great act of faith in her own strength and healing ability. And her defeat of the Raver that possessed her is a key to that new found faith, I believe.
I have always thought that Covenant's ending in WGW made a lot more sense than the end of TPTP, as much as I love the laughter. There is a remarkable theme of pure self-sacrifice that runs through both chrons-- Lena's choice to let TC go, Atiaran's choice not to get revenge, Hyrim at Coercri, Lord Mhoram's Victory, nearly everything to do with Sunder's life, Brinn, Hamako, Hollian, Honninscrave, Caer Caveral/Hile Troy...the list can go on and on...
And those examples were crowned by TC giving Foul the white gold (himself???), and Linden being willing to pull all of the pain and wrongness of the Sunbane into herself in order to defeat it.