From: utzoo!decvax!microsof!uw-beave!cornell!vax135!ariel!houti!hogpc!houxm!npois!npoiv!alice!rabbit!jj
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Title: White Gold Wielder (Mild spoiler warning)
Article-I.D.: rabbit.1298
Posted: Tue Apr  5 14:15:08 1983
Received: Wed Apr  6 07:27:37 1983


	I can't quite agree with the idea expressed elsewhere in
these pages that Covenant "matures".  I think that it's a bit
surprising that Donaldson's road to maturation is represented as
compelete acceptance of one's own triviality, and acceptance of
the futility of struggle.  While the end of the book did
demonstrate that acceptance is only half the job (one must use
acceptance to transform the energy involved as well),
the tone of the entire book was one of acceptance, degradation,
gradual destruction of all the character's most important moral 
and physical concepts, and finally, surrender.  While I certainly
don't represent all of the readership (or even most of it, I suspect)
I have a great deal of trouble, both emotionally and logically dealing
with the idea that one must be "destroyed" before reaching one's
destiny.  <As you may deduce, I'm not a born again Christian.>
	It's been a while since I read the first set of books,
but I seem to remember an actual healing of Covenant (in spirit,
at least) during the first trilogy.  In the second set, Covenant
is continuously degraded and destroyed, to the point that he
is even more psychologically wounded than he started out.
Somehow, that seems like too negative a statement.<grr, snap! hiss*>

	Has anyone else noticed the equivelence between 
"The Land" and the Judeo-Christian afterlife? <I am aware of
the significant differences between the Jewish and Christian
interpretation, but I refer to the concept, rather than the
detail.>  
	1)  The people who  go to the land, whether called or not,
are always unconcious, and their lives are endangered.
	2)  There are three major brands of beings in the land:
		a) The "heavenly" beings. (Findail<I think I have the right
			name there>, etc.-the people
			who try to detain Vain, and put Covenant
			into the catatonic state)
		b) The deamondrim.  The place of these beings is clear.
		c) The residents of "The Land" as we knew it in the
			first book (with the exception of the Deamondrim)
			who are the 'uncommitted pagans' of Dante, the
			unenightened people in Limbo, or whatever,
			who can sometimes, through a maturation
			process, aspire to (and maybe reach) a higher
			<energy, if not theological> place.
	Supporting this idea is the strong neutrality of most of
the residents of "The Land", where evil and good are balanced, etc.

	The one difference that I suspect is significant is the 
strength of the neutral agencies, i.e. the Staff of Law,
the White Gold, Covenant (now), the Forrestal, and so on.
What I suspect will happen (and BOY is this wild extrapolation)
is that neutrality, as represented by the White Gold, the
Staff of Law, Covenant, and Linden Avery <eventually>, will conspire,
interact, and/or otherwise bring about the combining of good and evil into
THE BALANCE.  

	Come to think of it, the middle book of most trilogies is 
the depressing one, where the problems, and risks become evident,
but before the solution is clear (or possible, or brought about).
Perhaps we should attribute the utterly defeatist attitude of the second
trilogy to the fact that each set of books can  be considered one
section of a trilogy, and that a resolution to Foul, the Elohim, etc,
is on the way?

	Thoughts of import to the net, random comments to
rabbit!jj, and flaming and religious prostylitizing to /dev/null.

rabbit!<boy am I sick of funny sayings in the address>jj