Question about Cheradenine Zakalwe (Spoilers! Read Use of Weapons First!)

[rmiguez]

Below are spoilers.

I've been adhering to this interpretation: Elethiomel did not kill Darckense. He had not meant for her to die. Perhaps it was a suicide, or some other reason. But, upon her death, he realized that he could use it to inflict a blow so severe that it would likely end the war. He swallowed his grief and contrived the most gruesome act he could to achieve this goal. He turned the tragedy into a tool. He weaponized it. This I can understand. It also meshes well with the Zakalwe/Elethiomel we see throughout the book -- a thoughtful and at times compassionate individual.

He seemed to want to tell Livueta this, but could not. Tragically, as he tried to, all he got out was: "She was....She was....", before having an aneurysm. He was desperate to tell Livueta something. It seemed he believed that telling her whatever he wanted to say would somehow change her opinion of what had transpired. Perhaps it was: "She was already dead."

The words: "She was...She was..." were not chosen arbitrarily. Banks must have chosen them for a specific purpose. I think it is this purpose. This does not exculpate him, and he is still responsible for the death of the real Zakalwe -- but there was a war at hand. What was there to do? He had to try to end it.

I do not see Elethiomel as a madman or a sadistic personality. He more or less is the Zakalwe we've come to know throughout the book. He was pulled into the war on his home planet and had to fight. Having to fight, he had to win. Having been given a means to end that war, he took it.

Any thoughts on the matter?

 

[NelC]

I always thought that Darckense died of natural causes (or possibly suicide) in the besieged Staberinde, and our multinymous protagonist just had the insight that he could use her body as a weapon against his rival. And being somewhat deranged and desperate by that time, had no qualms about using her mortal remains that way. As to who won, I don't think he would have run away to another planet if he'd won the war. Although it's a while since I last re-read it, so I'm a bit fuzzy now on the transition from Hitler in his bunker to refugee.

Incidentally and trivially, I was confused about the name "Staberinde" on, like, my third read of the book, being positive that it was "Starebinde", (or vice versa, I'm not sure now). At one point I checked the pseudonym he was using, then flicked forward to the battleship chapters, to discover that the battleship was "Staberinde"and he was calling himself "Starabinde". Satisfied, I kept them straight in my mind from then on.

Flashforward to just now, and I thought to check again, and in the ebook at least, he only gets called Starabinde once, on the cruiser with Beychae when the scar-doctor almost blows his cover. This must have been the point I went to check all those years ago, and just kept it as a false fact in my head for a couple of decades or so.