In Defense of Thomas Covenant

[Scookey]

@Scookey
I certainly think that's what he was trying for. I think he succeeded to much. If I'm listening to a movie and they have a baby cry create a situation or make a point that's one thing. If they just let the baby cry and cry it begins to annoy me. I feel like my natural human reaction to hearing a baby cry is being abused.

Now that I think that through it feel like I'm in abusive reader writer relationship with Donaldson.

Interesting psychology. Sure Donaldson won't mind. After all, we are talking about the books because of it.

 

[paranoid marvin]

Convenant was a hated, outcast character in his own world through no fault of his own. He went to a land and committed an act for which he deserved to be hated but wasn't. Covenant can't cope with that, and this pretty much sets the scene for the whole story.

Donaldson has created a unique thing; an amazing world full of amazing things and filled with many wonderful heroes and villains. Just like LOTR, except this world has Thomas Covenant and rather than being an uplifting experience as it was in Tolkein's Middle-Earth, it's incredibly depressing. I don't think I could ever bring myself to read it again; something I haven't said about any other novel that I've read from cover to cover.

 

[Danny McG]

One thing that perplexed me in those books was the entire concept of Pitchwife being so named.

Here we have these people who can work with pitch to create massive masts for sailing ships, then they put a tiny sliver of "setstone" into the pitch while muttering an incantation - Lo and behold, a solid and enduring mast made of stone.

Along comes this bloke who's really, really, good at this procedure so everyone is like "Yeah, let's call him Pitchwife"

Why?
Lionel Messi - let's call him Footballwife.
Tyson Fury - let's call him Boxingwife.

And IIRC at one point this character was married, so his missus was technically Pitchwife wife