Genius

I just finished reading the First and Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, Unbeliever. A set of 6 books by Stephen R Donaldson written sometime in the 80's. These are two trilogies - the first is "Lord Foul's Bane", "The Illearth War", and "The Power that Preserves" - the second is "The Wounded Land", "The One Tree" and "White Gold Wielder". Together the two Chronicles cover about 20 years of Earth time, and 4000 years of time in a fantasy world. After a gap of 22 years, SRD is now coming back to write a Final Chronicles (4 books), the first of which, "Runes of the Earth" is already out...

This is amazing fantasy that I could just go on and on about. A fansite I stumbled on says "unlike Tolkein, you cannot walk away from SRD unchanged"... and that is true. This is a tale that disturbs the hell out of you. The plot is simple, and the delineation filled with complexity. A man - Thomas Covenant - from the real world is transported to a magical world (the Land) where he is pitted against a Despiser - a sort of Satan figure - who identifies him as his predestined arch-enemy. The key is Covenant's white gold wedding ring which is the portal to using wild magic - the thing that holds up the arch of time. Typical huh? Here's the catch...

Thomas Covenant is a leper and a pariah in the real world. His wife deserted him with his two year old son as soon as his leprosy was detected. He has lost half his right hand to gangrene. He hates the world which treats him as an outcast (at one point, the grocer delivers bread with blades hidden in it which cut up Covenant's mouth.) The only way he can survive is through constant vigilance - even a simple bruise may go gangrenous and cost him a limb. He has vertigo, is afraid of physical pain, and through 6 books of destiny, never shows real physical strength.

When he is first transported to the Land, he finds his leprosy doesn't apply there... his insensate nerves are somehow back in action. He is so exhilirated with regained potency, he rapes an innocent girl - his only friend. And that is only the first of his sins. He believes the Land is a dream - hence the title of Unbeliever. And he could care less for his destiny as a hero - he only wants to survive.

Amazing stuff. I read this over the past couple of months, and it is probably responsible for my gloomy mood of late. The language that SRD uses (obtuse to some, a delight to me) needs a dictionary to understand fully.

Anyway... as Sangram said once, "what is scary isn't that SR Donaldson wrote such a ghastly concept - but that you (i.e. Hrishi) can identify with it..."

Ah, well.