TDTCB, Ch. 1

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What Came Before

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« Reply #30 on: April 19, 2013, 04:12:22 am »
Quote from: Wilshire
I think thats a perfectly viable explanation, especially considering the traits you just pointed out.

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What Came Before

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« Reply #31 on: April 19, 2013, 04:13:12 am »
Quote from: Callan S.
Maybe they (ick!) put a soul into the skin spy for the telepresence deal, then remove the soul again after?

On another subject, kind of possibly not relevant - in this chapter Akka strikes me as being quite different than portrayed than latter in the book. Does anyone else get that? I'm wondering if it's just an author thing - character started out as X, but gravitated towards Y latter, but introduction still revolves around X stuff.

Some of the shift is rather like how the Seswatha dreams seem rather...flat and straight forward. People just do stuff, they don't have a million conflicting emotions. When I first read it I assumed that back in the Earwa past people were just simpler (and/or more epic, somehow). Only recently did I realise that's probably just how Seswatha remembers things. Flattened to epicness.

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« Reply #32 on: April 19, 2013, 04:13:44 am »
Quote from: Wilshire
I'd say that a lot of the perception of the past (through the dreams) can be difficult to form any unbiased conclusions. What is it, "seswatha never shits" or something like that? Most of the mundane is left out of the dreams. Aside from that, the dreams are being 'remembered' through the eyes of Seswatha, through the minds of the dreamers. There is a lot of disconnect between the final person and the original scene. It would be hard for Seswatha to not grow numb to the indecencies of the surrounding environment. Rendering his emotions more flat, and therefore his memories. Then this is transferred to the dreamers, who dream every night the atrocities of war. After years and years of this, they too would become numb to the mundane suffering of little men. And only then do we get the dreamers interpretation of the dream.
By the time we hear hear of Earwa's past, its been passed from Seswatha's numb memories, to the unsympathetic Mandate, then to us the disconnected reader. Something was inevitably lost.

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« Reply #33 on: April 19, 2013, 04:13:54 am »
Quote from: lockesnow
Also, there's a stylistic attempt to make the past "more epic" and more in line with the stylings of those old classics like the Aeneid and the Bible.

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« Reply #34 on: April 19, 2013, 04:14:16 am »
Quote from: sologdin
yeah, several problems with the dreams:

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What Came Before

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« Reply #35 on: April 19, 2013, 04:14:30 am »
Quote from: lockesnow
dreams drawn from the sheath.

That phrase has been kicking around my skull tonight.

drawn from the sheath.

A weapon.

A weapon is drawn from a sheath.

Is this evocative phrase, a seemingly meaningless fragment of purple prose ornamentation possess actual meaning? 

Does this indicate--from the very first--that dreams drawn from the sheath are weapons? 

If so, then whom does Seswatha wield these dreams against? and what does it signify, so early on in the novel that dreams are weaponized?  Were dreams weaponized in the novel before this? After this?

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« Reply #36 on: April 19, 2013, 04:14:46 am »
Quote from: Madness
Metaphor is Metaphysic in Earwa ;).

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« Reply #37 on: April 19, 2013, 04:15:03 am »
Quote from: lockesnow
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« Reply #38 on: April 19, 2013, 04:15:12 am »
Quote from: Madness
Good call. They're have been versions of that hypothesis before... I'm not sure we have enough evidence to think about this one yet.

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Though, I think that's for another thread.

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« Reply #39 on: April 19, 2013, 04:16:08 am »
Quote from: lockesnow
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Wilshire

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« Reply #40 on: October 29, 2014, 03:50:23 pm »
Though I might have mentioned it before, I love the juxtaposition in this scene with Achamian and the Whore at the bar.

TWP/TTT spoilers (speculation)
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One of the other conditions of possibility.

MSJ

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« Reply #41 on: December 01, 2014, 07:00:08 pm »
Hello everyone! This is my first post here on TSA, and I thought what I would do is read each chapter and give my thoughts. I've started my first re-read, I was tied up in Malazan and The First Law, got those out of the way, and have been dying to do a re-read of the series. Just want to contribute however I can, although don't expect too much out of me, LOL! I've been lurking here and reading most of the threads and y'alls knowledge is boundless. Just hope I MIGHT be able to offer something you guys might've missed.

So, what I loved about this first chapter is everything about Akka. I know a lot of people tend to dislike him, but for me, Akka is who kept me into this series in the beginning. Kellhus was a little too much for me and all of his inward thoughts and his manipulation. (I will go back and do my thoughts and such on the prologue.) Right off, Akka reminds me of the usual pessimistic, down on your luck, bitch and complain character. So, right off the bat, we learn of sorcery, and Chorae, which just draws me into this story more, I WANNA KNOW MORE! This whole scene in the bar really gives a good glimpse into the type of setting and lifestyle the series will be set in, loved it.

Then the next scene is the skin-spy following and defacing Geshrunni. This is where a re-read is already showing dividends. Looking here, Bakker already let's you know the Consult exists and their way of staying hidden is through an n-spies, even if your not directly told that. On first read you get the gist. Also, it validates the Mandate, they are not the fool of fools that Akka thinks they are. They are not ghosts, they are alive and well, penetrating all the Great Factions of The Three Seas. That's last line, "Something impossibly ancient, Inconceivably beautiful.", sends chills down my spine.

Akka's Seswatha dream, Celmommas prophecy, this you guys have covered extensively, and don't think there is much I can offer. Although, my feelings is that these dreams are either false or are distorted in some fashion. On Westeros, I said I believe that we will find out that what the Mandate thinks of Seswatha and what he really was or his intents, will not be the same thing. Don't think he's aligned with the Consult, but these dreams are for his benefit not for the benefit of human kind.

Well, that's about it. I will continue to do this with every chapter. Hopefully I will find some hidden nuggets, and maybe even create my own Nerdanel, LOL!
“No. I am your end. Before your eyes I will put your seed to the knife. I will quarter your carcass and feed it to the dogs. Your bones I will grind to dust and cast to the winds. I will strike down those who speak your name or the name of your fathers, until ‘Yursalka’ becomes as meaningless as infant babble. I will blot you out, hunt down your every trace! The track of your life has come to me,

Wilshire

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« Reply #42 on: December 01, 2014, 07:09:36 pm »
What a great first post. Thanks MSJ. Whatever you do, don't recoil from offering thoughts/opinions that differ from whatever is around here. At least for me, I feel like I've spent to much time entrenching the same thoughts into the Steppe, and have  lost much perspective because of it.

TDTCB, which started as my least favorite of the series, has since become my favorite after reading it a few times. So much meaning packed into and in between the words.
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MSJ

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« Reply #43 on: December 01, 2014, 07:36:15 pm »
Thanks Wilshire! Yes, I think from lurking here I have picked up so much. I will offer my thoughts on each chapter and maybe I will find something that's been overlooked. My background is History (what I went to school for, ummm didn't graduate though, Lol), and never been good in science. So I've learned a lot about the metaphysics of Earwa here. Don't think there's a whole lot I can add to that, but will do my best. Thanks again!
“No. I am your end. Before your eyes I will put your seed to the knife. I will quarter your carcass and feed it to the dogs. Your bones I will grind to dust and cast to the winds. I will strike down those who speak your name or the name of your fathers, until ‘Yursalka’ becomes as meaningless as infant babble. I will blot you out, hunt down your every trace! The track of your life has come to me,