Requests for Tree Imagery from the Earwa novels.

  • 6 Replies
  • 5394 Views

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

sciborg2

  • *
  • Old Name
  • *****
  • Contrarian Wanker
  • Posts: 1173
  • "Trickster Makes This World"
    • View Profile
« on: August 27, 2013, 01:47:31 am »
Post your tree imagery quotes here - whatever you recall.

I'll think about organizing it by book in the OP or perhaps in a PDF.

Wilshire

  • *
  • Administrator
  • Old Name
  • *****
  • Enshoiya
  • Posts: 5935
  • One of the other conditions of possibility
    • View Profile
« Reply #1 on: August 27, 2013, 03:08:25 pm »
Can't think of any literal quotes right now but if people have books on them:

Twig description from near the beginning of TDTCB

Beginning of Inrau's death scene (tied to the description of a goddess) TDTCB

Probably several tree descriptions about the big tree Kellhus is crucified on TWP (3/4 of the way through, maybe sooner)

Bronze tree symbol of the Mansion (where Kell finds Moe) TTT
Also probably description of the actual tree that Mansion is Under (these are near the end of TTT)

Lots of Trees in WLW near the beginning



There should be plenty more but this should give someone a starting point, and hopefully it provides will start the mind on the right track.

EDIT
I could have sworn that the whole Inrau Death scene was quoted somewhere, which includes the description that i mentioned above, but I cant find it. irritating.

« Last Edit: August 27, 2013, 04:29:35 pm by Wilshire »
One of the other conditions of possibility.

Baztek

  • *
  • Momurai
  • **
  • Aleph Jester
  • Posts: 137
  • "We are all of us brothers. Read these."
    • View Profile
« Reply #2 on: August 27, 2013, 05:32:12 pm »
Cnauir's first POV with the skin-spies in TTT

locke

  • *
  • The Afflicted Few
  • Old Name
  • *****
  • Posts: 648
    • View Profile
« Reply #3 on: August 27, 2013, 08:13:57 pm »
when salt from the effects of chorae is seen with the judging eye it is described as tree cancer.

Wilshire

  • *
  • Administrator
  • Old Name
  • *****
  • Enshoiya
  • Posts: 5935
  • One of the other conditions of possibility
    • View Profile
« Reply #4 on: August 27, 2013, 08:55:07 pm »
I'll be editing this post several times so I don't have a bunch in a row.
Spoiler tags for space, except when noted otherwise.

(click to show/hide)
EDIT

(click to show/hide)
EDIT 2:
(click to show/hide)
EDIT 3:
(click to show/hide)
EDIT 4:
(click to show/hide)
EDIT 6:
(click to show/hide)



In PoN, searching for the word "tree" gives about 250 results. Maybe 25% of those are from the word "street", and most of the rest are uninteresting like "they ran through the trees" or "the tree exploded". I posted most of the ones that seemed more descriptive that I could find. I still need to look through the second half of TTT.
« Last Edit: August 27, 2013, 10:26:54 pm by Wilshire »
One of the other conditions of possibility.

Francis Buck

  • *
  • Guest
« Reply #5 on: August 27, 2013, 10:32:48 pm »
In another effort of avoiding redundancy, unJon on Westeros.org actually started this concept and put forward these instances:


Not sure where I'm going with this, but . . .

What does Inverse Fire mean? An inverted fire. To invert something is to turn it upside down or maybe inside out. The inverse of a conditional in symbolic logic is obtained by negating both sides.

Bakker uses "inverse" only once in the books, the reference in TTT to the skin spies referring to themselves as Keepers of the Inverse Fire.  Cnauir goes on to think that skin spies don't know what that means and get confuse when asked about their "keeping" of their "fire". With the revelation learned in TWLW I now assume this is due to the Inverse Fire being a kind of paradox that a non-souled skin spy cannot grasp rather than simple ignorance.


Quote
They claimed to be Keepers of Inverse Fire, though the merest question regarding either their “keeping” or their “fire” pitched them into confusion.


May be why skin spies are the keepers. Intelligent enough yet unaffected by the inverse fire. (Aside, I thought this reference was to an Invers Flame, but if so it has been changed in my Kindle edition.)

Cnauir then goes into an awesome remembrance where he inverts a tree ( this has to be author signaling!!)


Quote
As a child, Cnaiür had been fascinated by trees . . . . Sometimes he would stare at the bare trees for so long, they would lose their radial dimensions and seem something flat, like blood smeared into the wrinkles about an old woman’s eyes.
(Aside, has anyone done a review of the tree imagery in the books? So much there from the twigs to the entrances to mansions, etc. and IIRC Bakker on the Dead Seas board confirmed that the tree imagery was intentional and meaningful.)

The word "inverted" is used four times, all in AE.

1) Esmi POV in TJE when she's in the council chambe I envision as the Senate chambe  in Star Wars. Described as being created to be an inerverted ziggarut of Xijoser, so that it could be tipped in and fit perfectly. Proyas once quipped "sometimes Men must reach down” when seeking the Truth.

2) TWLW Esmi POV worth quoting in full.


Quote
To sell intimacy is to be turned inside out, to make a cloak of your heart, so that others might be warmed. A soul could only be inverted so many times before it all became confused, inside and outside
If fire means soul then is the IF show your soul inside out? Is it the judging eye turned on yourself?

3) TWLW Mimara POV. A sharp intake of breath that sounds like an inverted shriek. Then some interesting imagery of the Nail of Heaven over Kosoter so that he looks like an unholy wraith and "a dark god come to punish for mere perversity’s sake." (Again author indicating what IF shows??)

4) Akka POV in TWLW after destruction of Library. The ruins above show like inverted cliffs and valleys.

Anyway thought some of this was interesting and wanted to get it out for groupthink.

What is an inverted fire? Or for what type of object or process is the description Inverse Fire apt? May speculate a bit later.

ETA: also the Kel looking through the fire to spy stuff and the old story of the shaman that plunges his face into the fire when a god tells him to. Maybe fires are some sort of portal in Bakkerverse. Maybe inverting that window means instead if seeing something, you let that something into you and FEEL or experience it?
« Last Edit: August 27, 2013, 10:47:28 pm by Francis Buck »

Madness

  • *
  • Administrator
  • Old Name
  • *****
  • Conversational Batman
  • Posts: 5275
  • Strength on the Journey - Journey Well
    • View Profile
    • The Second Apocalypse
« Reply #6 on: August 28, 2013, 02:47:19 pm »
Cool thread. I'll help as I can.

Two things to note:

I know that Bakker maintains a small writing reference library. In it, he as a number of botany encyclopaedias.

Otherwise, there is one very prevalent tree metaphor throughout TSA and in LTG highlighting blinded consciousness.
The Existential Scream
Weaponizing the Warrior Pose - Declare War Inwardly
carnificibus: multus sanguis fluit
Die Better
The Theory-Killer