Earwa > The Almanac: PON Edition
TDTCB, Ch. 10
What Came Before:
--- Quote from: lockesnow ---[size=200]SUMNA[/size]
--- Quote ---How should one describe the terrible majesty of the Holy War? Even then, still unblooded, it was both frightening and wondrous to behold, a great beast whose limbs were composed of entire nations—Galeoth, Thunyerus, Ce Tydonn, Conriya, High Ainon, and the Nansurium—and with the Scarlet Spires as the dragon’s maw, no less. Not since the days of the Ceneian Empire or the Ancient North has the world witnessed such an assembly. Even diseased by politics, it was a thing of awe.
—DRUSAS ACHAMIAN, COMPENDIUM OF THE FIRST HOLY WAR
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Midwinter, 4111 Year-of-the-Tusk, Sumna[/i]
§10.1: Esmenet walks at night through a blank parchment world, remembers the Consult interro-rape and is ashamed, thinks of herself as a kahiht equal to the events she is caught up in.
§10.2: Esmenet arrives at a hostel, tries to join travelers, a snapped sandal band isolates, reflections on the Karian Way, reflections on how Esmenet collected experience and cultivated her knowledge of the world, reflections on her dead daughter, arrives at a village & cannot find a cobbler, is confronted by querulous youths, stones, a priest, retreat, confession of damnation, stoning, Sarcellus.
§10.3: Achamian arrives at Xinemus' camp outside Momemn and is welcomed into camp.
§10.4: Xinemus helps Achamian make camp, they catch up, Xinemus defends Achamian and knocks sense into Dinchases and Iryssas.
§10.5: Achamian has offscreen dreams and does not reflect on them, Xinemus and Achamian play benjuka and catch up, reflections on benjuka (a game that mimics life), Achamian hears the Vulgar Holy War was destroyed, a history of Proyas, a story of Xinemus knocking sense into Proyas, reflections that Proyas caused the Vulgar Holy War and that such a large event could be writ small as a benjuka move, but who is meant to be the person moving the pieces, The Emperor, Conphas, Achamian concedes the match.
§10.6: Esmenet and Sarcellus, The Mandate are fools and women who love fools do not have dream when they sleep.
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What Came Before:
--- Quote from: Church ---I found this chapter quite hard going, still a lot of set-up going on. Take me back to the jiunati steppe! One quote I found interesting though:
--- Quote ---So many men, she'd found, harboured a void of some kind, a place accountable only to other men.
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This is from the early part of the chapter, when Esme is reflecting on what she's learnt from being a prostitute. If we go with lockesnow's theory that these chapters are all about Esme being supernaturally (literally) gifted with insight then that quote becomes a lot more significant. The idea of men harbouring a void, that's seems to me to pretty much say that the essence of the No-God is within men in Earwa.
If you consider the Scylvendi, they're pretty much the most masculine (or at least orientated towards male prerogative) society in the series, and they're also instrumental in some way to the creation of the N-G. Is RSB pointing us towards something here - the other Gods share to some degree feminine attributes, but the masculine attributes of the N-G are 'accountable only to other men', ie. only accountable to those who have sufficient power and force to make themselves useful?
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What Came Before:
--- Quote from: lockesnow ---I'm not sure that I think these chapters involve Esmenet being supernaturally gifted, rather I think these chapters describe her becoming kahiht--a world soul.
We can actually look to the structure of the novel to maybe support this, a structure I have long found troubling. It is less troubling if you look at four sections as referring to the appearance of four kahiht: The Sorcerer--Achamian, The Emperor--Conphas, The Harlot--Esmenet, The Warrior--Cnaiur. The final section is the stage on which they will play: The Holy War. And of course the entire series is named for the biggest kahiht of them all, Prince-of-Nothing--Kellhus.
--- Quote ---The idea of men harbouring a void, that's seems to me to pretty much say that the essence of the No-God is within men in Earwa.
If you consider the Scylvendi, they're pretty much the most masculine (or at least orientated towards male prerogative) society in the series, and they're also instrumental in some way to the creation of the N-G. Is RSB pointing us towards something here - the other Gods share to some degree feminine attributes, but the masculine attributes of the N-G are 'accountable only to other men', ie. only accountable to those who have sufficient power and force to make themselves useful?
--- End quote ---
This is fascinating, is there something about Nihilism and other various philosophies that is inherently masculine? Is there something in religion and community that are inherently feminine? Are men the reason the world could be destroyed?
Is all philosophy inherently misogynist.
QUICK! Name a female Philosopher!
Anyone? Buellor?
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What Came Before:
--- Quote from: Church ---The only female philosopher that springs to mind is Patricia Churchland, but she's about as rabidly materialistic as you can get! I'm not sure how far I'd generalise from what Bakker's writing about Earwa to the real world, though I guess you could say that nihilism is in some ways about elimination, whereas feminine traits are more about generation (think Yatwer). so there is that opposition there.
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What Came Before:
--- Quote from: sologdin ---eh? de beauvoir, kristeva, luxemburg, arendt, cixous, butler, nussbaum, wollstencraft, and the arch-inchie herself, ayn rand!
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