Earwa > The Unholy Consult
Battlejesus, Wonder Woman, DNA, and Chekhov's Gun.
Truth Shines:
So, I have just finished The Unholy Consult (bought the book when it came out, but just haven't gotten around to read it until now). I haven't participated in this forum for a very long time, but, after an ending like that, well, !!! :o
I have been browsing various topics and found a lot of fun and interesting insights. Here are just some of my random thoughts.
First, nobody, but nobody writes battle scenes like Bakker. There are already many great examples in this series, but here it reaches a mind boggling sustained climax. Two instances stand out to me. One is the sequence where Kellhus goes into his "full metagnostic battleJesus" mode (as someone put in from another forum) and seizes the Sun Spear and casts down the Canted Horn. I was screaming and jumping up and down just reading it. Another is when Serwa becomes Wonder Woman squared and takes down an army plus a centipede/dragon all by herself, all the while, if you recall, delivering killer one-liners! ;D While I understand and accept why women in Earwa are often shown in depressingly subordinate and/or passive positions, my inner fanboy can't help but rejoice/mourn that this one glorious counter example should show up only by the very end.
Second, there's one interesting line (of course there is; this is like scripture and we all enjoy quoting our own prooftext). One of the mutilated said to Kellhus "... A code lies buried in the ebb and flow of life on this World. The more deaths, the brighter this code burns, the more Ark can read..." Code? My mind immediately leapt to DNA. Then a bit later they started talking about "collapsing the subject and object." Hmmm. What about DNA? Is that not both a subject and object simultaneously? Does it not direct and organize life but also engineer its own construction and change?
Lastly, the appearance of Ajokli, I must say, doesn't quite sit well with me. I suppose it does make some sense. After all, Kellhus has perceived the danger of this final confrontation (converting to the Consult's cause) as early as the end of TTT, so it makes sense that he should have prepared for it by striking some bargain with some elements of the Outside. Yet I feel like this is a variant of Chekhov's gun problem ("One must never place a loaded rifle on the stage if it isn't going to go off.") A mighty blast did go off, yet I feel that that gun was perhaps a bit too well-hidden up to that point?
TLEILAXU:
--- Quote from: Truth Shines on August 24, 2018, 08:33:59 am ---Second, there's one interesting line (of course there is; this is like scripture and we all enjoy quoting our own prooftext). One of the mutilated said to Kellhus "... A code lies buried in the ebb and flow of life on this World. The more deaths, the brighter this code burns, the more Ark can read..." Code? My mind immediately leapt to DNA. Then a bit later they started talking about "collapsing the subject and object." Hmmm. What about DNA? Is that not both a subject and object simultaneously? Does it not direct and organize life but also engineer its own construction and change?
--- End quote ---
I think it has more to do with the Outside. Something about the passage of souls. It's a cryptic passage for sure.
--- Quote ---Does it not direct and organize life but also engineer its own construction and change?
--- End quote ---
DNA is relatively inert, it contains only instructions for the machines that read it to make more machines.
TaoHorror:
--- Quote from: Truth Shines on August 24, 2018, 08:33:59 am ---... yet I feel that that gun was perhaps a bit too well-hidden up to that point?
--- End quote ---
I agree, the read did make it clear Kellhus was engaging the Daimos and we do see scenes of him ( somewhere/hell ) and so forth, but the Ajokli possession was a bit too "hinted at" that when it becomes full on possession/take over, maybe too much of a surprise - so much so it appears my take on it was incorrect as I thought at that point, Kellhus "brought" Ajokli with him, backup if you will ( from Bakker's AMA and discussion here, I guess it was "unwelcomed"/"unknown possession with Ajokli having access to Kellhus's strings - which brings into all sorts of thoughts on how much can gods pull them, etc ). Looking back it's clearer, "my thoughts are not my own", but in real time read, it wasn't hitting home with me that the entire thing could/would unravel from the Daimos. This being my favorite fiction of all time, it is imperfect and I think Bakker thought a little too much of us to get some of this ( which has yielded some robust disputation here about whether that was a weakness of the books, or brilliant art and some of us ( read: smaller minds ) will struggle. Bit of both, to my view.
Wilshire:
--- Quote from: Truth Shines on August 24, 2018, 08:33:59 am ---Yet I feel like this is a variant of Chekhov's gun problem ("One must never place a loaded rifle on the stage if it isn't going to go off.") A mighty blast did go off, yet I feel that that gun was perhaps a bit too well-hidden up to that point?
--- End quote ---
Ha!We've got all kinds of guns. From your run-of-the-mill Chekhov's guns with tidy setups and firings, to No-Guns that either existed or didn't exist and went of (or didn't go off?) exactly as they should have (or shouldn't have). And many combinations of those too lol.
I think for me the series feels like Bakker had a plan and went through with it, but that plan was not precisely clear and the storytelling definitely got muddled along the way. As if he had a very clear start (Ishual and TDTCB) middle (end of TTT) and end (end of TUC), but the path between the points were not so clear. There was evolution of the story throughout, and it seems he might have made choices in later books that he didn't account for fully in earlier books. Or, perhaps spent too long obscuring things to keep us guessing to the point of total opaqueness lol.
Glad you finally finished it Truth Shines, and glad to see you back. There's lots of us still lurking around - as always - so keep posting :) . If you post it, they will comment.
themerchant:
The ekkinu arras make no sense to me. They keep getting mentioned even flare up etc and disappear, right at the end of TUC, from where they've been the entire TAE, yet nothing...
Akka's changing dreams or indeed the dreams themselves are another thing that just exists.
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