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Topics - Truth Shines

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The Unholy Consult / Battlejesus, Wonder Woman, DNA, and Chekhov's Gun.
« on: August 24, 2018, 08:33:59 am »
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?


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The Great Ordeal / [TGO Spoilers] Embarrassing Question
« on: September 24, 2016, 05:55:17 am »
OK, so Kellhus survived, right?  Or have I just completely messed up reading that part?

That whole italicized section right after Kellhus sees Esmenet -- what was it?  It seems to describe a chorae being thrown at Kellhus and got a glancing hit -- by whom?  Esmenet?  Then it seems to describe his death after being killed by a knife thrown by the Narindar.  I would have called the whole section one outcome of the probability trance, except the writing seems to betray no sense that this is from Kellhus' perspective.

Then later we switch to regular font, so I guess this is "for real."  Now there's no chorae.  No thrown knife either.  In fact, the text says "The Narindar shook his head, stared down aghast at his hands.  His ears wept blood."  Does this mean he couldn't even find a knife to throw?  And what does it mean to say "his ears wept blood?"  Finally, the text says Kellhus "striding out toward the Circumfix Throne," then a huge stone fell, "crashing upon the very spot where Father had stood."  "Had stood," past perfect tense, instead of just "stood," which means our most holy Aspect-Emperor has not been reduced to tomato paste, right?

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