BFK's ARC: TDTCB, Prologue
(Note: A lot of my questions and comments are just rhetorical. I'm trying, not very successfully, to maintain the illusion of a first-time careful reader.)
I agree with H, the Prologue is excellent. An introduction to the Dûnyain and to Kellhus.
Prologue, first part, notes:
1. The Dûnyain are already in pursuit of "awareness most holy" when they arrive at Ishüal, and have repudiated the Gods. They deliberately obliterate all records and evidence of sorcery. (pg. 4). What could they be up to?
2. Dûnyain: "We are Dûnyain, child. What reason could you have to fear us?"
Boy: "So long as men live, there are crimes!"
Dûnyain: "No, child. Only so long as men are deceived."
(Deception, we soon learn, is an art that the Dûnyain have mastered.)
3. The Dûnyain celebrate their discovery of Ishüal as a great correspondence of cause. What is a correspondence of cause? Who are these Dûnyain?
Prologue, second part, notes:
Generally, just an first-rate introduction to Kellhus. It is very difficult not to identify him as our hero. Even his abandonment of Leweth seems .... necessary. We learn about Dûnyain methods, the Probability Trance, and Kellhus' ability to read persons and to craft, through his words and expressions, responses that will enable him to "come before" all men and all circumstances. Superhuman also in physical ability. Defeats his Nonman adversary (one of my favorite scenes) as he defeats the Sranc. But he is nearly undone by....sorcery! Surprise!
During the interrogation of Leweth, Kellhus views sorcery as just another of Leweth's myths. Leweth, like all men, does not know what comes before. And then comes this line: "But what came before, the Dûnyain had learned, was inhuman." (pg. 17) Inhuman? What could this mean?