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« on: June 26, 2016, 03:44:13 am »
So I feel like there were at least two prominent, meaningful suicides in this book, but I'm not sure that I fully understand either, and I hope to get y'all's thoughts.
The two I'm thinking of are Oinaral Lastborn's in Ishterebinth, aka The Weeping Mountain, and down past the Ingressus in the Holy Deep.
The other is A. Koringhus.
The first seems clearer to me in one sense though I am not certain from my reading that it was a certain suicide. Perhaps more of a gambit where he knew it could end in death. Oinaral takes Sorweel with him to meet his father, Oirunas, a huge-ass Nonman. It seems to me that Oinaral is set on seeing The Vile destroyed, and he thinks his father is key to this. He knows or suspects that his father is too Erratic to be safe to approach and knows he may not survive the trip to the Holy Deep. So he needs Sorweel, and he implores him to remember to remind his father Oirunas that the Vile now rule in Ishterebinth. Once they get down there Oirunas backhands the shit out of Oinaral presumably killing him right there, realizes what he's done and laments (but as Erratic probably also gets a nice dose of awareness for a short time). Sorweel upholds his end of the bargain and makes sure to exclaim that the Vile rule in Ishterebinth. This leads Oirunas, Hero of the Watch, to go fuck some shit up in the throne room.
I think it's pretty clear that Oinaral knew or could parse out that he may not survive thus needing Sorweel to ensure the dread message delivered. But was it even more than that and he knew that he needed to die in order to give his father the jolt of killing a loved one that could give an Erratic some brief clarity? That is my biggest question about this one. Either way, what a badass mission and, in my estimation, and incredible piece of writing by Bakker. RIP Oinaral Lastborn. Oh, and to make it all the more amazing, Oinaral teazed to Sorweel on the way down that Nonmen do not commit suicide (when the droppers were falling). Perhaps, unless it is one of the Intact looking to strike the ultimate blow against the Vile.
Koringhus, however, I am way less clear on. His chapter leading up to his leap was fascinating but confusing to me and certainly warranting rereads in the future for better understanding. I get that he was pondering the big questions. The nature of the Absolute and Zero and all of that. And then he was given Qirri. But that's about all I get. Are we to think that it was the Qirri that did it? If so, why? Or was there some subtle conclusion he'd met in his internal monologue that I missed that made it clear why he had to snuff it and Akka was just mistakenly blaming in on the Qirri?
Discuss.
ETA: I apologize in advance for this post not being very articulate.