Normally I would thank you all for the kindness you gave me in responding to my post – but Wilshire MANDATED me not to … so a warm fuck you to all of you. I’ve exposed you, Wilshire, as being a Mandate schoolman – careful, I have a nice selection of chorea, one with your name etched on it … hee, hee – all from love, my man, just rockin on your “busting balls” comment.
So, it comes down to what is K doing … appears none of us know for sure yet. I guess I give Esmenet’s explanation much credit when she tells the girl in the previous book about Kellhus deceiving/using everyone to save everyone’s lives. If that is true, if Esmenet is accurate, then the question is motivation. Either K doesn’t want to be lonely, even the company of children is better than no one at all or he feels connected to humanity in some way. I think we connect with each other in a more interesting way than evolution can explain – love. We love people who have died and life loss can reduce people to ruins ( hard to explain the evolutionary benefit of enduring severe trauma for the departed – sadness to ensure we avoid it ourselves could be evolution, but carrying on for years … ). Either he’s following evolutionary instinct to ensure humanity endures ( which I think we all agree his Duynain conditioning would prohibit this ) or he at bare minimum “likes” humanity enough to dedicate a good portion of his life to saving it.
If indeed he conned his way to power ( appear he did, he wasn’t a prince among other lies/deceptions ), hard to imagine it was as another human does simply for the sake of power – seems his Dunyain mind would not find pleasure with power, especially over those he manipulates so easily.
Seems there’s more purpose to his design than to simply perform a task – he’s into it. I don’t think he’s compelled out of sense of duty to save us ( evolution ) nor is he doing it just to avoid loneliness ( a good reason, but seems more to it ) … I get a sense of joy in him figuring it out ( maybe the Dunyain drive to figure everything out ) and enjoys “hanging” with humans. Could be he’s learning how to love.
I like Beard’s way of putting it, he left Dunyain and returned a man. The celebration of what it is to really be human, to feel as a human can - but at the same time, knowing we can be more. Through this whole madness of crazed violence, I see beauty – humanity standing, taking flight. Saubon's response when he realized certain doom at Dagliash to keep on fighting was amazing - he knew this is what it is to feel truly alive, risking your life for something more and not just sitting in the air conditioning as I am now typing away.
I think Bakker’s self-proclaimed cynicism doesn’t stem from a broken heart of humanity falling short or consumed with pettiness, but a happy stare at what we can be. This isn’t a horror novel – it’s beauty born from horror, perhaps even a romance novel ( sorry, had to throw in the romance novel bit to fuck with you ).
