INFJ Book Club - Week Five | INFJ Forum

INFJ Book Club - Week Five

Entyqua

Entyqua

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OK...last stretch...only 70 or so pages left to go here...I know a few of you are behind and thats ok....Just keep on pushong through...week four was the hardest I think the story really lulls and there was a lot of over description and filler...but we made it...

We now stand at the mouth of mount thunder...Into the belly of the beast...these last 400 pages or so have led us to this moment the culmination of this lengthy read

What are your anticipations?

I cant ask any questions yet because I dont know what to ask...anyone got any?
 
I just finished, and I don't think I have ever been more relieved to be done with a book. This book really dragged for me up untill the last few chapters.

I don't reallyknow what to say yet...
 
it picks up there really soon...things finally start happening again...I think you should finish it...but I could be saying that because I want some one to discuss it with...I hate the book, but want to read the others...It sucks you in, but you hate it...
 
I finished it. Thomas Covenant is not much of a hero. He's a man placed into a world where he has no control over his life, just like in his real life. Everything has been decided for him. But instead of being outcast, he is now the center. And instead of being loathed, he is now revered. That doesn't stop him from imposing his reality on this other reality. He managed to make himself feared and reviled, demonstrating how much of one's internal world can color any place one can be.

I don't feel empathy for Thomas any more, I had to shut him out because of his decision making process. But I still wonder what this meant.

I remember now that a co-worker recommended this series last year. He described it as "fascinating but disturbing." I can see why.

I read another Donaldson book (well, half of it) about a girl obsessed with mirrors who ends up in a fantasy world. The character is in the opposite predicament of Thomas, in that she believes the fantasy world is real, but she is not. Her character becomes infatuated with an evil man.

Donaldson clearly doesn't want to create 'just another hero'. He wants to explored how deeply flawed people do the right thing despite themselves. There's that word again, Despite.
 
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Yes Ecton, that is exactly it...This writer goes out of his way to write his main characters as awful dredges of society, yet DESPITE all that some how persevere...but they dont LEARN anything...there is no moral to the story ya know...
he goes back to his dredge existence, and continues on with his awful angry self

I shut him out long ago...to me hes like a walking pity party..."I am angry, cant help you, pity me for I am ill...Dont make me risk my sanity for you, I am ill cant you see?" I do not feel anything for Thomas Covenant, aside from loathing. I hate him...I do not use this lightly either, because I first felt for him...I felt empathy for his pain, for his lost love...The writer made me love him first, but now all I can do is hate.

He sucks the empath in me dry...Leaves me a empty husk.

fascinating and disturbing...very apt description...out of sheer morbid curiosity about
how he returns to the land and what happens to all the likable characters in the book,
I will, at some point, read the rest of the trilogy...
 
Me too, I have to go back. Maybe there is some deep hope inside me that somehow he manages to grow. And I agree, its like you want to go back to make sure the people around him aren't hurt. :)

One of the things that I think Donaldson tried to make clear is that just when Thomas was starting to break the mold, the Despiser made sure he was sent back. So if there is some chance that he might improve, it is never going to happen because reality is just too horrible for him. Is that his fault? I don't think it is, but that still doesn't mean I like his choices.
 
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