Able and allowed

Cliff Judge · 12 Jun 2007, 14:24 · from 2007-June.txt.gz

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From: transentient at gmail.com (Cliff Judge)
Date: Tue, 12 Jun 2007 10:24:15 -0400
Subject: (urth) Able and allowed
In-Reply-To: <BAY135-F35A04BE70B43D155E2F25388190 at phx.gbl>
References: <952392.71153.qm at web36905.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
	<BAY135-F35A04BE70B43D155E2F25388190 at phx.gbl>
Message-ID: <b5bac3560706120724le186fa0kc068f6da2cbcc153 at mail.gmail.com>

On 6/12/07, Bob Miller <bob_bageera at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> There is and has been a lot of legitimate, quite justified, criticism of
> Able and thus, to a lesser degree, of TWK.  Up front, I think it is the
> best
> book published so far in this new century, one of the best coming oif age
> books since Rudyard Kipling blessed the world with Kim.
>
> To me, Able was telling the tale ex post facto and not hiding any of his
> errors or sins.  To me, the ascension to Skai was a reward for one area of
> growth/progress.  To me, the return was for completion ( or as my wife
> tells
> me, closure).  To me, the justification, beyond the take away the breath
> scenes, beyond the personal growth he led or inspired or acted as a
> catalyst
> for Puck and Uns and Svon was the scene where in Disiri came for him
> before
> the final dustup.  Herself begged Able to come back with her to Aelfrice
> and
> he said no.  And in this one moment in the dark and wind and the dirt Able
> was justified.  He returned to the people to whom he had assumed, even if
> it
> were for Disiri's sake, duty and obligation.  And he met those
> obligations.
> And in denying/turning down the ascent, for a second time, to Skai Able
> became more.  To a collector of trophies or a scorekeeper, Able became
> less
> because he "descended".  Because he accepted his cup, "do what you can or
> else do what you must", Michael from beyond Skai has come for him and his
> lover that his love has made able to ascend.  So, to me this book was
> about
> growth and the greater rewards gained than would have been from the
> "simple"
> completion of the task.
>
> As an aside, or because I couldn't figure out where to put it in my
> meanderings above, throughout TWK I was reminded again and again of the
> scene in Zelazny's Lord of Light where Sam told Taraka that he fought him
> because he was a man, and being a man sometimes did aspire to more than
> the
> belly and the phallus.


I just really liked how the Odin type was just suddenly THERE with a single
sentence at the end, and he was like, "You have done." That was some
high-quality stuff right there.
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