Stephen R. Donaldson and The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant

It was 1983 when author Stephen R. Donaldson released White Gold Wielder, the third and final book of The Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant (The first 3-book series, Lord Foul’s Bane, The Illearth War and The Power that Preserves, thus making up The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, was released in 1977, 78 and 79 respectively). The late 70’s and early 80’s was the Golden Era of High Fantasy, as writers who read The Lord of the Rings trilogy came of age and began building on what Tolkien had started some thirty years before.

I read a lot of those books back then, but the Thomas Covenant series was very different from the fantasy tales by Terry Brooks and Piers Anthony (two authors who continue to this day to publish novels set in the universe they created back in late 70s). I’m not sure, but I think Donaldson could be credited with creating the first anti-hero of fantasy. Thomas Covenant was not in any way a likable character, yet the way Donaldson writes him, the reader can have sympathy for him, even if you get angry at his actions. 

The premise of the series is this: Thomas Covenant is a young, best-selling author with a wife (Joan) and an infant son (Roger), whose world is turned upside-down when he is diagnosed with leprosy. After six months' treatment and counselling in a leprosarium, he returns home to find himself divorced, alone and an outcast in the community. On a rare trip into town, he is accosted by a beggar who makes a number of cryptic pronouncements. The beggar refuses Covenant's offers of charity, including his white gold wedding band, leaving Covenant with the admonition to "be true." Confused and disturbed by the encounter, Covenant stumbles into the path of an oncoming police car and is rendered unconscious.

He wakes to find himself in the Land, a classic fantasy world. He first meets the evil Cavewight Drool Rockworm, wielding the magical power of the Staff of Law, who summoned him to the Land. Drool is guided (manipulated) by a malevolent, incorporeal being who calls himself "Lord Foul the Despiser." Foul reproaches Drool for his arrogance and transports Covenant to Foul's demesne. Addressing Covenant as "groveler", Foul taunts him with a prophecy that he (Foul) will destroy the Land within 49 years; however, if Drool isn't stopped, this doom will come to pass much sooner. He tells Covenant to deliver this message to the rulers of the Land, the Council of Lords at Revelstone, so that they can make preparations to combat Drool Rockworm and recover the Staff of Law.

Once again, Covenant is somehow transported and wakes on Kevin's Watch, a tall finger of rock attached to a mountain overlooking the Land's southernmost region. He meets Lena, a young girl who uses a special mud called hurtloam to heal some minor cuts caused by his fall. To his astonishment, Covenant discovers, albeit somewhat later on, that the hurtloam has also cured his leprosy. This is only the first example Covenant will see of the Earthpower: a rich source of healing energy present throughout the Land. Covenant's loss of two fingers on his right hand, a consequence of the failure to promptly diagnose his leprosy, causes him to be identified by Lena as the reincarnation of Berek Halfhand, an ancient Lord who saved the Land from Lord Foul during a war which occurred in the Land's distant past. His special identity is seemingly confirmed when Lena's mother Atiaran identifies Covenant's white gold ring – in his world a plain wedding band, which he had been emotionally unable to discard notwithstanding his divorce – as a token of great power in the Land.

Believing that he is unconscious from his collision with the police car, and therefore experiencing a fantastical dream or delusion, Covenant refuses to accept the reality of the Land. Appalled and indignant at the expectations the people of the Land have for him as their new-found saviour, he gives himself the title of "Unbeliever."

Also, in one of the most harrowing scenes in the first book, the cure for his leprosy also cures his impotence. Driven by mental anguish and the thought that while he feels, he still does not believe, he is driven into frenzy and rapes Lena –an act that is so horrible yet will prove pivotal for the rest of the series. And while her family and friends learn about the rape and fail to comprehend Covenant’s crime, they are forbidden to take vengeance due to their Oath of Peace.

From here on out, the series takes a dark tone, something that seems to go against the fantasy genre of the time (and long before anti-heroes would be the rage in the media of TV and movies). Our hero is flawed, mean, angry and destructive, yet you still feel some sympathy for him. And for me, this was made the series stand out besides the other sword and sorcery tomes that came out between 1975 and today.

After White Gold Wielder was released in 1983, Donaldson went on to write other books, including the two-book Mordant's Need series, The Mirror of Her Dreams (1986) and A Man Rides Through (1987). He also penned the science fiction themed Gap Cycle (The Gap into Conflict: The Real Story -1991, The Gap into Vision: Forbidden Knowledge -1991,  The Gap into Power: A Dark and Hungry God Arises -1993, The Gap into Madness: Chaos and Order -1994, The Gap into Ruin: This Day All Gods Die -1996). He also wrote a series of mysteries, The Man Who Killed His Brother (1980), The Man Who Risked His Partner (1984), The Man Who Tried to Get Away (1990) and The Man Who Fought Alone (2001) under the pseudonym of Reed Stephens, which was derived from his full name, Stephen Reeder Donaldson. According to Donaldson, who "always hated" writing under a false name, he was forced to by his publisher, Ballantine Books. Back then, apparently, the publisher felt “that readers would feel betrayed if books of such different genres were published under the name of a single author” (though, ironically, when the books were released under Donaldson’s real name in later years, they never caught on with the readers of either fantasy or mystery. While I don’t think this proves Ballantine right, it does reflect the thinking of that time when publishers made sure their bestselling authors stuck to what made them famous in the first place. But every writer must go where the muse takes them and sometimes they just have to bust out of the category publishers sometimes force them into -see Ann Rice and J.K. Rowling, both modern day authors faced with challenges of their evolutionary writing life –breaking out of the “brand” that made them household names).

Then in 2004, twenty-one years after White Gold Wielder, Stephen R. Donaldson released The Runes of the Earth, the first book of The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. Part of me wondered why, after two decades, Donaldson felt the need to revive this series (he was quoted at the time saying he always planned to continue the series, but felt he needed to become a "better writer."). While he was, by all accounts, a successful full-time writer, he also seemed to understand (unlike Brooks or Anthony) that all series must come to an end, and when I read White Gold Wielder, I felt he concluded the series. Sure, maybe I wondered what became of Linden (a character that became prominent in The Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant), his son Roger and his ex-wife Joan, but I never lost sleep over it. 

And for me personally, I had moved on from reading the genre. I spent so much of the 1980s trudging through it, I grew bored with the endless quests, plus by the 1990s, those series of books began to expand into multiple volumes (I still think that series in this genre should be no more than three books per cycle. Of course, there were –as always- a few exceptions to my three book rule, Harry Potter being one of them ), which meant spending years waiting between books. By the late 90’s and into the ‘naughts, I was expanding my reading beyond just fantasy and science fiction.

But when The Runes of the Earth came out in 2004, I pledged I would not read this new four book cycle until all the books where out so I could read them in one fell swoop.  But as thing always happen, I kept putting the series off. Though I bought the first two books in the new series, I stored them away, always pondering if I should go back and re-read the first six books in the series again (this is something I struggle with, much like Stephen King, I feel re-reading books is a bad use of my time –it means I’m missing out on other things). I missed book three in 2010 and since being out of the book business since September of 2011, I was unaware Donaldson completed the series last October with book four, The Last Dark.

So that brings us to today. While I have so many other books on my shelf –some as recent as The Goldfinch and the paperback version of Gone Girl –I’ve decided to forgo re-reading The First and Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant and plunge into these next four books that make up the final chronicles. Of course, Donaldson does give readers like me a “what’s gone before” synopsis of the first six books and I’ve decided that is all I need.

Now I hope to spend at least most of May and early June reading this series (I’ve got the new Stephen King, Mr. Mercedes and the next book in The Expanse series, Cibola Burn, by James S.A. Corey coming then).  The sad part of my life is that I will never have enough time to read everything I want because work, TV, the internet and friends will distract me. I hate it, but the reality is, as Lemony Snicket said “It is likely I will die next to a pile of things I was meaning to read.”

Books: Creativity, Inc. by Ed Catmull (2014)

After the success of Star Wars, George Lucas became interested in using computer graphics for the follow-up film, The Empire Strikes Back. While the cost was prohibitive at the time, what he saw in the early examples of computer effects used in the 1973 movie Westworld and its sequel, he understood that it was still possible, so he decided to create his own graphic department. Therefore, a search went out to find anyone who could help the writer/director accomplish this goal. Eventually, in 1979 they found Ed Catmull, who studied computer graphics at NYIT. He was hired on at Lucasfilm to teach and lead the newly created The Graphics Group (it would be renamed Pixar later), a division within Lucasfilm that also included the FX company Industrial Light and Magic. While Catmull had the knowledge to help Lucas out, he had never managed a team before. One of his first road blocks was the film editor crew, who not only resisted any type of change, but did not believe the computer would be able to do anything more than what they were already doing. He realized then that a transformative idea, no matter how good, would be useless unless the people who had to implement the change fully embraced the concept. 

The Graphic Group's first attempt to create a fully computer generated image story was the 1984 short film The Adventures of André and Wally B. However, several structural issues stymied the production team and no one seemed to know how to solve them. It was not until Catmull hired John Lasseter –let go at Walt Disney Animation for thinking outside the box- who would help transform the team at Lucasfilm. Lasseter, with his never waning energy and his open enthusiasms about the future of animation (like Catmull, he wanted to make a film made on computer) brought the one missing link that could prevent a fully CGI movie being made -its lack of expressive tension. By adding a second character to the main one, this changed the dynamic of the short and introduced what all films truly need to connect to an audience –emotion. It became clear at this early stage to Catmull then, his dream of a fully CGI movie was now within reach, if only because they overcame its biggest obstacle -using the same tool live action films have done for a hundred years: make people care about the characters. This emotional arc is the one main narrative device that would play out through all of Pixar’s films in the future, which is probably why they have been so successful (but I also believe that character driven films are more rewarding than plot driven ones).

Still, even after the shorts creative success, Lucas admitted he was not interested in making a fully computer animated movie –this new format was only supposed to be a mere tool to enhance live-action. A noted example of what he meant was the 1985’s Young Sherlock Holmes, which became the first film to include a fully photorealistic animated character -a knight composed of elements from a stained glass window. So in 1986 he spun it off the renamed Pixar to the legendary Steve Jobs -who was between careers at that time, having been let go from Apple and was still working on NeXT. While Jobs provided the capital, Catmull faced his first real dilemma while working with him. Lucas was always somewhat hands-off boss; he seemed to understand that talent did not need constant attention and understood that creative people need space to create. But Steve Jobs was someone completely different. "When I don't see eye to eye with somebody," Jobs had told him, "I just take the time to explain it better, so they understand the way it should be." That philosophy is great, in some ways, but in a business world where ego and rules of engagement are paramount, Jobs was a thorn in many peoples side (that he was proved right on most things showed what a revolutionary mind he truly had). Now Catmull had to deal with him directly and he wondered how he was going to deal with a man who might fight him on anything and everything Pixar was bound to do towards the future road that would lead to Toy Story.

Of course, ultimately Jobs backed down if only because Catmull eventually understood how to work with him, along with his wide personality. Sure, it would take time, but as he writes, "Steve had a remarkable knack for letting go of things that didn't work. If you were in an argument with him, and you convinced him that you were right, he would instantly change his mind." As an example, Jobs wanted to be heavily involved with the direction of the animation studio then, but he came to the realization that while he knew many things on many subjects, he was not, in the end, a filmmaker. What Catmull needed was his innate abilities and shrewd business sense and when he came to that conclusion, he became Pixar's biggest supporter when negotiations began with Disney that would lead to Toy Story’s release in 1995 and everything beyond.

While the success of Toy Story marked a turning point in film animation, Catmull realized there was a serious problem lurking within Pixar, something he had never seen before. When it came to begin work on A Bug’s Life, he was astounded to find that the production managers were not lining up to come back, as the battle lines between them and the artists and technicians had been drawn (no pun intended). Moreover, it came down to one simple fact - that the bean counters, while doing their jobs, were impeding good filmmaking. However, no one, not one artist or manager, came to Catmull to explain this during the chaotic atmosphere that existed when making Toy Story. Moreover, this type of mentality exists in almost every company because people fear that their constructive criticism is an attack on someone's ability more than on a reason for the teams disconnect. Therefore, he implemented an open door policy that said anyone should and could be able to talk to anyone else, anytime without fear of reprimand and reprisals. A very candor policy that, while a great theory for many companies, is never successful because no one actually thinks it can work. Nevertheless, it did and it successfully changed the culture within Pixar.

There are many bumps along the way as the animation company grows; new issues are addressed, and they face many new challenges that include the acquisition of the company by Disney in 2006 and the death of Steve Jobs in 2011. At the core though is the belief that employees will work hard for you if you allow them a proper culture in which to accomplish goals. That upper management needs to allow everyone to rock the boat occasionally, to have a voice (because you can treat your employees like servants, they will love you, tell them they are servants, and they will rebel).

What Catmull suggests -how candor and transparency might help all sorts of businesses- is broadly painted here, but I like the idea that (especially) being candid with all folks within a company, including the upper management, which can be the key to a more productive company. I mean, living off the wits of your staff in not called leadership.

Putting "Wolf Hall" down

Have you ever been with a group of people who tell you that The Big Bang Theory is the funniest show on TV but you just don't get it?

Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall is that way for me. So many people think it's brilliant while I can't contain enough interest to finish it. Which is very rare -I generally never try to put a book down without finishing it. But there are pages and pages that go on where I'm not sure who is actually speaking.

Unfortunately I'm giving up on this book at page 237 -which is about a third of the way through it. Though, I'm really disappointed in myself that I'm unable to get into this book -so many critics and book people have raved about it and it won the prestigious Booker Prize (the British version of the Pulitzer) in 2009. I just found the prose exceptionally dense and confusing. 

Moving on.

Books: Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple (2013)

“Bernadette Fox is notorious. To her Microsoft-guru husband, she's a fearlessly opinionated partner; to fellow private-school mothers in Seattle, she's a disgrace; to design mavens, she's a revolutionary architect, and to 15-year-old Bee, she is a best friend and, simply, Mom. Then Bernadette disappears. It began when Bee aced her report card and claimed her promised reward: a family trip to Antarctica. But Bernadette's intensifying allergy to Seattle—and people in general—has made her so agoraphobic that a virtual assistant in India now runs her most basic errands. A trip to the end of the earth is problematic. “

The book is told in a unusual format, what’s called a “epistolary.” Basically, it unfolds through masses of email messages, along with chunks of official documents and (not so) secret correspondences (I’ve encountered this style one time before, in Steve Kluger’s brilliantly hilarious 1998 novel Last Days of Summer).  While it may distract some folks, the book gets going very quickly and any reader will find themselves wrapped up in the narrative.

One of the biggest strengths of Where'd You Go, Bernadette is that it’s often weird, funny and sometimes serious all at the time. And because author Maria Semple's background is in television comedy (she wrote for Arrested Development) her zingers are spot on, as she gets some great digs at Seattle, Canadians, self-help culture and the our odd private school system ,“a place where compassion, academics and global connectitude join together to create civic-minded citizens of a sustainable and diverse planet,” and where there are only three grades: S for “Surpasses Excellence,” A for “Achieves Excellence” and W for “Working Towards Excellence.” 

The sad part is, as much as Semple pokes fun at it, somewhere this is going on.

Books: The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (2012)

The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night.

Also known as the Night Circus, it is the brainchild of a theatrical producer named M Chandresh Christophe Lefèvre, at the subtle bidding of a mysterious man in grey known as Mr. A. H---; (though his first name appears to be Alexander) but it is also the creation of Marco and Celia, both of who, over the years, become passionately embroiled in its performances and acts, as well as, inevitably, with each other. 

Unbeknownst to them, though, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love—a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands. 

While the stakes appear to be high, ultimately I cared less for the lovers and only kept turning the pages for the world that author Erin Morgenstern has created here. Primarily set in some alternate world of the late 19^th century, where magic appears to exist, she crafts a brilliant world of smells, textures and even tastes. While the overreaching tone of the book is darkness (and the Circus, which forgoes what we traditionally know of them -primarily it’s wild color tones-, is created in black and white, a perfect parable to the game in which both Marco and Celia have been caught up in), she brings a brightness to her world that has advantages of working it's way into the readers soul.

Also, the supporting players, such as clockmaker Friedrick Thissen, contortionist Tsukiko, the redheaded twins Poppet and Widget and even Bailey Clarke seem to interest the author more, as they come fully realized at times -more so than the lovers. Still, it’s a fully realized alternate reality and very enjoyable novel that moves to its rather predictable ending –but that, in the end, did not really bother me.

Books: Dark Places by Gillian Flynn (2009)

In Dark Places, Gillian Flynn’s follow-up to her harrowing Sharp Objects, she gives us another highly dysfunctional woman and family. And in many ways an even stronger book than her first, but its way overlong and pulls a bizarre twist ending that sort of defies believability. 

The story fluctuates between present and the past. Libby Day is a 31 year-old woman, who at the age of seven survived an attack on her house that left her Mother Patty, sisters Debby and Michelle, dead. Her older brother, Ben, a sullen, depressive teenager at the time, is convicted of their murders and sent to prison for the rest of his life. In the present, Libby has reached a point –now 24 years later- where interest in her family’s death has waned. She’s become petulant, mean (which she admits in the opening paragraph) and has never gotten over her sticky-finger problem (which is good, as that plays out in the end). She is also nearly broke, having gone through the $300,000 that was donated to her after the tragic murders. But happenstance (and only in novels, TV and films does this happen) comes in the form of man called Lyle, who is a huge fan of true crime stories and belongs to a group called the Kill Club, basically an underground convention for folks who watch way too much real crime shows and books, and who believe Ben is innocent of the crime. He offers her money in hopes she’ll attend a gathering of folks whom believe in her brothers innocence if she can provide information (and family mementos) to understand what led up to the murders, including getting in contact with her father, Runner, who has vanished. 

The other part of the book is a detailed look into the day of Libby’s family murders. Here we see Patty as a single mother of four, losing her family farm to foreclosure, trying (and yet not) to feed her kids, keep the peace between all of them (which she fails at miserably) and keep former husband Runner Day away from them. But like a bad penny, he reappears at the worst time, and Ben, in need of a father figure, finds his lost parent not that helpful, which forces the 15 year-old into a world he is not prepared to deal with.  

Much like Sharp Objects, the premise of Dark Places is hardly original –I would venture to say its premise comes from a much earlier time in history, in particularly the nior books of the 1950s and 60s where authors fictionalized real events (like Truman Captoe’s In Cold Blood). But Flynn is a strong writer, with a great prose style and a desire, and appears not to care that she's not to made anyone of her characters remotely likable. And Libby, much like Camille in Sharp Objects, has a distant personality and Flynn seems to take pleasure in knowing her readers will find it quite difficult to like this main protagonist. 

It’s an emotionally draining novel as well. Nothing seems to go right for anyone. While the Day family seems particularly cursed (to a point I felt, at times, was a bit ridiculous), the folks caught in their wake all have personal demons and destructive personalities. Also, I feel the darkness that Flynn want's to evoke goes on way too long and made me ponder just how much more shit she was going to pile onto all of her characters, but in particular brother Ben and mother Patty. I could've done with less.

While Flynn did set up early the possibility that Ben was not the killer, the reveal was silly, and really out of nowhere (again, shades of Agatha Christie). And then there is the issue with coincidence that really pissed me off (though again, only in novels, TV and movies would this happen). Though, in some reflection, perhaps the mystery aspect was not important. Perhaps it was just a cover for readers who want to feel good about themselves that they don’t lead such a horrible life.

I still want to read Gone Girl, but I think I’ll wait a bit. Back to back nihilistic novels about broken people have made me feel a bit depleted.