<br><br><div><span class="gmail_quote">On 6/12/07, <b class="gmail_sendername">Bob Miller</b> <<a href="mailto:bob_bageera@hotmail.com">bob_bageera@hotmail.com</a>> wrote:</span><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<br><br>There is and has been a lot of legitimate, quite justified, criticism of<br>Able and thus, to a lesser degree, of TWK. Up front, I think it is the best<br>book published so far in this new century, one of the best coming oif age
<br>books since Rudyard Kipling blessed the world with Kim.<br><br>To me, Able was telling the tale ex post facto and not hiding any of his<br>errors or sins. To me, the ascension to Skai was a reward for one area of<br>
growth/progress. To me, the return was for completion ( or as my wife tells<br>me, closure). To me, the justification, beyond the take away the breath<br>scenes, beyond the personal growth he led or inspired or acted as a catalyst
<br>for Puck and Uns and Svon was the scene where in Disiri came for him before<br>the final dustup. Herself begged Able to come back with her to Aelfrice and<br>he said no. And in this one moment in the dark and wind and the dirt Able
<br>was justified. He returned to the people to whom he had assumed, even if it<br>were for Disiri's sake, duty and obligation. And he met those obligations.<br>And in denying/turning down the ascent, for a second time, to Skai Able
<br>became more. To a collector of trophies or a scorekeeper, Able became less<br>because he "descended". Because he accepted his cup, "do what you can or<br>else do what you must", Michael from beyond Skai has come for him and his
<br>lover that his love has made able to ascend. So, to me this book was about<br>growth and the greater rewards gained than would have been from the "simple"<br>completion of the task.<br><br>As an aside, or because I couldn't figure out where to put it in my
<br>meanderings above, throughout TWK I was reminded again and again of the<br>scene in Zelazny's Lord of Light where Sam told Taraka that he fought him<br>because he was a man, and being a man sometimes did aspire to more than the
<br>belly and the phallus.</blockquote><div><br>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.
<br> </div><br></div><br>