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<pre>And what about <i class="moz-txt-slash"><span class="moz-txt-tag">/</span>The Wizard Knight<span class="moz-txt-tag">/</span></i>? The Aelf could be toys
in the hands of evil humans if the humans realized it, just
as humans sometimes are for Lothur.
(But then the whole non-Christian deism of TWK is strange.
Humans seem to be at the bottom instead of in the middle.)
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> I think that was the point. Human degeneracy had caused
them to be
enslaved by their lowest<br>
> instincts. Humanity ought to have been seeking
to serve the ideals of Valfather and then Michael's <br>
> and then discover
the ideals that are even higher still.<br>
<br>
I agree with that.<br>
<br>
> Due to their enslavement to Arnthor<br>
<br>
He's not a good ruler (although not such a bad one, in
Able's judgement), but I don't see that people are enslaved
to him--certainly not humanity as a whole.<br>
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He's a figure. Everyone in the story is within his realm IIRC.<br>
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> (a dragon in disguise from a realm
two levels lower),<br>
<br>
Half-dragon? Is that ever made clear?<br>
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I thought it was clear that Arnthor, his sister, and Garsecg/Setr
were actually dragons in the lower world, Muspel. They
simultaneously exist there as dragons. Humanity Rule by Dragons is a
figure, I think, of a man ruled by his base instincts: sex, food,
acquisition.<br>
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> even Aelfrice (representing lower instincts but
higher than those that had enslaved humanity) was > also
enslaved by
those instincts and hence rebelled -- because humans had
relinquished
the ideals<br>
> necessary to hold the beings of Aelfrice in awe. <br>
<br>
> This is a picture of a man with his priorities upside
down.<br>
<br>
The Seven Worlds are a picture of a man? Not, maybe, a
society?<br>
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Well, to the extent that society is an extrapolation of the people
within it, yeah. But the book is about following "knightly ideals",
and one needs a society to act within in order to become a knight.
So it works better I think if the figure is individualized. Able is
us, in a sense. And Mythgarthr is Able.<br>
<br>
(*) I'm putting a mark about this next paragraph to reference it
later.<br>
<br>
I say the novel is a "figure", because it is the wrong way around to
ask "well, were the dragons were doing the wrong thing in attempting
to go to Mythgarthr? Were the people of Skai doing the wrong thing
in allowing Able to be a hero there?" It's not about them. It's a
novel about people not Overcyns.<br>
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> TWK might
well be viewed as the most moralistic novel Wolfe has ever
written.<br>
<br>
For one thing, it's one of the few where sexual fidelity
seems like it might be a good idea.<br>
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<br>
Well, that's part of it. Able conquers his Dragony baser instincts
for the sake of the instincts of Aelfrice -- What those greater
instincts are is not clear, but let's say they are Romantic Love and
Beauty. Ironically without those Dragony instincts, he would not
find the Aelfrice instincts appealing. By the same token, his love
for Aelfrice's Disiri causes him to relinquish a chance to be near
her and to live in Skai. The lower worlds, in their proper place,
drives the hero to the higher worlds.<br>
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> The
following is<br>
> a key scene: Valfather bowing before Michael, as
Michael
tells Abel that to be a knight he must be<br>
> able to command Disiri with
the same authority.<br>
<br>
Not to be a knight, unless I'm missing something. All I see
is that Michael is answering Able's question of how to find
her (TK, Ch. 44).<br>
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Well, it's true I'm speaking in terms of the intended message as I
see it. Michael says that in order true have Disiri, Able must learn
to summon her...that is he must be her her master...that is, he must
master his lower desires. In order to do that, he defeats his dragon
Grengarm and goes --the opposite direction from Aelfrice-- to Skai.
After that, he has become a knight Mythgarthr sense and can perform
all the duties of a knight that he has pledged. And *then* he can
summon Disiri.<br>
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It's certainly a key scene, and beautifully done, but I get
the feeling other scenes show humanity at the bottom. I
can't imagine that humans could impress the Overcyns and
trick them into worshiping us the way the Aelf have done to
some humans, or even pester Overcyns the way Uri and Baki
pester Able. Or that any human could transform an Overcyn
the way Disiri transforms Able. Both the Aelf and the
Overcyns have supernatural powers, but humans don't seem to
have any powers that the Aelf don't have (except summoning
them). Both the Overcyns and the Aelf have special leaders,
such as the Valfather or Disiri, but humanity doesn't--who
is the model for Aelf fathers or kings? Able presumably has
his priorities as straight as anyone, and his feelings
toward the Valfather are very different from his feelings
toward Arnthor, but he treats them the same way: respect,
obedience, and a little civil disobedience.So what's going
on?<br>
<br>
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<br>
See (*)<br>
Michael is on a quest because he has dishonored himself in some way.
So ostensibly it is possible for the people of each level to fail in
some way. But it's a novel about people. The Aelf and the Overcyns
are devices within that theme.<br>
<br>
u+169b<br>
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