Date: Fri, 24 May 2002 09:30:22 -0500
Subject: Re: (urth) Why I don't like TBOTSS
From: Adam Stephanides 

on 5/31/02 3:36 PM, Andy Robertson at andywrobertson@clara.co.uk wrote:

> In my opinion TBOTSS is a far more serious book.

I'm not sure the contrast between the two is as great as you make out; see
below.

> It is about real, and therefore limited, human beings;  not a demigod.

While Horn may not have the miraculous powers of Sev (though he has weird
talents of his own), I think that psychologically Sev is just as human as
Horn, if not more so.

> It is about grown-ups - people who have families and children;  not a
> fornicating psychic adolescent.

Well, the "fornicating" part certainly applies to Horn.  And while he has a
family and children, he's rarely depicted as a family man.  We see very
little of Nettle, and Horn doesn't behave much like a father to Hide and
Hoof when he's traveling with them.  And he doesn't give much thought to his
family on his travels, iirc, aside from his obsession with Sinew, and
throwaway remarks about how he misses Nettle.

> It is about communities, and the price and failure of building a community;
> not about a roving free agent.

Again, while Horn passes through communities, as did Sev, he is not
committed to any of them; apart from his unwilling Rajandom, he basically is
a "roving free agent."

> In many respects it is dumber, duller.   But that is the price of it being
> more intimate and rougher-grained.

I'm not sure why the one should follow from the other.  There are certainly
tons of books about ordinary humans, families and communities which are
neither dumb nor dull.

--Adam



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