[LMB] What is wrong with Thomas Covenant books OT:

[Mark Allums]

Tracy MacShane wrote:
>> I don't really get the women/men dichotomy people observe about the
>> books.  Aside from the r*pe that takes place in the first book, I mean.
>>   Perhaps someone would be willing to give it a go at explaning.
> 
> Well, that's exactly the event in the first book that has many women
> throwing it at the wall. It's not the rape per se - although, as a woman,
> you're generally more likely to find that event challenging on a
> *personal* level - it's the self-pitying way TC went about making some
> poor uninvolved woman the receptacle of his effed-up-ness. Just the
> assumption that that was an "understandable" action on his part gives me
> the icks. And that attitude persevered throughout (as far as I read,
> personally).

That event happens early enough on in the narrative that I don't 
understand why someone would quit reading because of it.  If you read 
even a little further, it becomes clear Covenant regrets it.  He 
continues to regret it for the rest of the series.  It was certainly 
*not* "understandable".  It was inexcusable.  I think one 
mischaracterizes teenagers to think that you have to be a teen to enjoy 
the book.  It's insulting to assume that a teen is incapable of 
understanding what wrong with the situation.  I think that the book 
explores some fantasy tropes that appeal to, shall we say, 
"inexperienced" readers, such as Traveling to An Alternate World, the 
Ring of Power, and the Creator God Restricted by The Rules, and such 
like.  Those were what appealed to me at 16.  Not the self-pity of a 
miserable anti-hero.

--Mark Allums