Re: Thomas Covenant series

Nicky <nicky.matthews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Helen Hall wrote:
In article <1146475601.765940.288310@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Nicky <nicky.matthews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes

Jacey Bedford wrote:
In message <ddfr-941F65.14143930042006@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, David
Yes, I agree. I have to care abut the protagonist/s. Otherwise why
bother reading?

Oh I think you have to care about the protagonist - in the sense of
wanting to know what happens next, but I don't conflate that with
'liking' : they are quite different.

I don't really see that they are. I'm not someone who wants to read
about a nasty person in the hope that they'll get their comeuppance. So
I only want to know what happens next if I care for the person it's
happening to.

Well I cared about what happened both to Kevin and his mother in the
'We have to talk about Kevin' but I didn't like either of them.
Similarly I was interested in reading about Princess Diana even though
I didn't like
what I knew of her.

I was completely *un*interested in Princess Diana for the same
reason (I disliked her from the start -- I'm probably better at
judging character than I realise, because she turned out to be
exactly the sort of person she seemed to me to be).

I can be intrigued, interested and curious about
all kinds
of people, wanting to know and understnd their story without
liking/disliking ever entering
the equation.

I can't. A certain morbid fascination with the bare facts, perhaps,
is the most I can cope with. Certainly not a story.

It won't come as a surprise that I'm in the "can't stand Covenant,
and never bought anything else by Donaldson" camp. I did read
all three of the first volumes, and that was after vowing not to
buy the second after reading the first. But, unfortunately, I got
all three as a xmas present. (So I have two of the first volume.)

I think I was hoping Covenant would improve (or get beaten into
a pulp by the baddies, as he deserved) but it was a long time ago
that I read it -- and, needless to say, it's not a book I've re-read.

Jonathan
.

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