From: cash@convex.com (Peter Cash)
Subject: Re: _Tigana_ question
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 1992 22:49:10 GMT
Organization: The Instrumentality
X-Disclaimer: This message was written by a user at CONVEX Computer
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In article <darknite.714173259@camelot> darknite@camelot.bradley.edu (John S. Novak III) writes:
>In <1992Aug18.173350.4681@news.eng.convex.com> cash@convex.com (Peter Cash) writes:

>>Possible mild spoilers follow


>>Did he act out of love for the Palm--or out of love for his concubine?
>>(What's her name...it's on the tip of my tongue!) 

>Dianora.
>I'm not sure.  For one thing, I'm pretty sure that he didn't
>realize that she was Tiganese-- she seemed terrified of losing
>his love if she ever brought the subject up.

>I had the impression that the _only_ reason he released the spell
>on Tigana (and everything else he had ever done) was because
>Alberico and the other bunch of Palm wizards were going to
>exhaust him, bend his mind back, and if Alberico had his way,
>suck his grey matter out and spit it back at him.  Sacrifice to
>save the Western Palm, yes.  Sacrifice to save Dianora, yes.
>Sacrifice to save Tigana?  I remain unconvinced.  IMHO.

No, I think you're correct about all this--certainly Brandin had no love
for Tigana. I meant to suggest something different--that Brandin's decision
to make a new life for himself on the Palm was partly due to his coming to
regard Dianora as someone he could share his life _with_. (The other half
of the picture, of course, was the betrayal by his wife and son; this made
it easier to turn his back on them and on his old home.) 

>I feel such sympathy with Brandin because he could have been, and
>except for the Tigana episode, probably was a very good person.
>I've said before, his conquest of the Palm probably would have
>been a _good_ thing, taking an historical perspective.

I don't know about "very good..."; doesn't a person have to have a good
deal of evil in him to act like Brandin did? Sure, there was
provocation--but his response was out of proportion, and showed something
about the character of the man. Even his revenge against his son's killer
was excessive. 

(Hmm. Do you get the impression that the extremity of Brandin's measures
against Tigana was partly the result of guilt? Did he perhaps blame himself
for getting his son killed?) 

>And Alessan, too, was a good person, forced into atrocities (like
>binding the wizard Erlein to him-- on a smaller scale, that
>action was perhaps just as bad as what Brandin did.  

I'm not sure I agree. Couldn't one argue that Alessan had the _right_ to
ask for Erlein's service? Wasn't this more or less one of the things one
implicitly agrees to in return for practicing wizardry in the Palm?

Still, it was a repellent thing to do.

> (Does it
>ruin the sense of wonder if I ask whether Alessan could have
>bound Alberico or Brandin to him in that fashion?)

Good question; this hadn't occurred to me. I believe the answer is that
this proviso applies only to wizards of the Palm; foreign wizards are not
affected. (There seems to be something special about Palm wizards--remember
that the cutting of the fingers is said to "bind" the wizard to the Palm.)




-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
             |      Die Welt ist alles, was Zerfall ist.     |
Peter Cash   |       (apologies to Ludwig Wittgenstein)      |cash@convex.com
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