[HPFGU-OTChatter] TDIR, Eddings, gifted children

[John Walton]

Tabouli wrote:

> As for David Eddings, I read him on two levels.  I don my
> bulletproof vest and grin sheepishly at John before launching my attack....
> (Note that I am basing my comments on the Belgariad and the Malloreon, as I
> gave up on his other stuff very fast after seeing him reproduce the same
> quest-for-magic-blue-stone plot in a new dress for the third time).

Ah, but the third time has gods which are so much cooler :D

> The first level, on which I first read him at 13 or so, sees him as great fun,
> with amusing characters, witty dialogue, an interesting fantasy world, and a
> rollicking, lively pace.  On the second level, I can't help but wince at his
> cartoon-like simplicity.  It's like Rambo or something: the good guys
> slaughter bad guys by the hundred for fun and everyone applauds and the
> narrator approves, but let one good guy get slain and they all shriek EVIL and
> swear vengeance for all eternity.

I don't think it's quite as black-and-white as that, but I can see how you
might perceive it as such.

> Practically all of the female characters
> seem to be beautiful (or at least, if not, defined by their lack thereof).

But in spite of that, they do have flaws.

> The east-west good-evil Cold War-ish allegory is breathtaking in its black and
> whiteness.  

In the beginning, yes. But in the Malloreon he does put a very human face on
the people who, in the Belgariad, were "The Enemy", and shows that The Enemy
is someone completely different.

> Sex is handled with dainty, prudish white gloves, and Bible belt
> morality is applied, even by hardened, streetwise characters for whom this
> seems highly unlikely (e.g. why would Polgara be embarrassed about sex after
> 4000 years of delivering babies and setting up marriages and curing
> infertility?).

I think the prudishness is supposed to be funny. In _Polgara_the_Sorceress_
it points out why she seems so prudish. It's quite amusing when you realise
why :D


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Don't join the book burners. Do not think you are going to conceal thoughts
by concealing evidence that they ever existed. -Dwight D Eisenhower

John Walton -- john at walton.vu
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