Part I Lessons
Part I Chapter 1
Resentment is unquenchable
Petty tyrants like Homer are ubiquitous
Resentment can uncover secrets and hidden information
Some secrets seem to burn with the desire to be shared
There is a thing called 'the art' with no artist
Not giving a secret to a petty tyrant leads to violence
Victory after violent conduct leads to quests performed alone
Part I chapter 2
Hedonistic sex does not slake resentment at all
Hedonism locks out and prevents intimacy
Hedonism locks out and prevents intimacy
Following no direction leads to getting lost and then either death or enlightenment
Part I chapter 3
There is a power that must not be polluted. It has a geography and is called the Sea of Quiddity
The quester must first evolve and purify himself to be worthy of what he seeks
Part I chapter 4
Don't take a job from a man who is manipulating your weaknesses
Don't take a job from a man who offers you triumphant victory over those you resent
Hiring a man less resentful than the boss can create an enemy and a war
Hiring a man less resentful than the boss can create an enemy and a war
Plan thoroughly first before destroying your accomplishments and your notes
It appears almost as if an over-arching power seeks to match equal combatants in deadly conflict
Part I chapter 5
A resentful tyrant and clever subordinate have the potential to become blood enemies
The innocent, when abandoned and betrayed, may still try to return to even a ruined home
Part I chapter 6
Fantasies and primal fears are natural opponents who gather and then fight each other
Evenly matched enemies can fight past exhaustion for years, as did the Titans and Olympic gods
Clive Barker doesn't really presaent these as "truths", axioms, or "lessons". He presents them as situations and characters. I think readers observe these situations as characters.
ReplyDeleteTo call them "lessons" i think you need to say: "If you've been alive for 40 years AND you've been paying attention, these are the lessons you can draw from this book."
I'll bet over 90% of readers wouldn't view any of these, or at least most of these, as lessons.
The "lessons" are the values of the implied narrator of the story (not necessarily Barker himself). The purpose of the lessons is to blow back to posting 37 when we are done to see if the narration is reliable as a model. If it is, then the GEORGRAPHY of QUIDDITY is probably reliable also, a central point to this blog.
ReplyDeleteTG&SS readers, and the blog readers, don't need to smoke out every lesson nor agree entirely. But if the lessons click and make sense, then the narration is sound for making inferances.