Horoscope of Stephen R. Donaldson
Lord Foul's Bane https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PldOJpgpWs
Thomas Covenant Chronicles series (all 6 books): Basically 1 bizarre
inverted cynical anti-hero version of Lord of the Rings where instead of
a Hobbit ring bearer, its a modern American man who gets transported to
bizarre Fantasy Land. I don't know what kept me reading it past the
4th book, and then the 5th book, but since the whole "1 Tree Island
sank" and the inhabitants near there basically were assholes, I decided
to never read most 6th book "White Gold Wielder" except for the
absolute final confrontation Ending part. Instead of the Epic sense of
urgency of "The Fellowship of the Ring" to destroy Sauron, there's
this relentless sense that Thomas Covenant thinks of himself as an
unworthy self loathing freak living in a dream world, reluctant as
F---k, and so he is 1 miserable bastard, a "collapsed narcissist",
afraid of his own great unpredictable power with the ring, who is
dragging his feet until the bitter end. I ended up perceiving Lord Foul
is more like Oderus Urungus who just wanted to have fun with Thomas
Covenant rather than some classic Villain Uber Lich hooded Grim Reaper
(like Sauron in LOTR) . The spoof series of videos of dramatizing
"Lord Foul's Bane" called "Fantasy Bedtime Hour" was classic and quite
possibly the best thing the whole "Thomas Covenant Unbeliever" series
needed, completely with Stephen R. Donaldson interviewing. I highly
recommend everyone who wants to read "Lord Foul's Bane" watch "Fantasy
Bedtime Hour" too.
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Curmudgeon in the Cellar https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rb9m3O_X_Hs&t=879s
14:34 I never knew anything about the "Harold Shea" novels until you mentioned them but took the time to at least find the Wikipedia entry on "Green Magician" where it notes the Dragon Magazine June 1978 which I suppose you made happen. How does that compare with Stephen R. Donaldson's work? The original Question I asked last time started asking what you thought of any of Stephen R. Donaldson's work? far from limited "The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant Unbeliever".. and was kind of hoping you'd answer that too. I'm pretty ambivalent to whether or not some DM wants to play an alternate Fantasy universe what you call ["fishbout of water" storytelling; genre-mashing;] into their rpg game. Just in case you or your audience is not famliar with The Thomas Covenant series, Here's sort of a long winded spoiler IMO "The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant", its sort of an inverted bizarre twisted sarcastic idea of Lord of the Rings. Instead of the Epic sense of urgency of "The Fellowship of the Ring" to destroy Sauron, there's this relentless sense that Thomas Covenant (the protaganist) thinks of himself as an unworthy self loathing freak living in a dream world, extremely reluctant. And so he is 1 miserable bastard, a "collapsed narcissist", afraid of his own great unpredictable power with the ring, who is dragging his feet until the bitter end. The spoof series of videos of dramatizing "Lord Foul's Bane" called "Fantasy Bedtime Hour" was classic and quite possibly the best thing the whole "Thomas Covenant Unbeliever" series needed, completely with Stephen R. Donaldson interviewing. I highly recommend everyone who wants to read "Lord Foul's Bane" watch "Fantasy Bedtime Hour" too. Even though I tried to read and appreciate that series in my youth way back in the 1980's as best as I could, and I certainly had a morbid fascination with it then, Its taken me well into adulthood to really appreciate the genius of Stephen R. Donaldson's sense for stark contrast irony between a man tormented with the stigma of (leprosy or any bizarre condition where someone feels shunned and stigmatized as bizarre and weird ) with the smooth sailing life situation of the beautiful real optimal, and the fantasy/reality "beautiful ideal ethical moral sense for the beauty of "The Land" and appreciation of the Natural World and the environment, which ultimately the "anti-hero" feels responsible to protect and save very heroically.
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