In Chapter 11 of the Book of Three, Tarin really
goes from being a boy to starting to become a
man. He's already at the edge of manhood, which
I believe they talked about earlier. Dolben tells
him, if you ever reach manhood, which the way
you're acting right now, it's likely that it's
not going to happen. I just started re -listening
to the book to catch up and to get back in this
place and orient myself in it more steadily.
You know, it's funny. He tells him, like, You
should become a man, but what you're doing, the
way you're operating, I'm not sure you're going
to make it. But if you do, you should be good.
Hopefully. That's the plan. That's what they've
been raising him for, Cole and Dolben. So he's
out on his own. Things have been horrible. They
think that Gwydion is dead because how could
you survive being crushed under a castle? They've
decided to take the journey on their own. There
was the whole confrontation with Flurry Flam,
and now Taran has had time to reflect on everything,
and he realizes that he doesn't want to be a
hero. He wants the quiet life. He gets the chance
to get rid of... He gets the chance to be cowardly.
I don't even know. I don't even know if it's
cowardly, honestly. Gergie breaks his leg getting
honey for them, a honeycomb. I don't even know
how much honey is in there from a tree because
they're starving to death and everybody's trying
to find food. And Gergie breaks his leg. Gergie
tells him, go ahead and kill me and save yourselves.
I'm worthless to you now. We've heard that Gergie's
issue is that he's neither man nor beast, so
he has no place. Which I think his liminal existence
as being neither fish nor fowl is what made him
villainous in the beginning of the book. Because
he has no loyalty. Beasts kill other beasts to
eat them. Men kill beasts to eat them. Beasts
kill men to eat them? Eh, sometimes. So why not
kill Tarn and eat him as well? He's coming from
this perspective of he's neither thing. He's
rejected by all sides. So what's it matter? Has
he actually killed a person eating them before?
We don't know. Unlike Gollum, who we know ate
babies. It's horrible. That's very heavily implied,
if not directly stated. I'm pretty sure it's
just very heavily implied. Anyway. Gergi exists
in a more noble place, you know, a less horrible
place than Gollum does. But there's a lot of
similarities between them. And even the relationship
between Tarn and Gergi and Frodo and Gollum,
there's some similarities there. But my point
is that in this chapter, in chapter 11, Tarn
really makes steps forward on his journey to
manhood. He has the opportunity to just kill
Gergi and get him out of the way. He's never
liked Gergi. He's wanted to hurt him. He's fought
him. You know, Gergi, the first time they met,
Gergi had his hands around his throat. So, you
know, it's understandable, but he got past that.
And he's reached a place like Gwydion was at,
where he had an affection for, a care for, a
pity for Gergi, really. And he pities him here,
and he chooses to spare his life. And thanks
for that, Gergi gives him... his helping of the
honeycomb and tauren rejects it and he says no
you take it it's yours you've more than earned
it and they smile at each other and the the wolfhound
smell doesn't bother him anymore and what am
i saying manhood is manhood is not killing somebody
when you could kill them and another man might
decide to kill that's not what i'm saying uh
i guess this manhood this maturity that he's
gaining that tauren is gaining is the ability
to persist through hardship, and to accept nuance,
and to hold contradictory things together. And
I find that to be really interesting. Yeah, I
find that to be really interesting, and this
is kind of a low chapter, like it's not the most
exciting chapter, but there's a lot of character
stuff that's going on here that's really important.
There's a lot of deep... deeply seated emotional
things like things are coming it's not a flashy
chapter at all but things are coming from a very
emotional place and there's a lot of emotional
maturity going on here there's a lot of like
truth on display and it's being shown through
some you know conflict they're running from the
cauldron board and everything but it's not like
attention grabbing and like oh it's one of my
favorite chapters but some of the favorite some
of the best things that happen in the book happen
here in chapter 11 so that's that's good um Like
it's a necessary transitional chapter that moves
things along in a way, at least interiorly. I
mean, they are getting closer to their goal and
they're getting away from the Cauldronborn, which
is good. But what it does really is it shows
this growth in Tarn because he's presented with,
you know, his reaction to Gergi in multiple ways.
Like there's multiple facets of that that are
examined. It's his comparison to Flutter. Flutter
says he would have killed Gergi to keep going,
but it's not really true. We know Flüter, it's
like Gwydion's up here, Tarin's down here, and
Flüter's somewhere in between. And even Flüter,
you know, he lies that he would do that. We don't
know what Gwydion would do. I would think he
would spirit gurgle, just based on what I know
from him. But... It's interesting because we
don't get, like, clean, clear answers. And Tarin
feels confused and overwhelmed by all these things,
but he's persisting and he's going forward. And
I really appreciate that. Something from Ursula
K. Le Guin book, I think it's the first Earthsea
book, which I don't remember the title of, is
there's a statement that manhood is patience
and mastery is nine times... manhood or nine
times patience and that's really something that
sticks with me um i haven't analyzed it but it
feels emotionally true it feels very good to
say and uh yeah that's something i i need to
work on for sure but it's wonderful to see things
like that you know like i don't want to say didactic
is popping in my mind but i don't know that's
the right word to say it's lovely for me to see
these fantasy stories these adventure stories
for kids holding these ideas and offering them
to these children to these boys reading these
books because boys need these lessons they need
these messages and they need to see male role
models who are able to be tough and fierce and
compassionate and Self -sacrificing while also
keeping themselves going and working for the
sake of others and I just feel like all of that
is being done here and it's Lovely, but it's
not, you know, the height of excitement. So...
I guess if I have to complain about this chapter
or critique it at all, it's that this could have
been done in a more exciting way. But, I mean,
they were running for their lives. There were
things going on. It's just, yeah, it's like a
more subdued kind of thing. And maybe just the
way this one played out wasn't as great as it
could have been. So, there's my criticism for
Chapter 11 of the Book of Three. I would love
to know what you thought about it. Check the
pinned comment where you can find more of my
discussion of the Book of Three, and maybe some
bonus content as well. For Chapter 10, I made
some really great bonus content. It's over on
the blog. You can find it through the pinned
comment. over there um definitely always check
the comments there's gonna be good stuff there
on youtube and then if you're on the bin if you're
on the blog post it'll be at the very bottom
underneath everything in a little bonus section
so i don't know what i'll do for the bonus section
for this one but for sure uh these are my thoughts
on it and i'm really enjoying the book i love
the book i ended up finishing it all the way
through and then i restarted it and it just started
the book is so great and then to come here it's
just it's a necessary transition point and it's
i guess it could have been executed better but
i don't know how necessarily and that's that's
where i stand on chapter 11 so until next time
folks take care be well this is mj with fortress
fiction signing out