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Homecoming (spoilers all RotE books) - Printable Version

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RE: Homecoming - Farseer - Jul-30-2011

I am SO with you Smiling , though the boy, Durgan, didn't actually become ill prior to his death (like the whole family that had died together with eyes all open, and a number of others who were discovered dead despite being otherwise healthy. Also much the same as others in the realm have attempted to just ‘let go’ despite being in good health). This is the passage regarding Durgan though:

Quote:A boy died last night. We were all shocked. He simply did not wake up this morning. He was a healthy lad of about twelve. Durgan was his name, and though he was only a tradesman's son, I share his parents' grief quite strongly. Petrus had followed him about, and seems very shaken by his death. He whispered to me that he dreamed last night that the land remembered him. When I asked what he meant by that, he could not explain, but said perhaps Durgan had died because this place didn't want him...

I still think there’s something else I saw in Farseer/Tawny Man that is truly ‘firm’ on it (proven by a fleeting reference to a fleeting character) but, yes, for me, this was one of the passages I’d read that continued to tweak my thinking that the possibility of reincarnation exists in the realm, but I’m still trying to sift through it. There are a couple of other Homecoming passages that added, and continue to add, to the feeling (which I will reference below).

I can’t decide if it IS reincarnation and the land remembers THEM, or that the land remembers them as ancestors of Elderlings, or just as ancestors of those who had lived in that part of the world before. It’s interesting that Petrus talks about it being ‘the land’ and not so much the city or the memory stone. Still, I sway toward reincarnation though I can’t put my finger on why. Possibly it has something to do with the whole ‘Wheel of Time’ thing and mention of the way society continues to do the same thing, make the same mistakes until the wheel juts out and is placed on another course.

I also can’t get past how many of the 'remembering' experiences remind me of déjà vu. Certainly there are times when things are recalled through the touch of memory stone or whatever but I often get a déjà vu feeling from the characters at other times, like they have personally been that way before, and not someone else? They are remembering things they experienced. Have any others of you felt this?

This business about the land remembering is similar to how *LST/Tawny Man spoilers*


The other few passages from ‘Homecoming’ that strike me as possible reincarnation-confirming examples include:

* Olpey speaking of having once, long ago, lived in a tower when he was an old man

*When the mud was oozing into his room and Retyo was trying to prevent it from flowing in, Olpey insisted that he belonged in the city…that he had always lived there and he would die there

* Olpey’s possessiveness of his necklaces and his assertion that his lover had given them to him a long time ago

* Carlmin remembering when Carillion ‘used to’ make cakes using a certain flower and, after this, Carillion herself almost recalling the cakes and how she used to make and then cook them...this was interesting in that they experienced a 'shared memory' like what took place with *Tawny Man spoiler*


* Carillion speaking of the change of the land she loved and had once known, and how it was still ‘hers’ and ‘home’ despite the changes

It’s almost like the land has called them back in the way *Farseer/Tawny Man spoiler*


After all, the short story is titled ‘Homecoming’ and though this could represent their arrival to the Rain Wilds and the making of it into their home, it could just as easily mean ‘return’ in that they have returned to their home at last. I get the feeling that it’s the latter…

Lots more to chat about but a camp-oven dinner is waiting!


RE: Homecoming - Nuytsia - Aug-21-2011

Yes that's it, thanks for the quote Farseer!
It's all verrrry interesting.
I do think there ARE a lot of instances that seem like deja vu as you say, but I feel like a lot of them are just the person taking on the feelings of a long dead person due to the strength of the 'vision' (of whatever kind) rather than that person having literally BEEN that person before. But no I can't explain ALL of them that way!
It's kind of like all the clues RH puts in about a certain person being of a certain gender. Are we to take these as being what they seem or are they just red herrings?
Fiendish!