Tawny Man Trilogy - questions (SPOILERS)

[Chrischa]

Hmm... good point, but personally I don't think so. I think at that point his thinking really wasn't coherent anymore, and that he tried to put it together more because he couldn't bare to see it broken. It might have been the only part of her destruction that he felt he could repair.
And I also think it would certainly have saddened him that a part of it was missing, as Fitz wonders.

He certainly was not expecting there to be any sort of life for him again!

[Nuytsia]

Hmm I guess I can certainly put it down to him not thinking coherently ......

Another thing that occurred to me when I was reading the book was that if the Fool thought it so important for the rooster crown to be used in the way it ultimately is, why does he go knowingly to his death thinking it will NEVER be used in that way.

Ok he WAS a bit busy ...... but 'he didn't get a chance' seems a bit lame when he went to such lengths to keep the thing.

[Nuytsia]

Hey ok this isn't an actual question, but I wasn't sure where else to put this! It DOES relate to Tawny Man trilogy (and other things). This was a comment made on the Robin Hobb newsgroup about some things she said at a recent book signing, and I found it really interesting.

"I found it really interesting to hear you talk about how you keep continuity in your universe and how much time you spent looking things up towards the end of the Tawny Man trilogy to make sure everything made sense."

Heh this doesn't REALLY surprise me I guess. Some books must be an absolute NIGHTMARE for the author to keep track of things (GRRM anyone). I must say Robin Hobb does seem to do really well with continuity - with a lot of books I do find myself picking up things that don't make sense, but I don't recall doing this with Robin Hobb (of course someone will correct me I'm sure! Maybe on the second read through I'll find all sorts of holes!)

"I also thought it was interesting to consider your statement about the lies POV characters tell or believe about themselves and how it flavors the narrative of the story."

This got me thinking yet again about good old Fitz and how I really took most of what he presented as gospel truth when of course I should not have. I am REALLY going to have a good look at that on the second read! Maybe I should make a list 'the lies Fitz believes about himself'

Geees but what about the pièce de résistance:

"You mentioned, I think, that the Fool was a minor character and only had one line in our original outline/treatment for Farseer. "

Shock! Horror!!!!
What sort of books would they have been then!

[Mervi]

Oh there are some REALLY interesting parts in Fitz's narrative where he simply fastforwards and ignores difficult/unpleasant things that you only notice in the second reading. The first one that comes to my mind is after a night he spent with Molly when he realizes that Nighteyes was inside his mind all the time and how that affected... the experience for both of them. That scene alone demonstrates that Fitz is a master of self-deception. And basically the whole "not remembering his early childhood AT ALL" thing, even before being voluntarily forged... is his mind's incredibly strong defence mechanism at work, forgetting everything so having been rejected wouldn't matter/hurt so much.

This might sound a bit harsh, but I believe that most of the readers who complain that the books are too full of angst and Fitz whining about everything and bad things happening to him all the time just take everything he says too seriously. These books, and I think the Farseer trilogy especially, have loads of stuff written between the lines.

[Nuytsia]

Wooo Mervi I really can't wait to think about that when I read again now!
Also, I wonder if Fitz told Molly about that little detail of their shared history after they get married. I'm thinking....... not !
Fitz is SUCH an animal!
Sorry couldn't resist.

[Lord Punctual]

I need to do some rereading (Oh how I love having people to discuss these things with!!) but I'm almost sure that the Fool is in fact a separate race from humans. I believe that he as much as says that a White Prophet is the result of recessive genes, which resulted from Whites marrying into human stock, reconstituting in an individual. Kind of like a recessive genetic disorder. Neither parent is effected, as they each have only one copy of the effected gene. However, their unlucky offspring who gets both defective genes from his parents has the disorder.

About Fitz's perspective. I read the Tawny Man series first, and when I eventually read the Farseer trilogy, I found that things had not occurred at all as I expected them to. Especially with regards to how Fitz remembered Verity. It seems like he vastly exaggerated the importance of some of his interactions with Verity, Chade, and even Shrewd. Passing remarks from these father figures seem to become treasured memories for Fitz. The Tawny Man made me expect there to have been a great deal more interaction between Verity and Fitz than there turned out to be in the Farseer trilogy.

[Nuytsia]

What an interesting perspective! I guess it's not always that inadvisable to read things in chronological order, as you can get insights from doing it the opposite way.

[Lady Persephone]

What an interesting perspective! I guess it's not always that inadvisable to read things in chronological order, as you can get insights from doing it the opposite way.

I most certainly agree!    I can't tell you all how much I've gleaned from reading the Fitz and the Fool trilogy after having read Farseer.  Then, now, the Tawny Man.  I plan to read the Rain Wild Chronicles next, then Liveships.

[Mervi]

About Fitz's perspective.  I read the Tawny Man series first, and when I eventually read the Farseer trilogy, I found that things had not occurred at all as I expected them to.  Especially with regards to how Fitz remembered Verity.  It seems like he vastly exaggerated the importance of some of his interactions with Verity, Chade, and even Shrewd.  Passing remarks from these father figures seem to become treasured memories for Fitz.  The Tawny Man made me expect there to have been a great deal more interaction between Verity and Fitz than there turned out to be in the Farseer trilogy.

That's such an interesting remark! I sort of see it from a point of view where young Fitz is pretty lonely/isolated in his human relationships, so even brief interactions with these folks he looks up to are really formative for him. (Also I think he had a lot of sort of repetitive meetings with Verity in the Skill Tower for example, but we're only privy to a few).

But on the other hand

Fitz and the Fool trilogy spoilers

it also seems to me that these adults had a lot more to do with him than he knew as a youngster, as shown in the correspondence between Chivalry and Burrich for example).