Thursday, March 23, 2006

Quote for the Day: The Powerlessness of Innocence

"Innocence is a wonderful thing except for the fact that it's impotent. Guilt is power. All effective people are guilty because the use of power is guilt, and only guilty people can be effective. Effective for good, mind you. Only the damned can be saved." (Stephen R. Donaldson, The Wounded Land, chapter 2)

2 Comments:

Blogger Doug said...

Incidentally, Loren, if you haven't read Donaldsons "Gap" series, they take this much further than the Covenant books: a story of redemption is woven out of a really quite alienating descent into degradtaion of all the main characters. It's a far stronger theme than Covenant's simultaeous discovery of a whole body, and the loss of his rectitude in Lena's rape that begins "Lord Foul's Bane" However, the Covenant world (and story) is a much stronger one, partly because of its mythic resonance. Like you, I'm looking forward to "Fatal Revenant."

3/23/2006  
Blogger Loren Rosson III said...

Doug,

The Gap Cycle is my favorite sci-fic series of all time (Dan Simmons' Endymion and Frank Herbert's Dune second favorites). It's an amazing series. But anything written by Donaldson is first-rate.

3/23/2006  

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