Commentary on “Mischief in the Air”
September 30, 2009 by sonicsuns
Hey there. I made some comments on Mischief in the Air.
Then I decided it would be better to make a separate, “commentary” page.
So here’s what I said earlier:
I wasn’t sure what to call this one. I thought of “A Mischievious Wind”, but I figured the word “wind” was kinda overused as it was. I also thought of calling it “Hallis” or “The Hallis Plain” or “Hallis Merande”. What do you think?
One thing I hope is clear: I don’t envision the wind as literally an evil spirit; that’s just an old story. And I don’t think Eudo believes in the spirit, even when he talks to it. He’s really talking to himself, saying symbolically “I refuse to give up”
Here’s the symbolism I was going for:
The wind in this case is like corrupt authority. First it strips away your sense of direction (or self). Then it pushes you in a particular direction, and the easist thing is just to go along with it. You figure that it’ll lead somewhere. But this wind/authority leads nowhere, in fact it specifically keeps you in the same dang place, which is devoid of anything useful. Going with the corrupt authority gets you nowhere. Giving up also gets you nowhere. The big empty surroundings show what it feels like, and of course we demonstrate the apparenty futility of everything when corrupt authority (devil’s wind) is the only thing by which to orient yourself. The only thing to do is to find a landmark (Truth, Justice, or in this case a mountain), and orient yourself according to that.
Also one small other note: the stones that Eudo used for “this is where I was going” are brown, and the mountain he heads for in the end is also brown.
Now, this says nothing at all about what wind may or may not symbolize in other stories. (In fact, the Geo Mandre love wind, as a symbol of freedom.) This is story-specific.
Commentary on “Mischief in the Air”
September 30, 2009 by sonicsuns
Hey there. I made some comments on Mischief in the Air.
Then I decided it would be better to make a separate, “commentary” page.
So here’s what I said earlier:
I wasn’t sure what to call this one. I thought of “A Mischievious Wind”, but I figured the word “wind” was kinda overused as it was. I also thought of calling it “Hallis” or “The Hallis Plain” or “Hallis Merande”. What do you think?
One thing I hope is clear: I don’t envision the wind as literally an evil spirit; that’s just an old story. And I don’t think Eudo believes in the spirit, even when he talks to it. He’s really talking to himself, saying symbolically “I refuse to give up”
Here’s the symbolism I was going for:
The wind in this case is like corrupt authority. First it strips away your sense of direction (or self). Then it pushes you in a particular direction, and the easist thing is just to go along with it. You figure that it’ll lead somewhere. But this wind/authority leads nowhere, in fact it specifically keeps you in the same dang place, which is devoid of anything useful. Going with the corrupt authority gets you nowhere. Giving up also gets you nowhere. The big empty surroundings show what it feels like, and of course we demonstrate the apparenty futility of everything when corrupt authority (devil’s wind) is the only thing by which to orient yourself. The only thing to do is to find a landmark (Truth, Justice, or in this case a mountain), and orient yourself according to that.
Also one small other note: the stones that Eudo used for “this is where I was going” are brown, and the mountain he heads for in the end is also brown.
Now, this says nothing at all about what wind may or may not symbolize in other stories. (In fact, the Geo Mandre love wind, as a symbol of freedom.) This is story-specific.
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