Re: Just for fun...
Posted by:
Sawfish (IP Logged)
Date: 5 May, 2020 10:36AM
...concerning Maal Dweb....
I re-read The Flower Women last night. Coming as it does immediately after The Maze of Maal Dweb in the old Ballentine Xiccarph volume, you can piece together a fair view of his personality and what drives him.
He's no longer driven by thirst for power, revenge, studious application to the mysteries of the arcane. He is basically interested in amusing himself. He states directly in Flower Women that he's bored, but bear in mind that in Maze, he bags exotic females simply to make interesting statuary.
Unlike Avyctes, the older sorcerer from The Double Shadow, who pursues ultra-mundane lore in a pure quest for abstract knowledge, apparently not using his powers for personal gain, as does Malygris, by implication, and Maal Dweb, himself, Maal Dweb is at the time of the stories mostly interested in passing the time pleasurably.
An epicurian archimage...
I'd never thought of this before, but CAS did an excellent job of differentiating characters of all sorts, making them well-developed individuals. No slam to Tolkein, but even Gandalf is not well-developed, and to my mind Saruman is simply Sauron, but not yet as far down the Dark Path...
I'm finding that there is quite a lot here to explore, by way of CAS's character development within the context of the short story form. I had never realized it, but one of the main intuitive attractions to his best writing is that in a story like Master of the Crabs, the elder sorcerer, Lumivix, projects a definite impression as an individual. He seems to be a sort of journeyman, not particularly skilled, hard-working and ambitious, but within "normal", non-pathological limitations.
In short, I was a SW engineer before retiring, and in retrospect, I think I was, at work, a lot like Lumivix; it was often taxing, but I was not going to let it beat me. ;^)
Then you get those two brothers who, in Death of Malygris, propose to rob his supposed corpse of talismans, and even to eat a small bit of his flesh. These are definitely lesser individuals, not like Sambon, or even Lumivix. Not talented, but looking for shortcuts.
Then we have the two outcast necromancer brothers in The Empire of the Necromancers. Whereas someone like Nammirah is to a degree tragically ennobled by his mad quest for revenge, these two are repellent low-lifes. Petty opportunists, like street thieves in a third world country.
Gosh, there's quite a lot to CAS, isn't there?
--Sawfish
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"The food at the new restaurant is awful, but at least the portions are large."
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 5 May 20 | 11:03AM by Sawfish.