The Night Face, XI.
A temporarily insane Gwydiona man has killed his own young daughter. Speaking horribly about this, he adds:
"'I even gave her a name once and the name was Wormwood.'" (p. 647)
The Gwydiona have found ways to control their periodic insanity by chanting, dancing and enacting complicated myths. However, when they are interrupted and disturbed by the uncomprehending Tolteca, their tightly controlled violence is unleashed. Raven, having deduced the truth about Baletime, is better equipped to respond appropriately.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
I still recall, the first time I read THE NIGHT FACE, thinking that Tolteca was either the better of the two main male characters or would be the hero. But as the story advanced I realized Raven was the wiser and more balanced character. A characteristic of some stories by Anderson is to first make us think one character was going to be the hero, instead of another, only for us to soon realize we were wrong!
Yes, the unlucky Gwydiona had worked out ways for MOST of them to survive Bale time, if not jarred out of the patterns devised for that.
Ad astra! Sean
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