Eric Wace directs the attack on an enemy-held town:
"'Over there! Hit 'em again!' Wace heard all at once that he was yelling." (p. 226)
This reminds me suddenly that, last night, I shouted at someone in a dream, shouted aloud and woke myself up. In dreams, absurd situations are accepted while critical faculties are suspended. Could we somehow be transported to a realm where dream states became the norm? Is this a conceivable hereafter? I am highly skeptical but, if there were a hereafter, then what would it be like? There is a connection between experience of dreams and belief in a post-mortem state. During a battle, many consciousnesses are either being extinguished or entering the hereafter. However, I experienced the extinguishment of consciousness after being administered a general anaesthetic. An irresistible force pushed me down into darkness. I felt myself going out. Stieg Larsson's character, Lisbeth Salander, waking after an operation, reflects that, if death is the darkness from which she has just returned, then it is nothing to fear. Perhaps such thoughts are relevant when contemplating multiple deaths in a battle.
On a practical level, Wace realizes that:
"...battering rams had been a mistake; they wouldn't get through mortared walls till Matthewsmas." (p. 227)
When is Matthewmas?
10 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
My experience of anesthesia was of watching the dr or nurse one second and then, seemingly one second later, waking up. Or is that too prosaic? (Smiles)
The Catholic Church honors St. Matthew the Apostle on September 21. So Wace probably meant that.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
I had that experience with anesthetic on another occasion: noticing that the room had (suddenly) changed etc.
I established in an earlier post that Wace is Catholic.
Paul.
Small children have a state of consciousness that's fairly dreamlike, and I suspect that animals do too.
I am intrigued by my own earliest memories. Maybe there was a sort of "waking up."
Kaor, Paul and Mr. Stirling!
Somehow, I missed that, you discussing that Eric Wace too was a Catholic, like Old Nick. Well, Eric was far less NOISILY Catholic than van Rijn!
Mr. Stirling: Was my consciousness dreamlike in my earlier years? Maybe, but I don't remember that being the case.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
"Two Reasons To Deduce That Eric Wace Is A Catholic," Saturday 1 November 2014.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Thanks! I will be checking that one out.
Ad astra! Sean
It’s dreamlike in the early years which is, I think, why we have troublle remembering them. There’s little continuity, and not much distinction between imagination and reality.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Now that fits my own experience, fragmentary early memories, and it needs an effort to put them into some kind of continuity.
Ad astra! Sean
That explains a great deal.
Post a Comment