The Sword and Laser discussion

Has anyone else wondered (view spoiler)[ if perhaps Lobey is just a serial killer and the quests and battles are to divert us from noticing? He is the only other person available at every death! (hide spoiler)]

Argh! I loathe the Android app.

I had never considered that possibility. He seemed to stupid to do that. But I guess I'm not implying that those who do that are necessarily "of sound mind."

Yeah, I thought for sure the ending was going to involve (view spoiler)[some revelation on Lobey's part that he was the one that killed Friza and Dorik. Like, actually killed them, not his weird rationalization at the end of The Pearl scene that he killed Green-Eye by not doing anything about it. I'm not sure if you meant this, though, but I didn't picture him as a serial killer that knew what he was doing and was intentionally misleading us. I think he's just very easily manipulated and that Kid Death was obsessed with messing with his head, but ultimately it was Kid Death that wanted Friza and Dorik dead, not Lobey. (hide spoiler)]

Sarah wrote: "Yeah, I thought for sure the ending was going to involve [spoilers removed]"
I thought so too Sarah. I actually went back and re-read the ending because I was so sure that was where it was headed! Hmm.

Not at the last death. He seems definitely responsible for two deaths at least, (view spoiler)[ his own and Green Eye's (hide spoiler)].

There is a lot going on though about these deaths and the mind-- Kid Death has in some sense all of his victims in his own head.

A reading where from the point where he first descends into the Labrynth on, all of the characters are just aspects of Lobey's psyche, and he is going on a quest to destroy the beast within, I could totally get behind. Delaney seems really concerned with that kind of Jungian idea of mythic archetypes. Lobey then would ultimately be (view spoiler)[ Jesus Judas and Longinus, God and Satan both. (hide spoiler)] A very non-Western reinterpretation of these myths, but an appropriate one for a species that comes out of a vast and formless darkness to become individuals.

Hmm that's an interesting reading Rob, that all the stuff from the labyrinth on is literally just a story about Lobey. (view spoiler)[I guess it would provide a nice explanation for PHAEDRA showing up at the end of the book. I attributed it to something Lobey's mind was doing to itself after being screwed with in the head by the Dove. (hide spoiler)]

Oh yeah, I have no textual evidence whatsoever to back up that psychological reading (which isn't to say that no textual evidence of it exists), and I honestly prefer a reading where the psychological parallels are there, but he really is literally going on that journey.

I do really like your explanation for (view spoiler)[ PHAEDRA's reappearance when he seemed very isolated and lonely before (hide spoiler)]. I wonder what that might say about Lobey if he would return in that moment to that particular character for guidance. Maybe it makes sense as that's the closest thing he has to a connection to his mythic forefathers, us.

Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "Has anyone else wondered [spoilers removed]"

Not just wondered. I was sure of it. And I was more than a little disappointed when it turned out to not be the case.

Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "Has anyone else wondered [spoilers removed]"

I was pretty convinced of it at the start, but somewhere along the line the thought slipped out of my head. It was as if, the further he went on his journey, the less events at the start seemed to have any relevance to what was going on.