It has been suggested that Jon Snow is not truly a bastard. But how? No, I'm not going to tell you that Ned Stark quickly married a woman before she had his child.
What if Jon Snow was Lyanna Stark's child? But only Rhaegar Targaryen could be the father - it wouldn't be a surprise as in the novels, it says that he violated her repeatedly. Although Jon would still be a bastard because Rhaegar and Lyanna never married, he would not merely be the son of a prostitute or Ned's mistress. This is an interesting theory, which is why I've chosen to talk about it.
It does seem credible, especially as Jon was destined to have a direwolf like the rest of the Stark children were, and his wolf is significantly different. White, with red eyes - Ghost. Perhaps it differs so much from the rest of the litter of direwolves because - as it represents Jon - it truly is different. Jon is different to the rest of the Starks - no, not because he's a bastard - but maybe because he's part Targaryen: part dragon. Perhaps this could explain TGOT's enthusiastic focus on Jon - making the Red Woman bring him back to life for instance. Perhaps he was never meant to live at The Watch; perhaps he was meant to live among those he envies so much, those who scorn him for being a bastard.
As the sixth book of TGOTs has not been written yet, it will be interesting to see how Season 6 on TV pans out.
Last thing: in book 1, A Game of Thrones, when Jon sees Tyrion Lannister's shadow, it says it stood "as tall as a king." Seeing as this is a work of literature...could this be foreshadowing something? Or is Martin just pulling our leg? Comment your own thoughts if you want.
Thursday, 16 June 2016
Friday, 10 June 2016
Inspirational Songs 10/06/16
Sound The Bugle Bell - Bryan Adams (from the film, Spirit). A mournful, wistful reflection on the way war (mental and physical) can stain our lives and take the meaning out of your existence. Nevertheless, it takes us onto a different concept: the suffering we experience should reform us, making us into something stronger than we were before. Very inspiring!
Lumina - BrunuhVille music composer, fantasy genre, haunting, beautiful. You can find Brunuh's channel on YouTube, he has plenty of amazing, tear-evoking tracks that he's made.
Relaxing Music Epic Fantasy - contains a lot of tracks from fantasy films and games, such as Skyrim and Lord of the Rings. It's one of the best ones I've come across; I recommend listening to it if you're trying to become inspired in the writing of your very on fantasy novel/story! :)
Just a Game - Birdy. A beautiful, honest original by Birdy, composed for the film, Hunger Games. Just her voice is inspiring, I'm not sure if the meaning will inspire you. It's about wondering if life is all pretend, whether everyone you know really loves you or are pretending to.
Pompeii - Bastille. Come on, you must've heard of this track! An insightful, unique song written by Dan Smith (the lead singer of the band), that reflects on whether humans ever change their nature and tendency to do sin. Also watch the video: it offers clarity and compliments the meaning of the song.
Bad News - Bastille. Dan Smith sings of bad news and how much it can hurt, how out-of-the-blue it can be. Overall, he concludes with the idea that despite the cruel nature of 'bad news' (which could be a symbol for suffering), we should not let it tip us off our feet. We should get back up and not bury our heads in the sand.
Heaven - Bryan Adams. A sweet, romantic, rock song, that reflects on the power and perfection of love. Hey, maybe you're writing a romance novel. Should be inspiring :)
About 2:30 minutes into this track, there's a beautiful part, I'm not sure what instrument it is. The whole track is magnificent, anyway.
Well, that's all I've got for today :) I hope these tracks have been very inspirational to you. Remember, don't stop writing! Carry on and you'll find your 'tune.' Please continue to visit my blog, as I'm always posting new inspirational tracks I've found, interesting texts I've found, and tips on novel-writing/story-building.
Thanks and good luck to all you writers *thumbs up*
'Memnoch The Devil' - huh, that ending?
I've only just finished reading Anne Rice's novel (1995, I believe) for the second time. The last time I read it, I was around 13 years of age (I'm 17 now) so I didn't exactly understand it, not with it's sophisticated register and complexity in terms of outlooks and views on religion. Reading it again, it made a lot more sense to me; however, the ending still puzzled me!
Beware that there will be spoilers in this post...and if you haven't already read any of Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles, I suggest you do.
At the end, in the last chapter, I think it is, Maharet - the second oldest vampire in the whole population of vampires - gives Lestat a package containing a message from Memnoch (the devil) along with his missing eye. Why did Maharet have the package? Why would Memnoch give it to her - is she in on this whole bringing-Christianity-back-into-prominence mission? The book is very vague, frustratingly.
What is even more angering, though, is Memnoch's message to Lestat, in blood/soot writing, "To My Prince, my thanks to you for a job perfectly done. My love, Memnoch the Devil." Throughout the novel, Memnoch had been trying to persuade Lestat to side with him - to help him purge the souls of Sheol (Hell) so they could go into Heaven. It's Memnoch's job to do this because in the past he complained too much about God being impassive to the suffering of the souls of Sheol. Some simply passed straight into Heaven, others became trapped in Sheol - and this could depend on the spontaneity of chance, or the amount of suffering the souls have felt. Memnoch thought it was unfair that those who suffer should stay in Sheol because the suffering brought them into sin, where as those who barely suffered anything went straight into Heaven. It's just not fair, as Lestat and Memnoch agreed on. Hence, Memnoch wanted to help all of those trapped souls in Sheol to ascend to Heaven - to be "worthy" of God and his Paradise - as he felt a compassion for mankind that God simply did not have. He referred to those souls in Sheol to stones on a shore. So, God left Memnoch in charge of Sheol.
Meanwhile, during Memnoch's entrapment in Sheol, with no choice but to help purge the souls in there - for who else will do it? - Memnoch is also having another argument with God. He believes that suffering is pointless, that without it, the stages of the human mind that reveal the will to do sin and to inflict suffering on others, would never be. That stage in the human mind is what's keeping the souls in Sheol and not going to Heaven - so why have it? This is what Memnoch cannot understand and constantly, he is mocked and laughed at by the Lord, because of his "simple angelic mind." In God's eyes, suffering is part of the cycle of Nature and without it, there would not be glory in human life - there is magnificence in the grotesque murders during wars, in the "speared" infants along the roads... Here is where I started to understand Lestat when he said that God was "mad." I believe that without suffering - and freewill is what allows it to happen, and without freewill, there would be no point in living - the quality of life would fade into nothingness. How can you be grateful for true love when it comes around if you've had 50 odd lovers before, who you were each madly in love with? The clarity of what is, shall we say, good, is seen when in contrast with what is "evil," such as suffering.
But anyway, so Memnoch wanted to prove God wrong, that suffering is not what humans need to be purged - they need love and the intimacies they feel when with each other - so he tells Lestat that he wants to change mankind's minds about God. He wants to put a stop to Christianity, because it is the root of the idea that suffering is purgatory - is pure and good, the way to reach the Lord in Heaven. He frequently boasts to Lestat, "I'm winning," because mankind have grown to "hate" God for his allowance of suffering to innocents and his passivity towards humans. At least in the 21st Century.
This is what really puzzled me - that message at the end from Memnoch. It implies that Memnoch is pleased that Lestat escaped Sheol with Veronica's Veil, then revealed it to the world, solidifying human faith in God and Christianity once again. After all, he tries to stop Lestat from leaving Sheol and even cries at Lestat's deserting him - he pulls Lestat's eye out (accidentally apparently) in his efforts to stop him from leaving, then looks horrified at his doing. But then it is implied that Memnoch planned to take Lestat's eye all along, because of his mention of 'Uncle Mickey's eye' - Dora's uncle - and as this is a novel, we can't dismiss anything as a coincidence, can we? Anyhow, what I wanted to know was: why did Memnoch thank Lestat for doing the exact opposite of what he said he wanted?
I've been reading online all sorts of theories, which vary from: the Devil is a liar and this was Anne's way of reminding us of that, Anne wanted to reveal to us how lies are sometimes easier to accept, the truth less so, or even that Memnoch was working alongside God. Perhaps he wanted to return to Heaven, so he gave in to God, and decided that suffering could be used to purge the souls of mankind, so they could go into Heaven. Or perhaps he wasn't the devil at all? Apparently Rice suggested this very notion at a book signing, which would suggest that God used another of his servants to pretend to be Memnoch, because he knew that he was losing. After all, Memnoch showed little resistance when God told Lestat to take the veil - perhaps that whole "He's got the veil! Don't let him take the veil," was an act. This is further supported by the fact that each time Lestat has fought Memnoch, he's been able to knock him backwards. Really? A vampire is as strong as the devil? Perhaps, seeing as Lestat has drunk blood from the First Brood vampires plenty of times, but it doesn't make sense if an "earthbound" creature is as strong as or stronger than a Heavenly species. Therefore, I'm settling for Memnoch's weakness as either the shock of betrayal (becasue Lestat's leaving him to win the game with God on his own), or an act.
Another puzzling thing for me is: why on earth (excuse the pun) did Memnoch lie and pretend to be against God and Christianity's rebirth in human society, if he actually wasn't? Was it because he knew that Lestat "hated" God, so he pretended to as well, then Lestat would trust him more? I know that the inclusion of the Veil during Lestat's tour of Hell, Heaven and Earth is not a fluke. Just as I know that Memnoch choosing Lestat to be his "lieutenant" is not just chance either, as Lestat was involved with Dora and Roger, her father, who were both suspiciously obsessed with religion and focused their whole lives on it. Obviously, Memnoch and God needed Dora to find the Veil because they knew that she would convert utterly to a new religion and would be determined to show the world and as she is an evangelist, strive to convert everyone else to this new religion (which I believe is Christianity, in its rawest form, what God wanted it to be in the first place). I have a feeling that Memnoch put on this whole act for Lestat and tricked him into believing certain things so that Lestat would almost lose his mind. With the knowledge that he was actually going mad, he wanted to prove that he wasn't and he needed for this chaos in his mind to be not "for nothing", to mean something, so he needed Dora to believe him. What better way to make her believe him, than to show her the Veil? So he did, and God won.
That is my theory.
Why Lestat lost his mind in the end, I think it may be because he felt utterly betrayed, that Memnoch would trick him, that this angel who is loving, caring for mankind and fighting for their place in Heaven, would lie to him and use him as a way of reforging the idea that suffering is good and magnificent. Lestat cannot accept that someone who he grew to love, as he admits in the book he loves Memnoch, would lie to him. And last of all, the idea that Memnoch lied about believing in Lestat's Savage Garden - something he'd believed in so adamantly all his life - was devastating to him.
Moreover, Armand's decision to burn in the sun and sacrifice himself to symbolize the rebirth of Christianity, was a little confusing. Armand seemed content in his life on Earth - he didn't seem unhappy. So why throw away his life? All his life he had submitted to the notion that there is no God or Devil, after letting go of his belief that by serving Satan, we are serving God. Now Lestat has returned from Hell and Heaven, saying things that suggest that yes, we can serve God through the Devil and yes, God and the Devil do exist! It probably drove him out of his mind and made him believe that all his life, he'd wasted himself, taken thousands of lives for four hundred years, for little reason at all, because he had gained nothing during his life on Earth, not even the realisation of the truth. I didn't like Armand's decision, though, despite the fact that he doesn't actually die - he lands in a building, after rising into the sun, near-death and found by two mortals who change his outlook on life. He's always been one of my favourite vampires, despite his tendency to be vain and arrogant, he's interesting and almost lovable. Another website I found suggested that Lestat's revealing of the Veil to the world, causing the vampires to stand before the church and let the sun destroy them, was Memnoch's way of getting rid of many of the vampire population. This way, less vampires would kill to feed, less souls would go into Sheol having suffered a spontaneous, quick death, having died young - having not felt gratitude for life and God's creation because they didn't have enough time - and then Memnoch would win, at the same time that God won.
I don't think that Memnoch expected anything less from Lestat - he knew he would be a coward and would flee from Hell and his own purgatory, taking the Veil to Earth and ensuring the rebirth of Christianity and Love in God. This is conveyed by his words, "a job perfectly done." Lestat had fulfilled his role unknowingly, "perfectly."
Anyway, I hope my theories have helped anyone else, who has become very vacillated with the ending of Rice's book, Memnoch The Devil. Please share your own opinions of the ending in the comments section. I'd be very interested to see what other people make of the ending :) Thanks.
Beware that there will be spoilers in this post...and if you haven't already read any of Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles, I suggest you do.
At the end, in the last chapter, I think it is, Maharet - the second oldest vampire in the whole population of vampires - gives Lestat a package containing a message from Memnoch (the devil) along with his missing eye. Why did Maharet have the package? Why would Memnoch give it to her - is she in on this whole bringing-Christianity-back-into-prominence mission? The book is very vague, frustratingly.
What is even more angering, though, is Memnoch's message to Lestat, in blood/soot writing, "To My Prince, my thanks to you for a job perfectly done. My love, Memnoch the Devil." Throughout the novel, Memnoch had been trying to persuade Lestat to side with him - to help him purge the souls of Sheol (Hell) so they could go into Heaven. It's Memnoch's job to do this because in the past he complained too much about God being impassive to the suffering of the souls of Sheol. Some simply passed straight into Heaven, others became trapped in Sheol - and this could depend on the spontaneity of chance, or the amount of suffering the souls have felt. Memnoch thought it was unfair that those who suffer should stay in Sheol because the suffering brought them into sin, where as those who barely suffered anything went straight into Heaven. It's just not fair, as Lestat and Memnoch agreed on. Hence, Memnoch wanted to help all of those trapped souls in Sheol to ascend to Heaven - to be "worthy" of God and his Paradise - as he felt a compassion for mankind that God simply did not have. He referred to those souls in Sheol to stones on a shore. So, God left Memnoch in charge of Sheol.
Meanwhile, during Memnoch's entrapment in Sheol, with no choice but to help purge the souls in there - for who else will do it? - Memnoch is also having another argument with God. He believes that suffering is pointless, that without it, the stages of the human mind that reveal the will to do sin and to inflict suffering on others, would never be. That stage in the human mind is what's keeping the souls in Sheol and not going to Heaven - so why have it? This is what Memnoch cannot understand and constantly, he is mocked and laughed at by the Lord, because of his "simple angelic mind." In God's eyes, suffering is part of the cycle of Nature and without it, there would not be glory in human life - there is magnificence in the grotesque murders during wars, in the "speared" infants along the roads... Here is where I started to understand Lestat when he said that God was "mad." I believe that without suffering - and freewill is what allows it to happen, and without freewill, there would be no point in living - the quality of life would fade into nothingness. How can you be grateful for true love when it comes around if you've had 50 odd lovers before, who you were each madly in love with? The clarity of what is, shall we say, good, is seen when in contrast with what is "evil," such as suffering.
But anyway, so Memnoch wanted to prove God wrong, that suffering is not what humans need to be purged - they need love and the intimacies they feel when with each other - so he tells Lestat that he wants to change mankind's minds about God. He wants to put a stop to Christianity, because it is the root of the idea that suffering is purgatory - is pure and good, the way to reach the Lord in Heaven. He frequently boasts to Lestat, "I'm winning," because mankind have grown to "hate" God for his allowance of suffering to innocents and his passivity towards humans. At least in the 21st Century.
This is what really puzzled me - that message at the end from Memnoch. It implies that Memnoch is pleased that Lestat escaped Sheol with Veronica's Veil, then revealed it to the world, solidifying human faith in God and Christianity once again. After all, he tries to stop Lestat from leaving Sheol and even cries at Lestat's deserting him - he pulls Lestat's eye out (accidentally apparently) in his efforts to stop him from leaving, then looks horrified at his doing. But then it is implied that Memnoch planned to take Lestat's eye all along, because of his mention of 'Uncle Mickey's eye' - Dora's uncle - and as this is a novel, we can't dismiss anything as a coincidence, can we? Anyhow, what I wanted to know was: why did Memnoch thank Lestat for doing the exact opposite of what he said he wanted?
I've been reading online all sorts of theories, which vary from: the Devil is a liar and this was Anne's way of reminding us of that, Anne wanted to reveal to us how lies are sometimes easier to accept, the truth less so, or even that Memnoch was working alongside God. Perhaps he wanted to return to Heaven, so he gave in to God, and decided that suffering could be used to purge the souls of mankind, so they could go into Heaven. Or perhaps he wasn't the devil at all? Apparently Rice suggested this very notion at a book signing, which would suggest that God used another of his servants to pretend to be Memnoch, because he knew that he was losing. After all, Memnoch showed little resistance when God told Lestat to take the veil - perhaps that whole "He's got the veil! Don't let him take the veil," was an act. This is further supported by the fact that each time Lestat has fought Memnoch, he's been able to knock him backwards. Really? A vampire is as strong as the devil? Perhaps, seeing as Lestat has drunk blood from the First Brood vampires plenty of times, but it doesn't make sense if an "earthbound" creature is as strong as or stronger than a Heavenly species. Therefore, I'm settling for Memnoch's weakness as either the shock of betrayal (becasue Lestat's leaving him to win the game with God on his own), or an act.
Another puzzling thing for me is: why on earth (excuse the pun) did Memnoch lie and pretend to be against God and Christianity's rebirth in human society, if he actually wasn't? Was it because he knew that Lestat "hated" God, so he pretended to as well, then Lestat would trust him more? I know that the inclusion of the Veil during Lestat's tour of Hell, Heaven and Earth is not a fluke. Just as I know that Memnoch choosing Lestat to be his "lieutenant" is not just chance either, as Lestat was involved with Dora and Roger, her father, who were both suspiciously obsessed with religion and focused their whole lives on it. Obviously, Memnoch and God needed Dora to find the Veil because they knew that she would convert utterly to a new religion and would be determined to show the world and as she is an evangelist, strive to convert everyone else to this new religion (which I believe is Christianity, in its rawest form, what God wanted it to be in the first place). I have a feeling that Memnoch put on this whole act for Lestat and tricked him into believing certain things so that Lestat would almost lose his mind. With the knowledge that he was actually going mad, he wanted to prove that he wasn't and he needed for this chaos in his mind to be not "for nothing", to mean something, so he needed Dora to believe him. What better way to make her believe him, than to show her the Veil? So he did, and God won.
That is my theory.
Why Lestat lost his mind in the end, I think it may be because he felt utterly betrayed, that Memnoch would trick him, that this angel who is loving, caring for mankind and fighting for their place in Heaven, would lie to him and use him as a way of reforging the idea that suffering is good and magnificent. Lestat cannot accept that someone who he grew to love, as he admits in the book he loves Memnoch, would lie to him. And last of all, the idea that Memnoch lied about believing in Lestat's Savage Garden - something he'd believed in so adamantly all his life - was devastating to him.
Moreover, Armand's decision to burn in the sun and sacrifice himself to symbolize the rebirth of Christianity, was a little confusing. Armand seemed content in his life on Earth - he didn't seem unhappy. So why throw away his life? All his life he had submitted to the notion that there is no God or Devil, after letting go of his belief that by serving Satan, we are serving God. Now Lestat has returned from Hell and Heaven, saying things that suggest that yes, we can serve God through the Devil and yes, God and the Devil do exist! It probably drove him out of his mind and made him believe that all his life, he'd wasted himself, taken thousands of lives for four hundred years, for little reason at all, because he had gained nothing during his life on Earth, not even the realisation of the truth. I didn't like Armand's decision, though, despite the fact that he doesn't actually die - he lands in a building, after rising into the sun, near-death and found by two mortals who change his outlook on life. He's always been one of my favourite vampires, despite his tendency to be vain and arrogant, he's interesting and almost lovable. Another website I found suggested that Lestat's revealing of the Veil to the world, causing the vampires to stand before the church and let the sun destroy them, was Memnoch's way of getting rid of many of the vampire population. This way, less vampires would kill to feed, less souls would go into Sheol having suffered a spontaneous, quick death, having died young - having not felt gratitude for life and God's creation because they didn't have enough time - and then Memnoch would win, at the same time that God won.
I don't think that Memnoch expected anything less from Lestat - he knew he would be a coward and would flee from Hell and his own purgatory, taking the Veil to Earth and ensuring the rebirth of Christianity and Love in God. This is conveyed by his words, "a job perfectly done." Lestat had fulfilled his role unknowingly, "perfectly."
Anyway, I hope my theories have helped anyone else, who has become very vacillated with the ending of Rice's book, Memnoch The Devil. Please share your own opinions of the ending in the comments section. I'd be very interested to see what other people make of the ending :) Thanks.
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