Under Heaven
Under Heaven is quite possibly Guy Gavriel Kay's finest book. I will say nothing more about it here except to say that it is all about independence in a society where the social fabric is very tightly woven, and some very difficult choices indeed...
...which is what I am musing about right now, as I look back on the departure alluded to in my last few posts. Because the man whose mortal remains rose up in the afternoon haze yesterday had a lot to say about that theme, in his wittily oblique but trenchantly direct Oxonian way.
He was a very independent man. But his independence ganged up completely along with certain values which would also have been society's values, and went completely against other values which society might have made acceptable but were unacceptable to him. He always made it clear that defiance itself was not a virtue, but depended on the thing defied. He once spoke about having kindness with teeth.
The thing is that he was also willing to acknowledge dependency is certain matters as an independent choice. He chose to adhere to certain norms. He chose his own master. And in all his choices, he remained faithful and steadfast. In that way, he sometimes let his choices rule him, so to speak.
His mind and memory did not fail, right to the end. His body failed him, as he knew it would. For him, character and choices, service and spirituality, these things in their most robust formulation were what he wanted in himself first and then in others. And now, as he would have said, I'll stop going on and on and just get on with my work. Heh.
...which is what I am musing about right now, as I look back on the departure alluded to in my last few posts. Because the man whose mortal remains rose up in the afternoon haze yesterday had a lot to say about that theme, in his wittily oblique but trenchantly direct Oxonian way.
He was a very independent man. But his independence ganged up completely along with certain values which would also have been society's values, and went completely against other values which society might have made acceptable but were unacceptable to him. He always made it clear that defiance itself was not a virtue, but depended on the thing defied. He once spoke about having kindness with teeth.
The thing is that he was also willing to acknowledge dependency is certain matters as an independent choice. He chose to adhere to certain norms. He chose his own master. And in all his choices, he remained faithful and steadfast. In that way, he sometimes let his choices rule him, so to speak.
His mind and memory did not fail, right to the end. His body failed him, as he knew it would. For him, character and choices, service and spirituality, these things in their most robust formulation were what he wanted in himself first and then in others. And now, as he would have said, I'll stop going on and on and just get on with my work. Heh.
Labels: Choice, Independence, Remembrance
etched with acid at 10:49:00 am
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