I really hated that ending as a kid, and yet I find discussions by other adults that focus totally on it and how awful it is also intensely frustrating, especially since it's like a black hole that sucks in everything else.
Fwiw I think it goes along with Cooper's more sophisticated view of the battle between Light and Dark, or rather the two sides,* which in other kids' fantasy series seem much simpler and b&w (Narnia as the big example). I think Merry zaps all their memories at the end of the first book, Will does it to his brother in the second, and I'd have to check but it seems to be a tool the Old Ones use to "protect" humans but also hide from them (I really noticed this with Will's brother). What drives Hawkin mad is the memory of how Merry used him as essentially a human bomb defuser, and when John can't bear the choice the Lady chooses oblivion for him. I just think it's a little different from the typical "fantasy isn't real" moralizing books, or the guardian angel type that boots kids out when they're too old. Cooper is influenced by mythology, where gods and immortals use us, or may even love us, but are not like us, fundamentally.
*It reminds me of the Vorlons and Shadows who at first seem to be total opposites.
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Date: 2024-04-22 05:13 pm (UTC)Fwiw I think it goes along with Cooper's more sophisticated view of the battle between Light and Dark, or rather the two sides,* which in other kids' fantasy series seem much simpler and b&w (Narnia as the big example). I think Merry zaps all their memories at the end of the first book, Will does it to his brother in the second, and I'd have to check but it seems to be a tool the Old Ones use to "protect" humans but also hide from them (I really noticed this with Will's brother). What drives Hawkin mad is the memory of how Merry used him as essentially a human bomb defuser, and when John can't bear the choice the Lady chooses oblivion for him. I just think it's a little different from the typical "fantasy isn't real" moralizing books, or the guardian angel type that boots kids out when they're too old. Cooper is influenced by mythology, where gods and immortals use us, or may even love us, but are not like us, fundamentally.
*It reminds me of the Vorlons and Shadows who at first seem to be total opposites.