the hermit's retreat
Feb. 10th, 2009 12:52 amAfter being the main character for a story I've tried to write over three years, you'd think I'd have more than two pictures of just this kid by himself....
Like Vivrael and Vivant, I decided pretty quickly on Rowan being "The Hermit". Unlike "The Fool" or "The Magician", the meaning of "The Hermit" card is fairly close to our impressions of hermitage. The lone person, who seeks solitude, who needs to retreat from human society, who may be knowledgeable but his wariness of human contact prevents him from sharing that knowledge.
The meaning of the card is "need for withdrawal or introspection" or "the need to step out of their retreat". Rowan is naturally in the first stage and through his growing relationships with other characters, learns to do the second.
Unlike Sigmund or Vivrael, Rowan isn't "good-looking", so I always try not to draw him as so. I guess his most noticeable characteristics are innocence and uncertainty.
I know I often say that I don't like him. I don't tend to like uncertain personalities, especially in fiction, but as far as being a "character" - a tool of the story - I do like Rowan. He grew from reading too much postmodernist theory in year 12.
Where Vivant is a very traditional main character - he learns fast, he's quick-thinking, he has limited tolerance for tyranny, he gets along with people (when he wants to) etc...Rowan was invented purposely to overturn much of that. He's hesitant, he's slow to be drawn out of his shell, he's naive and can be short-sighted, and it takes a long time for him to grow.
Vivant is neither a follower nor a leader, but Rowan is quite decidedly a follower. He needs to be told what to do for him to feel any sense of purpose. In the end he becomes a limited narrator, because although his existence instigated much of the events, his participation in them is limited.
But I do like Rowan as a "character", in that he develops and grows and becomes comparatively stronger and confident to the withdrawn boy at the beginning. Vivant grows too, but I think he more or less reaches in for the nastiness that he's always had in place, whereas Rowan really works at pushing himself towards the optimism he's never had.
Come to think of it, I think Rowan and Sigmund's relationship would work quite normally if Rowan was a girl. LOL.
Like Vivrael and Vivant, I decided pretty quickly on Rowan being "The Hermit". Unlike "The Fool" or "The Magician", the meaning of "The Hermit" card is fairly close to our impressions of hermitage. The lone person, who seeks solitude, who needs to retreat from human society, who may be knowledgeable but his wariness of human contact prevents him from sharing that knowledge.
The meaning of the card is "need for withdrawal or introspection" or "the need to step out of their retreat". Rowan is naturally in the first stage and through his growing relationships with other characters, learns to do the second.
Unlike Sigmund or Vivrael, Rowan isn't "good-looking", so I always try not to draw him as so. I guess his most noticeable characteristics are innocence and uncertainty.
I know I often say that I don't like him. I don't tend to like uncertain personalities, especially in fiction, but as far as being a "character" - a tool of the story - I do like Rowan. He grew from reading too much postmodernist theory in year 12.
Where Vivant is a very traditional main character - he learns fast, he's quick-thinking, he has limited tolerance for tyranny, he gets along with people (when he wants to) etc...Rowan was invented purposely to overturn much of that. He's hesitant, he's slow to be drawn out of his shell, he's naive and can be short-sighted, and it takes a long time for him to grow.
Vivant is neither a follower nor a leader, but Rowan is quite decidedly a follower. He needs to be told what to do for him to feel any sense of purpose. In the end he becomes a limited narrator, because although his existence instigated much of the events, his participation in them is limited.
But I do like Rowan as a "character", in that he develops and grows and becomes comparatively stronger and confident to the withdrawn boy at the beginning. Vivant grows too, but I think he more or less reaches in for the nastiness that he's always had in place, whereas Rowan really works at pushing himself towards the optimism he's never had.
Come to think of it, I think Rowan and Sigmund's relationship would work quite normally if Rowan was a girl. LOL.
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