May 02, 2024
To:Mo
The first fifteen chapters are currently being rewritten. This was because of many reasons, including the slow-buildup being a little too slow. The scattered thoughts of the character wasn't really a feature, i just hadn't decided how I wanted to portray him until after the first Act. I'm trying to re-edit it to be a little more cohesive to how I ended up wanting him to act like. What you're reading now might be gone in the future, although I hope to keep the essence of it. I guess you'll be one of the very few to read him like this.
For the most part I also hadn't decided on the truth behind some of the 'mystery' in the beginning until now. Some thing will become a little clearer after I'm done editing it.
As far as 'Madness' goes in this story, it's more equivalent to a bare consequence of a certain domain of 'power'. While every person is prone to grow mad, to a person who borrows this certain type of power, it's guaranteed. I wanted to use the idea of LotM's 'Personas' to carry different genres of story throughout the grand plot- a 'police story' in volume 1, into a 'detective novel' in volume 2, a 'pirate story' in volume 3, and so on. As a consequence, I had to develop some idea to make using personas feasible, and as a result, I tied it into this 'madness'. To avoid accumulating madness to one's 'base persona', (i.e, Lumière Croft), he would be forced to create alternate personas in which he would convince himself he himself is, in order to accumulate that madness to that 'active persona' and be able to force it back into the depths of his mind, almost like one would bottle up their emotions and choose to forget about them, except in this case using a vessel to accumulate and ignore one's own insanity.
In the case of this story's 'madness', it would turn one crazy and unpredictable. For most, it would leave one as merely a lunatic. For someone like the main character, who is forced to wield more power than most, madness would be equivalent to unleashing it all, and ending the world. This is the main interest in the novel, at least as I meant it.
So the stages would be > Strange happenings (murmurs, ravings, illusions) > (madness) as the base end state for most who grow mad > (turning into calamity) as the end state of Lumière's madness.
I was really excited when you basically guessed the majour plotpoint of 'plunging' or lying to himself in order to avoid madness.
I tried to include a lot of symbolism pertaining to 'light' in darkness, but this might also be reworked to be a little more clear in the future. What the intention was, was to have the people around Lumière talk about 'the sun' being some hope amidst cruelty, and have Lumière's confusion around that matter conceal the idea that they were always talking about him. He's someone who, despite not knowing why people accept their fate's instead of choosing to struggle, chooses to help them out despite that. He often chides the Father of the monastery for working so hard to support the people that choose not to fight against their own fates, but supplies the money for the Father to do so by working at a job he himself has lost all his passion for.
There's a scene in the next few chapters where Lumière is talking with a child who acts so much like an adult. Of course, this may just be for a greater reason, but the base intention is to show that even children have to grow up fast in harsh conditions in order to survive. Still, despite that, the child says 'he couldn't wish for anything more'. Lumière can't understand that mindset in the slightest, and doesn't really ever stop to realise he himself is the same- he is someone who chooses of his own volition to stay in his unhappy situation, and blame greater powers for his situation. Whether his perspective is right or wrong, he does the same thing as the people he chooses to demean for failing to act. I want to try and make this point clearer in the rewrite.
As for the rewrite itself, it won't matter if you keep reading it as it is for now. Maybe in the future, it would be nice to go back and skim through it to see what changes, but I don't think it will affect the experience for continuing. I think it is a harsh experience to read through the beginning now, but I would appreciate your critique in future comments as to how I can improve the experience. I'm looking to make symbolism and ideals clearer, as well as speed up the plot for the first fifteen chapters. That's probably what will be rewritten.
I hope you continue to enjoy, however. I appreciate your comments as always. ^^
