This is my reaction blog for Wind and Truth. Beware of spoilers! Index post here. 

 

Title: What is Right
I dunno, but Szeth’s whole rigidity of belief suggests that he’s not going to take well to whatever lesson of nuance his father tries to teach him here.

Icon: Ishar
Honorblades make an appearance?

Apparently Szeth’s mom Zeenid teaches painting in town. That’s got to be rather prestigious given the Shin respect for color, though I’m not sure how they consider arts from the perspective of things that “add” in comparison to shepherding for example.

Neturo has a long beard? That was not anywhere in my mental image of Szeth’s dad. His splash is interesting. He is of a status that earns him three colored elements, which he wears as ribbons on his wrists and beard, but all three are the same color and together constitute a single splash.

A single rock is considered an anomaly, so my previous speculation about those determining the location of homesteads can’t be a general rule.

Zeenid only gets one splash from teaching painting, compared to Neturo’s three-piece splash for teaching shepherds, so that answers that question. But Zeenid bucks convention by wearing an entire green skirt. The daring!

And Zeenid shows up with a shovel (precious artifact!) to dig out the rock and move it. 

Quote

“We can’t touch it!”
“Of course not. That’s why I brought gloves, dear.” 

The practicalities of reverence.

Quote

“Those men are evil, but it’s because of the choices they make.”

A good lesson, but I don’t know that Szeth is going to internalize it with his complicated feelings about moving the rock.

He decided to move it, but he’s not happy. 

It’s only 8 inches long? I was imagining something much larger than that. How big is their original family stone, then? Probably not an actual boulder. Big enough that it can get chewed on by a sheep, but who knows what that means?

I appreciate Neturo and Zeenid’s approach to orthodoxy. The shamans don’t tell us what to do, they share their teachings and then we choose how to show devotion. We decide what level of reverence is appropriate. It’s a very personal, perhaps casual relationship with their religion that I doubt most of the shamans would be happy about. Szeth certainly has misgivings.

Ah, Szeth thinks this unorthodox approach may be why his family lives in a rural area.