LogFAQs > #976122157

Entity13 posted...

Not the impression I got when I read it. It's more that things build up with a rule set in place that the failing side would perish. The hill becomes dangerous, and the characters of one side flee, one unconscious, alongside a member of the other side who may or may not have betrayed her side(?), and it just stops there. Thus I am left with a couple questions that make it feel, to me, like a non-ending.

They say that the losing side usually dies because of the backlash of forces. Because of the PLOT TWIST, the good guys actually stop being part of the ritual, so there's no real backlash against them. It's ultimately basically just a simple unopposed closing (as they mention has happened in the past). It stops being two opposite forces pushing against each other until one overpowers the other (the tension between the two being the cause of the backlash), and instead becomes one side smoothly and easily succeeding.

Jill technically "wins", but for the wrong side (because she's using the wrong wand). Jack survives basically by virtue of dropping his wand (though he might have survived regardless, because the story establishes pretty clearly that he breaks a lot of the rules because of what he is - which may actually be Cain himself). The hill remains dangerous, but not necessarily inevitably lethal (as long as you survive the initial backlash, which again, didn't happen in this scenario).

The "unconscious" person is removed before the final conclusion, and it's previously established that the rules of the whole ritual allow for people to leave after it's started (ie, the sacrifice), which implies it doesn't insta-kill someone the moment they try to leave. Which is probably the same reason why The Great Detective is able to intervene and leave with Lynette.

The last two leaving together is foreshadowed - it's implied earlier in the story that Jack has been trying to convince Jill into changing sides, and though she ultimately refuses (just as Rostov and Owen apparently tried to convert each other but neither ever switched), she does like Jack and feels bad about being on opposite sides. So the ending implies pretty strongly that they're going to become romantically paired off, and their familiars will continue to be odd couple friends (in spite of being a cat and a dog).

Plus, the whole thing winds up being a pun about Jack and Jill going down the hill, which is absolutely the sort of thing Zelazny loves to do.

If you need "closure" (no pun intended), you can probably assume Jack and Jill date for a while. Maybe it works out. Maybe it doesn't. And then about 20 years later, a number of the proper people will be attracted to the proper place in the proper year on a night in the lonesome October when the moon shines full and the way may be opened. And some of those people will assist in the opening of the way while others will strive to keep the way closed. And Jack will be there, because Jack is always there. Maybe Jill will stand with him to close them out. Or maybe they will sadly find themselves on opposite sides again. Or maybe Jill won't be there at all.

But someone will be. Because the story never ends, and the cycle continues forever (or at least until the Openers win and break the cycle forever). You got to see how one cycle went, but now it's over, and the story ends.

And just like how we never got to find out what actually happened in Dijon, or that time when everybody gave up and just had dinner together, or the time when everyone chickened out and the Closers won by default, we won't get to know what happens the next time. Or the time after that. Or the one after that.

Because The Game only ends when the world does.







And fuck it. Now I want to dig out my old notes I made years ago and write that Lonesome October fanfic I've thought about writing on and off for about 20 years now. I always start to feel that urge around this time of year.

One year I was actually considering writing it up as in-character blogposts and posting one per day all month. And I've got the whole story mapped out in my head in outline (and with the characters I was planning to use). Though I've always successfully fought off the urge to actually do it.