In the second part of the first chapter of “On Ordeal: Ronan, Jr.,†Ronan heads to school, unaware of the battle raging inside of him. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to read Young Wizards.
Trigger Warning: For brief discussion of racism/xenophobia (specifically anti-Black/anti-African)
I don’t think it’s exactly shocking to Young Wizards fans that Duane’s style has gotten long-winded in these last few novels/stories. She writes as if she wants us to slowly edge into her worlds before she then shoves us off every metaphorical cliff imaginable. (I’VE BEEN TRICKED SO MANY TIMES, OH MY GOD.) There’s an obvious benefit to that in the middle of this chapter, too, since the long internal narration for Ronan allows us to appreciate all the hints towards the Champion’s true intentions. (Plus, I just love the bickering asides. They’re so entertaining!)
It is a little slow for me at times, though, and I’m having a similar feeling to what I experienced at the opening of Mamvish’s story. How many of these details matter? Is Ronan’s routine as he walks to school important? What role will Pidge play in the coming drama? I can’t forget that the Lone One wants to inflict a “worst-case event†on Ronan, so I’m expecting that exact thing to happen.Â
Reading is an act of faith on the part of the reader, and we put ourselves in the hands of author, trusting them to guide us through this journey. So that’s what I’m doing. I’m trusting the process, even if that process is a bit sluggish at the moment. All the little hints towards the presence of the Lone One and the One’s Champion helped keep this feeling more urgent than it otherwise would have been, and I’m now wondering if I just flat-out missed clues in the first section of this chapter.Â
What I did immediately appreciate about this is how much we’re in Ronan’s head, more so than we were in Mamvish’s Ordeal. Like the first part of this chapter, we get a sense for his anxieties and worries, what occupies his mind, what his day is like. In the midst of this, his mood swings about, each time a tiny glimpse of the war inside his body between these two immense powers. It’s pretty cool that this manifests as an ordinary teen angst, too. Well, not just angst, but there’s some heavy shit here, like this:
And sure it’s supposed to be God that’s behind it all, Ronan thought, the writing and the rewriting too… but if that’s true, then He’s made an incredible mess.
Not just of that: of nearly everything.
WELL, SHIT. I didn’t interpret this as a sign that if you don’t believe in God, you’re doing the work of the Lone Power. Duane’s been real careful not to value any faith (or lack of one) above another in this world. Instead, it’s about the kind of negativity that surrounds this sort of thought. Notice that it leads Ronan to thinking about other uncomfortable shit, like his future in Ireland, the possibility of going on the dole, and the challenges of trying to just live. That is the sort of entropy that the Lone One thrives on, the cascade of negativity that sucks the life out of people.Â
I would qualify what Ronan starts to witness at the end of this chapter as part of that entropy, too. The teasing and bullying is dispiriting, and it’s also violent. You don’t need to make physical contact with someone to enact violence on them. Notice the way Maurice holds his own body as people say racist shit about him. This stuff has a powerful affect on a person, all without having to lay a single hand on someone. But what I’m most interested in seeing is whether Ronan does anything about it. Being a bystander to racism can be damaging, too, and I’ve certainly felt hurt and cut ties with people because they didn’t speak up to defend me while seeing shit go down.
So what’s Ronan gonna do?
https://youtu.be/Z6K0rFqK1-o
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