The saying goes, ‘To assume is to make an ass of u and me.’ It’s quoted by Malachi in The Earth Emperor’s Eye, possibly because assumptions can create negative mindsets, particularly when faced with something unusual and distinctive which pushes boundaries and perceptions, but lingers hitherto undiscovered and overlooked.
Well, it doesn’t matter what you are assuming chances are it isn’t true. Here’s the downfall when it comes to assuming; people are afraid. We create these false ideas, or notions and our brains fill in conversations that never happened and then we start to believe that these conversations that never really happened might have. Here we are stuck…lost in our false thoughts afraid of confronting or maybe confronting is the wrong word…approaching is a better one. We are afraid of approaching those whom we are assuming against whether or not our false words, stories, feelings, ideas, notions even have any truth behind them.
Do you know what the worst part about this part is? We become content that what we’ve falsely created is fine. We’ll either get over it, move on from it, or do something stupid which actually does make an ass out of you and me. I digress. For in The Earth Emperor’s Eye there are a few symbolic scenes involving a breed of draught horse, where the Grim Dread seemingly taunts the Watch and its messages, as if to revel in our assumptions that it is mere folly… to make a literal ass out of you and me.
It’s curious then that these draught horses and a donkey have come together, perhaps to reinforce the message.
A donkey can but dream! Delve into the novel and the Watch. Revel in the deep magic.