Fire and weight

[aged-crone.livejournal.com]

In KoA, when the King and Queen dance, "Phresine, the queen's senior attendant, watched them from behind the throne as her queen danced like a flame in the wind, and the mercurial king like the weight at the center of the earth. . . Phresine, leaving with the queen, heard Elia murmur under her breath, 'Well, that was revealing.' 'Only to those with eyes to see,' murmured Phresine back."

It took me a while to decide what I thought that meant, and even now I'm not positive.

I'm thinking it means that the Queen, who by reputation is cold and unfeeling and basically the equivalent of a statue, is not like that at all, but alive and warm "like a flame in the wind;" and the King, seemingly so irresponsible and a "prancing lightweight" is actually the solid anchor that allows her to be like that.

I'm sure there are other opinions out there, and I'd love to hear them.

Comments

[philia-fan.livejournal.com]

I agree, Leslie, and I also think it shows that the two of them together are more than they are separately, and each allows the other to be something other than they usually appear.

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

That's how I saw it, too. The sentence is so fabulous because it calls the king "mercurial" then says he is the weight at the center. Such a contradiction. Before they were together she probably never seemed carefree, as the description makes her sound, and he was never grounded by love and responsibility. *sigh*

I didn't know the word mercurial had to do with the god Mercury, and look! it mentions thieves.

From Merrian-Webster:
mer·cu·ri·al
Pronunciation: (")m&r-'kyur-E-&l
Function: adjective
1: of, relating to, or born under the planet Mercury
2: having qualities of eloquence, ingenuity, or thievishness attributed to the god Mercury or to the influence of the planet Mercury
3: characterized by rapid and unpredictable changeableness of mood (a mercurial temper)

[philia-fan.livejournal.com]

Yes, indeedy, you really must read The Lightning Thief, Checkers.

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

It's at the top of my summer reading list. So far I haven't been able to pry the copies out of my students' hands.

[peggy-2.livejournal.com]

Yes, but read them in order!

* Is reading Titan's Curse right now *

[crazyviolin.livejournal.com]

I love that book! And there's a third out?

*hurriedly checks Amazon*

Its been out for a whole month!

[tiloo.livejournal.com]

I have read that, and the Sea of Monster as well :)

[queenofattolia.livejournal.com]

I thought their dance was simply proof positive that they were madly in love -- that is, to those with eyes to see and the sense to look past ridiculous prejudices. It was more a comment on the obtuseness of the Attolian court than anything else, I thought.

[(Anonymous)]

queenofattolia, what/where is your icon from?

I agree with Leslie and Philia...and I wonder if Eugenides is pushing her? I mean, he's still at least a little bit afraid of her (physically) and it is rather safe to bait her in front of a room of people (even if they all--with the possible exception of Phresine--hate him). Maybe he's practicing being "imperious and high-handed"--in public (for a change).

~Feir Dearig

[adalanne.livejournal.com]

I agree. If Phresine had said, "Only to those without eyes to see." I think aged_crone's reading would be what she meant. Although, yes, I think you're correct in the assumptions vs. reality side of things. But by saying, "Only to those with eyes to see," Phresine is saying that only people who look past their preconceived notions will realize what Gen and Irene are actually like, together and separate, but that probably most people of the court won't notice because they're too set in their ideas, which turns out to be the case.

[idiosyncreant.livejournal.com]

Aha!
That passage always confused me. And it was there in the metaphors all this time...
I do believe there are layers to this, though. I assumed it must mean (with the whole pin sequence) that Gen's ability to more than compensate was being revealed, but (in context of KoA) he's stuffing that, and those who aren't already aligned with him (that is, the ladies who know what's going on with Attolia) can't see it. Because they won't.

And explaining that helped me understand better, too.

Good eye for a topic passage!

but...

[nj-librarian.livejournal.com]

There is no gravity at the center of the earth, so things at the center of the earth are completely weightless!

"At the center of the earth, you would not feel any gravity. This is
because the gravitational pull from every region of the earth is exactly counteracted by the gravitational pull from the corresponding region on the opposite side of you."

Re: but...

[peggy-2.livejournal.com]

Details details details!

Welcome back! How's Kate?

thanks for asking!

[nj-librarian.livejournal.com]

She is now six months old and, as was predicted by One of Our Favorite Authors on a previous thread, she is indeed "too clever to be reasonable." If she wants something, it is difficult if not impossible to trick her into accepting something else. (For example, we were in a restaurant and she wanted to help herself to daddy's french fries. We gave her all kinds of other things to amuse herself with, but she was having none of it. We finally placated her with some of those little crackers in crinkly plastic, which she had fun smashing to smithereens inside the wrapper.

Now ashe wants to type nb hcyhccccccccccc bcx xx

Re: thanks for asking!

[nj-librarian.livejournal.com]

here's a photo.

Re: thanks for asking!

[peggy-2.livejournal.com]

Oh. my. heavens.

What a cutie! It sounds like you are having a lot of fun with her.
Yeah for babies! And yeah for being back!

She makes me grin just looking at her picture. What an infectious smile she has!

Re: thanks for asking!

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

She is absolutely adorable. Cute mohawk! :)

Re: but...

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

Yay! NJ is back. So, there is no weight at the center of the earth?

Re: but...

[philia-fan.livejournal.com]

Yes, but who would know that in this society?

p. 320, King of Attolia, Relius ponders a correspondence with the Magus on, among other things, "the new idea from the north, that the sun and not the earth might be in the center of the universe."

Phresine probably subscribes to the prevailing views of earth and gravity, and is not up on 21st century knowledge.