Quote time!
Aug. 29th, 2007 12:41 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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queensthiefSo I'm feeling like we've managed to lure all of these lurkers out of hiding with While She Knits, and so I'm feeling we need another discussion question on the MWT books. (I'm also feeling that I'm using the phrase "so I'm feeling" a lot.) So I thought I'd kick it off with a couple of innocuous questions. The idea here is to narrow down your answer to one or two specific excerpts/lines/phrases (and I know, it's terribly, terribly difficult to do so!).
I'll post my answers once I get back to my books, but I really want to read what some of the new people have to say. So please! Comment away! Consider the question "and why" is attached to the end of all the questions! (It's just like high school English!) Come up with your own questions and I'll add them! This is just a starting point; let's see what we come up with!
1) What's your favorite line from the books?
(I know, I know, it's difficult. Think hard!)
2) Is/are there any particular line(s) you find yourself repeating to yourself, or that you automatically think of in certain situations?
3) Think of your favorite line by your least favorite character.
4) Is there a line that struck you differently on subsequent rereads than it did the first time you read it?
(That one's kind of hard, too. Did it change the way you viewed a character? Was it in a broader, more life-lesson-y-type sense? Did you breeze right by it the first time, and find it later and wonder how you could have possibly missed it 'cause it's the best line ever? Etc.)
5) If you could, for half a second, channel MWT's brilliance, which line would you have like to have written yourself?
Have fun! I can't wait to see what y'all come up with!
I'll post my answers once I get back to my books, but I really want to read what some of the new people have to say. So please! Comment away! Consider the question "and why" is attached to the end of all the questions! (It's just like high school English!) Come up with your own questions and I'll add them! This is just a starting point; let's see what we come up with!
1) What's your favorite line from the books?
(I know, I know, it's difficult. Think hard!)
2) Is/are there any particular line(s) you find yourself repeating to yourself, or that you automatically think of in certain situations?
3) Think of your favorite line by your least favorite character.
4) Is there a line that struck you differently on subsequent rereads than it did the first time you read it?
(That one's kind of hard, too. Did it change the way you viewed a character? Was it in a broader, more life-lesson-y-type sense? Did you breeze right by it the first time, and find it later and wonder how you could have possibly missed it 'cause it's the best line ever? Etc.)
5) If you could, for half a second, channel MWT's brilliance, which line would you have like to have written yourself?
Have fun! I can't wait to see what y'all come up with!
no subject
Date: 8/29/07 06:21 pm (UTC)1) 'Diplomacy in my own name' because Attolia rocks but everyone knows it's too hard to pick just one :P
2) See icon and LJ I say this as 'thank you' even to some people who haven't actually read the books. I haven't weirded too many people out, I hope.
3) I don't have a least favourite character...
4) "No," Eugenides responded thoughtfully, "and maybe I should be more sympathetic, but I think I will just go back to bed." (On Sounis causing bloodshed trying to get a woman he can't have.) This one went straight past me until someone here pointed it out a few weeks ago.
5) MY MIND EXPLODED HERE. *dizzy*
no subject
Date: 8/29/07 07:13 pm (UTC)2.) There's a line in QoA about Attolia that says something like, "she schooled herself to patience, always her best resource." In most situations where patience is the appropriate response, I think of that quote.
5.) Honestly, the whole Attolia vs. Nahuseresh scene is just amazing...I usually cite Attolia's line about the nature of gifts as one of my favorites, and I think that's one I'd like to have written. It describes something I immediately recognized as being true, but I would never have known how to phrase it myself.
no subject
Date: 8/29/07 07:22 pm (UTC)2) "What snakes and weasels fill your court, your Majesty." Fortunately I haven't had too many opportunities to say this aloud.
3) "Basileus." (Sejanus)
4) "She pulled the bedclothes up as far as they would go and suppressed a perverse wish to have her old nurse come to chase away the darkness, perverse because she didn't know if she wanted the shadows to be empty or not." Took me several reads to catch this clue that, on some level, Attolia understood that Eugenides, hiding in her palace and supposedly the enemy, had been keeping her company as well.
5)"'Well' -- he stumbled over the words -- 'this explains all those nights without conversation at dinner.'" Something about Eugenides's desperate attempt at humor here is more touching than any expression of sorrow could have been. You feel his bitterness, betrayal, guilt and horror in that little stumble.
favorite lines/scenes
Date: 8/29/07 07:52 pm (UTC)I'm going to cheat a little bit and give a favorite line from each book.
In The Thief, "Oh, it's you, Eugenides," the queen said in perfect irritation and understanding. I love how matter-of-fact she is about him coming half-naked, filthy and wounded into her palace after being missing for so long. She really does understand him perfectly!
In The Queen of Attolia, "I've already been hunted in Attolia, your majesty."
In King of Attolia, "I thought that being king meant that someone else would do the killing for me."
2) Is/are there any particular line(s) you find yourself repeating to yourself, or that you automatically think of in certain situations?
"I'm very good at grovelling." That is a useful line at work when I'm trying to get something done.
3) Think of your favorite line by your least favorite character.
I think Sounis is probably my least favorite character. But he's not as quotable as many of the other characters in the books and doesn't really say anything that is funny, brilliant or wise. I just don't like him and hope that poor Agape doesn't have to marry him!
4) Is there a line that struck you differently on subsequent rereads than it did the first time you read it?
I'm re-reading QofA now. I don't think I realized initially that everyone thought that when Eugenides said he could eliminate the instability in Attolia that he meant that he would kill her, not marry her. That must have been quite a conversation with his father and Eddis when he explained his plan. I think I was reading too quickly and knew the basics about the third book and just didn't put it all together that they thought he meant kill her.
5) If you could, for half a second, channel MWT's brilliance, which line would you have like to have written yourself?
"You have any mistresses and I'll cut off your other hand." I love this line - and it makes Attolia seem so much more human to actually have such a strong emotion. And it's so sassy.
no subject
Date: 8/29/07 08:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 8/29/07 08:37 pm (UTC)1) What's your favorite line from the books?
Are you kidding me? I love so many! Hummm.... I really, really like,
"Why did you come if not to kill my king?"
"I came to steal his magus."
"You can't," said the magus in question.
"I can steal anything," corrected Eugenides, "even with one hand."
but there are so many others!
2) Is/are there any particular line(s) you find yourself repeating to yourself, or that you automatically think of in certain situations?
My life consists of random movie/book quotes. Just ask my friends.
"You sound like the chorus in a play."
"I told her I'd already been hunted in Attolia."
"I CAN DO ANYTHING I WANT!"
"I can't keep apologising."
"Why not?"
"Well...I think you would be bored."
3) Think of your favorite line by your least favorite character.
Hmm.... I dunno who my least favorite character is. Maybe... Ambiades? Naw... I'll have to think about this one.
4) Is there a line that struck you differently on subsequent rereads than it did the first time you read it?
The first time I read KoA it was basically in one sitting and I did not quite understand anything (it went something like Who is this Costis person? Ooh, fun court intrigue...I <3 Gen & Attolia... I'm a fan of the sword fighting.... wait, it's over? What just happened?) The next few times through I think the line that hit me hardest is when Gen is drunk on the crenellations, and Costis is trying to get him to come down, and Gen talks about how much he hates the situation he's in.
"It's the first disaster I've gotten myself into that I absolutely cannot get out of. Because I don't want out of it, Costis. I'm terrified that if they find out how much I hate it, they'll take it away." (he says something along those lines, thats not word-for-word)
This part is so sad because you know 1) how great a King Gen could be and 2) how very much he hates being looked at, etc. and you just have to feel sorry for him... :'(
5) If you could, for half a second, channel MWT's brilliance, which line would you have like to have written yourself?
Oh, bother. Hmm. I really don't know... but I'll throw this one out there for the sake of the discussion or whatever.
"You sound like the chorus in a play."
"A tragedy."
"A farce."
I just like the reference to Greek culture, and that I can understand it (yay for AP English!) but I'll have to look next re-read for another line....
no subject
Date: 8/29/07 09:11 pm (UTC)Eddis, saying goodbye to Gen before he goes off to kidnap Irene, turns back to him, and he says, "My Queen?" and she says something along the lines of that being all she wanted to hear. It occurred to me this time around that she was facing the fact that Irene would by "my Queen" for Gen in future, and so it was a good bye.
Re: favorite lines/scenes
Date: 8/29/07 09:27 pm (UTC)Oh, but he does! I love this one:
New Magus: "I think it was an Eddisian who intended to be taken as an Attolian and that he gave that apprentice gold to betray my predecessor for the purpose of misdirection."
Sounis: "If you can't say that more clearly, I can find someone else who can."
meaning of number 4
Date: 8/29/07 09:38 pm (UTC)This is when Gen is drunk and talking to the magus, no? Am I missing something here?
Sam
no subject
Date: 8/29/07 11:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 8/29/07 11:39 pm (UTC)I love this one A) on its own merits, B) because it's in my favorite scene in all three books, and C) because possibly my favorite part of the books is Gen's relationship with his God.
2: Name a quote from any of the books, and the chances are fairly good that I've quoted it at least once since I first read them earlier this summer, partly because I always quote everything incessantly, and partly because I'm just a little bit obsessed with these books right now. But some of the more common ones are:
"You promised you were going to bed." "I lied."
"A thief never makes a sound he doesn't intend."
"Calf love doesn't usually survive amputation." (I have a thing for one-handed men. Don't ask.)
"'He had to be forcibly dissuaded from strangling his son.'
'So have we all from time to time,' Eddis said seriously."
um, etc.
3: Nahuseresh is my least favorite character, I think, and I believe we've lent our copy of Queen to my brother, so I can't look for his good lines.
4: There are a lot of lines in The Thief that are subtle clues to who Eugenides really is, which I didn't even notice the first time through, but rereading it were like a slap upside the head. One of my favorites is from Gen's first conversation with the Magus:
"'We might someday attain a relationship of mutual respect,' he said softly. First, I thought, I will see gods walking the earth."
5: um, everything between, "I didn't know how long I had been in the King's prison" and "He is an Annux, a king of kings"...? I haven't thought about it.
no subject
Date: 8/30/07 02:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 8/30/07 03:00 am (UTC)*sigh* They're so cool...
no subject
Date: 8/30/07 03:04 am (UTC)He wanted to know my name.
I said, "Gen." He wasn't interested in the rest.
I'm rereading The Thief for the fourth time and this was the first time I realised that "the rest" referred to the rest of Eugenides' name! I always breezed past it, thinking it meant that the magus wasn't interested in any other information about Gen. it's not the best line ever, but it was wonderful to find something that I didn't catch before.
no subject
Date: 8/30/07 03:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 8/30/07 03:38 am (UTC)2. "Stop whining." and also "Go to bed." I quote (and am quoted) these lines a lot. The best part is that if you get the joke, it's hilarious and if you don't it's...mundane.
3. "I had not pictured you for a fishwife." I don't really hate Relius, but neither do I love him (he has none of the Magus's savoir faire).
4. "You have your answer, little thief." When I realized what that actually meant--that neither Eugenides nor Irene nor Eddis nor Attolia (the countries, not the people, although the people too) could have survived/driven off the Meade temporarily if Gen's hand hadn't been cut off (because Gen's trauma is the catalyst, really, for pretty much everything that follows)...it was quite an epiphany.
5. "Lo, the transforming power of love." I love that line.
I just read the story in the PB of KoA, BTW. Wow!
~Feir Dearig
no subject
Date: 8/30/07 03:43 am (UTC)*is compelled to double-post*
One of my other favorite lines:
"I love your eyes. I love your ears. And I love every single one of your ridiculous lies." Awwwww...
~Feir Dearig
no subject
Date: 8/30/07 04:09 am (UTC)"That is ridiculous," she said.
The king agreed. "Like falling in love with a landslide. Only you could fail to notice."
But...OH WAIT. NO. THIS is my favorite (QoA, ch. 2):
He looked at her and tilted his head very slightly in wonder. He had forgotten, as he always forgot, how beautiful she was. ...it was far easier to imagine the impersonal cruelty of the Great Goddess than to see cruelyty in the face of the queen of Attolia. Looking at her, Eugenides smiled.
Attolia saw his smile, without any hint of self-effacement or flattery or opportunism, a smaile wholly unlike that of any member of her court, and she hit him across the face with her open hand.
Love. Oh God. I get all excited just reading, because it's so heartachingly sad.
2) "Oh no! I haven't done [insert important paper here] yet and it's due in five hours! I'm so dead!"
Dead is dead, he had told himself over and over. Dead is dead. (QoA ch. 16) It just has such a nice rhythm to it!
3) (QoA, ch. 12) "Good heavens," said Nahuseresh. "Kamet, you're love-struck."
4) I mentioned this a while ago, but probably KoA, ch. 12 (Gen to Costis): "I don't think I've ever heard you say that many words in a row." Because the first time I read it, I didn't really care about Costis (I know, I know, I'm a horrible person, but it's okay because I love him dearly, these things take time, we both know that), but then the second time I read it I was so wrapped up in Costis's POV that it surprised me to remember that others hadn't seen anything from it.
That, or some of the conversations between Relius and his monarchs, esp. the queen. I didn't really understand any of them before.
5) This is my favorite line, the one that will never, ever stop giving me chills (QoA, ch. 20):
"It is a token to the gods I believe in, no more."
"No," said Attolia.
"Because you do not believe?"
"Oh, no," said Attolia bitterly. "Because I believe and I do not choose to worship."
That line will never stop being powerful. So I guess that's my absolute favorite, and I wish I wish I wish I could come up with something so cool myself.
no subject
Date: 8/30/07 04:10 am (UTC)4) OH MAN. I get what you're talking about. (At first I thought you were referring to Magus/Helen, but now I see that it's GEN/ATTOLIA HOMG *ARMS WAVE ENTHUSIASTICALLY* THAT'S SO COOL.)
no subject
Date: 8/30/07 04:12 am (UTC)Huh. I never thought of it that way...
no subject
Date: 8/30/07 04:15 am (UTC)Re: favorite lines/scenes
Date: 8/30/07 04:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 8/30/07 04:20 am (UTC)4) I love that scene as well. I...love both of them in that scene. Because Gen's finally talking, and Costis is so freaking concerned for him and for the men and it's just aw.
no subject
Date: 8/30/07 04:35 am (UTC)"You've always been kind to me"
The king laughed out loud. He held out his arm, and she leaned against him.
"What a lie that was."
I think I love this passage best because not only does it demonstrate the complexity of their relationship, it makes their feelings for each other very plain. It's also the one passage I can clearly imagine being uttered by my fantasy Attolia (Rachel Weisz) and Gen (James McAvoy). Sigh.
Line most often repeated to myself: see above.
Best Line from my least favorite character - from QoA:
"Oh, yes, a fine one-handed figurehead he will make," spat Naheuseresh." Dude, you have no idea.
Line that struck me differently upon re-reads - from KoA:
"King," Eddis emphasized, "of Attolia." This made me uncomfortable when I first read it, but the implication only became clear upon re-reading the passage.
Lines I'd like to have written - from QoA:
Unable to guess the answer, she asked, "Who am I, that you should love me?"
"You are my Queen," said Eugenides. She sat perfectly still, looking at him without moving as his words dropped like water into dry earth.
Oh my Lord. So simple, and yet so huge -- the true definition of a sea change. This passage gobsmacks me with its brilliance every time I read it.
no subject
Date: 8/30/07 09:50 am (UTC)"Well that was revealing."
"Only to those with eyes to see."
lovely!
5.) If you could, for half a second, channel MWT's brilliance, which line would you have like to have written yourself?
"The queen had begun another slow step backward up the stair behind her when the king caught her by the wrist and pulled her forward...The king lifted a hand to her cheek and kissed her. It was not a kiss between strangers, not even a kiss between a bride and a groom. It was a kiss between a man and his wife, and when it was over, the king closed his eyes and rested his forehead against the hollow in the queen's shoulder, like a man seeking respite, like a man reaching home at the end of the day."
I loved this part because being the worry-prone, blind-to-subtle-hints person that I am, I feared for Eugenides' and Attolia's marriage. I remember on my first read, this was the first part of the book I knew for certain that it was going to be all right.
(I must say that being blind to subtle hints probably increased my enjoyment of the books..I know of people who guessed the plot before it was revealed. That's no fun! Now, I wish I could read them again for the first time.)
Anyway, there are so many more pieces of writing that were so well done! Especially in KoA. The part about "if Attolia could look like a queen, Eugenides was like a god revealed, passionless and calculating." The part when Costis is running to save Eugenides in the garden and we see from his point of view: "There was nothing he could do...It was what he had imagined and yet nothing he could ever have imagined...It wasn't the king's blood. It wasn't the king's body." Also! The part when Costis turns to avoid looking at Eugenides' hook and he "knew that he would march into hell for this fathomless king, as he would for his queen."