More QoA

[aged-crone.livejournal.com]

I've been re-reading - again - and some things have struck me - again.



I had just been reading a post on Sounis in which someone pointed out that Gen's statement, "Whether I am on a rafter three stories up or on a staircase three steps up, I am in my god's hands. He will keep me safe, or he will not, here or on the stairs," was one of the strongest statements of faith she had ever read. (I can't remember in which post it was or I'd give credit where it's due).

Then I was re-reading QoA (again), and came to the part where Gen has just been captured. "My God, he thought, I am so frightened. O my God, if you will not save me, make me less afraid. He fell on the steep trail."

So - Gen has just asked his god, the one who keeps him from falling, to make him less afraid, if not to save him - and the next thing that happens is that he falls. That must have seemed like an answer to his prayer, and not a positive one. No saving, no comfort - utter abandonment. Imagine how he must have felt, poor lamb! (Leslie huggles Gen protectively, and casts deeply reproachful glances at someone whose identity shall remain hidden behind the initials MWT).

Also from QoA, I always marvel at how Attolia, after Nahuseresh has "rescued" her," manages so many double entendres, and without his noticing. "So long as your are near me as well, I want him [Teleus] close," she says, and Nahuseresh assumes it's because she doesn't trust Teleus. Her conveying the message that she will marry Gen to his father, with Nahuseresh right there. It's brilliant!

(Of course, that leaves me trying to read meaning into absolutely everything. Like, why did she tell the MoW that maybe he should drink less? And, when she says "I think Eddis does not understand my attachment to my allies the Medes . . . She leaned forward in her seat, the fabric of her long skirts bunched in her hands as if she were holding the prisoner's attention with them," is she trying to show that she is in the Mede's clutches, as her skirt is clutched? Or am I reading too much into it?)

And I love, love, love it when she rips Nahuseresh's ego apart by showing him how he has completely underestimated and misunderstood her, *and* that she's going to marry Gen. "'You will make that boy Thief king?' he said. 'When you could have had me?'" In the elegant patois that so enriched my junior high school years, "Oooooh, *burrrrrrn*!"

Comments

[peggy-2.livejournal.com]

"So long as your are near me as well, I want him [Teleus] close," she says, and Nahuseresh assumes it's because she doesn't trust Teleus.

I took that (on subsequent readings, not the first one!) to mean she didn't trust Nahuseresh, not conveying a msg about Gen.

oops

[peggy-2.livejournal.com]

sorry. I mis-read. You were making two separate observations there.

[philia-fan.livejournal.com]

But the fall on the trail WAS a direct answer to his prayer -- after that someone laughs and Nahuseresh looks amused and then "White-hot hatred burned through Eugenides. If he was still without hope, at least he could think clearly again." His god did indeed make him less afraid, by causing his fear to be replaced by anger.

[rosaleeluann.livejournal.com]

My God, he thought, I am so frightened. O my God, if you will not save me, make me less afraid.

That line really struck me the last time I re-read it too (which was... a couple weeks ago, I think). I had to write it down. Its another great statement of faith for me--we can't always expect the gods to save us, but we can ask them to make us more able to get through our trials.

[philia-fan.livejournal.com]

I love that bit, actually, because it's Gen's relationship with the gods in a nutshell -- they look as if they're abandoning him while really giving him what he asks for.

[fabricalchemist.livejournal.com]

This is exactly why I love these books =) These layers of meaning.

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

I think Eddis does not understand my attachment to my allies the Medes

I thought Attolia was afraid that the MoW wouldn't understand that the message was that she HAD no attachment to the Medes, unlike the impression she had been giving Eddis all along. She clutched her dress as if she could, by will alone, force the thought into his head.

The drinking part I assumed was just a dig at the MoW, treating him like an old, alcoholic, unsuccessful soldier, rather than Eddis's clever Minister of War. Remember, she didn't want anyone to figure out who he was so the Medes would let him leave to pass the message along. Really, Attolia was doing Eddis a huge favor by choosing the MoW to take the message. Not only did she release him from capture, she gave him back to Eddis to help with strategy and leadership of the coming battle.

[(Anonymous)]

The bit that always gets me is the one about being so afraid it feels like the world has turned to stone.

~Feir Dearig

[aged-crone.livejournal.com]

I thought that was what the drinking comment was, too, until I started trying to find double meaning in absolutely everything. Yes, she did Eddis and herself a big favor, because his leadership undoubtedly helped with the battle.

[willow-41z.livejournal.com]

I always thought that was one of the reasons Nahuseresh was so upset, and caught on to what was going on so quickly-- she'd sent back Eddis's Minister of War! She'd have to be either extremely stupid or extremely treasonous to do that.

[jade-sabre-301.livejournal.com]

That's a line that I sometimes mutter to myself--kind like when I say "I'm so dead" and mentally launch into "Dead is dead, he told himself over and over again," sometimes when I say "Oh my God" my head starts going "My God, I am so frightened..."

...

♥

[aged-crone.livejournal.com]

And it's so deeply satisfying when she tells Nahuseresh about it - to distract him from what's going on with the troops, but also because she's about to Reveal All, and telling him that she had released Eddis' Minister of War was one heck of a way to do it!

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

I LOVE the part where Attolia tells him the messenger was the MoW. In the words of Peggy - SCORE!!!!

[aged-crone.livejournal.com]

Or, to be more infantile about it: Neener, neener, neener!

[aged-crone.livejournal.com]

I forgot to add - and all the more so because she doesn't do it sneakily; she does it right before his very eyes and so he has to live with the writhing humiliation that if he had been as well-informed as he thought he was he could have stopped it.

Ooooh, I love mashing his weirdly bearded face into the dust!

[aged-crone.livejournal.com]

Except that he's still so afraid he'd rather have his father strangle him than face what he is sure is going to come.

[willow-41z.livejournal.com]

Or-- PWNED.

[willow-41z.livejournal.com]

This is completely off of your topic, but this just struck me. Nahuseresh sent assassins against Gen, not Attolia. I bet he still hopes to become King of Attolia.

[philia-fan.livejournal.com]

Hmm, well, say what you will, I've always accepted it as an example of a prayer answered instantly, though Gen is in no state to realize that at the time.

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

I've always thought that, too, philia. Gen asks--sometimes half in earnest, sometimes in desperation--and voila, he gets it, though not always in the way he expected. It's the same in Thief when he has to steal the horses. He makes a hasty, off-hand prayer that the horses will remain quiet, and instantly their hooves make no sound as they walk.

[peggy-2.livejournal.com]

oh, excellent catch, Willow!

[jade-sabre-301.livejournal.com]

But I thought he didn't realize who it was until the scene on the hillside? Unless you're saying something completely different.

[jade-sabre-301.livejournal.com]

IS HE INSANE.

...oh wait.

Oh God, he really does hope to become KoA. EEK.

[pcw-rcw.livejournal.com]

Going back momentarily, to Gen's heartfelt plea:

"My God, he thought, I am so frightened. O my God, if you will not save me, make me less afraid."

And philis_fan's comment:

...the fall on the trail WAS a direct answer to his prayer -- after that someone laughs and Nahuseresh looks amused and then "White-hot hatred burned through Eugenides. If he was still without hope, at least he could think clearly again." His god did indeed make him less afraid, by causing his fear to be replaced by anger...

We agree with philia_fan's analysis. We think the thing that provides the proof of it, is the sentence which follows immediately after, "He hit face first, and the stones in the mud cut into his cheek." We take this to mean that Gen fell on (or near) the 'feathered' scar on his face (the legacy left him by his god, Eugenides, in TT) and thus was a sign that the fall (with the resulting effect of Gen's fear being replaced by anger) was due to it being the god Eugenides' reply to Gen's prayer.

As far as Gen still being afraid enough to allow his father to strangle him later as aged_crone remarks:

...Except that he's still so afraid he'd rather have his father strangle him than face what he is sure is going to come...

If, however, one looks at the phrase in QoA, "...the Thief was quietly being strangled in the chains of the prisoner [Gen's father, of course] just behind him...", it can be seen that it doesn't necessarily indicate that that was what Gen wanted, just that is was what his father thought was the best thing to do at the time. There is no indication that Gen asked his father to strangle him and it would certainly have been impossible for Gen to object, while he was being strangled, if his father caught him by surprise (as his father might well have done out of kindness' sake).

Just our thoughts on the subject, Perri and Richard.

[willow-41z.livejournal.com]

Yes. But he caught on to the fact that Attolia was not actually his ally because she'd send the Eddisians's Minister of War back to them, even before he realized the MoW was carrying a message.