On being unobservant
Oct. 25th, 2008 09:46 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
tearoha.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
queensthiefHi, *pokes head around corner, with sheepish grin* Newbie butting in again -
So I lent my copy of The Thief to my middle little brother last week, and he just came into my room after finishing, all punch-drunk from its sheer awesomeness to talk about it with me. (Another obsessed fan on the horizon!) So we were nattering on and on about it and I mentioned something about the part in Thief where Gen does NOT die under the cliffs. And immediately, MLB goes, 'yeah, because he's got the thing in his hair that keeps him alive.'
Which made me feel, I don't know, really, REEEEALLY incredibly slow? Because I've been reading the first two books at least twice a year for at least seven years now and only realised the significance of Gen not dying after reading about it on Sounis? Also, MLB is TEN YEARS OLD and picked it up right away???
So... my question, or discussion, or whatever, is this:
1. What parts of the books took everyone a long time to 'get'? Or that you think you should have got sooner? I'm really, really hoping I'm not the only one who was this phenomenally slow, but the books are so intricate and rely such a lot on subtext as well there must have been things that other people missed...
2. Conversely, some subtext you did pick up, and remembered? (For me, realising Gen was in the room when Attolia is 'being silent' after she sentences Relius was a very, very exciting moment XD)
Thoughts?
Also, on a completely unrelated note, I was trawling throught the archives and found some references to a letter with questions sent to MWT and answered. Is there any way I can find out what was in the letter and reply?
-Te Aroha
(edited for being even more unobservant than usual: There was a lot of talk about not noticing Gen's gift-bump in Thief a few entries down which I totally missed. Gah. Other things XD?)
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Date: 10/25/08 11:56 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 10/25/08 03:43 pm (UTC)The re-reading went better. KoA remains my favorite of the three and I wouldn't want anything different.
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Date: 10/25/08 06:55 pm (UTC)Personally I'm fond of Eugenides talking to the Magus in QoA when he's talking about Sounis causing a lot of bloodshed wanting a woman he can't have and Eugenides says, "I should be more sympathetic, but I'm going to bed" (or something along those lines).
My favorite thing about this series is that it gets better every time I read it. It's so detailed that there's always something new that I didn't notice the time before.
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Date: 10/25/08 07:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 10/26/08 12:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 10/27/08 08:02 pm (UTC).. which also makes me wonder if we'll be seeing the magus's botanist friend...
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Date: 10/27/08 08:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 10/27/08 09:35 pm (UTC)Lol, I thought Attolia would've made it very clear to Eugenides that he should NEVER have an affair (though death threats seem to be their private jokes). If the girl was a noble, Attolia couldn't've banished her from her court while her power was especially unstable because of the war. Although considering the girl was at Ephrata she was less likely to be a noble serving in Attolia's court. Then again, Attolia mentions that her barons were also at Ephrata when she tells Teleus to surrender to the Eddisians. If her barons were there as military support would they bring their families too? I imagine Attolia might like to keep hostages close by to make her barons behave..
Speculation is fun. =x
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Date: 10/26/08 03:19 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 10/25/08 07:53 pm (UTC)Like Philia, the first time I read Queen I missed all the double meanings of things Attolia said about Gen in the first half of the book.
Each time I read the books I come up with something I didn't notice before. Such as, in QoA at the beginning it says Attolia "knew he wouldn't escape again" and that she wished she'd caught him inside the palace walls. All because Moira had *told* her she'd catch him this time--if she nailed up the boards--outside the palace. So she knew all this, but didn't like that it happened just the way Moira said and that she couldn't catch him without the gods' help.
Or am I making too much of all this?
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Date: 10/25/08 07:59 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 10/25/08 08:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 10/29/08 02:44 pm (UTC)And what is the meaning of personal choice, morality, or free will if everything is already cued up and ready to roll?
- ELM -
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Date: 10/25/08 11:11 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 10/26/08 04:33 pm (UTC)Hmmm. Guess I shall have to ponder this for a while. Unless this has already been addressed elsewhere.
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Date: 10/27/08 03:48 pm (UTC)But it still didn't answer the question -- just kicked it upstairs to the gods, darn it.
Hmm. THE LAST EDDIS -- potential title for the (soon soon soon) fourth book?
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Date: 10/29/08 02:53 pm (UTC)I don't see any happy marriage for Helen, not with the gods considering her to be "the last" and Eddis. If marriage were in the offing, she could be Eddia, just as Irene is Attolia before her marriage.
But we'll see.
- ELM -
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Date: 10/29/08 03:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 10/29/08 04:22 pm (UTC)All good possibilities, but there is something about Helen being the Eddis while Irene was the Attolia before and after marrying that gives me pause...
- ELM -
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Date: 10/29/08 06:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 10/25/08 11:47 pm (UTC)MWT is so brilliant.
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Date: 10/28/08 03:46 am (UTC)*Sigh* Isn't MWT *awesome*?
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Date: 11/2/08 07:40 am (UTC)Also, that snippet of conversation from QoA: "Eugenides" - "My Queen?" "Only for that." "My Queen." I didn't understand that at _all_ until I read the explanation here. It's most definitely one of my favorite bits, now.
Eugenides cut himself
Date: 12/8/08 07:29 am (UTC)I think he did it just when Costis "stepped around behind the king to the other side (to king to put his arm over his sholder)."
And then there is this description: "For the first time, he (Costis) could see its (the hook's) knife-edge. There was a smear of blood on it, and one corner of the cuff of the king's coat was soaked."
Before that the king hold his hand only in his hip, you wouldnt do that, if your belly are cut from near the navel and all across the belly?
Re: Eugenides cut himself
Date: 12/8/08 12:41 pm (UTC)Re: Eugenides cut himself
Date: 12/9/08 07:09 am (UTC)Re: Eugenides cut himself
Date: 12/9/08 08:12 pm (UTC)But, I still don't think so - of course Gen wanted to distract people from his hand ('this was no time to demonstrate previously unsuspected abilities') but would he really go as far as to slice himself open from the navel and right across his belly, so deep he nearly split his guts? Especially knowing how much it would freak Irene out. (Even though he's surprised that she faints, and is suffering from 'you can't possibly love me' syndrome, he must have some inkling that she'd be upset, especially after how indignant she was when Costis hit him 'Men's necks have been broken by a single blow' and 'He *was* a loyal servant... you will not rehabilitate him with me') Gen knows Attolia is afraid when he gets hurt, and even though he's careless with his health, I don't see him purposely injuring himself this badly. Also, stoic though we know Gen can be, if he'd inflicted such a wound on himself *while Costis was holding him* surely Costis would have felt him flinch, or tense, or similar, and realised what was going on?
And also again, there's no guarantee that giving himself a spectacular belly wound would have distracted from the cut on his hand. It would have been so easy for the doctor to see it while he was stitching, or even someone to see it when Gen kissed Irene and brought his hand up.
And if Gen had given himself the wound as a distraction, why would he be so careful to hide its extent?
Then again... More experienced Sounisians? Help?
Veeeeeery interesting...
PS: Whoa, mini-essay! Sorry, I didn't mean to spawn a mega-comment!