My New Year's Resolution was to stop lurking and join!

[reader-marie.livejournal.com]

Hello, everyone!

I am an avid fan of Megan Whalen Turner's amazing books and have been lurking around this community for a while, enjoying myself immensely as I've watched discussions unfold.  I decided that I ought to finally join the conversation!

I found The Thief and The Queen of Attolia in my local library when I was in junior high or high school (it all blurs together; I'm in college now), and I've loved them since the very first reading.  I recall finding out about the third book completely by accident and just about breaking my friend's eardrums with a scream of joy.  (These books are sadly underappreciated--which is to say not read--among my closest friends, despite my best effort.)  I think, judging by what I've seen poking around here, that I'm in the right place.

And now, to prove my worth in this community, I will proceed to ask an actual discussion question.

I've just finished rereading the series (sadly neglecting my homework in order to do so), and while reading KoA I found myself puzzled by the fact that Gen keeps getting lost in Attolia's palace.  I would have thought he'd been sneaking around it enough in his early years that he would know his way around--not to mention the fact that we hear about ancestors who helped design parts of the palace, like the conspiracy room.

Is his getting lost in the palace just a ruse to keep up the stupid-king image?  But both times he ends up at the impassible shortcut (the atrium or whatever it is that he crosses on the beam when he's drunk) he seems genuinely angry.  Maybe being out during the day impairs his sense of direction?  Hmm...

Anyway, that's all I have to say on the subject.  I can't promise I'll be an extremely devoted community member, but I shall do my best to be present occasionally.  And please forgive the lack of icon and other exciting stuff--I'm very new to LJ (thus any advice is welcome!) and the picture I want to use is being stupid and won't resize, so I'm being stubborn and not using anything at all, at least until I figure it out or get very bored with myself.  We shall see.

Thanks for having such a great community dedicated to such amazing books!

Comments

[idiosyncreant.livejournal.com]

Ooh!
Am I first?

THIS IS SO COOL:
Gen keeps getting lost, because he's very used to getting through Attolia's palace, but not by ways that are above-board.

You'll note he keeps dead-ending at a window or balcony? (Can't quite remember which.) Finally, in one scene later on, he decides to go it instead of going back by the hallways.

I think he's distracted by being angry, and all the stuff he's juggling in his head, too, so that he's not paying attention to the route he's choosing.

[philia-fan.livejournal.com]

Welcome aboard! I think this one's come up before, but since I seem to be the first one here, I'll tackle it: Consider the impassable shortcut. It is not impassable at all, as Gen proves in the scene you've mentioned. In fact, it is the way he is used to getting around -- crossing over the beam. His problem is that he's TOO familiar with the palace. He automatically goes to all his old thiefly short-cuts, and as King, with attendants in tow, he can't use them, so he's frustrated.

[philia-fan.livejournal.com]

oh, I turned out to be the SECOND one here!

[9mil.livejournal.com]

well, to answer another question.

if you post the picture you wish to use for your icon on flickr! (you'll have to get a flickr! account if you don't have one, which is free, and can be accessed if you've already got a yahoo account) then you can usually just get it in a 100 x 100 pixel size (the max. size of an lj icon) and post the image location under upload new pictures or icons or something. it kind of sounds hard but that's the way i've always done it.

welcome to sounis and to lj, have fun and good luck!

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

Welcome! What a good idea for a resolution--beats the heck out of losing weight or quitting smoking. Much more fun.

I've just finished rereading the series (sadly neglecting my homework in order to do so)

You'll fit in just fine!

[kulai-raito.livejournal.com]

Welcome!!
I found the stories when i was in gr 11, and kinda happy that I did find it then. I agree that these books are underrated while some books are totally overrated...
Agreeing with Philia comments. He's too use to using his short cuts when he roam around the palace as a Thief and gets angry because he can't just go off and walk the beam till that particular part, while all his attendants are with him. Then again it builds up on the part for the attendants to laugh at him more, while he did it unintentionally.

haa i neglected my hw too to reread before so no worries!

[thelasteddis.livejournal.com]

I always assumed he was just padding the ol' stupid king resume, I never thought the other idea - I wonder... that is an interesting idea.

[jade-sabre-301.livejournal.com]

I feel like sometimes he's doing that, and sometimes he's genuinely mixed-up...not in a "lost" way, but like Anachred and Philia said, in a "crap I can't go this way with attendants in tow" way.

...oh Eugenides. <3

Hi =D

[lilian-cho.livejournal.com]

I first discovered The Thief when I was 17, reread the Queen of Attolia in a hospital (reading about morbid dismemberment next to a sick bed--way to be sensitive and caring), found out about King of Attolia shortly afterward (much gleeful squeeing over Costis and Gen ensued).

Re: icon--try resizing at Photoshop?

Here are Signs you might not be from LJ originally (some of LJ's rules, both social and not-so-social) (http://azurelunatic.livejournal.com/5923155.html).
If it's tl;dr, don't worry--I sure don't know most of those things when I first come to LJ ;-)

Re: Hi =D

[pigrescuer.livejournal.com]

Icon love!

Re: Hi =D

[lilian-cho.livejournal.com]

And yours too!

Comma fairies = EEE <3

Re: Hi =D

[tearoha.livejournal.com]

Punctuation love!

Re: Hi =D

[pigrescuer.livejournal.com]

Significant love!

XD

Re: Hi =D

[merliquin.livejournal.com]

double icon love!
I need to read that book again...

Re: Hi =D

[lilian-cho.livejournal.com]

*tries to locate my copy*

Dear movie gods, if Good Omens ever gets turned into a movie, please to be letting Johnny Depp play Crowley. Kthxbai.

Re: Hi =D

[pigrescuer.livejournal.com]

Hee!

I never thought of him.

But Johnny Depp a la Once Upon A Time In Mexico would be excellent.

Who is your Aziraphale?

Re: Hi =D

[lilian-cho.livejournal.com]

I don't have a definite image of Aziraphale in my head. Perhaps Colin Firth in Mamma Mia, if he was not a brunette...

Lost?

[finniscs.livejournal.com]

I never thought Gen was lost. I thought he was doing it to make his attendants think he was stupid.No part of the palace is impassable to him; when he got to a 'dead end' he kept going, but his attendants could not. he was just ditching them. :-)

Many thanks!

[reader-marie.livejournal.com]

Ah. Your comments so far make much sense. Of course Gen is always thinking like a thief, not a king, and thus lands himself in trouble in more ways than one. Thanks for your insight!

And thanks also to those who have offered LJ advice...I'll be sure to take it!

I wonder how it came to be that Gen's family "built" so much of Attolia's palace...besides the fact that Thieves are insatiably curious and probably want to be part of everything. Hmm.

Re: Many thanks!

[pigrescuer.livejournal.com]

Well, all that lumber (and stone?) exporting must make them good builders.

Re: Many thanks!

[philia-fan.livejournal.com]

I took the fact of Gen's ancestor having built the Attolian palace as a hint that these countries might be more linked in their history than we know -- perhaps they were once closer allies, or perhaps the royal families are distantly related.

[tencups-i-swear.livejournal.com]

*sighs happily* I love reading this kind of stuff . . . it's hapifieing,
Welcome to SOUNIS!

[tearoha.livejournal.com]

*headdesks* I never even thought of the whole 'Gen is automatically using his sneaky-creeky routes in the palace' thing before! Just another frustration of suddenly belonging in a place you've always moved through secretively, I guess.

On an only-sort-of-related-note: It's mentioned somewhere in the books that Attolia and Sounis use the same kind of yellow stone for a lot of their building, but I think in Eddis it's more timber (too lazy to look it up) Somewhere Eddis is mentioned as having limestone, perhaps they use timber because the stone of the mountains is less suitable for building?

The Queen's Thief books SO take precedence over homework. Welcome!