Hairpins and Look! I'm Spamming!

[claire-mirkwood.livejournal.com]

Sorry for double-posting, but I was reading a (very, very old) chat transcript. And I'm *such* a history nerd. I couldn't help it, I needed to extrapolate on the hairpins thing.
A woman's hair being worn up is, in many a cultures, a sign of marriage. In Chinese history, only a woman's husband was allowed to take down her hair -- in anyone else it would have been incredibly rude. I read somewhere that the same was true in ancient Greece.
Now, because Attolia/Eddis/Sounis is much like Greece, one could hazard a guess that the same rule holds there. So, by removing Irene's hairpins, Gen is telling everyone that he is Irene's husband in truth, not only in name.
However, the question is begged: why don't the Attolians notice?
Perhaps it's only a tradition in Eddis?  But then Elia and Phresine notice, and as far as I know, they're both Attolian.
But look! Here's what actually happens:
Gen had returned to the throne and settled onto it looking smug. 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.
Ornon, standing nearby, silently agreed.
So as far as we know (but only as far as we know), only Gen, Irene, Phresine, Elia and Ornon spot what went on there. The others, we presume, don't have "eyes to see."
If it is a solely Eddisian tradition, than it's obvious why Gen did it and why Ornon spotted it, but not obvious why the queen, Phresine and Elia notice anything more.
So! Let's look at the people who see and check what their relationship to the king and queen is.
Ornon:  Gen's cousin and victim of the famous sheep theft. He knows that Gen isn't an idiot or a puppet. He also knows that the king and queen are in love.
Phresine: Queen's oldest attendant. At one point, when the queen and king are in the queen's rooms, it's implied that Phresine knew he was there.
Elia: I'm actually not sure who Elia is...I'm assuming she's an attendant. I don't know about you, but I was pretty sure that the queen's attendants knew perfectly well that there were...ah...alternate routes between the king and queen's respective suites. At least, Iolanthe and Ileia don't seem too shocked in the "I love every one of your ridiculous lies" scene. Which made me blush for Costis' sake.
Anyway. So, here's my final theory: what if the hair-being-taken-down-by-a-husband thing is fairly common, but the court are so wrapped up in wondering how the king can dance with one hand that they don't notice? Also, they probably wouldn't be expecting any signs of romance between Irene and Gen, so they wouldn't be looking for any.
What do you all think?

Comments

[loquaciousquark.livejournal.com]

This is a really interesting point; thanks for bringing it up! I find that I'm kind of torn between two possible scenarios, and I don't have my book on hand to find out which one's more likely.

The first one I can imagine is that Gen is so quick with his hand during the dance that the court just doesn't see him pulling out the pins, but I can't remember the relevant descriptive passages from the book--and doesn't he hand them all back to Irene from his waistcoat or jacket or something when the dance is over? I kinda think that'd be a clue that it was intentional.

The other one that I feel is a bit more likely is that everyone sees him pulling out the pins, but the audience doesn't understand the reasons behind it the way Irene does. They see it as the capricious, country kid come down from the mountains, once again mildly embarrassing their queen and customs by engaging in some sort of cheap ownership game, and the fact that he settles onto the throne with a smug look afterwards just rubs it in. Like a "ha, ha, I married your queen and there's nothing you can do about it," and I think that's the impression Gen intended to give to the court.

Whereas what it actually is under the facade Gen puts up, in my opinion, is Gen just being like, "I am going to dance with my wife" with an undercurrent of "yeah, she's the queen of your country, but to me she's my wife first and here's a reminder to us both by engaging in this very husbandly/wifely tradition."

So the court all sees the first one, the smug kid asserting his authority in a metaphorical pissing contest, whereas Ornon and Phresine and the rest see a man and his wife.

imho, ymmv, etc etc

[claire-mirkwood.livejournal.com]

Oh, excellent. I hadn't thought of that.

[beth-shulman.livejournal.com]

Yes, I assumed the same thing - that everyone thought Gen was trying to embarrass their queen. I also thought that they were possibly distracted because they didn't think that Gen could do the dance with one hand, but he did. I'd never heard of the historical significance behind hairpins, but I assumed that Gen was trying to show Attolia that he could check her power.

The hairpins fact is fascinating; it makes the scene so much clearer.

[elvenjaneite.livejournal.com]

I'm agreeing with you on the second one. The whole double impressions thing just seems like it fits with Gen and Irene's relationship at that point.