F-F-F-Falling

[drashizu.livejournal.com]

So, I've been rereading The King of Attolia (what else is new?) and I've come across two passages that are, interestingly, in contradiction with each other.

(1) "I have a superstitious fear of falling," Eugenides admitted. "Let me put an arm over your shoulder while we get down the stairs." (p. 169)

(2) "Your Majesty, please get down," Costis said hurriedly. ...
"Why? Costis, I'm not going to fall."
"You're drunk."
"Not that drunk," said the king. "Watch." He tossed the wineskin to Costis, who caught it and clutched it in horror as the king turned himself upside down... (p. 338)

What do you guys think? Obviously, this is about as open to interpretation as it gets, but why the change of opinion? In one scene, he's scared by the mere thought of walking down a flight of stairs. In the other, he gladly does handstands on the crenelations with no apparent fear at all. Is it just that in the scene on the parapets he's drunk, as Costis claims, and that's why he brushes aside the concern that he might fall?

Then again, Gen's entire profession prior to becoming king involved heights. And as we know, he's never seemed to be afraid of them before. If he usually has faith in the God of Thieves to keep him from falling, why the sudden phobia in the garden scene? He's not even on a wall in that one, it's just the top of a flight of stairs. Hardly dangerous to someone with the proven balance of a master thief.

Then again then again, there's that whole thing about how his grandfather died... falling down stairs. Is that why Gen's afraid of stairs particularly? Maybe it's just the sudden shock of the previous scene. Being almost assassinated would certainly heighten his sense of his own mortality.

And for that matter, how certain are we that Gen's going to die of a fall? I mean, it's never explicitly promised by the author or anything. There's no prophecy saying so. It's just a tendency that his family has, due to their line of work, but is there anyone in his family that stopped being the Thief and became the king of a whole country? Maybe that changes things.

So---in terms of this many-faceted question---what do you guys think?

(Please excuse the lame musical joke in the title of this post. It's late and I'm bored.)

Comments

[hazelwillow.livejournal.com]

Gen's fear of falling/confidence that he won't fall signifies where his faith is at in that moment. If he's afraid of falling in the scene after the attempted assassination, it means he's afraid of being abandoned by his god. He's just had to save himself from the assassins, and has just killed (or nearly killed) two men. Maybe that has something to do with it? Maybe the fact that he had to save his own skin from those assassins has made him doubt that the gods are pleased with his job as king so far. Maybe he feels uncertain about his position in life and in their favor in that moment. Maybe the gods just tried to kill him there and they're going to finish the job in just a minute on the stairs.
Also, as people have said, he's wounded and much more likely to lose his balance and slip. So that must feel vulnerable.

About the roof scene, someone mentioned that he's reacting to the gods' message that he's going to have to be Attolis, and I think that's right. He's calling the gods bluff. For making him stay in this mess of being king, because he's drunk and most likely feels helpless. Only when the gods do actually save him does he realize what he's almost done, and come back to himself.

So it's not about vertigo or how afraid he is of heights, it's about how he feels about the gods right then. He's superstitious about it either way, because he always associates falling with Eugenides's favor or lack thereof.