More Questions from "King of Attolia"

[sunshinebutter.livejournal.com]

Hey Guys its me again,

And its all King of Attolia, at this point. As I said, in a recent post, I've been re-reading the books.. again. And I realised that there were still questions that haunted me and I figured that since, they did for me, that they might for a few other people.

1. In a particular revealing dining scene with the Court of Attolia, After Eugenides offers to send the Erondites son back to his Cousins to question them on what happened with the water cache, and Attolia offers him her cup to drink; he asks for a dance and Attolia after hearing the beginnings of the one-handed Eddisian tune reverses her decision to dance... As he dances with her, and simultaneously takes out her hairpins.. from Phresine it is described as - "her Queen danced like a flame in the wind, and the mercurial king like the weight at the centre of the earth." The Queen then excuses herself and Gen returns to the throne, "looking smug". Elia murmured, "Well that was revealing" and Phresine says, "Only to those with eyes to see" and Ornon agrees.

All of this time, it would seem like they have their own ways of understanding each other and for the Queen relieving anger from the pressure getting to him by joking about drinking from her cup; Or even the King being with the Queen after Relius is arrested, just sitting there in stillness for her.

My question is this: What on earth was revealed during the dance? What on earth was going on?

P.S. I've been completely infatuated with the Queen's Thief series and (lets all admit it) Eugenides and its really nice to have this little community to be able to share our infatuations together. One day this will be a international box office hit and this will be the place to be on the interweb.

Comments

[ninedaysaqueen.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure Elia was commenting on the familiarity and intimacy of the scene. I know there was a Sounisian who said, (and this was a long time ago) in the cultures that resemble the QT world, the only man who would've had the liberty of removing a woman's hair pins would be her husband. Of course, the Attolian court still thinks Gen is harassing their queen with his displays of familiarity. Like how Costis thought Gen kissing Irene on the cheek was a sign of ownership rather than recognizing it as a sign of affection. That's what Phresine is commenting on.

One day this will be a international box office hit and this will be the place to be on the interweb.

Oh, that would be the day! :) I know a lot of people have mixed feelings about a movie or mini-series based on QT, but I would love to see someone give it a try, at the very least. It would take an impressive cast of talented writers, directors, and actors; but when the mojo is right, production companies have made some pretty awesome series and movies based on books.

[madclairvoyant.livejournal.com]

I believe that it has to with the fact that a woman's hair style was very important back then. I also believe that someone has beaten me to saying this, but I shall continue to ramble. For example, I know that maidens in China had the prerogative to wear their hair partially down, and unwed servants have their hair in a single plait, but once married, they had to bun it up, as a sign of modesty. Thus, from then on, only their husbands were allowed to see their unbound hair. In other civilisations, like in Ancient Greece, I think that the same things applies, minus the part about the servants, because the society then, and even now, was rather patriarchal in nature. So Gen is invoking this; the fact that Irene is actually his wife, not just queen, but most are quite a bit dull I think, and the meaning is lost on them. Elia and Phresine are more insightful though.

[helle-d.livejournal.com]

One aspect of the scene that I rather like is the fact that here, Irene is free and light "like a flame in the wind", while Gen is the one who steadily grounds her and anchors her. Since Gen usually is/is percieved as being "mercurial", changeable and unpredictable, while Irene, as queen, has to be dependable and consistent and is trapped in that role, I think it says a lot that their roles as a couple don't neccesarily follow their public persona, that Irene can let go and Gen can stay still and support her. (Like, which I've just thouht of now, the scene where Gen wants to pace about and growl, but understands how silence and stillness is a refuge to Irene and 'offers it to her as a gift'.

[tygrestick.livejournal.com]

Another thing is that Gen is showing off how talented he is-- he's doing a difficult dance one-handed and taking out Attolia's hairpins even while he does it. The court all thinks he's incompetent but he's showing off his hidden skills here.

[sunshinebutter.livejournal.com]

Thanks Guys, This has been really insightful. I liked the historical interlude there about only the husbands having the privledge of seeing his wife with her hair down. I guess in that intimacy, and that display of talent, it was also a display of his knowledge of where the hair pins were? I might be taking that a bit far and it wouldn't have been MWT point for the scene - but it was just something I thought about.

I also thought about, the imagery of Eugenides dancing with his mother on the rooftops of Eddis, juxtaposed with him dancing with the Queen.

And I just love that imagery of Eugenides being a weight at the centre of the earth while she danced like a flame" - helle_d and your description of it.

I was also trying to understand the dance within the whole context of the court scene, where The Queen relieves his tension. I wonder if besides affection that he is showing her, whether it is also something else? And whether or not, her having to retire was helpful? Maybe not.

[(Anonymous)]

Several of the comments in this thread about hairpins got me thinking about historical hairpins. I can't remember whether this has ever been discussed before? I know when I hear hairpins mentioned, the first thing I think of is bobby pins, so that's what I tend to imagine Gen plucking out of Irene's hair, but bobby pins are actually quite recent--early 20th century or thereabouts--so my imagination needs some reworking, lol. Historically speaking, Irene's pins could be metal (including precious metal), wood, stone, or bone/ivory/horn, and while some might be plain and meant to be hidden, others were probably quite elaborately carved (we might think of them as "hair sticks" today, rather than pins). Here's a page with lots of links to pics of historical pins: http://larsdatter.com/hairpins.htm

Branching off this topic a bit, here's an interesting article I read a while back about this hairstylist who has reconstructed historical hairstyles based on busts and paintings--and discovered that a lot of upper-class ancient Roman women's elaborate hair-dos were sewn in place, not pinned: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324900204578286272195339456.html She's got videos on YouTube, too, showing how to do various styles.

--Handmaiden

[(Anonymous)]

I think Eddis will be the new narrator. --Kate

[(Anonymous)]

I had a comment that has gotten stuck in spam limbo because it had a couple (non-spammy) links. Can a mod rescue it?

Thanks!

--Handmaiden

[heatherzundel.livejournal.com]

I just replied about where the new book info had come from (LTUE) and had some previous sounis posts, so alas, my reply is also stuck in limbo. Short answer. the SIXTH book will have elephants and a new POV character, and the fifth is, at least as of Feb, gone from 3rd person to 1st person. This, of course, may change.

This was all during her guest of honor to LTUE this February. Just go back a couple of pages. The posts are there!

[enleve.livejournal.com]

I wonder if taking the hair pins out, which lets her hair loose, also contributes to the impression of Attolia dancing like a flame. In our culture, maybe not in theirs, "letting your hair down" has connotations of loosening up, feeling freer and more relaxed.