Of cannon and commas and other misdirection

[aged-crone.livejournal.com]

I have to admit that when I read QoA, I didn't realize that the cannon the Eddisians took with them on their way to steal the queen were wooden until Eugenides told Attolia so. I am comforted by the belief that this was deliberate misdirection by the author rather than me being egregiously stupid. I was just re-reading that part again, and noticed how tricky a comma can be.

The book says, "Those in the rear struggled with block and tackle, roughly squared wooden beams, wooden carriages and cannon." Which of course means "wooden carriages and wooden cannon." If it had said "wooden carriages, and cannon," it wouldn't have. But when reading through it for the first time I didn't even notice the absence of the comma, and automatically assumed that cannon = metal. Brilliant writing! Brilliant, sneaky, writing!

Speaking of misdirection: Since I read QoA last of the three, I knew what happened. Somebody who read the books in the proper order, please tell me: in the scene where Eugenides proposes stealing the Queen of Attolia, did you get the idea through most of the discussion that what he was planning was to kill her? Until the very end when Eddis said, "All right, go and steal the queen of Attolia? (And I still can't quite figure out if he announced in open Council, "By the way, I want to marry her because I love her." Or did Eddis just figure it out for herself?)

I spend a lot of my re-reading time smacking myself in the head and saying, "Well, of course! How obvious! How could I have missed that?"

Leslie

Comments

[aged-crone.livejournal.com]

I know about the differences of opinion regarding the use of commas when listing things. I vaguely recall that in EATS, SHOOTS AND LEAVES (or is it EATS SHOOTS AND LEAVES? I can't remember), the author discusses it and points out that the British usage differs from the American.

However, while I agree that:
"hamburgers, hot dogs, and french fries" is the same as
"hamburgers, hot dogs and french fries,"
the sentence here seems different.

"block and tackle, roughly squared wooden beams, wooden carriages and cannon"

Maybe it's the repetition of "wooden." Or it might be the adjective in front of the penultimate noun. Let's see:

goldfish, compactly built fluffy guinea pigs, fluffy cats and dogs
goldfish, compactly built fluffy guinea pigs, fluffy cats, and dogs.

To me the first one indicates that both the cats and the dogs (as well as the guinea pigs, of course) are fluffy, but the second one indicates that the dogs aren't fluffy, or at least not necessarily.

I suppose that's it, actually: "wooden carriages and cannon" leaves the possibility that both the carriages and cannon are wooden, but "wooden carriages, and cannon" seems to divorce the cannon from the wooden. And since I didn't notice that the comma wasn't there, I was mentally separating the two, as well.

Leslie

[(Anonymous)]

I read QoA first, then The Thief, then KoA...I think it's interesting that only Thief is written in the first person. Even then, Gen still isn't giving any information away.

I didn't get that the cannons were wooden until Eugenides tells Attolia...

I love the part in QoA where Attolia has been kidnapped, and Eugenides comes into her tent...and she's totally not expecting him to kiss her and is furious when she does...

~Feir Dearig

[(Anonymous)]

when he does, I mean.

Oops.

~Feir Dearig