Gen, snark, ramblings

[alpestars.livejournal.com]

I have a confession to make.

I am deeply, madly in love with Gen and his universe.

OK, granted, I've fallen in love with lots of books, and usually obsess over them for a few days. Anyway, that's not my point. As the title of this post clearly illustrates, I would like to talk about snark and Gen.

I come primarily from the Harry Potter fandom (and I read a lot of other fandoms as well, but let's not go there), and Gen reminds me of Draco Malfoy and fan fiction with regard to the incomparable SNARK and humor that comes out of his every word. The character's more attractive than Draco Malfoy, obviously -- he has this whole "thief" and "juggling" abilities going on (can DM do handstands and sneak into palace rooms like Legolas?). And... er, I'm not really sure what I want to say anymore, except maybe that Gen's character is out of this world (alpestars, I remind myself, that's why the genre's called fantasy). Where else can you find a boy who doesn't care what other people think about him, is hideously brave when the occasion requires it of him and acts deceptively childish/pampered the other half of the time for our amusement? Maybe it's just the world Megan Whalen Turner's created -- each book is a mystery without seeming like a mystery, and in the end there's always a big revelation of some previous complex action that all of us missed but the protagonist had planned cleverly all along. Author's a master entertainer/storyteller.

Comments

[dannybailey.livejournal.com]

Hello! I too share your mad love of Eugenides. I think most people here do. We also live Attolia, Costis, Stenides, and many other lovely characters from the books. :)

It's good to see another reader of fanfic here! Compared to the Harry Potter fandom (which is where I often hang out, and which is swimming with fanfiction) there are very few readers or writers of fic. If you get a chance check out my community, queensthief_fic. It's a community devoted solely to fic based on Megan Whalen Turner's books.

It's interesting that you compare Gen to a fanfic version of Draco. I see the similarities. Fandom tends to idealize Draco a lot, creating a character that is both snobby as in the books, but also witty and charming to please the fans. It's very Eugenides-like. Interesting observation. :)

[avian-xj.livejournal.com]

welcome! i think you'll fit in quite nicely for loving Gen :)

the Harry Potter fandom is much much bigger than this one, but i think you'll still find plenty of MWT fans around here at all hours :P

"Where else can you find a boy who doesn't care what other people think about him, is hideously brave when the occasion requires it of him and acts deceptively childish/pampered the other half of the time for our amusement?"
i agree with all of that. it's a good summary of Gen, but he does worry about what other people think of him, not obsessivly or anything. He certainly wants Attolia to think well of him and would probably go far out of his way for that! he also seems to care about what the public thinks of him. In QoA, he doesn't want to be an amazing hero. He wants the Eddisians to see him as the quiet thief that he was before. In KoA, he doesn't want to be seen as the foreign king that stole the queen. He wants to be seen as... something esle (excuse me. it's 6am).

Anyway, i've talked enough. Nice to have you here!

[philia-fan.livejournal.com]

Oh, Avian, you're onto something cool here. Let's see, in Thief, Gen wants to be famous. In QoA, he wishes he weren't famous but it turns out he wants to be King of Attolia. In KoA, he wishes he weren't King. He keeps getting what he asks for and then wishing he hadn't. He keeps aspiring to be more, but he always wants to stay the thief he used to be.

[dannybailey.livejournal.com]

I think his change of heart has a lot to do with his hand. It's ok to be famous for stealing Hamiathes Gift, but when it's because he got his hand cut off it's understandably less cool.

[rowana.livejournal.com]

Welcome!

Where else can you find a boy who doesn't care what other people think about him, is hideously brave when the occasion requires it of him and acts deceptively childish/pampered the other half of the time for our amusement? Maybe it's just the world Megan Whalen Turner's created -- each book is a mystery without seeming like a mystery, and in the end there's always a big revelation of some previous complex action that all of us missed but the protagonist had planned cleverly all along. Author's a master entertainer/storyteller.

Well put! I'd never compared Gen to Draco...(or Legolas, for that matter), but I see what you mean. I think Gen does care what certain people think of him. He seems much more indifferent to his extended relatives though. :)