minutia_r

Chapter 1, scene 1: How to communicate, Hotakainen-style (pt 1 of probably 3?)
So the other day, in answer to a question about unpopular fandom opinions, I had the following to say: I am kind of tempted to go through the comic and find every time Tuuri translates something, and see if her translations are really as inaccurate as some people say, because I suspect they’re not. I haven’t done this yet, though, so I can’t be sure.

And then @worldsentwined had her own unpopular opinions about Tuuri, and then we talked for a bit, which led to me deciding that I was just going to do it, I was totally going to make an annotated list of all of Tuuri’s translations and settle this question once and for all. So, naturally, I went to the start of Chapter 1 and started a reread of the comic, because how else am I going to accomplish this? I mean, obviously, I was just going to skim with an eye to translations, and not actually do a full reread, but …

Okay, here’s the thing. If you are trying to understand the dynamics between Onni, Tuuri, and Lalli, and you reread their introduction in the light of subsequent events in the comic, there are a number of interesting things going on.

(Cut because this is getting pretty long. And it’s just part one, and all this is before I get to the translations, which I haven’t even started yet.)

First thing: as is eventually established, Lalli does not understand what’s going on even a little. He doesn’t know what the mission is; he doesn’t realize that getting on the boat means going to a far-away foreign country and not coming back to Keuruu until spring. Tuuri, on the other hand, is surprised (though not very surprised, and more exasperated than distressed) that he doesn’t know these things. She tried to explain them to him, and he seemed to be indicating that he understood. (Although, as Tuuri probably has some inkling of by now, Lalli’s “okay” is not a very good indication of anything, except possibly “I acknowledge that you just said something.”)

Now, there is a widespread impression in fandom that Onni is better at communicating with Lalli than Tuuri is. It’s not hard to see how this impression arose; there are a number of factors, but the main one is that Tuuri says so herself.

However, it’s hard to take Tuuri’s statement at face value when the very next thing we see after she makes it is a flashback Onni being frankly terrible at communicating with Lalli–yes, he finds him and talks to him, which Tuuri doesn’t manage to do, but what he says is the single worst piece of advice that he could have given him, and something that has demonstrably messed Lalli up to this day. So I can’t believe that we are meant to take this as an example of Onni’s great communication skills.

Getting back to the introduction, so Kiraly and I were talking, and she wondered–if Onni is actually better at communicating with Lalli than Tuuri is, why didn’t he realize that Lalli didn’t know what the job being offered to him was, and explain it? After all, Onni understood perfectly well what was going on, and if he wanted to discourage Lalli from going, surely a helpful first step might have been explaining what going actually meant.

So I see a number of possible answers to that question.

Onni actually believed, the same as Tuuri did, that Lalli had a basic grasp of what was going on.
Onni thought that explaining what was going on would have made Lalli more likely to want to go, and not less. (This does not seem to be the case, but Onni might have believed it anyway.)
Onni felt no need to explain to Lalli what was going on, because he said that Tuuri and Lalli weren’t going and that ought to be the end of it, and he was absolutely counting on Lalli simply not showing up for the boat.
Now personally, my money’s on number 3, although none of these things are mutually exclusive exactly, and it could be a combination of all three. But the thing is, this illustrates a major principle of communication among Hotakainens–and it goes for all Hotakainens: Never engage in a direct confrontation if you think you can get your way without it.

And he would have gotten away with it, too, if Tuuri hadn’t left Lalli a note.

Continued from here. This one is less about communication styles and more about Hotakainen family dynamics in general, and Tuuri’s issues in particular, but it’s all to do with unpacking what’s going on in that first scene, anyway.

So. When we first meet the Hotakainens, Tuuri wants Lalli to come on the mission with her, and Onni wants Lalli to stay in Keuruu. Here’s the thing, though–why?

It’s pretty obvious that Tuuri wants to get the hell out of Keuruu. But why is she so insistent on Lalli coming with her? Is she just convinced that everyone wants the same thing that she wants, or at least that since she wants to get out of Keuruu, it would necessarily be a good thing for Lalli too? Is she, despite her longing for adventure, reluctant to go out into the world all alone, without any of her family with her?

I do think that both of these things are factors. But I also think there’s a third, more critical factor, which–I’ll get to it.

On the face of it, it seems obvious why Onni wants Lalli to stay in Keuruu. Keuruu is safe, Onni wants Lalli to be safe, pretty simple, right? Yeah, Tuuri might be determined to go, and maybe Onni can’t stop her, but while protecting one out of two of his young relatives that he raised from children is not great, it’s got to be better than zero out of two.

Only … not necessarily. Because as important as it is to Onni to protect Lalli, he’s more focused on protecting Tuuri. (This has been the subject of some discussion on the forum, mostly about how unfair this is to Lalli. Which it is! But what gets missed out is how unfair it is to Tuuri. More on that later.) In his conversation with Lalli and Reynir in the dreamworld, Onni even says that he’s glad that there are two mages traveling with his sister–so if Onni is glad that Lalli is there, why did he try to stop him from going?

It might be that Onni thinks that if Lalli doesn’t show up, Tuuri will lose her nerve and decide not to go either. If so, it just goes to show how little Onni knows Tuuri. And it’s true that the Hotakainens often don’t understand each other despite how claustrophobically close they all are. But in this case I think it’s something else–I think Onni believes that if Lalli doesn’t show up, Taru isn’t going to take Tuuri either. And that’s why Tuuri is so insistent on Lalli coming along–because she believes the same thing.

This is what Tuuri says when she’s shoving Lalli onto the boat: “I can not miss this opportunity!” But why should she miss the opportunity if Lalli doesn’t get on the boat?

Well, here’s the thing: Tuuri’s not a fighter. She’s not a mage. She’s not immune. All her life, she’s been hearing that she’s helpless, that she needs to be protected. And not just hearing it from Onni, or her parents and the rest of her family when they were still around–this is how her entire society thinks. It’s different in Iceland, or even in Sweden, but out at the fringes of human civilization, Tuuri is aware that she’s dead weight. Whatever The Event was, it can only have reinforced that. All her education, her training, her skills–they don’t matter.

But Lalli’s skills matter. And Tuuri can translate for Lalli, both language-wise, and otherwise. This, I think, is why Tuuri pushes Lalli so hard, and why she tries in so many small and not-so-small ways to sort of … render Lalli acceptable to the rest of the crew–it’s what she thinks she’s been hired to do. (And she might even be right.) That everything else she does for the mission is incidental to her ability to, as Sigrun puts it, “herd her cousin to work.”

Which–well. If Tuuri basically sees Lalli as her ticket out of Keuruu, that’s a shitty situation for Lalli, especially since he doesn’t even really want to be there. (Not that Tuuri really realizes that until it’s too late. But then, under the circumstances, is it something she’d let herself realize if she had the option of remaining in denial?) It’s also pretty bad news for their relationship. But it also really sucks for Tuuri, to be selling her own self so short, and to think that her only hope of getting the things she wants is to basically subsume her identity in someone else.

(It’s also, incidentally, a very female-coded dilemma, if I can use that word. Which ties back into some of the things that Kiraly was saying.)

So that’s where we are, I think, at the beginning of Chapter 1.

This is something I posted on tumblr in response to something there. It got kind of long, and I figured I'd repost it here for anyone who's interested?

Okay, so, this is something I’ve thought about a lot, and apparently now is when I’m going to say it? Even though I don’t think I’m going to change anyone’s mind and I may piss people off.

Here we go: It really, really bugs me when some Nico fans act like any problems between Nico and Percy are all Percy’s fault for being a big meanie.

So let’s break it down:

Problems between Nico and Percy: things that are Percy’s fault

Percy: You should come back to Camp Half-Blood! You will be safe and accepted there!
Nico: Yeah, right, do you think anyone really wants the son of Hades around?
Percy: …

Okay, that one’s a fair cop. Not your most shining moment, Seaweed Brain.

Problems between Nico and Percy: things that are no-one’s fault

Nico’s unrequited crush on Percy

Unrequited crushes suck! But Percy does not owe Nico kisses.

Nico’s internalized homophobia

Absolutely not Nico’s fault. I have a hard time even beginning to imagine how it might be Percy’s fault.

When they first met, and Percy thought Nico was super annoying

In Nico’s defense: he’d just been initiated into a magical world, and met a dreamy hero! Of course he was excited! In Percy’s defense: Nico was legit super annoying. But the thing is, we mostly know that Percy thought Nico was annoying because of his internal monologue, not because he was rude or dismissive towards him. He was a lot nicer than, say, Harry Potter to Colin Creevey under similar circumstances.

Bianca’s death

Nico’s grief and anger are perfectly understandable. But I was actually really impressed with how Percy handled this; it would have been so easy for him to say, “Yes, I am a big hero, I will protect your sister,” especially with a couple of successful quests where no one died under his belt. But he was 100% upfront about the fact that he couldn’t guarantee Bianca’s safety, he could only do his best. And he did.

The way—especially towards the beginning of their relationship—Percy saw Nico more as a responsibility and someone to be protected than a friend and an equal

I can see how this would annoy Nico. Especially since Bianca’s resentment of having to be Nico’s caretaker was part of what led her to join the Hunters, Nico probably didn’t want anyone to feel this way about him ever again. But at the beginning Nico was really a lot younger and less experienced than Percy. And Percy didn’t owe Nico friendship any more than he owed him kisses.

When Percy thought Nico wanted to kill him

It was an understandable mistake! And the important thing is that even though Percy believed this he didn’t go out and attack Nico pre-emptively or anything like that; he just wanted to find him and work things out.

Problems between Nico and Percy: things that are Nico’s fault

When Percy thought that Nico had betrayed him to his father, and then attacked Nico when he came to rescue him

You mean, when Nico actually did betray Percy to his father? I mean, yeah, Nico didn’t want Percy hurt, and probably believed that he wouldn’t be, but still. Nico could have said, “Oh, hey, before we go to the Underworld, you should know, my dad wants a chat with you. I mean, it’s cool, he promised not to kill you, but I figured I should tell you before you’re bodily picked up by a fury and taken against your will to Hades’ palace. So you still want to go, or what?”

That would have been not betraying Percy. As it was—this one’s all on you, Nico.

osprey_archer just starting posting a fic of The Lost Prince by Frances Hodgson Burnett. I had never heard of the book, but I am a fan of osprey_archer, so I read the first chapter. It seemed relevant to my interests, and I've enjoyed books by Frances Hodgson Burnett before. Plus, public domain, free and easy to read, I thought I might as well check it out.

It's justifiably not one of her better-known books; it's not by any reasonable measure good. (Also, given how FHB is best known as an author for and about girls, it's interesting to note that when the first female character showed up, more than a third of the way through, my reaction was, "Wait, there are women in this universe?" followed almost immediately by, "Oh, I see, she's an evil spy.")

But I do have to wonder if Lois McMaster Bujold ever read The Lost Prince and if the Rat is a literary ancestor of Miles Vorkosigan. Not only does he have a hunchback and not the full use of his legs, yet is obsessed with all things military and is a precociously brilliant strategist, not only does he have enough force of personality to have gathered a gang of older and more physically fit street kids who regard him as their leader, but check out his physical description when he's first introduced:

He was a strange little creature with a big forehead, and deep eyes which were curiously sharp. But this was not all. He had a hunch back, his legs seemed small
and crooked. He sat with them crossed before him on a rough wooden platform set on low wheels, on which he evidently pushed himself about. Near him were a number of sticks stacked together as if they were rifles. One of the first things that Marco noticed was that he had a savage little face marked with lines as if he had been angry all his life.

Miles' face is described as being lined with pain, not anger, but you know, close enough. I read this passage and went, "Oh, hi, Miles!"

The nail-biting habit went to Elli Quinn, though.

inerasabledreams asked: “I’m a little confused, in "Conrad’s Fate,” Gabriel de Witt said that is not possible for a person living in another series, but Millie (Series 10) lives with Christopher in Series 12 … Someone could explain?“

I’m glad you asked, inerasabledreams! (You asked the fuckyeahchrestomanci blog and not me, but that was an understandable oversight.) This is indeed one of the most vexed questions in Chrestomanci canon, and it’s complicated by the fact that Mordecai Roberts, aka Tacroy, also spends most of his life in Series Twelve while being a native of Eleven (Not a Series).

I should start this off with a disclaimer that the question was never resolved in the books, and now never will be; I have reasons to prefer my own theory and will elucidate them below, but ultimately it’s just a theory and no more canon than any other. That being said, over on the fuckyeahchrestomanci blog, elanchana gave the following answer: "It’s because Millie used one of Christopher’s lives as an anchor. Presumably you die if you move to another world/series without moving your circle of doubles around as well, but if you have a life to give then you’re fine. I THINK that’s how it works.”

With respect to my esteemed colleague, I don’t think this can be right. At least not if, as I understand, she is referring to Christopher’s life which Millie initially used to travel to Series Twelve. I don’t see how that life could have been used to fix Millie in Series Twelve when Christopher got that life back shortly after; there would still be a sort of void of missing life-essence in Series Ten in that case.

However, it occurs to me that maybe she’s talking about Christopher’s life that’s in Millie’s wedding ring? In which case Millie would not be living on her own life, as it were, but a borrowed one of Christopher’s. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen this theory elsewhere, and it makes a certain amount of sense. However, it still doesn’t explain how Mordecai was able to spend his life in Series Twelve–and also, Conrad had to go back to Series Seven after six years, and more time than that passed between the time Millie arrived in Series Twelve and the time she married Christopher.

(I must also admit to personal–one might even say partisan–reasons for disliking this theory; as someone who ships Christopher/Conrad as well as Christopher/Millie this seems too much like Christopher choosing Millie over Conrad for my tastes. I touched on some of these issues, as well as Christopher’s left-and-leaving problem, in my story Worlds Enough, and Time.)

Another theory, advanced by sesame_seed in her story La Familia, is that being outside her own Series does in fact have a negative effect on Millie, and she eventually solves this problem by going on occasional trips to Series Ten. Again, my problem with this is twofold: If occasional trips to one’s native Series are enough to deal with the problems caused by being displaced from it, why can’t this work for Conrad? And since even brief trips to Eleven are likely to prove fatal for Mordecai, how does he manage?

In the Chrestomanci books, we do see one instance of someone intentionally fixing herself in place in a world other than the one she was born in. Gwendolen does this by arranging for someone else to take her place (and since we are dealing with people with only one life here, it causes a chain reaction, dragging nine people out of their native worlds and permanently fixing them in different ones.) It’s as if taking a life out of one world creates a gap that can only be filled by another life–and this, I will argue, is what Christopher and Gabriel do with Mordecai and Millie respectively in The Lives of Christopher Chant.

In the book, Millie says to Mordecai that he is like herself and Christopher–part of him is somewhere else. While he has lived most of his life in Series Twelve, his soul has remained in the Dright’s keeping in Eleven–and this is why, I believe, he never had any trouble living outside his native series until that point. Later, Christopher buys his soul back–in exchange for one of his own lives, which remains, however briefly, in the Dright’s keeping in Eleven. Similarly, when Mother Proudfoot comes to collect Millie’s life (or a reasonable approximation) on behalf of Asheth, Gabriel gives her one of his own in exchange, which she takes back with her to Series Ten. It’s this exchange of lives and souls, their own for ones that belong properly in Series Twelve, that enable Millie and Mordecai to remain in Series Twelve as permanent residents.

Obviously, this is the sort of magic you only do in life-or-death situations–maybe it’s only possible in life-or-death situations. And that’s why the option wasn’t available for Conrad.

I’ve had this theory for a while, but this is the first time I’ve written in all up like this, as opposed to obliquely alluding to it in fic. It’s … certainly long, isn’t it. If you have gotten this far, I salute you.

Everyone seems to be talking about lannamichaels's anti-Miles Vorkosigan rant here:

lannamichaels.livejournal.com/704066.html

There's one thing in there I agree wholeheartedly with (no pictures of Nikki on your holo cube, Miles? Not cool), but mostly I don't, and some of it seems to stem from what I see as actual misreadings of the text (Ekaterin was not trying to put the brakes on her and Miles' relationship at the end of A Civil Campaign, she was using the threat of delaying the wedding in order to achieve a small wedding. Now why Cordelia of all people advised her to go with manipulation instead of honesty is another question).

I adore Miles, I always have, and I don't think he's actually gotten less adorable in the later books. And I do like the later books, but I think in some ways the series would have been stronger if it had ended after Memory.

The real problem as I see it, is that you can have your characters live happily ever after, or you can keep writing stories about them. Pick one.

Also, I've seen the complaint before about how does Ekaterin possibly do all the work she's described as doing in Cryoburn, and while she's certainly a hard-working lady, what a lot of people seem to be missing is that she's an aristocrat. She's not actually washing the dishes and doing the shopping and preparing the meals and balancing the checkbooks and changing the diapers herself--she has Staff.