Dragonsong - Chapter Three
Nov. 6th, 2019 12:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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i_read_whatSo last time, Menolly went about her daily life and saw some fire lizards. Ms. McCaffrey proved she could write villains a bit more two-dimensional than R'gul or T'ron, and I complained. That last part isn't exactly new, I realize. But that's part of why I write these.
This chapter starts off with another verse, and Menolly returning home. She is caught by her mother, who wants to know why it took so long, she scolds her for going so far away with Thread due to fall. Menolly tells her about seeing a Dragonrider, which leads to some praise for Benden Weyr. (They're "proper". I'd make fun of this, but it's actually quite nice to get an ordinary person's eye view of the Dragonquest conflict.) Anyway, ships are coming in.
I wonder about ship travel on Pern. If people are generally so afraid of Threadfall that they barely leave their caves, then sailing on a ship must be terrifying. Thread dies in water, but it falls from the sky, and there's really no way to hide. And god knows if the Dragonriders pay attention to the waterways.
Anyway, Menolly brings her greens into the kitchen, is scolded again for being out ("halfway to Nerat", per Menolly) when Thread's likely to fall. The women gossip about the ships, they think the Harper must be coming, and they speculate about whether he'll be young and good-looking.
Menolly is then given the job to attend "Old Uncle". Apparently this is normally Menolly's sister, Sella's, job. But Sella's going to be serving. Menolly is looking at this like a punishment, but really, from the sound of it someone has to attend the guy.
Old Uncle seems to have some brand of dementia. His sense of time is distorted, he remembers his earliest days best, and is generally very confused. He also has no legs below the knee, thanks to an accident with a tangled trawler line. He has a special seat with straps that help keep him upright (since sometimes he forgets he doesn't have feet). Sella, who is wearing a gown that she'd spent the winter making, gives Menolly some seeds to give to Old Uncle to keep him happy. Menolly wonders why Sella is being helpful, and thinks Sella must have been pleased to know Menolly was being displaced.
Now we meet the new Harper, Elgion. He is indeed young and good-looking, and he's brought many instruments. He came with a Smith to help with metal work on the new ship, and additional repairs in the Hold (they have a metalman, we're told.)
Menolly is having a difficult time with Old Uncle. He has outbursts, and she's scolded for not distracting him in time. At some point he almost chokes, when he forgets he's eating and tries to scold some of the aunts. (They then scold Menolly for trying to stuff him to death.) Old Uncle also smells, and the big fire makes it worse.
Happily though, the Harper starts performing. He takes a humorous approach, which seems to offput Yanus, though Old Uncle appreciates it (loudly, much to Menolly's dismay). Elgion starts to sing, and it's quite nice, but unfortunately, Old Uncle starts hiccuping, which ends up distracting Menolly from the performance. Sella ends up helping Menolly get him up to his room, while scolding her for not giving him the sweetballs and not being able to do anything right. She leaves Menolly to get him calmed down. She later gets berated by her mother with no chance to explain.
We're told that Menolly's days get more difficult. There's Thread, which sequesters them for hours. Menolly ends up on the flame-thrower crew after that, and then has to help load the big nets for the fishing boat. The next morning, before sunrise, she has to be up to help gut and salt the catch. Then there's net-mending, which is less fun than usual because Yanus is anxious to go out again so there's no talking or singing. He seems to glare at Menolly a lot.
We get a "clash with the more feminine sister" bit that seems to be a requisite of this kind of story. Sella is always thinking of herself and her appearance and thinks that Menolly isn't proper. She's old enough to get married now, and with a Harper, Menolly thinks there might be some arrangement. (We're also told that Menolly has six brothers.)
This part's a bit annoying, honestly. I mean, to be fair, it may not have been quite so played out when this book was originally published in 1976, but I've certainly seen it a lot since. I wouldn't mind it so much if there was some indication that Sella actually had some sympathy for her sister, but nah. Can't have that.
Menolly's very anxious that the Harper might have found fault in her teaching, but no one's said anything about that. She is pretty constantly being scolded for something: her clothes, her bed furs, her slothliness. She thinks that she's in disfavor because no one wants the Harper to know that she'd taught the youngsters.
Then something happens to break the routine, in a less ideal way: while helping to gut packtails (an ugly, spiny, oily fish), Menolly ends up slicing her palm open to the point where she can stare at her bones.
There's a nice bit here that reinforces that a lot of Menolly's self consciousness and feelings of persecution are more likely the result of being a teenager rather than being a scapegoat. She feels a terrible guilt for the accident and thinks everyone is glaring at her. She ends up insisting she didn't do it on purpose, and Mavi is genuinely startled and asks her who said she did. She snaps that no one was thinking any such thing. When we consider that on top of Sella's earlier puzzlement that anyone thought Menolly was in trouble for not keeping control of Old Uncle (I didn't mention that, but it was part of their discussion), and the way she sees taking care of Uncle as a punishment, but it's usually Sella's job (and Sella is generally in their parent's good graces), then it becomes clearer that Menolly's family isn't out to get her. It seems more like we've got a situation with a very sensitive child and parents who don't really recognize that or would have the faintest idea of what to do about it if they did.
It doesn't make it any easier for Menolly of course, but it helps to humanize Yanus and Mavi more than the other adversaries in the series. They are bad parents, but they're not malicious.
Unfortunately, the wound is bad and it's not clear that Menolly would be able to play again. And well, even if the wound does heal enough, Yanus wouldn't permit her to play anyway. Menolly goes to sleep miserably, feeling "cheated of the one thing that had made her life bearable." She thinks she now knows what a dragonless rider must feel.
I'm not going to pick on Menolly because she's a teenager, and it's the right of all teenagers to be melodramatic, and she's also just been injured. But really. There ARE instruments that can be played one-handed, or with limited motion in her other hand. She can sing too. It's not the end of the world.
This part's better than Chapter Two was. It's clearer that Menolly's unhappiness isn't just about some arbitrary, ill-defined sexism, but also because she generally isn't happy at the Hold. Old Uncle is interesting, because we actually get to see how a society like Pern treats disabled people. As harsh as the Sea Holders seem to be, they still take care of their own.
I still think the portrayal is a bit ableist though. Old Uncle is a caricature of dementia/alzheimers symptoms, without much care to who he is as a person aside from that. And sure, a lot of that is probably because a teenager like Menolly wouldn't think about that kind of thing. But I do think McCaffrey is a skilled enough writer to give us a little more of Old Uncle as a character rather than just a challenge for Menolly. Perhaps that will come in the future.
This chapter starts off with another verse, and Menolly returning home. She is caught by her mother, who wants to know why it took so long, she scolds her for going so far away with Thread due to fall. Menolly tells her about seeing a Dragonrider, which leads to some praise for Benden Weyr. (They're "proper". I'd make fun of this, but it's actually quite nice to get an ordinary person's eye view of the Dragonquest conflict.) Anyway, ships are coming in.
I wonder about ship travel on Pern. If people are generally so afraid of Threadfall that they barely leave their caves, then sailing on a ship must be terrifying. Thread dies in water, but it falls from the sky, and there's really no way to hide. And god knows if the Dragonriders pay attention to the waterways.
Anyway, Menolly brings her greens into the kitchen, is scolded again for being out ("halfway to Nerat", per Menolly) when Thread's likely to fall. The women gossip about the ships, they think the Harper must be coming, and they speculate about whether he'll be young and good-looking.
Menolly is then given the job to attend "Old Uncle". Apparently this is normally Menolly's sister, Sella's, job. But Sella's going to be serving. Menolly is looking at this like a punishment, but really, from the sound of it someone has to attend the guy.
Old Uncle seems to have some brand of dementia. His sense of time is distorted, he remembers his earliest days best, and is generally very confused. He also has no legs below the knee, thanks to an accident with a tangled trawler line. He has a special seat with straps that help keep him upright (since sometimes he forgets he doesn't have feet). Sella, who is wearing a gown that she'd spent the winter making, gives Menolly some seeds to give to Old Uncle to keep him happy. Menolly wonders why Sella is being helpful, and thinks Sella must have been pleased to know Menolly was being displaced.
Now we meet the new Harper, Elgion. He is indeed young and good-looking, and he's brought many instruments. He came with a Smith to help with metal work on the new ship, and additional repairs in the Hold (they have a metalman, we're told.)
Menolly is having a difficult time with Old Uncle. He has outbursts, and she's scolded for not distracting him in time. At some point he almost chokes, when he forgets he's eating and tries to scold some of the aunts. (They then scold Menolly for trying to stuff him to death.) Old Uncle also smells, and the big fire makes it worse.
Happily though, the Harper starts performing. He takes a humorous approach, which seems to offput Yanus, though Old Uncle appreciates it (loudly, much to Menolly's dismay). Elgion starts to sing, and it's quite nice, but unfortunately, Old Uncle starts hiccuping, which ends up distracting Menolly from the performance. Sella ends up helping Menolly get him up to his room, while scolding her for not giving him the sweetballs and not being able to do anything right. She leaves Menolly to get him calmed down. She later gets berated by her mother with no chance to explain.
We're told that Menolly's days get more difficult. There's Thread, which sequesters them for hours. Menolly ends up on the flame-thrower crew after that, and then has to help load the big nets for the fishing boat. The next morning, before sunrise, she has to be up to help gut and salt the catch. Then there's net-mending, which is less fun than usual because Yanus is anxious to go out again so there's no talking or singing. He seems to glare at Menolly a lot.
We get a "clash with the more feminine sister" bit that seems to be a requisite of this kind of story. Sella is always thinking of herself and her appearance and thinks that Menolly isn't proper. She's old enough to get married now, and with a Harper, Menolly thinks there might be some arrangement. (We're also told that Menolly has six brothers.)
This part's a bit annoying, honestly. I mean, to be fair, it may not have been quite so played out when this book was originally published in 1976, but I've certainly seen it a lot since. I wouldn't mind it so much if there was some indication that Sella actually had some sympathy for her sister, but nah. Can't have that.
Menolly's very anxious that the Harper might have found fault in her teaching, but no one's said anything about that. She is pretty constantly being scolded for something: her clothes, her bed furs, her slothliness. She thinks that she's in disfavor because no one wants the Harper to know that she'd taught the youngsters.
Then something happens to break the routine, in a less ideal way: while helping to gut packtails (an ugly, spiny, oily fish), Menolly ends up slicing her palm open to the point where she can stare at her bones.
There's a nice bit here that reinforces that a lot of Menolly's self consciousness and feelings of persecution are more likely the result of being a teenager rather than being a scapegoat. She feels a terrible guilt for the accident and thinks everyone is glaring at her. She ends up insisting she didn't do it on purpose, and Mavi is genuinely startled and asks her who said she did. She snaps that no one was thinking any such thing. When we consider that on top of Sella's earlier puzzlement that anyone thought Menolly was in trouble for not keeping control of Old Uncle (I didn't mention that, but it was part of their discussion), and the way she sees taking care of Uncle as a punishment, but it's usually Sella's job (and Sella is generally in their parent's good graces), then it becomes clearer that Menolly's family isn't out to get her. It seems more like we've got a situation with a very sensitive child and parents who don't really recognize that or would have the faintest idea of what to do about it if they did.
It doesn't make it any easier for Menolly of course, but it helps to humanize Yanus and Mavi more than the other adversaries in the series. They are bad parents, but they're not malicious.
Unfortunately, the wound is bad and it's not clear that Menolly would be able to play again. And well, even if the wound does heal enough, Yanus wouldn't permit her to play anyway. Menolly goes to sleep miserably, feeling "cheated of the one thing that had made her life bearable." She thinks she now knows what a dragonless rider must feel.
I'm not going to pick on Menolly because she's a teenager, and it's the right of all teenagers to be melodramatic, and she's also just been injured. But really. There ARE instruments that can be played one-handed, or with limited motion in her other hand. She can sing too. It's not the end of the world.
This part's better than Chapter Two was. It's clearer that Menolly's unhappiness isn't just about some arbitrary, ill-defined sexism, but also because she generally isn't happy at the Hold. Old Uncle is interesting, because we actually get to see how a society like Pern treats disabled people. As harsh as the Sea Holders seem to be, they still take care of their own.
I still think the portrayal is a bit ableist though. Old Uncle is a caricature of dementia/alzheimers symptoms, without much care to who he is as a person aside from that. And sure, a lot of that is probably because a teenager like Menolly wouldn't think about that kind of thing. But I do think McCaffrey is a skilled enough writer to give us a little more of Old Uncle as a character rather than just a challenge for Menolly. Perhaps that will come in the future.