Dragonsong - Chapter Four
Nov. 15th, 2019 12:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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i_read_whatSo last time on Dragonsong, Menolly had a really bad couple of days, culminating in an injury that might mean the end to her ability to play music. I'm not going to make fun of that. That really sucks.
So at the start of Chapter 4, Menolly's hand has gotten a lot worse. She's feverish now, and they realize that some of the packtail slime had gotten into the wound. We switch over to Mavi's point of view for a bit:
Packtail infection was pernicious, and Mavi was dreadfully afraid that they might have to remove Menolly’s arm to prevent a further spread. She was constantly by her daughter’s side, an attention that Menolly would have been surprised, and gratified, to receive, but she remained unconscious. Fortunately the angry red lines faded on the girl’s swollen arm on the evening of the fourth day. The swelling receded, and the edges of the terrible gash assumed the healthier color of healing flesh.
Throughout her delirium, Menolly kept begging “them” to let her play just once more, just once again, pleading in such a pitiful tone that it all but broke Mavi’s heart to realize that unkind fortune had made that impossible. The hand would always be crippled. Which was as well since some of the new Harper’s questions were provoking Yanus.
This is interesting to me, because I vaguely remember later on, either this book or Dragonsinger, folks accusing Mavi of lying about Menolly's wound and sabotaging her healing so she can't play. But that's not the impression I get from this passage at all. Mavi appears to genuinely believe that Menolly's been crippled, and she seems to genuinely hurt for her. The "which was just as well" part is callous but in character. She's very practical. But there doesn't seem to be any deceit there.
Anyway, we're told Elgion's been asking who taught the kids. Yanus initially thinks Elgion is upset, so he lies and says a fosterling did it. When Elgion praises the teacher instead, saying they have the makings of a good Harper, Yanus is stuck. He doesn't want to backtrack and he doesn't want to admit that the teacher was a girl.
Anyway, Yanus also seems to care, at least a little bit about Menolly:
He was, of course, sorry that the girl had cut herself so badly, and not entirely because she was a good worker. Still it kept her out of the Harper’s way until she forgot her silly tuning. Once or twice though, while Menolly was ill, he missed her clear sweet voice in counter-song, the way she and Petiron used to sing. Yet he dismissed the matter from his mind. Women had more to do than sit about singing and playing.
See, this is what we were missing in Dragonflight and Dragonquest. We had a lot of adversaries who, like Yanus, seemed unreasonable and intractable, but we never got a look in their heads to understand why they were doing it. And because of that, R'gul, T'ron, and the other Oldtimers, all came across very flat. Here, we actually get to understand a bit about Yanus and Mavi. They have depth. That doesn't make them good parents, of course. But we can see that, in their own flawed way, they do care about their daughter. That makes them much more compelling.
Since the book is happening contemporaneous with Dragonquest, we're getting a little hint about the big events in that book. Elgion is very nosy, and asking a lot of questions about the Hold and their interactions with Benden, and if they have contact with the Oldtimers at Ista, and how they feel about dragonriders, if they resented dragonmen recruiting young people on Search, and if they'd ever attended a Hatching.
Yanus is pretty straight forward: they generally appreciate the dragonriders and they're always welcome to the Hold. They're beholden to Benden, so they don't see many others. Yanus has never met Lessa (shame, because I bet she could do a lot of damage to his ideas of proper roles for women), but thinks F'lar is a "fine fellow". Apparently no one's ever been Searched from there, but Yanus is open to the idea. (Though he is relieved that no one has been picked yet, because it would probably make trouble among jealous young boys.)
We shift into Elgion's point of view. He's got a big job ahead of him. Apparently Robinton has given the journeymen Harpers orders to try to get the Holders and Craftmasters to think beyond their individual needs, for the well-being of the planet. Elgion is thinking of ways to do that. For one, he thinks there's room to expand. There are a lot more caves in adjacent bluffs (this will be relevant later).
Elgion is pretty comfortable in his position, but he's still puzzled by the mystery of who trained the children "so perfectly". Apparently Petiron had sent word that there was a "likely songmaker" at the Hold. Why is she a "likely" songmaker? We were told that she'd already written songs. She's an actual songmaker, thank you. He sent some of her songs to Robinton, who is very impressed. Petiron expressed that there is some difficulty but didn't elaborate.
...dude? Why? Why not just send a letter saying "the songwriter's name is Menolly". Even if he thought Robinton was sexist enough to reject a new Harper because she's a woman, there's no real point in HIDING that? And this plot would be a lot faster.
But anyway, Elgion keeps quiet, figuring the lad will make himself known.
Meanwhile, Menolly's still recovering, and apparently everyone was told that it would be cruel to ask her to sing in the evenings. Menolly, for her part, is quiet and passive, which Mavi figures is because of the recovery. She doesn't attribute it to the loss of music. (Again, no indication of sabotage either.)
So we skip ahead a bit (some good bits about nature and worldbuilding here. At one point Yanus is so concerned about the strange weather that he asks Old Uncle if he remembers something about this before.) Menolly's out trying to get spiderclaws. He can see the Dragon Stones, which reminded her of seeing the little fire lizard. It also reminds her of the song she'd made up that day. the last day, Menolly now realized, of her trusting childhood.
That's a little melodramatic.
She remembers a conversation with Sella in which Sella mentioned that Elgion had ridden dragons. This basically seems to be an excuse for Menolly to insult Sella. (Sella says she'd never have the courage to ride a dragon, while Menolly thinks she'd never have the opportunity.)
But Menolly is getting the chance to see fire lizards again. So that helps a lot. Then Menolly manages to fall off a cliff. She's okay, if a little stunned, having fallen "a dragon length or more". The queen suddenly attacks her, and Menolly realizes she is very close to a fire lizard clutch. Menolly apologizes profusely (she seems to believe that the fire lizards understand her speech, but given what we know of dragons, that may not be farfetched), but the queen is pretty adamant. Fortunately a bronze appears to huddle with the queen over the eggs, and Menolly has an entertainingly teenaged reaction:
And to think I made up a pretty tune about you, Menolly thought as she watched the two lizards hovering over the eggs. The last tune I ever made up. You’re ungrateful, that’s what you are!
Menolly tries to win them over by laughing, which fails, and then singing, which eventually succeeds. It succeeds very well actually, entrancing queen and nine bronzes.
The queen snaps at her again, but now Menolly realizes that she's not attacking, but trying to prevent Menolly from climbing out. The queen ends up leading her back to the clutch, then starts trying to carry her eggs (which are really close to hatching) one at a time to a hole in the cliff. Menolly figures out what she wants, and helps move the eggs. The queen panics when Menolly uses her sack to help, but eventually relents. Menolly is able to get the eggs to safety while the water rises. Then she finishes climbing the cliff to safety.
Menolly is amazed at her adventure, and I realize anew how useless F'nor actually is. Menolly discovered fire lizards independently of him, and has actually managed to communicate with one without bonding being necessary. She's also verified that they're very intelligent, and can even understand. Menolly also makes some other observations: the queen didn't take the egg between, so possibly cold harms fire lizard eggs like it does dragon eggs. That makes Menolly worried about the cold little cove, but figures that the queen is smart enough to make her bronzes help keep them warm.
Menolly's hand continues to improve. It's aching and a little swollen, but the fingers are moving easier. She can't quite extend them completely, but the pain is more of a "stretchy-hurt" which makes her think that she might be able to improve it if she works on it. She's been using it a lot today, something she decides to thank the queen for. And thus the chapter ends.
Honestly, I'm already a little tired of the "Menolly is the best Harper ever!" refrain. Of course she taught the children "perfectly". Just like how she plays every instrument and writes songs that impress Robinton, with only the basic training she'd eked out in the Hold. It's just a little tedious. If she's so good now, then what does she have to learn? How does she grow?
On the other hand, the wilderness adventure part was great. We get to see Menolly in her element, she's observant and kind, adaptable and clever. It was fun watching her first bridge the communication gap and then figure out how to help the eggs. Honestly, I think this story would have worked just as well if they cut the music/Harper storyline out altogether and just gone with the idea of Menolly as an amateur naturalist who accidently bonds with a ridiculous amount of lizards. Maybe she could start a veterinary Crafthall or something.
And now I wonder: do they have doctors on Pern? Because I feel like that would be a very useful crafthall. I'll have to keep my eye out and hopefully find out.
So at the start of Chapter 4, Menolly's hand has gotten a lot worse. She's feverish now, and they realize that some of the packtail slime had gotten into the wound. We switch over to Mavi's point of view for a bit:
Packtail infection was pernicious, and Mavi was dreadfully afraid that they might have to remove Menolly’s arm to prevent a further spread. She was constantly by her daughter’s side, an attention that Menolly would have been surprised, and gratified, to receive, but she remained unconscious. Fortunately the angry red lines faded on the girl’s swollen arm on the evening of the fourth day. The swelling receded, and the edges of the terrible gash assumed the healthier color of healing flesh.
Throughout her delirium, Menolly kept begging “them” to let her play just once more, just once again, pleading in such a pitiful tone that it all but broke Mavi’s heart to realize that unkind fortune had made that impossible. The hand would always be crippled. Which was as well since some of the new Harper’s questions were provoking Yanus.
This is interesting to me, because I vaguely remember later on, either this book or Dragonsinger, folks accusing Mavi of lying about Menolly's wound and sabotaging her healing so she can't play. But that's not the impression I get from this passage at all. Mavi appears to genuinely believe that Menolly's been crippled, and she seems to genuinely hurt for her. The "which was just as well" part is callous but in character. She's very practical. But there doesn't seem to be any deceit there.
Anyway, we're told Elgion's been asking who taught the kids. Yanus initially thinks Elgion is upset, so he lies and says a fosterling did it. When Elgion praises the teacher instead, saying they have the makings of a good Harper, Yanus is stuck. He doesn't want to backtrack and he doesn't want to admit that the teacher was a girl.
Anyway, Yanus also seems to care, at least a little bit about Menolly:
He was, of course, sorry that the girl had cut herself so badly, and not entirely because she was a good worker. Still it kept her out of the Harper’s way until she forgot her silly tuning. Once or twice though, while Menolly was ill, he missed her clear sweet voice in counter-song, the way she and Petiron used to sing. Yet he dismissed the matter from his mind. Women had more to do than sit about singing and playing.
See, this is what we were missing in Dragonflight and Dragonquest. We had a lot of adversaries who, like Yanus, seemed unreasonable and intractable, but we never got a look in their heads to understand why they were doing it. And because of that, R'gul, T'ron, and the other Oldtimers, all came across very flat. Here, we actually get to understand a bit about Yanus and Mavi. They have depth. That doesn't make them good parents, of course. But we can see that, in their own flawed way, they do care about their daughter. That makes them much more compelling.
Since the book is happening contemporaneous with Dragonquest, we're getting a little hint about the big events in that book. Elgion is very nosy, and asking a lot of questions about the Hold and their interactions with Benden, and if they have contact with the Oldtimers at Ista, and how they feel about dragonriders, if they resented dragonmen recruiting young people on Search, and if they'd ever attended a Hatching.
Yanus is pretty straight forward: they generally appreciate the dragonriders and they're always welcome to the Hold. They're beholden to Benden, so they don't see many others. Yanus has never met Lessa (shame, because I bet she could do a lot of damage to his ideas of proper roles for women), but thinks F'lar is a "fine fellow". Apparently no one's ever been Searched from there, but Yanus is open to the idea. (Though he is relieved that no one has been picked yet, because it would probably make trouble among jealous young boys.)
We shift into Elgion's point of view. He's got a big job ahead of him. Apparently Robinton has given the journeymen Harpers orders to try to get the Holders and Craftmasters to think beyond their individual needs, for the well-being of the planet. Elgion is thinking of ways to do that. For one, he thinks there's room to expand. There are a lot more caves in adjacent bluffs (this will be relevant later).
Elgion is pretty comfortable in his position, but he's still puzzled by the mystery of who trained the children "so perfectly". Apparently Petiron had sent word that there was a "likely songmaker" at the Hold. Why is she a "likely" songmaker? We were told that she'd already written songs. She's an actual songmaker, thank you. He sent some of her songs to Robinton, who is very impressed. Petiron expressed that there is some difficulty but didn't elaborate.
...dude? Why? Why not just send a letter saying "the songwriter's name is Menolly". Even if he thought Robinton was sexist enough to reject a new Harper because she's a woman, there's no real point in HIDING that? And this plot would be a lot faster.
But anyway, Elgion keeps quiet, figuring the lad will make himself known.
Meanwhile, Menolly's still recovering, and apparently everyone was told that it would be cruel to ask her to sing in the evenings. Menolly, for her part, is quiet and passive, which Mavi figures is because of the recovery. She doesn't attribute it to the loss of music. (Again, no indication of sabotage either.)
So we skip ahead a bit (some good bits about nature and worldbuilding here. At one point Yanus is so concerned about the strange weather that he asks Old Uncle if he remembers something about this before.) Menolly's out trying to get spiderclaws. He can see the Dragon Stones, which reminded her of seeing the little fire lizard. It also reminds her of the song she'd made up that day. the last day, Menolly now realized, of her trusting childhood.
That's a little melodramatic.
She remembers a conversation with Sella in which Sella mentioned that Elgion had ridden dragons. This basically seems to be an excuse for Menolly to insult Sella. (Sella says she'd never have the courage to ride a dragon, while Menolly thinks she'd never have the opportunity.)
But Menolly is getting the chance to see fire lizards again. So that helps a lot. Then Menolly manages to fall off a cliff. She's okay, if a little stunned, having fallen "a dragon length or more". The queen suddenly attacks her, and Menolly realizes she is very close to a fire lizard clutch. Menolly apologizes profusely (she seems to believe that the fire lizards understand her speech, but given what we know of dragons, that may not be farfetched), but the queen is pretty adamant. Fortunately a bronze appears to huddle with the queen over the eggs, and Menolly has an entertainingly teenaged reaction:
And to think I made up a pretty tune about you, Menolly thought as she watched the two lizards hovering over the eggs. The last tune I ever made up. You’re ungrateful, that’s what you are!
Menolly tries to win them over by laughing, which fails, and then singing, which eventually succeeds. It succeeds very well actually, entrancing queen and nine bronzes.
The queen snaps at her again, but now Menolly realizes that she's not attacking, but trying to prevent Menolly from climbing out. The queen ends up leading her back to the clutch, then starts trying to carry her eggs (which are really close to hatching) one at a time to a hole in the cliff. Menolly figures out what she wants, and helps move the eggs. The queen panics when Menolly uses her sack to help, but eventually relents. Menolly is able to get the eggs to safety while the water rises. Then she finishes climbing the cliff to safety.
Menolly is amazed at her adventure, and I realize anew how useless F'nor actually is. Menolly discovered fire lizards independently of him, and has actually managed to communicate with one without bonding being necessary. She's also verified that they're very intelligent, and can even understand. Menolly also makes some other observations: the queen didn't take the egg between, so possibly cold harms fire lizard eggs like it does dragon eggs. That makes Menolly worried about the cold little cove, but figures that the queen is smart enough to make her bronzes help keep them warm.
Menolly's hand continues to improve. It's aching and a little swollen, but the fingers are moving easier. She can't quite extend them completely, but the pain is more of a "stretchy-hurt" which makes her think that she might be able to improve it if she works on it. She's been using it a lot today, something she decides to thank the queen for. And thus the chapter ends.
Honestly, I'm already a little tired of the "Menolly is the best Harper ever!" refrain. Of course she taught the children "perfectly". Just like how she plays every instrument and writes songs that impress Robinton, with only the basic training she'd eked out in the Hold. It's just a little tedious. If she's so good now, then what does she have to learn? How does she grow?
On the other hand, the wilderness adventure part was great. We get to see Menolly in her element, she's observant and kind, adaptable and clever. It was fun watching her first bridge the communication gap and then figure out how to help the eggs. Honestly, I think this story would have worked just as well if they cut the music/Harper storyline out altogether and just gone with the idea of Menolly as an amateur naturalist who accidently bonds with a ridiculous amount of lizards. Maybe she could start a veterinary Crafthall or something.
And now I wonder: do they have doctors on Pern? Because I feel like that would be a very useful crafthall. I'll have to keep my eye out and hopefully find out.
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Date: 2019-11-17 11:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-11-18 12:24 am (UTC)