Dragonsinger - Chapter Three
Mar. 17th, 2020 01:55 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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i_read_whatSo last time, we...to be honest, I have very little memory of what happened last time. Menolly met people and her fire lizards sang? I feel like there has to have been more to the chapter than that, but that's what I remember. I hope something actually happens soon.
So we rejoin Menolly as she's about to meet Master Jerint to get an instrument. She's understandably nervous, and wishes that Silvina had stuck around for an intro. Then she guiltily thinks about how much of Silvina's time she's already had. Aw. I do like Menolly. My vague sense of dissatisfaction is not her fault.
So we get some nice atmospheric description of the workspace. Unfortunately Beauty disrupts things by shrieking at the noise and flying for the ceiling. This of course makes Menolly suddenly the center of attention again. I cynically suspect this is so that she can wow Master Jerint with her ability, with a built in audience.
I feel guilty for being so cynical. I really did enjoy Dragonsong a lot, despite my minor complaints. But I'm finding this book off-putting and I don't really know why. Maybe it'll pick up.
So anyway, now that everything is silent, Beauty returns to Menolly's shoulder. This gets Jerint's attention. Jerint seems rather cantankerous, but not hostile, he asks about the thing on her shoulder and whether it made the cry that he heard. Hah.
Sadly, Beauty wins him over pretty quickly. Jerint admits that the noise would startle "anyone with hearing and wit" and he finds her charming. Damnit. I was hoping, just for a second, that we'd actually have a character that Menolly would have to win over. Aside from mean and bitchy Dunca last chapter. It's pretty clear that Menolly will never win Dunca over, and that she's meant to be someone we dislike until Menolly ends up somewhere else. But Menolly actually has to work with these Masters, so it would be nice to see her face a challenge.
A stocky man from the back of the hall points out that Beauty sings too. Of course he does. Because Menolly can't ever be a braggart, other characters have to do it for her. It was forgivable with T'gellan in Dragonsong, because they were already friends. This is annoying. The stocky fellow turns out to be Master Domick, someone she'll have to play for later. This will probably not be a problem, given how Domick gushes about "this morning's glorious descant".
I feel vaguely guilty again for how much I'm disliking this. It's a power fantasy, and there's nothing wrong with that, but I'm perhaps the wrong age and inclination to really enjoy it. But this isn't a STORY. It's a daydream where a girl finds the place where she belongs and is adored instantly. It could have easily just been an epilogue to Dragonsong saying: "So Menolly went to Harpers Hall, where she impressed everyone and lived happily ever after."
So Domick asks how many were actually singing. Menolly, keeping in mind Dunca's reaction, says only five. Domick is droll and Jerint is impressed that she has five lizards. Ugh, because of course, this leads into the part where Menolly has to clarify that she has nine, and that leads into her rushed story of how she Impressed them and...
UGH.
This is the same thing we've seen in Chapter One. This is the same thing we've seen in Chapter Two. Menolly has an awesome origin story, sure. I know, I read it. Dragonsong is one of TWO books that actually got a passing grade on this blog. But this is the story of Dragonsinger so far: Someone relates Menolly's story, or pushes Menolly to relate her own story. Everyone is impressed. The end.
Domick suggests that she add another verse to her song, but Menolly is modest:
“The Masterharper has edited that song as he feels necessary, Master Domick,” she said with what she hoped was quiet dignity.
I think I'd like Menolly more if she got mad about it. Domick asks about her training the fire lizards, she's modest about that too, and asks if Petiron had enough wood to teach her how to make an instrument. Menolly's response annoys me again:
“He explained how…” Menolly replied. Did Master Domick think Yanus Sea Holder would have wasted precious timber for a girl to make a harper’s instrument?
This is another point where I'm being unfair, because it's perfectly understandable that Menolly, a teenager, thinks that what is important in her life is well known to everyone. But I feel like this is indicative that EVENTUALLY Menolly will be in a position to sob out her tragic backstory, so that everyone will feel dreadfully sorry for her. I wouldn't mind that if I actually had any indication that there would also be an actual plot to this story.
So Domick cows their audience back into doing their work, which upsets Beauty again. Jerint is again impressed by the sounds she makes, while Domick reminds him that she needs a gitar, and Jesus Christ this scene has extended for a number of pages. Jerint leads her to where there are a number of instruments. Jerint offers her a newly burnished gitar, which Menolly turns down automatically.
Oh dear. This is going to be the scene where the prodigy turns out to have an instinctive knowledge that the beautiful, new looking gitar is flawed somehow, and she's going to pick a modest, older gitar which will turn out to be awesome.
And yep, called it. Menolly thinks the gitar is too green to have any tone, and when Jerint calls her on realizing that by looking, she understands that she's being tested. She can see that the wood of the gitar is badly joined and the neck is not straight. Jerint is happy with that. Menolly looks at more gitars and finally finds one in a worn but well-oiled case. She plucks a string, and then puts it back, because it must belong to a master and is too good to practice on.
Gag me with a spoon.
I'm sorry, but this is getting into a complaint I had through Dragonsong. It wasn't enough that Menolly is a good musician, she had to be the absolute greatest musician. She had to master every instrument and know every song. She has to be good enough at fifteen to teach kids well enough to impress grown Harpers. Even though it simply doesn't make sense: Half Circle Hold was presented to us as a place where everyone works very hard to eke out a living. There isn't a lot of leisure time at all. And even if we assume that Menolly was excused from that work to care for Petiron, that would mean that she actually had to care for him! When would she have time to learn all of this stuff?!
In Dragonsong, it was forgivable, because Menolly's music wasn't really the story. Menolly's adventures outside and at the Weyr, and her fire lizards, were the story. But now, Menolly's music and status as a Harper IS the story. And if she's already brilliant at EVERYTHING, where can she go from here??
Anyway, Domick is very amused, because that gitar is Jerint's own. He tells her to find one bad enough to practice on but good enough to use. She tests a few, but they're flawed: worn knobs and strings that can't keep their pitch. Finally she finds one with a broken string, but otherwise sounds good. She thinks it's the best of all except Jerint's, and she asks if she can use it.
Jerint approves and gets her a new string, which she applies and tunes. Domick then steers her out into an office/schoolroom to test her.
“Play for me,” Domick said, gesturing for her to take a stool as he collapsed into the couch facing the hearth.
His tone was expressionless, his manner so noncommittal that Menolly felt he didn’t expect her to be able to play at all. What little confidence she had gained when she had apparently chosen unexpectedly well ebbed from her. Unnecessarily she struck a tuning chord, fiddled with the knob on the new string, trying to decide what to play to prove her competence. For she was determined to surprise this Master Domick who teased and taunted and didn’t like her having nine fire lizards.
...ugh.
This isn't working for me. Dragonsong did SUCH a good job of showing Menolly's anxiety and teenage insecurity. But this is just aggravating. We just saw Domick gushing with praise over Menolly's lizards' glorious descant, over her ability to pick out a gitar, we know he saw her test, tune and string one.
I suppose this could be an attempt to show Menolly as having some kind of genuine anxious disorder as opposed to just being a teenager. But if that's the case, I feel like McCaffrey's missing the mark. Which is frustrating, because we've SEEN her do better. Dragonflight and Dragonquest had many flaws, but they also managed to give us a Lessa and F'lar with very believable and authentic mental issues. Menolly, as yet, does not measure up.
I think maybe I see the problem I'm having. If, when Domick was praising Menolly's lizards, we had a moment where Menolly thought "he's mocking" or "he's insincere", this would feel more authentic. But we didn't see that reaction from her. Menolly was silent when she received the praise that McCaffrey clearly believes is her due. So seeing her now say that he was teasing and taunting her, and that he didn't like her having her lizards just feels like a clumsy attempt to build suspense for when she undoubtedly rocks his socks off.
Which of course she does. Domick tells her not to sing, and that he doesn't want any distraction from Beauty, which stings Menolly's pride. Why? He's testing your ability to play gitar. She starts playing "Ballad of Moreta's Ride" and had the satisfaction of seeing his eyebrows lift in surprise. We get some explanation: apparently the chording is tricky even when voices carry the melody, but having to pluck the tune increases the difficulty.
Of fucking course.
But don't worry, Menolly isn't completely flawless! She strikes several sour chords because her left hand can't extend properly, but she compensates by keeping the rhythm keen and her right hand flicks out the memory "loud and true".
Oh, I stand corrected. Menolly has a flaw to her playing that's not remotely her fault, something that she's already at least somewhat able to compensate for, and everyone recognizes as a handicap. (One that will, we've been reassured, be fixed up with proper treatment.) For fucking sake. Oh and just to drive home the point, as she keeps playing, she starts varying the harmony and substituting an alternate fingering.
Domick finally stops her and...maybe I should just show this bit:
“Enough gitar,” he said, his expression inscrutable, Then he snapped his fingers at her left hand, which she extended in slow obedience. It ached. He turned it palm up, tracing the thick scar so lightly that the tickling sensation made her spine twitch in reaction though she forced herself to keep still. He grunted, noticing where her exertion had split the edge of the wound. “Oldive seen that hand yet?”
“Yes, sir.”
“And recommended some of his sticky smelly salves, no doubt. If they work, you’ll be able to stretch for the fingerings you missed in the first verse.”
“I hope so.”
“So do I. You’re not supposed to take liberties with the Teaching Ballads and Sagas—”
“So Petiron taught me,” she replied with an equally expressionless voice, “but the minor seventh in the second measure is an alternative chording in the Record at Half-Circle Sea Hold.”
“An old variation.”
Menolly said nothing, but she knew from his very sourness that she had played very well indeed, despite her hand, and that Domick didn’t want to be complimentary.
Wow. Is it just me, or does Menolly come across as really fucking arrogant here? And I love how we're only now hearing that the alternative chording is part of the Record at Half Circle Sea Hold as opposed to something Menolly just made up to compensate. Because that wouldn't have been relevant a few paragraphs ago when McCaffrey was having her show off.
Also Domick has said NOTHING to indicate that he doesn't want to be complimentary. He PRAISED her earlier. A fucking lot. Here, he's got legitimate and very mild criticism. That's his job! He doesn't seem to doubt that she'll be able to get the fingering with treatment. But he's not praising Menolly enough, so to Menolly, that means he's "sour".
Forget anxiety, I'm beginning to think Menolly is just incredibly entitled.
So Domick tests her on other instruments: the drum, where he remains bland but she sees his fingers twitch with the beat and feels "inwardly pleased", she plays the lap harp and is told that he'll assume she can also play a great harp, because of her hand, there's pipes and we do catch a hint of a weakness in Petiron's teaching: when it comes to brass, there's only the straight horn at Menolly's hold, but Petiron had explained the theory of valves and told her she could develop a good lip with practice.
I suppose I should be grateful that Menolly's got SOMETHING to work on, but I have distinct doubts that Menolly's weakness with brass instruments will ever come up in a meaningful way.
Menolly asks if she should return the gitar to Jerint, and Domick tells her "Of course not" with a cool, almost rude expression, and reminds her she needs it to practice on. I love how Menolly has the audacity to call this person who is supposed to be her teacher "rude" because he told her no in a way that wasn't quite nice enough for her tastes. Jesus.
Oh, and hah, remember my prediction for the gitars? She asks whose gitar she's using: Domick grins broadly and announces that it was Robinton's journeyman gitar.
Fucking hell.
This of course makes Menolly wonder if Robinton will be as annoyed as Master Domick seemed to be that she'd chosen the gitar. For fuck's sake. I genuinely do not believe this is anxiety or an inability to read social cues anymore. I think Menolly just expects everyone to fawn over her with praise and when they actually treat her like a professional would treat a gifted amateur, she thinks they're being rude or nasty.
Then a bell rings, and she sees a bunch of apprentices and journeymen emerge into the courtyard. Menolly is surprised at their behavior, because some of them look older than twenty, and they're horsing around. In Half Circle, boys her age were already serving on ships, working very hard. Menolly tangents into self-pity, wondering if that's why her parents couldn't appreciate her music, since they couldn't understand that it's hard work too.
She realizes she's as hungry as if she were trawling, so she finds a place to stash her gitar and heads to the dining hall, where everyone is already seated. Camo guides her to an empty chair, but a boy tells her that she should be sitting with the girls instead. It's too late to change seats though, and the boy cues her to grab some meat from a platter. She's surprised by how much he takes, but apparently no one goes hungry at Harper Hall. When did you get so judgy, Menolly?
The boy is friendly though, and he asks after her fire lizards. He's a student of Brudegan's, so he was in the choir that morning. Brudegan had apparently thought he was playing a prank, because he's a high treble singer, but then they realized what was happening. We get the now compulsory moment where someone asks Menolly about how many lizards she has, and she corrects them to say nine. (The boy had guessed eleven, but we all know why this exchange exists. It's to awe everyone around her.)
The boy, who is pretty likable, even if right now he only exists as a cheering section, is Piemur. Another boy insists that Menolly shouldn't be there, and I'm perking up at the first hint of actual sexism. (If McCaffrey really wanted to make Domick difficult, she could have had him dismiss her for her gender, but that would have ruined the power fantasy.) Piemur aggressively defends Menolly and points out that she's an apprentice, not one of them.
Oh, here we go. The "not like other girls" plot. Menolly learns that the other girls are not apprentices. They're in a special class, and the apprentices consider them a nuisance. Considering how little Menolly's gender actually matters to the story, I don't see why these girls couldn't be apprentices as well. Except then Menolly won't be special.
There's some jostling over meat, and Piemur uses Camo's fondness for Menolly to get more. Piemur and Ranly (the other boy) both express interest in the lizards, and Piemur also asks if she saw Jaxom Impress the white dragon at Benden Weyr. She gives her version of events, I suppose for the readers of the book who haven't read Dragonquest OR Dragonsong. At least it's short.
There are announcements about the afternoon, and Piemur and Menolly realize that she hasn't been put in a section yet. She ends up meeting another instructor who greets her with a hint of displeasure in his tone. Ooo, are we finally going to get a genuine antagonist for Menolly? Please?
The man is Morshal, Craftmaster in Composition. Oh. I'm guessing not. Menolly is, after all, as amazing at music composition as she is at everything else. Menolly gets nervous, thinking that Morshal doesn't expect her to know very much. Piemur sends her an encouraging gesture as she goes, which makes her happy. (We also finally get a description of Piemur: funny looking, smallest of the kids by far, tight black curls and missing half a front tooth...I wonder how that would affect singing?)
So Morshal drills her, which throws her off at first, but fortunately, Petiron had drilled her like that, and she starts to realize that he's taking examples from Saga and Ballads, and she's able to match it with her knowledge and recite from memory. He corrects her posture while she answers, and then makes her write things down. Menolly realizes that she's been answering correctly, and he's annoyed because she knows so much.
God, I'm really starting to dislike this girl.
Unlike Domick, Morshal does seem to be at least a bit unpleasant. I would be more sympathetic to her here, if she didn't make the exact same complaints about a man who openly praised her multiple times. Morshal then makes her play the Ballad of Moreta's Ride, and she knows that she's not going to be able to play it as written, but he's too impatient to listen to her reasons. He notes, "oddly pleased" that she can't play accurately at tempo, and dismisses her.
We actually finally get a hint of actual sexism when she tries to explain again:
“You what?” He glared at her, his eyes wide with incredulity that she seemed to be defying him. “Out! I just dismissed you! What is the world coming to when girls presume to be harpers and pretend to compose music! Out! Great shells and stars!” His voice changed from scold to panic. “What’s that? What are they? Who let them in here?”
Then this happens:
Already making her way down the steps, Menolly lost her anger with him at the fright in his voice. His anger had roused her friends, and since she was apparently in danger, they had rushed to protect her, by squeaking and diving at him. She laughed as she heard the slamming of a heavy door, and as instantly regretted the scene. Master Morshal would be against her, and that would not make her life easy in the Harper Hall. “Nothing to fear from harpers?” Was that what T’gellan had said last night? Maybe not fear, but certainly she was going to have to be cautious with them. Perhaps she ought not to have been so knowledgeable about music; that had irritated him. But wasn’t that knowledge what he was testing? Once again, she wondered if there really was a place for her here? Presume to be a harper? No, she hadn’t, and it was up to Master Robinton, wasn’t it? Were Master Morshal and Master Domick part of the conventional procedures Master Robinton had mentioned? Even if she needn’t have much to do with them, she sensed their antagonism and dislike.
McCaffrey really wants to make me annoyed at Menolly. The ARROGANCE here.
1. "Perhaps she ought not to have been so knowledgeable about music", that whole "it was up to Master Robinton" bit. These are not the thoughts of someone who genuinely lacks confidence in her own ability. And that would be fine, if McCaffrey would acknowledge that. But instead, we're supposed to see Menolly as someone modest and anxious.
2. Morshal was genuinely unpleasant, but Domick did NOTHING to indicate a similar mindset. Menolly linking the two just makes it look like she can't accept genuine criticism. Which puts a different color on her passive aggressive comment about Robinton editing her song.
3. I actually wish Domick had said something sexist. Or Jerint. It would be interesting to have someone who thinks Menolly is talented, but also thinks that she shouldn't be a Harper. Or if Morshal had been less of a cartoon character. But Ms. McCaffrey has still never met that stranger called nuance.
So anyway, Menolly runs into Piemur, who serves his job as cheerleader well by admiring the fire lizards. He dismisses "Old Marshface" and tells her that he's there to bring her to the voice instructor, Master Shonagar. Shonagar is already impressed by the fire lizards. As they walk, Piemur asks her about her feet, so we can get her story about running from Threadfall again, and Piemur can be suitably impressed. And so he can defend her to Shonagar, when the man tells her not to dawdle.
I'm really getting kind of tired by the way the narrative uses other people to praise Menolly, rather than letting her actually express the pride that the narrative makes it clear that she actually feels. Anyway, there's some banter between Shonagar and Piemur, and then we get this:
“In which Masters Domick and Morshal have examined you today.” Some dryness in his tone alerted her, and she regarded him more warily as he tilted his heavy head sideways on his massive shoulders. “And did Petiron,” and now the bass voice rolled with a hint of coming displeasure, so that Menolly wondered if her original assessment of this man was wrong and he was just as prejudiced as cynical Domick and soured Morshal, “did he have the audacity to teach you how to use your voice?”
I point this out for one reason. Piemur TOLD her that Shonagar loved the lizards, and that Shonagar said that if she sung half as well as her lizards did, she'd be fine. Shonagar was perfectly friendly greeting her and Piemur. But because he takes a tone of displeasure when mentioning Petiron, she thinks he might be as prejudiced as the other two. (DOMICK WAS NOT PREJUDICED YOU LITTLE TWIT, AT LEAST NOT YET.).
Anyway, Menolly said they just sang together. and Shonagar eventually has her sing for him. He gives some nice dramatic speech about the voice as instrument, which Menolly doesn't quite pay attention to because she's rapt by his voice. Fair enough. And if I weren't really annoyed at her, I'd appreciate a moment of genuine flaw.
So Menolly sings, and Shonagar has a lot of technical criticism. He is pleased when Menolly relates something Petiron told her about singing. And I'm pleased that there's a genuine hole in her learning: Petiron didn't really teach her proper singing technique. I wish this was something that had come up when she was singing before, but to be fair, there wasn't really time for that.
Shonagar is glad that Petiron knows his limitations, which makes Menolly and the lizards bristle. Shonagar is intrigued by this, and he clarifies that he wasn't disrespecting Petiron, because this means that Petiron didn't meddle in her vocal instruction, leaving it to Shonagar to refine her voice. He dismisses her and falls asleep.
So yeah, that was interesting. Something happened at least. And I'm pleased that, after so many lessons where Menolly rocked everyone's socks off, we actually got something she's not immediately spectacular at. I still can't figure out what McCaffrey means to do with Domick, because, at least as he's written in this chapter, Menolly is completely wrong about him. That could be interesting if it's intentional. I'd like to see someone, maybe Piemur, call Menolly out on the assumption that anyone who isn't gushing with praise for her must be out to get her.
I'm not sure McCaffrey's earned the benefit of the doubt there. She's already turned Mavi from someone who was genuinely mournful of her daughter's injury to someone who doesn't care if she died, and that's in the better book in this duology.
All I know is that I came out of this chapter actually disliking Menolly, and that makes me very sad. I hope the next chapter is better.
So we rejoin Menolly as she's about to meet Master Jerint to get an instrument. She's understandably nervous, and wishes that Silvina had stuck around for an intro. Then she guiltily thinks about how much of Silvina's time she's already had. Aw. I do like Menolly. My vague sense of dissatisfaction is not her fault.
So we get some nice atmospheric description of the workspace. Unfortunately Beauty disrupts things by shrieking at the noise and flying for the ceiling. This of course makes Menolly suddenly the center of attention again. I cynically suspect this is so that she can wow Master Jerint with her ability, with a built in audience.
I feel guilty for being so cynical. I really did enjoy Dragonsong a lot, despite my minor complaints. But I'm finding this book off-putting and I don't really know why. Maybe it'll pick up.
So anyway, now that everything is silent, Beauty returns to Menolly's shoulder. This gets Jerint's attention. Jerint seems rather cantankerous, but not hostile, he asks about the thing on her shoulder and whether it made the cry that he heard. Hah.
Sadly, Beauty wins him over pretty quickly. Jerint admits that the noise would startle "anyone with hearing and wit" and he finds her charming. Damnit. I was hoping, just for a second, that we'd actually have a character that Menolly would have to win over. Aside from mean and bitchy Dunca last chapter. It's pretty clear that Menolly will never win Dunca over, and that she's meant to be someone we dislike until Menolly ends up somewhere else. But Menolly actually has to work with these Masters, so it would be nice to see her face a challenge.
A stocky man from the back of the hall points out that Beauty sings too. Of course he does. Because Menolly can't ever be a braggart, other characters have to do it for her. It was forgivable with T'gellan in Dragonsong, because they were already friends. This is annoying. The stocky fellow turns out to be Master Domick, someone she'll have to play for later. This will probably not be a problem, given how Domick gushes about "this morning's glorious descant".
I feel vaguely guilty again for how much I'm disliking this. It's a power fantasy, and there's nothing wrong with that, but I'm perhaps the wrong age and inclination to really enjoy it. But this isn't a STORY. It's a daydream where a girl finds the place where she belongs and is adored instantly. It could have easily just been an epilogue to Dragonsong saying: "So Menolly went to Harpers Hall, where she impressed everyone and lived happily ever after."
So Domick asks how many were actually singing. Menolly, keeping in mind Dunca's reaction, says only five. Domick is droll and Jerint is impressed that she has five lizards. Ugh, because of course, this leads into the part where Menolly has to clarify that she has nine, and that leads into her rushed story of how she Impressed them and...
UGH.
This is the same thing we've seen in Chapter One. This is the same thing we've seen in Chapter Two. Menolly has an awesome origin story, sure. I know, I read it. Dragonsong is one of TWO books that actually got a passing grade on this blog. But this is the story of Dragonsinger so far: Someone relates Menolly's story, or pushes Menolly to relate her own story. Everyone is impressed. The end.
Domick suggests that she add another verse to her song, but Menolly is modest:
“The Masterharper has edited that song as he feels necessary, Master Domick,” she said with what she hoped was quiet dignity.
I think I'd like Menolly more if she got mad about it. Domick asks about her training the fire lizards, she's modest about that too, and asks if Petiron had enough wood to teach her how to make an instrument. Menolly's response annoys me again:
“He explained how…” Menolly replied. Did Master Domick think Yanus Sea Holder would have wasted precious timber for a girl to make a harper’s instrument?
This is another point where I'm being unfair, because it's perfectly understandable that Menolly, a teenager, thinks that what is important in her life is well known to everyone. But I feel like this is indicative that EVENTUALLY Menolly will be in a position to sob out her tragic backstory, so that everyone will feel dreadfully sorry for her. I wouldn't mind that if I actually had any indication that there would also be an actual plot to this story.
So Domick cows their audience back into doing their work, which upsets Beauty again. Jerint is again impressed by the sounds she makes, while Domick reminds him that she needs a gitar, and Jesus Christ this scene has extended for a number of pages. Jerint leads her to where there are a number of instruments. Jerint offers her a newly burnished gitar, which Menolly turns down automatically.
Oh dear. This is going to be the scene where the prodigy turns out to have an instinctive knowledge that the beautiful, new looking gitar is flawed somehow, and she's going to pick a modest, older gitar which will turn out to be awesome.
And yep, called it. Menolly thinks the gitar is too green to have any tone, and when Jerint calls her on realizing that by looking, she understands that she's being tested. She can see that the wood of the gitar is badly joined and the neck is not straight. Jerint is happy with that. Menolly looks at more gitars and finally finds one in a worn but well-oiled case. She plucks a string, and then puts it back, because it must belong to a master and is too good to practice on.
Gag me with a spoon.
I'm sorry, but this is getting into a complaint I had through Dragonsong. It wasn't enough that Menolly is a good musician, she had to be the absolute greatest musician. She had to master every instrument and know every song. She has to be good enough at fifteen to teach kids well enough to impress grown Harpers. Even though it simply doesn't make sense: Half Circle Hold was presented to us as a place where everyone works very hard to eke out a living. There isn't a lot of leisure time at all. And even if we assume that Menolly was excused from that work to care for Petiron, that would mean that she actually had to care for him! When would she have time to learn all of this stuff?!
In Dragonsong, it was forgivable, because Menolly's music wasn't really the story. Menolly's adventures outside and at the Weyr, and her fire lizards, were the story. But now, Menolly's music and status as a Harper IS the story. And if she's already brilliant at EVERYTHING, where can she go from here??
Anyway, Domick is very amused, because that gitar is Jerint's own. He tells her to find one bad enough to practice on but good enough to use. She tests a few, but they're flawed: worn knobs and strings that can't keep their pitch. Finally she finds one with a broken string, but otherwise sounds good. She thinks it's the best of all except Jerint's, and she asks if she can use it.
Jerint approves and gets her a new string, which she applies and tunes. Domick then steers her out into an office/schoolroom to test her.
“Play for me,” Domick said, gesturing for her to take a stool as he collapsed into the couch facing the hearth.
His tone was expressionless, his manner so noncommittal that Menolly felt he didn’t expect her to be able to play at all. What little confidence she had gained when she had apparently chosen unexpectedly well ebbed from her. Unnecessarily she struck a tuning chord, fiddled with the knob on the new string, trying to decide what to play to prove her competence. For she was determined to surprise this Master Domick who teased and taunted and didn’t like her having nine fire lizards.
...ugh.
This isn't working for me. Dragonsong did SUCH a good job of showing Menolly's anxiety and teenage insecurity. But this is just aggravating. We just saw Domick gushing with praise over Menolly's lizards' glorious descant, over her ability to pick out a gitar, we know he saw her test, tune and string one.
I suppose this could be an attempt to show Menolly as having some kind of genuine anxious disorder as opposed to just being a teenager. But if that's the case, I feel like McCaffrey's missing the mark. Which is frustrating, because we've SEEN her do better. Dragonflight and Dragonquest had many flaws, but they also managed to give us a Lessa and F'lar with very believable and authentic mental issues. Menolly, as yet, does not measure up.
I think maybe I see the problem I'm having. If, when Domick was praising Menolly's lizards, we had a moment where Menolly thought "he's mocking" or "he's insincere", this would feel more authentic. But we didn't see that reaction from her. Menolly was silent when she received the praise that McCaffrey clearly believes is her due. So seeing her now say that he was teasing and taunting her, and that he didn't like her having her lizards just feels like a clumsy attempt to build suspense for when she undoubtedly rocks his socks off.
Which of course she does. Domick tells her not to sing, and that he doesn't want any distraction from Beauty, which stings Menolly's pride. Why? He's testing your ability to play gitar. She starts playing "Ballad of Moreta's Ride" and had the satisfaction of seeing his eyebrows lift in surprise. We get some explanation: apparently the chording is tricky even when voices carry the melody, but having to pluck the tune increases the difficulty.
Of fucking course.
But don't worry, Menolly isn't completely flawless! She strikes several sour chords because her left hand can't extend properly, but she compensates by keeping the rhythm keen and her right hand flicks out the memory "loud and true".
Oh, I stand corrected. Menolly has a flaw to her playing that's not remotely her fault, something that she's already at least somewhat able to compensate for, and everyone recognizes as a handicap. (One that will, we've been reassured, be fixed up with proper treatment.) For fucking sake. Oh and just to drive home the point, as she keeps playing, she starts varying the harmony and substituting an alternate fingering.
Domick finally stops her and...maybe I should just show this bit:
“Enough gitar,” he said, his expression inscrutable, Then he snapped his fingers at her left hand, which she extended in slow obedience. It ached. He turned it palm up, tracing the thick scar so lightly that the tickling sensation made her spine twitch in reaction though she forced herself to keep still. He grunted, noticing where her exertion had split the edge of the wound. “Oldive seen that hand yet?”
“Yes, sir.”
“And recommended some of his sticky smelly salves, no doubt. If they work, you’ll be able to stretch for the fingerings you missed in the first verse.”
“I hope so.”
“So do I. You’re not supposed to take liberties with the Teaching Ballads and Sagas—”
“So Petiron taught me,” she replied with an equally expressionless voice, “but the minor seventh in the second measure is an alternative chording in the Record at Half-Circle Sea Hold.”
“An old variation.”
Menolly said nothing, but she knew from his very sourness that she had played very well indeed, despite her hand, and that Domick didn’t want to be complimentary.
Wow. Is it just me, or does Menolly come across as really fucking arrogant here? And I love how we're only now hearing that the alternative chording is part of the Record at Half Circle Sea Hold as opposed to something Menolly just made up to compensate. Because that wouldn't have been relevant a few paragraphs ago when McCaffrey was having her show off.
Also Domick has said NOTHING to indicate that he doesn't want to be complimentary. He PRAISED her earlier. A fucking lot. Here, he's got legitimate and very mild criticism. That's his job! He doesn't seem to doubt that she'll be able to get the fingering with treatment. But he's not praising Menolly enough, so to Menolly, that means he's "sour".
Forget anxiety, I'm beginning to think Menolly is just incredibly entitled.
So Domick tests her on other instruments: the drum, where he remains bland but she sees his fingers twitch with the beat and feels "inwardly pleased", she plays the lap harp and is told that he'll assume she can also play a great harp, because of her hand, there's pipes and we do catch a hint of a weakness in Petiron's teaching: when it comes to brass, there's only the straight horn at Menolly's hold, but Petiron had explained the theory of valves and told her she could develop a good lip with practice.
I suppose I should be grateful that Menolly's got SOMETHING to work on, but I have distinct doubts that Menolly's weakness with brass instruments will ever come up in a meaningful way.
Menolly asks if she should return the gitar to Jerint, and Domick tells her "Of course not" with a cool, almost rude expression, and reminds her she needs it to practice on. I love how Menolly has the audacity to call this person who is supposed to be her teacher "rude" because he told her no in a way that wasn't quite nice enough for her tastes. Jesus.
Oh, and hah, remember my prediction for the gitars? She asks whose gitar she's using: Domick grins broadly and announces that it was Robinton's journeyman gitar.
Fucking hell.
This of course makes Menolly wonder if Robinton will be as annoyed as Master Domick seemed to be that she'd chosen the gitar. For fuck's sake. I genuinely do not believe this is anxiety or an inability to read social cues anymore. I think Menolly just expects everyone to fawn over her with praise and when they actually treat her like a professional would treat a gifted amateur, she thinks they're being rude or nasty.
Then a bell rings, and she sees a bunch of apprentices and journeymen emerge into the courtyard. Menolly is surprised at their behavior, because some of them look older than twenty, and they're horsing around. In Half Circle, boys her age were already serving on ships, working very hard. Menolly tangents into self-pity, wondering if that's why her parents couldn't appreciate her music, since they couldn't understand that it's hard work too.
She realizes she's as hungry as if she were trawling, so she finds a place to stash her gitar and heads to the dining hall, where everyone is already seated. Camo guides her to an empty chair, but a boy tells her that she should be sitting with the girls instead. It's too late to change seats though, and the boy cues her to grab some meat from a platter. She's surprised by how much he takes, but apparently no one goes hungry at Harper Hall. When did you get so judgy, Menolly?
The boy is friendly though, and he asks after her fire lizards. He's a student of Brudegan's, so he was in the choir that morning. Brudegan had apparently thought he was playing a prank, because he's a high treble singer, but then they realized what was happening. We get the now compulsory moment where someone asks Menolly about how many lizards she has, and she corrects them to say nine. (The boy had guessed eleven, but we all know why this exchange exists. It's to awe everyone around her.)
The boy, who is pretty likable, even if right now he only exists as a cheering section, is Piemur. Another boy insists that Menolly shouldn't be there, and I'm perking up at the first hint of actual sexism. (If McCaffrey really wanted to make Domick difficult, she could have had him dismiss her for her gender, but that would have ruined the power fantasy.) Piemur aggressively defends Menolly and points out that she's an apprentice, not one of them.
Oh, here we go. The "not like other girls" plot. Menolly learns that the other girls are not apprentices. They're in a special class, and the apprentices consider them a nuisance. Considering how little Menolly's gender actually matters to the story, I don't see why these girls couldn't be apprentices as well. Except then Menolly won't be special.
There's some jostling over meat, and Piemur uses Camo's fondness for Menolly to get more. Piemur and Ranly (the other boy) both express interest in the lizards, and Piemur also asks if she saw Jaxom Impress the white dragon at Benden Weyr. She gives her version of events, I suppose for the readers of the book who haven't read Dragonquest OR Dragonsong. At least it's short.
There are announcements about the afternoon, and Piemur and Menolly realize that she hasn't been put in a section yet. She ends up meeting another instructor who greets her with a hint of displeasure in his tone. Ooo, are we finally going to get a genuine antagonist for Menolly? Please?
The man is Morshal, Craftmaster in Composition. Oh. I'm guessing not. Menolly is, after all, as amazing at music composition as she is at everything else. Menolly gets nervous, thinking that Morshal doesn't expect her to know very much. Piemur sends her an encouraging gesture as she goes, which makes her happy. (We also finally get a description of Piemur: funny looking, smallest of the kids by far, tight black curls and missing half a front tooth...I wonder how that would affect singing?)
So Morshal drills her, which throws her off at first, but fortunately, Petiron had drilled her like that, and she starts to realize that he's taking examples from Saga and Ballads, and she's able to match it with her knowledge and recite from memory. He corrects her posture while she answers, and then makes her write things down. Menolly realizes that she's been answering correctly, and he's annoyed because she knows so much.
God, I'm really starting to dislike this girl.
Unlike Domick, Morshal does seem to be at least a bit unpleasant. I would be more sympathetic to her here, if she didn't make the exact same complaints about a man who openly praised her multiple times. Morshal then makes her play the Ballad of Moreta's Ride, and she knows that she's not going to be able to play it as written, but he's too impatient to listen to her reasons. He notes, "oddly pleased" that she can't play accurately at tempo, and dismisses her.
We actually finally get a hint of actual sexism when she tries to explain again:
“You what?” He glared at her, his eyes wide with incredulity that she seemed to be defying him. “Out! I just dismissed you! What is the world coming to when girls presume to be harpers and pretend to compose music! Out! Great shells and stars!” His voice changed from scold to panic. “What’s that? What are they? Who let them in here?”
Then this happens:
Already making her way down the steps, Menolly lost her anger with him at the fright in his voice. His anger had roused her friends, and since she was apparently in danger, they had rushed to protect her, by squeaking and diving at him. She laughed as she heard the slamming of a heavy door, and as instantly regretted the scene. Master Morshal would be against her, and that would not make her life easy in the Harper Hall. “Nothing to fear from harpers?” Was that what T’gellan had said last night? Maybe not fear, but certainly she was going to have to be cautious with them. Perhaps she ought not to have been so knowledgeable about music; that had irritated him. But wasn’t that knowledge what he was testing? Once again, she wondered if there really was a place for her here? Presume to be a harper? No, she hadn’t, and it was up to Master Robinton, wasn’t it? Were Master Morshal and Master Domick part of the conventional procedures Master Robinton had mentioned? Even if she needn’t have much to do with them, she sensed their antagonism and dislike.
McCaffrey really wants to make me annoyed at Menolly. The ARROGANCE here.
1. "Perhaps she ought not to have been so knowledgeable about music", that whole "it was up to Master Robinton" bit. These are not the thoughts of someone who genuinely lacks confidence in her own ability. And that would be fine, if McCaffrey would acknowledge that. But instead, we're supposed to see Menolly as someone modest and anxious.
2. Morshal was genuinely unpleasant, but Domick did NOTHING to indicate a similar mindset. Menolly linking the two just makes it look like she can't accept genuine criticism. Which puts a different color on her passive aggressive comment about Robinton editing her song.
3. I actually wish Domick had said something sexist. Or Jerint. It would be interesting to have someone who thinks Menolly is talented, but also thinks that she shouldn't be a Harper. Or if Morshal had been less of a cartoon character. But Ms. McCaffrey has still never met that stranger called nuance.
So anyway, Menolly runs into Piemur, who serves his job as cheerleader well by admiring the fire lizards. He dismisses "Old Marshface" and tells her that he's there to bring her to the voice instructor, Master Shonagar. Shonagar is already impressed by the fire lizards. As they walk, Piemur asks her about her feet, so we can get her story about running from Threadfall again, and Piemur can be suitably impressed. And so he can defend her to Shonagar, when the man tells her not to dawdle.
I'm really getting kind of tired by the way the narrative uses other people to praise Menolly, rather than letting her actually express the pride that the narrative makes it clear that she actually feels. Anyway, there's some banter between Shonagar and Piemur, and then we get this:
“In which Masters Domick and Morshal have examined you today.” Some dryness in his tone alerted her, and she regarded him more warily as he tilted his heavy head sideways on his massive shoulders. “And did Petiron,” and now the bass voice rolled with a hint of coming displeasure, so that Menolly wondered if her original assessment of this man was wrong and he was just as prejudiced as cynical Domick and soured Morshal, “did he have the audacity to teach you how to use your voice?”
I point this out for one reason. Piemur TOLD her that Shonagar loved the lizards, and that Shonagar said that if she sung half as well as her lizards did, she'd be fine. Shonagar was perfectly friendly greeting her and Piemur. But because he takes a tone of displeasure when mentioning Petiron, she thinks he might be as prejudiced as the other two. (DOMICK WAS NOT PREJUDICED YOU LITTLE TWIT, AT LEAST NOT YET.).
Anyway, Menolly said they just sang together. and Shonagar eventually has her sing for him. He gives some nice dramatic speech about the voice as instrument, which Menolly doesn't quite pay attention to because she's rapt by his voice. Fair enough. And if I weren't really annoyed at her, I'd appreciate a moment of genuine flaw.
So Menolly sings, and Shonagar has a lot of technical criticism. He is pleased when Menolly relates something Petiron told her about singing. And I'm pleased that there's a genuine hole in her learning: Petiron didn't really teach her proper singing technique. I wish this was something that had come up when she was singing before, but to be fair, there wasn't really time for that.
Shonagar is glad that Petiron knows his limitations, which makes Menolly and the lizards bristle. Shonagar is intrigued by this, and he clarifies that he wasn't disrespecting Petiron, because this means that Petiron didn't meddle in her vocal instruction, leaving it to Shonagar to refine her voice. He dismisses her and falls asleep.
So yeah, that was interesting. Something happened at least. And I'm pleased that, after so many lessons where Menolly rocked everyone's socks off, we actually got something she's not immediately spectacular at. I still can't figure out what McCaffrey means to do with Domick, because, at least as he's written in this chapter, Menolly is completely wrong about him. That could be interesting if it's intentional. I'd like to see someone, maybe Piemur, call Menolly out on the assumption that anyone who isn't gushing with praise for her must be out to get her.
I'm not sure McCaffrey's earned the benefit of the doubt there. She's already turned Mavi from someone who was genuinely mournful of her daughter's injury to someone who doesn't care if she died, and that's in the better book in this duology.
All I know is that I came out of this chapter actually disliking Menolly, and that makes me very sad. I hope the next chapter is better.