Dragonsinger - Chapter Nine

[kalinara]

Last time, I went on a pretty substantial rant about how utterly fucked up Harper Hall is as an educational facility, to the point where I ended up actually defending the token female bully because Robinton is absolutely shit at his job.

I could do this of course because for eight chapters, this story hasn't had one semblance of a plot. Do we think that will change now?



So we rejoin Menolly who notices that everyone's really excited about the fair. She's warned by her seatmates (Piemur, Ranly, and a new name: Timiny) that she should eat a LOT. They're apparently only served stale bread for supper, because Silvina counts on them stuffing themselves at the fair. With their own money.

What about the kids who have no money? Are we expected to think that Menolly is the only one? Does Robinton hand coins out to everyone? Goddamn, this is the worst school ever.

Piemur and Menolly banter a bit about tubers: Piemur hates them, Menolly notes they were treats where she comes from, he tries to "generously" offer his to her, but she makes him eat them instead. It's cute.

At some point, Brudegan calls out some names. Piemur is relieved not to be called. Apparently the people called are expected to perform, since the Hold expects continuous music. It sounds like no one does more than one set at least, so they also theoretically have time to fill up at the fair. But it still seems like a messy set up.

They warn her to keep the lizards away, because someone might try to steal them. Also, Menolly is an apprentice, and apparently some folks in the fair like to pull rank, and Beauty tends to react badly when that happens. Menolly doesn't want Robinton to get in trouble, so she agrees.

A few apprentices bring Piemur some instruments, since his dad's friend is the smith's representative after all. And he leads Menolly into the fair. Piemur goes first to the smith's stall. He sends the other students off, but keeps Menolly around. Piemur fills him in on the scam. Basically, if Piemur and company sold their instruments at the Harper booth, then they'd have to reveal that they're apprentice-made and charge less. Whereas with the smiths, the marksman only cares that Jerint stamped them. The marksman doesn't have to say who actually made it. So they pay more because they can sell it for more.

Menolly gets to watch Piemur haggle with Pergamol, the smith's man. And McCaffrey explains AGAIN how the scam works. I personally think that's more proof that McCaffrey phoned this book in. I don't always like the substance of what she writes, but she's more of a craftsman than that. Dragonflight and Dragonquest had no wasted scenes, and the only repetition was to make a point.

The haggling concludes with Piemur looking downcast...until they get out of sight of Pergamol, then he's grinning. He got a good bargain, and the students give him a quarter mark each for his trouble.

Piemur leads her quickly to the pies. He wants to eat them now, while they're hot. They sound pretty tasty:

And so the confections were, carried from an oven in the baker’s hold on a thick, long-handled tray: the berry juices spilling darkly over the sides of the delicately browned crusts that glistened with crystallized sweet.

I could go for pie.

Piemur and the baker have their own haggling session. This time, Menolly's presence comes in handy. The baker apparently likes the fire lizard song so he adds a pie to Piemur's stack of six. When she is about to pay with the coin Robinton gave her, Piemur is amazed. He insists that it's his treat.

Menolly tries to insist, but Piemur won't let her. Suddenly Camo appears, with a notably clean face, fresh tunic, and his straggling crop of hair had been brushed flat. I'm offended that this is apparently a rare sight. Just because the guy is disabled doesn't mean he deserves to be filthy, Jesus Christ.

So Piemur gives Camo two pies. The baker, apparently realizing that Piemur was seriously buying for his friends, adds a few more pies to the pile. Camo gets a third. Piemur passes three to Menolly and keeps three for himself. Menolly is shocked that Piemur got nine pies for the price of six, and Piemur is thrilled because when he comes back later, he'll probably get nine more, because the baker will think he's sharing.

Piemur also praises Menolly for flashing the 2-mark coin, because the baker wouldn't have been able to make change. He plans to try it next time. I think there was a Corner Gas episode with that plot. Hah.

Camo is a messy eater, which Piemur finds exasperating. He and Menolly get him cleaned up so he won't "disgrace the hall". I'm annoyed at Piemur's attitude toward Camo, but he's a kid. I'm more annoyed at the adults who taught him that attitude. Camo himself seems to be doing fine. Piemur redeems himself a bit by apologizing when Camo misunderstands one of his complaints as an insult. He reassures Camo that he likes him.

Piemur thinks that next time Menolly should try to bargain with the baker, much later of course, and Menolly agrees as long as it'll be her treat. Piemur also praises her for being Master Robinton's apprentice. He'd figured it out with the coin. He had known Menolly would be, of course.

It'd be more impressive if Robinton bothered to do any real teaching.

Menolly asks for clarification: he's the Masterharper, so aren't all apprentices his? And this is really something that should have been explained a few days ago. By an adult, rather than a child. Piemur notes that every master has a few special apprentices. Piemur is Shonagar's, and that's why he runs his errands.

Basically, all apprentices are general apprentices, but when someone is specifically good at something, like Piemur is as a singer, or Brolly is as a craftsman, they become a special apprentice. Apparently, there was some suspense as to who he'd pick now that Sebell graduated to Journeyman.

Okay, that clarifies quite a bit then. It does make sense that Sebell has a semi-elevated role for an apprentice/journeyman. And it explains Ranly's antagonism. Apparently Ranly thought he'd be the next choice, but no one else did. Apparently, it was common knowledge that Robinton was looking for the song-writer.

So let's tangent a bit into what this means for the girls. They pay for lessons, rather than being general apprentices. They're foisted off on a journeyman, and not a Sebell style one. That's where they learn their musical techniques. They don't get to attend any other classes, that we know of. And the best instructor of music theory refuses to teach women at all. And unless they're prodigiously talented, unlikely unless they luck into a Petiron level instructor back home, they will never get chosen for specialty training.

All this would be a good set up, IF IT WERE INTENTIONAL. If we were meant to look at this and realize how the deck is stacked against the women, then this would be very well done. But we're NOT. There's no criticism presented of this system. Pona and company aren't presented as being unfairly neglected. They're just not talented enough. But when would they have EVER had the chance to learn.

Fuck Harper Hall and Fuck Robinton.

So Piemur drags Menolly to the tanner. He's caught sight of a blue belt with a firelizard as a buckle tongue. He insists on doing the haggling. It starts off well, but is interrupted by Pona, who is being escorted by a member of the Fort Holder family. She's accompanied by Briala, Amania and Audiva. Each one accompanied by a fosterling of Groghe.

Oh, yay. Let's hear it for some cliched mean girl bullshit. But who knows, maybe we'll see some suspense and semblance of plot or challenge!

So Pona fires the first shot, making a passive aggressive comment about whether or not Menolly can afford anything. Piemur says that Menolly has two marks, and Pona says that if she did, she stole it. Menolly bristles at the accusation, and "claims insult", with a hand on her belt knife.

Okay, this is interesting. MENOLLY is the one escalating this conflict from passive aggression.

Pona plays helpless and says Menolly is threatening her. This gets her companion, Benis, to posture and tell her to hand over the mark piece. Um. Why? Menolly wouldn't have stolen it from Pona?

Audiva tries to coax Menolly into backing down, because this is what Pona wants. Menolly refuses. Benis still tries to insist that Menolly hand over the money.

So Benis is going after Menolly, who is lunging for Pona. And again, this is interesting. Menolly IS the aggressor here. By all rights, she should get in trouble for this, provoked or not. This is not behavior for a gather, and while claiming insult is something that might be appropriate for a Holder's daughter, from what Piemur said earlier, it's NOT appropriate for an apprentice.

So Piemur jumps in to help Menolly. Benis attacks him, and Menolly abandons her attack on Pona, to charge at Benis. Things get even more hectic: a fosterling comes in to help Benis. Audiva joins in on Menolly's side, and calls for someone named Viderian, saying that Menolly's a seaholder and that he should help.

Then the firelizards appear. Camo is there as well. It's utter chaos. Then someone shouts above the noise, issuing orders and pulling kids apart. It's Robinton, of course. And he is furious. He wants to know what's going on:

“It was her!” Pona staggered a step toward Master Robinton, jabbing her finger at Menolly and struggling to control her sobs. Long scratches marred her cheeks, her head scarf was torn and her hair pulled from its plaits. “She’s always causing trouble—”

“Sir, we were minding our own business,” said Piemur indignantly, “which was buying a belt that you said Menolly ought to have, when Pona here—”

“That little sneak tripped me as we were passing, and then her hideous beasts attacked all of us. They’ve done it before. I have witnesses!”

She stopped mid-gulp, arrested by the look on the Harper’s face.

“Lady Pona,” he said in an all too gentle voice, “you are overwrought. Briala, take the child back to Dunca. The excitement of a gather appears to be too much for such a fragile spirit. Amania, I think you ought to help Briala.” Though his voice expressed concern for their well-being, it was obvious that the Harper was disciplining the three girls who bore evidence of the unfriendly attentions of the fire lizards.

...I love how Robinton doesn't even pretend to be willing to listen to Pona's side. Yes, she was the bully first. She provoked Menolly with accusations, then tried to insist on taking Menolly's money when she wouldn't have had the right to, even if Menolly were a thief. But Menolly did make things physical. And as Masterharper, Robinton really should at least have the appearance of impartiality.

Also, way to completely defang the closest thing this book had to a climax, Ms. McCaffrey.

Robinton sends Benis and the fosterlings on their way. Basically, he kicks them out of the gather. Which is probably the right response. Menolly might have made it physical first, but these young men did take it upon themselves to interfere and try to beat up a child and a teenage girl. But again, Robinton really should be getting the story out of everyone first. He basically just sees Menolly in trouble and assumes that she's in the right.

So this is interesting, we actually get the first real interaction between Robinton and Camo:

Then he turned his back on them and pleasantly indicated to those who were avidly observing his summary justice that they should now continue their interrupted pursuits. He walked to where Camo was still being restrained by three large journeymen, blubbering noisily about his pretties being hurt and struggling to free himself.

“The pretties are not hurt, Camo. Not hurt. See? Menolly has the pretties.”

The Harper’s voice soothed the wretched man as he gestured for Menolly to come forward into Camo’s line of sight.

“Pretties not hurt?”

“No, Camo. Brudegan, who else is about?” the Harper asked his journeyman. Several other harpers obediently moved against the tide of the dispersing crowd. “Camo had better go back to the hall. Here,” and the Harper reached into his pouch and passed Brudegan a mark piece. “Buy him a lot of those bubbly pies on your way back. That’ll help settle him.”

Now, possibly I'm not being fair to Robinton. But sooner or later, we're going to get the reveal that Robinton is Camo's father. And while he's not being MEAN to Camo, there is nothing in this interaction that speaks of any real paternal emotion either. He's talking to the man like he'd talk to a low ranking servant.

I might be more willing to give Robinton the benefit of the doubt and assume he doesn't want to show favoritism, if this entire scene weren't a giant exercise in favoritism.

So now that Benis and Pona and their cronies are gone, Robinton FINALLY asks what happened. Convenient. No one's here to gainsay Menolly's side. Now granted, Piemur isn't lying about anything. And the tanner backs him up. But still. This is not remotely fair.

There's a "comedic" moment where Robinton worries that Menolly might have lost the coin in the scuffle, since he doesn't have many of them. Then the tanner throws Camo under the bus:

“Then this lass,” and the tanner gestured toward Audiva, “took Menolly’s part. So did the young seaholder. I think all would have come to nothing if Camo hadn’t got upset, and the next thing I know the air’s full of fire lizards. Are they all hers?” He jerked his thumb at Menolly.

Um, no. Benis was kicking Piemur in the ribs. All of the fosterlings were involved. And Camo only got upset because the "pretties" were. So they appeared first. I didn't excerpt this bit, but I JUST read it.

Menolly insists she never called the fire lizards, and Robinton reassures her. Audiva speaks up in Menolly's defense: that Pona has a grudge against Menolly, without cause.

Honestly, as I said last time, I think she does have a cause. It's not Menolly's fault, but thanks to Petiron, she gets to jump ahead of all of the other girls. She already knows what Morshal refuses to teach. She's had years of specialized attention from one of the best teachers on Pern.

Is Pona anywhere near Menolly's level as a musician? No. Obviously. But might she have been, if Petiron had gone to HER Hold instead?

And what is Robinton's response?

“Thank you, Audiva, I’ve been aware of the prejudice.” The Harper made a slight bow, acknowledging the tall girl’s loyalty. “The Lady Pona will not trouble you further, Menolly, nor you, Audiva,” he continued, that hint of implacability tingeing an otherwise pleasant tone. “Good of you, Lord Viderian, to support another holder, though it is a loyalty I would prefer to render unnecessary.”

Okay, let's unpack this bullshit.

a) If you were aware of the "prejudice", WHY DIDN'T YOU DO ANYTHING, YOU FUCKING INCOMPETENT?! YOU ARE THE MASTERHARPER!

b) So, this whole "will not trouble you further" bit. Does that mean Pona gets kicked out? Without getting any opportunity to defend herself?

c) Also, I love how Viderian gets praised for doing EXACTLY the same thing as Benis and the fosterlings. Well, granted, he doesn't beat up a child. But still. The fosterlings leapt in on a fight that wasn't theirs, without all the facts. Viderian did too. The difference being, Viderian chose the "right" side.

d) This is all fucking bullshit.

e) Also, way to completely destroy any sense of suspense or drama for Menolly! I'm not saying Menolly deserves discipline...except she kind of does. But even if she weren't the one to escalate the conflict, it would have at least been a moment of tension.

Robinton could have chosen to scold ALL of the kids for taking part in the fight. But of course he doesn't. Because McCaffrey will never let him be wrong, or Menolly face a real challenge.

Oh, she does attempt a bit of a saving throw: Groghe appears. Oh no! Will he take Benis's side? Piemur thinks so, and tries to hide behind Robinton.

But when Groghe approaches, he just starts talking about how Merga is acting weird. He's delighted to see Menolly, hoping she can explain it. But Merga is calm now that they've reached the square. So we can already tell that Groghe will side with Menolly too.

Ugh.

I like that Groghe's been given nuance in this book. I really do. McCaffrey has done a lovely job of showing us how this fellow who was a thorn in F'lar's side is actually a three dimensional fellow who loves his lizard and seems to be pretty good with teenagers.

But again, there's no real tension here. Conveniently, Benis and Pona are gone. Groghe is getting the story from Robinton, who has 1) only heard the story from the pro-Menolly camp, and 2) is going to favor his apprentice regardless. Groghe respects Menolly as a fire lizard trainer and is already inclined to believe her. AND he's been wanting to talk to Menolly a while about her expertise.

So...what's the point of any of this?

I'm glad Menolly is successful, sure. But this entire story could be summarized in a paragraph in one of the other novels: "After Menolly was rescued from the beach, and Robinton figured out she'd written the songs, Menolly studied at Harper Hall. She was awesome at it. And now she's here to help in the current crisis."

Oh, at least Menolly does get to buy her new belt, at both Piemur and Robinton's insistence. Piemur does actually something resembling a scolding at least: since Robinton tells him to "wash [his] face, keep [his] mouth closed, and stay out of trouble". Then he and Groghe go off to enjoy Benden wine.

Piemur congratulates Menolly on her punching ability and someone else joins in: Sebell, who is leaning against the tanner's stall. At first I thought this was contrived, but then we're told that his queen's eyes are still whirling angrily. So it does make sense: just like Groghe, Sebell's own lizard summoned him here.

Sebell didn't see the actual fight, but he did see Benis's black eye. He's pretty impressed. I'm biased, but Sebell's favoritism doesn't bother me here. He's not an authority figure, even if he occasionally plays at it. I can imagine that in a struggle between Harper and Holder, he's going to side with the Harper.

Oh, and to add to my irritation, when the tanner knows which belt Menolly wants, he gives it to her, claiming it was worth it to see someone punch the "young rowdy".

Sebell, once again, ends up being the closest thing the book has to a responsible adult. Even if I'm not sure he's that much older than Menolly. He points out to the tanner that maybe this incident doesn't need to become a popular story. And the tanner agrees. And throws in an offer for matching slippers. Making Piemur gargle.

So let's sum up Menolly's day: She gets a two mark coin from Robinton, gets made Robinton's apprentice, is told she never has to study with the teacher who dislikes her, goes to a fair, gets bonus pies, and is provoked into a fight, which she escalates. Everyone in authority immediately takes her side, without her opponents getting a chance to plead their case, and she gets a free belt.

Piemur soothes my irritation at least by pointing out that the tanner (whose name is Ligand) is actually benefiting, because he'll get extra business from the walking advertisement. Sebell starts forcibly cleaning Piemur's face, and making it very clear, politely, that the story shouldn't spread. Piemur agrees because he doesn't want to hurt Menolly.

Menolly is worried about the lizards and their wild behavior. She asks what she's going to do about them. Maybe don't get in fights? You could have just ignored Pona and continued shopping, you know. Sebell comforts her, and I actually rather like this:

“All of this,” and Sebell’s hand took in the towering face of the Hold cliff behind them, the Harper Hall across the paved square now lined with stalls, “is as new to you as to them. Enough to cause alarm and apprehension. They’re young and so are you, for all you’ve managed to accomplish. It’s again a question of discipline,” he said, but his smile was reassuring.

He's offering her understanding, but pointing out the lack. Both Menolly and her lizards will have to learn discipline.

Sebell wins my heart further, by disapproving that Menolly cried insult on Pona, since Silvina and he had told her to leave it alone. But then when he finds out it's because Pona called Menolly a thief, he agrees that she had to take action. Ugh. Quit while you're ahead, Sebell.

But I am so gratified to see someone actually acting like a real authority figure here:

“I cannot, however, condone ‘apprentices fighting with each other or with holders…especially holders of any rank…

“Benis is the biggest bully in the Hold, Sebell, and you know we’ve all had trouble with him.”

“Enough, youngster,” said Sebell more sharply Menolly had yet heard him speak, As quiet and self-effacing as the journeyman usually was, when he spoke in that authoritative tone of voice, it would take a stalwart person to disobey him. “That was not, however, what I meant by discipline, Menolly. I meant the ability to stick with a project, like that song you wrote yesterday… Was it really only yesterday?” he added. He smiled tenderly down at Kimi who was now asleep in a ball, snuggled between his body and elbow.

Look at this. Look at this.

a) Scolding words for bad behavior! Because yeah, no matter what the provocation, fighting is not good!

b) Shutting down Piemur's excuses! See above!

c) Actually telling Menolly what's expected of her! Or at least starting to. He wants Menolly to stick with the project.

Caveat: d) I really do wish this project wasn't an incredibly invasive song about Brekke's personal anguish done without her input or permission.

But I'm willing to give Sebell more of a pass than Robinton, as he's never, to our knowledge, met Brekke. I'm a bit of a hypocrite.

Piemur is excited about the new song, which causes Menolly to finally breakdown about her terrible life. I've called this from chapter one:

“It’s just that…it’s so different…” she stammered, unable to express the upheaval in her mind, the reversal of all that she had been expected to do. “D’you know…d’you know what used to happen to me when I wrote a song?” She tried to stop the words that were threatening to burst from her, but she couldn’t, not with Piemur’s face contorted with distress for her. And Sebell quietly encouraging her to speak with the sympathy so plain on his face. “I used to get beaten by my father for tuning, for twiddles as he called them. When I cut my hand…she held it up, looking at the red scar and then turning it to them, “…gutting packtails, they let it heal all wrong so I wouldn’t be able to play. They wouldn’t even allow me to sing in the Hall, for fear Harper Elgion would figure out that it was me who’d taught the children after Petiron died. They were ashamed of me! They were afraid I’d disgrace them. That’s why I ran away. I’d rather have died of Threadscore than live in Half-Circle another night…”

Of course Piemur and Sebell immediately try to comfort her. And Sebell, to his credit, immediately apologizes for wanting her to teach him sea craft. He promises to find a different teacher, now that he understands why she hates it.

Menolly wants to teach him though, she wants to do everything and be the best harper in the Hall. And I'm glad for that flash of ambition.

I just wish at any point the book had bothered to tell us what Harpers do. You know, besides performing. Or maybe that's all they do. Maybe Sebell is a special case. He's already the closest thing we have to a functioning headmaster.

So Menolly gets some nice cathartic reassurance and encouragement. And I don't really have a problem with this part. I just wish there was a story to go with it.

The chapter ends with Piemur and Sebell leading Menolly to see Groghe and Robinton. And for all that I'm still annoyed by the favoritism, I am amused by this part:

“What if he finds out I’m the one who hit Benis?”

“Not from Benis he won’t,” replied Piemur with a snort. “Besides, he’s got fifteen sons. And only one fire lizard. He wants to talk to you about her. Not even the Masterharper knows as much about fire lizards as you do. Come on!”

And here the chapter ends. And I still wonder what the point of this entire book is. Menolly is awesome and everyone who matters loves her. That's good to hear, but it's not, in my opinion, a very satisfying story. Perhaps I'm just not the target audience.

I do like Sebell, Piemur, and Groghe. But I can't help but notice that these characters are the ones we're most likely to see in subsequent books. So I'm not sure why this book needed to happen at all.