Meeting Lyn's brother...

[fajrdrako]

Lyn has been my good friend since the 1970s, but I have never met her brother Michael or his wife Heli. They have lived in Calgary for a very long time, and have never come to Ottawa - until this week.

Lyn wanted her local friends to meet them, so she rented the party room at her condo building and invited us all over. We made it a pot-luck supper, and had a wonderful time. It was a bit like a Who Cares revisited.... A Who Cares was a kind of party we used to have every second Saturday night in roving locations, in which anyone associated with local fandom was welcome to turn up, and bring their friends.

Those days of easy socializing are behind us, but we had a wonderful time. There was a vast amount of food, and Beulah brought some delicious carrot cake.

I liked Michael and Heli, too. I expected Michael to resemble Lyn's father, whom I'd met, but he didn't. Nor did he resemble Lyn. He was just... himself, I guess, which is fair enough.

Afterwards, Beulah drove me home and we dropped in on maaseru to share some of the leftover carrot cake with her and maaboroshi. (Amazing, that there should be leftover cake, with that crowd!) We chanced on the beginning of the Kenneth Branagh As You Like It which instantly charmed us (and hooked us) with its multicultural melange of nineteenth-century Americans in Japan, Tudor England dialogue, ninjas, and Star Wars ambience. (And, muttered maaboroshi and I to each other, all this and femslash too. Gotta love Branagh.)

I didn't see more than the first third of it; dying to see the rest.

maaseru said that As You Like It was the first live play she saw, and that marked the moment when she fell in love with Shakespeare and with theatre. And she hasn't seen that particular play since, not even in movie form.

I don't think I've ever seen it at all - I've just read it.

Comments

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I'll answer you on the tapes a.s.a.p., but the cost is terrifying!

So you don't think Cordelia is a genius in her own right?

Interesting question. No. I think Cordelia is clever, and resourceful, and courageous, but I don't think she's a genius. Same with Aral. They are wonderful people, but Miles goes that step beyond to utterly extraordinary.

She is certainly very talented when it comes to tactics. Yes, very intelligent, but not that step beyond 'intelligent' which constitutes genius.

I think Miles is a genius because Miles is not only brilliant, but unique - and so are his accomplishments.

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

I'll answer you on the tapes a.s.a.p., but the cost is terrifying!

I was afraid of that. But I'm not padding what it cost me, believe me. I'm probably undercutting myself some. I have a sneaking suspicion that you didn't realize quite how many tapes were involved [g].

I think Miles would like your assessment a great deal [g]. I do have to disagree with you about Aral at least, if not Cordelia. You'd pretty much have to be a genius at least some of the time to pull off seventeen years of being Regent of a place like Barrayar without making at least something of a mess of it.

I'm inclined to go with Professor Vorthys' assessment of what genius is, anyway. I don't think anyone's a genius all the time. Even Miles [g].

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I feared the tapes would cost a lot, but I wasn't sure what the arithmetic would actually be. I assume you aren't about to get rid of any of that material for a while anyway.

Aral may be a political genius but if so, I don't think we actually see it - we just see the results. I see him as something else - a completent, intelligent man who has to cope with a difficult situation and heroically does so - rises to the occasion.

I don't think any genius could act to the full extent of his powers at all times. But I don't think Miles is ever ordinary and I think Aral and Cordelia often are. This is meant with no deingration to either of them, you understand - you know I love Aral more than I love Miles, and Cordelia not far behind. But I think Miles' capacity for achievement is higher than that of most mortals.

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

I feared the tapes would cost a lot, but I wasn't sure what the arithmetic would actually be. I assume you aren't about to get rid of any of that material for a while anyway.

They're a set I dubbed off the library's tapes back a while ago. Then I got hold of an original set through the Bujold list at a fairly deep discount (not as cheap as what I'm letting these go for, but still cheap), so these are spares to me now.

But if I can't get rid of them, I'll probably tape over them -- there's a couple of other series I can get through the library that I'd like to own. So don't count on them being around indefinitely [g].

You're right that we don't see Aral acting all that much, except for towards the end of Barrayar when Vordarian tries to pull his coup. I do think we see his genius then. Maybe not as much as we would if Cordelia, who really doesn't understand Barrayaran politics all that well yet, wasn't the POV character. I feel sort of the same way about Aral's actions in Shards.

But I don't think Miles is ever ordinary

I don't think Miles ever has the chance to be ordinary, frankly. Even on the most petty levels, let alone the unpetty ones. Listening to Memory over the last few days and seeing the kinds of everyday things he takes for granted (being foster brother to the Emperor, thinking of the Chief of ImpSec as an honorary uncle, the sheer whole servant and privilege thing that we see in his actions regarding Martin and so forth) makes me think that Gregor's line in ACC about the fish being unaware of the water he swims in a lot more astute than it seems on first glance.

And I am a Miles partisan. I like Aral, but I adore Miles. And Miles, by a lot of standards, is a spoiled brat [g].

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

With a big sigh, I'll have to pass up on your tapes, because I just don't have the money at this point. I'll have to try to acquire them one by one commercially, when and as I can afford them.

I think Aral and Cordelia are both utterly heroic, especially in Barrayar. Which is why I love them so.

Gregor's line in ACC about the fish being unaware of the water he swims in a lot more astute than it seems on first glance.

I love that line. I do love Gregor!

Miles as a spoiled brat? How do you see that? I'd say one of the things I most love about him is that he isn't a spoiled brat in any way - he's just himself. He doesn't allow his environment to shape him, he shapes it, and does it so naturally he doesn't realize that this is unusual.

I love Miles, of course. I love Aral more, but that's because I find Aral sexier - we're too deeply into Miles' point of view for me to see him as sexy.

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

Well, if you change your mind, email me, because who knows when I'll get around to taping over them [g].

Miles as a spoiled brat? How do you see that?

I think it's how I feel about most novels about aristocrats, actually. Memory just shows more of it than the previous books in the series because it's the first book where we see Miles as Lord Vorkosigan on Barrayar for any length of time. I think it's the way he takes having money and servants for granted, and the many little comments, say for example, the one to Illyan at the end of the fishing scene where they pawn off cleaning the fish on Martin ("that's what minions are for") and so forth and so on. He's not nasty about it, like some aristocratic characters are, and he does care about his subordinates more than most, but it's still -- he just takes it for granted.

But I have to say I feel that way about many of the historical romances I've read and enjoyed over the years, too.

Having servants and being independently wealthy tend to equate in my mind with being spoiled, just on general principles.

we're too deeply into Miles' point of view for me to see him as sexy.

This is not a problem for me [g]. Then again, I used to be married to a man who was very like Miles except that he had much less heart.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

He's not nasty about it, like some aristocratic characters are, and he does care about his subordinates more than most, but it's still -- he just takes it for granted.

Right. I don't see that as being a spoiled brat, just an acceptance of the hierarchy of Barrayar. But I take your point. He's less independent than we might expect from a hero. The fact that he started his military career as a General doesn't help.

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

Admiral [g]. But, yes. As his mother once said, egalitarians don't have any trouble adjusting to an aristocracy as long as they get to be the aristocrats.

Like mother, like son???

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Like mother, like son???

Sounds fair to me!

It would be interesting to speculate what Miles would be like if his father had been of low rank and status. Of course, if he was, the Soltoxin attack would not have happened... Unless he was someone accidentally caught in it.

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

Well, he'd be dead, if his father hadn't had the status to get him the treatment [wry g].

Or, if he hadn't gotten hit with soltoxin, perhaps another Ivan?

Nah.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Well, he'd be dead, if his father hadn't had the status to get him the treatment [wry g].

Possibly. But if his mother was, say, a servant of Count Vorkosigan who was caught in the attack, I'm sure the Count would take responsibility. But he wouldn't have Cordelia's unshakable determination in the matter, and she wouldn't have the resources or the clout to get them. Point.

It's an interesting question, though, and so is the opposite: if Miles had been born of normal size and strength, what would he have been like? Would he be as hyper? or as much of a genius?

I guess there's no way to answer these questions except to re-imagine the stories as many possibilities - alternate universes.

I'm rather glad Miles is as he is.

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

if Miles had been born of normal size and strength, what would he have been like? Would he be as hyper? or as much of a genius?

I've wondered that on occasion. I'm sure most of Lois's readers have at one point or another. It's almost impossible to divide Miles from his disabilities, though. They're such a large part of his identity, and in such a positive way (although he obviously doesn't think it's positive [g]). I've always assumed he's much better looking than he thinks he is, too, given his love life...

One of the things I liked best about the beginning of Komarr is the description we get of him from Ekaterin's point of view rather than his own for a change. Other than her being startled by his height (I have a tendency, when I run across people who are shorter than my own 5'3", to think, oh, there's someone Miles's height! -- and really, 4'10" isn't that short, even for a man), she describes him as looking pretty normal. A faint hunch, lean but solid. And we all know he's got charisma coming out of his pores...

I wonder if he hadn't had to perfect charm as a strategy when he was a kid, if that's what would have been the most different about him had he not been disabled.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

It's almost impossible to divide Miles from his disabilities, though.

Yes. It's so much a part of what he is. The body affects the personality. I too think he's better looking than he thinks he is: he has a skewed image of himself. He doesn't even see how clever and hyper he is. Which is really part of the fun. We see him through his own eyes and through our eyes at the same time.

Yes, the need to hone his talent for charm might be part of his situation. And given how long and hard he had to fight for the ability to walk, that perhaps led to his perseverence when the going gets difficult.

If he had been perfectly normal, would Aral have spent so much time with him during the Regency years, when he was young? That close attention from his father might have further developed his verbal and reasoning skills, and his sense of strategy.

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

If he had been perfectly normal, would Aral have spent so much time with him during the Regency years, when he was young?

You'd hope so, but perhaps he wouldn't have felt the urgency to do it.

I've been listening to Paladin of Souls lately, and the description Illvin gives of his and Arhys's childhood maps very closely to Miles and Gregor -- Arhys the heir with the missing father, raised by Illvin's father alongside him. Except that Arvol dy Lutez was a reasonably good man with a very bad reputation, and Serg Vorbarra was the exact opposite [g].

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Interesting parallel between the two books - I still haven't read Paladin of Souls, except for the first paragraph.

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

So, what's it going to take to get you to read beyond that first paragraph? [eg]

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

So, what's it going to take to get you to read beyond that first paragraph?

A few hours of leisure at a time - ? An impossible dream, I know!

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

Only usable as an excuse if you haven't been reading anything else. Because then you could be reading Paladin!