World Enough and Time

It was a Vorkosigan sort of day, since I was listening to Komarr when I was walking today.

At suppertime, random, fairestcat, auriaephialia and deakat came over and we ate chicken, cheese, salad, and some amazing fruit, and watched Leverage episode 4x13, "The Girl's Night Out Job", which I thought was loads of fun.

Then afterwards we sat and talked about Captain Vorpatril's Alliance. I made my ( own list )

I spent a good part of the afternoon reading Captain Vorpatril's Alliance by Lois McMaster Bujold - Ivan's story. The ARC is available on the Baen website. I'd been reading it on my eReader, but random helped me to put it on my tablet. Life is good.

It's terrific. I was reading it and chortling.

commodorified, random, fairestcat and deakat came over. I made roast chicken and carrot soup, they brought amazing fruit and cheese, and we talked a lot and watched an episode of Leverage, 4x12, "The Office Job". I see it was directed by Jonathan Frakes. It was crack, even more than is usual for that show.

I had a thought in the grocery store today about Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold, which I am rereading, and Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. Both books are favourites that I have read many times.

I know I'm talking to people who know Charlotte Bronte's "Jane Eyre" probably as well as I do, so bear with me while I recap - there's a reason for this.

In "Jane Eyre", Jane is very much in love with the wealthy, solitary, and disgruntled Mr. Rochester. He wants to marry her but there are complications, and she can't find it in her to live with him on his terms, so she leaves him. After some time, she goes back to find him, a fairly significant journey in which she travels alone (by carriage). He isn't where she expects to find him, and she has to find the way. When she gets to the manor house he is living in,in the country, she speaks first to a familiar servant, Mary.

When Jane approaches Mr. Rochester, he's sitting in a chair. He can't see her, because he's blind. She doesn't say anything - lets him think she's the maid, pouring him a drink - because she wants to look at him. She is distressed by the deterioration in his looks and health. When she speaks, he thinks she's a hallucination, such as he has dreamed of so often. When she has assured him she isn't, he's grumpy because thinks she's going to leave him again, and she assures him she will not. She teases him about how unkempt he has become.

So in "Shards of Honour", Cordelia feels she can't stay with Aral Vorkosigan on his terms because she is horrified by Barrayar. She returns to Beta Colony, but then goes back to Barrayar alone (by space ship), where she has to track Aral down in his big house in the country, at Vorkosigan Surleau. She first meets and speaks to a familiar servant - Bothari.

When she finds Aral, he's sitting. He doesn't see her because his eyes are shut, and he's drunk. She doesn't announce herself because she wants to look at him first. She is distressed by the changes in him. When she speaks, he (in surprise) declares she is not a hallucination. Then he's grumpy because he thinks she has just come for a visit and will leave him again, and she assures him that she's staying. She doesn't pour a drink for him - he pours one for her. She teases him about how unkempt he has become.

It's all right there in the text.

There are differences, of course. Aral wasn't trying to commit bigamy, and Rochester's father doesn't turn up. One book is set in Victorian England, the other on anther planet. (Maybe not as unlike Victorian England as you'd think.)

There are other parallels. One being that in each book the hero has an unhappy first marriage with a faithfless wife who ends up killing herself.

And I guess another parallel is that Mr. Rochester is one of my favourite fictional heroes, right up there with Aral Vorkosigan.

Now, I suspect Lois McMaster Bujold wasn't consciously copying Charlotte Bronte's scene, but we know she's a fan because Charlotte Bronte is one of the writers she cites in her dedication for "A Civil Campaign".

A couple of other similarities: both Rochester and Aral are normally taciturn men who don't confide in many people, but both love telling stories about their past to Jane and Cordelia, and hearing personal stories in return.

Somewhat less of a parallel, but notable because there's an echo, is that Aral in the past was an amateur artist who liked to do sketches of people. Jane Eyre was an amateur artist who liked to do sketches of people.

Let's see what other parallels I can think of.

Encouraged by mmegaera yesterday, I made my list of characters for the Vorkosigan tarot:

( 00 Fool - Miles Vorkosigan )

From fannish5 on LJ: Name the five most loving fictional moms.

I'm not sure I can say "most loving" but I can name my five favourites, mostly because they are interesting:

1. Cordelia Naismith, mother of Miles Vorkosigan in the novels by Lois McMaster Bujold.
2. Kate Somerville, mother of Philippa Somerville, in the Lymond novels by Dorothy Dunnett.
3. Jackie Tyler in series 1, 2, and 3 of Doctor Who - Rose's mother.
4. Lady McDuff, in Shakespeare's Macbeth.
5. Katharine Hepburn playing Eleanor of Acquitaine in The Lion in Winter.

Special mention: Aunt May in the Spider-Man comics, who, though she was never a mother, is a great mother figure for Peter Parker.

And an extra special mention for Gwen Cooper in Torchwood, who isn't a mother yet, but soon will be. Will we see her again? I certainly hope so.

Lois McMaster Bujold often and consistently impresses me, not just in her style and thinking and writing, but in her ability to say something very meaningful in few words. Someone at World Con asked her how to write a good character - that is, a character who is doing true good, not evil, and she replied, "Show what it costs them."

Reading the LMB mailing list lately has set my mind in strange fannish directions.

I was thinking about the characters in the Bujold novels, and why I like them, and found myself making parallels between Miles Vorkosigan and the Doctor. Things they have in common:

• extraordinarily high intelligence


• a talent for getting into trouble


• both consistently operate on improvisation and impulse


• both have energy levels almost as high as their intelligence


• both take on impossible odds


• both have a sense of guilt


• both love their home planet, but travel in space


• both are, in their own ways, both unique in their society, and misfits

So I looked for a parallel for Captain Jack, and found one in my favourite Bujold character, Aral Vorkosigan:

• both are or have been soldiers


• both are bisexual


• both have been marked for execution


• both have travelled in space (not so rare for SF, though)


• both have had suicidal urges, and have been ready to give their lives for a cause - and have, in fact, been present at a wartime blood-bath where they were the only survivor; Jack at the end of "The Parting of the Ways" and Aral when his mother was killed

I also have no doubt that Aral Vorkosigan wears a very spiffy greatcoat.