Mail Room
Anlingdin Piloting Academy
In which Theo passes the time in a queue by discussing literature.
I made a series of extremely undignified noises when Theo said who the author of Sam Tim’s Ugly Day was. I’ve mentioned that one of the joys of this re-read is discovering connections that went past me before, but I have no idea how I missed that one the first time through.
The story of Sam Tim and the family joke is interesting as an example of what Lois McMaster Bujold calls the author’s right to have a better idea later. The first time Theo appeared in a Liaden novel (which, in chronological order, is still some distance in her future), she said her father had taught her that if she were ever in really serious trouble she might take the matter to Korval, with the wording strongly suggesting that he’d said so outright. When the authors came to expand on Theo’s story, it seems, they came up against the problem that if Jen Sar Kiladi had said such a thing directly he would have consequently faced the awkward question of who he was that the troubles of him and his family might be of interest to Korval, and so instead there is this series of events which conveys the lesson to Theo indirectly. (The question is not entirely unanswerable, since Jen Sar is a pilot and we know from earlier books that Korval doesn’t mind taking a hand when a pilot is in serious trouble, but we saw at the end of Fledgling that even the fact of being a pilot is more about his past than Jen Sar would like to give out.)
Maybe it’s because English isn’t my first language, but I still don’t get the author reference, and I even went back and re-read the relevant section, still no luck.
I apologise; the connection perhaps isn’t as obvious as it seems to me, steeped in the series as I currently am.
The reason it’s interesting that Meicha Maarilex wrote Sam Tim’s Ugly Day is that Meicha Maarilex has previously appeared as a character in the series. In Balance of Trade, which I re-read last year, she was involved in an early attempt at building cultural bridges between Terrans and Liadens (and incidentally was accused by her sister of reading too many adventure stories, and getting odd ideas about Terrans thereby). It’s not out of the question that she might have gone on to become an author, and particularly an author of books which are themselves attempts at building cultural bridges (which Sam Tim’s Ugly Day, with its text in both Terran and Liaden, apparently is).
For some reason, Sam Tim’s Ugly Day has always made me think of the book, The Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day. I have no idea whether there is any connection or resemblance between their texts.
It always makes me think of Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day, too. From the bits of description we get, it does seem to be the same kind of book – child has a day full of unhappy-making events, there’s a catchphrase, child eventually learns a lesson – only of course it’s a Liaden lesson instead of a Terran one.
I wondered for a long time why non-Korval Liadens would make a big deal out of bringing problems to Korval, as Liadens tend to look to their own delm and let other clans mind their own business. Then I re-read Crystal Dragon and took note of the contract negotiations:
So the lesson isn’t likely so much about bringing the matter to Korval but about bringing the matter to the Captain of the migration. Over the centuries the distinction may have been mostly forgotten but the cultural supremacy of Korval as the final arbiter of disputes remains.
It also seems to me, incidentally, that the excessive formality (to the point of having codified it) of Liaden culture has the same root cause: you don’t want to come to the notice of the Captain with your problems. I wonder whether and how that will change in post-contract Liad.
I’m not so sure about that, partly because as I understand it the option to take one’s problems to Korval isn’t open to all Liadens: it’s open to pilots (including non-Liaden pilots, but not including non-pilot Liadens).
The way I’ve made sense of it is that Korval is ships and pilots, and Korval regards all pilots as being, in some sense, kin; so if a pilot has a problem and their own delm isn’t available or doesn’t have the means to solve it, they can draw on the bond of kinship with Korval and ask Korval’s delm for a solving.
Your theory makes no sense of Sam Tim. There is no good reason, in my view, to think that Meicha Maarilex wrote the book to teach children pilot lore.
Yes, Korval has a special interest in pilots. That does not mean that (until the events of I Dare) Korval is not Captain, who may dispense Captain’s Justice at request, or at need.
In I Dare, it was stated that Korval dealt Captain’s Justice in the Council Chamber in SY 1061. That must have been big news in its day. Balance of Trade starts in SY 1118, about 60 years later; Meicha Maarilex very likely was acquainted with people who were contemporaries of that instance of Captain’s Justice. It is therefore very likely that Captain’s Justice was an active part of the cultural background when Meicha was growing up, and that the book’s lesson was written against that background.
Yes, I think you’re right.
On reflection, I’ve been arguing at cross-purposes. There are definitely cases in the series of Korval solving for pilots. For one thing, Kara says as much to Theo later in Saltation, and it’s in that spirit that Theo eventually decides to try approaching Korval for help – which I think is where I got confused, and fell into the assumption that any time someone from out-clan approached Korval for a solving, it was in that context. But of course that doesn’t necessarily follow, and there’s more than one context for Korval to act in. (That’s the lesson of melant’i, even.) So there’s no reason Sam Tim’s Ugly Day can’t be talking about a different type of solving, and your explanation makes a lot of sense.
I always hate it when people argue their assumptions instead of engaging with what I actually said, and here I’ve been doing the same thing to you. I apologise.
Speaking of assumptions, I had assumed until I began reading the re-read posts that the Sam Tim book had been written specifically for children of Korval and allies. Either that, or that Jen Sar’s copy was unique, a one-off that he used to teach Theo what to do as a last resort, as well as self-reliance.
I’ve always taken it that he chose to give Theo the idea of going to Korval in extremity indirectly, by way of the book, because he wanted to avoid any hint of his own connection to Korval. In that case, a book written specifically for Korval and its connections would be counterproductive.
Which leaves the idea of a one-off, but I think it’s mentioned somewhere, though I don’t recall just now where, that Jen Sar found his copy in a second-hand book sale, which would suggest that it had a general distribution.
And, of course, it was actually Theo who found it originally, as she explains in this same chapter: “I found it at a Try and Trade when I was a littlie, and made Father read it to me over and over.”
Though given that she was a littlie (which likely is a synonym for toddler) when she got the book, I think it’s very possible that there was some manipulation by Daav in Theo’s discovery of that book.
I had had that thought also, but we don’t know, do we?