Tag Archives: Lida

Fledgling – Chapter 19

3 Replies

Number Twelve Leafydale Place
Greensward-by-Efraim
Delgado

In which Theo makes use of her research.

So that wasn’t actually the first time Kamele mentioned the upcoming research trip to Theo. With regard to the concerns I mentioned last time, I actually find this the opposite of reassuring, because it means that the trip has been a topic of conversation for several days without Kamele ever once thinking to mention that Theo would be going too.

There’s an interesting narrative subtlety in this chapter: at the moment the intruder is detected, Professor Kiladi disappears from the narrative. Theo’s father exists, and takes appropriate actions, but the narrator declines to attribute those actions to the person named Jen Sar Kiladi. What with the middle section being narrated from the viewpoint of Theo, who regards him simply as “Father”, Jen Sar’s name doesn’t reappear until nearly the end of the chapter. (Readers familiar with the wider Liaden universe — a phrase I will need to find a good shorthand for if I keep using it — will know what name the narrator is not saying. Although I’m pretty sure that the person who provides the answer to Theo’s question about the ring is Aelliana again.)

In the course of writing out the previous paragraph, I’ve belatedly recognised a similar subtlety back in Chapter Twelve. In between Theo meeting up with her father and the conclusion of their conversation about what name she ought to be calling him by, the narrator avoids calling him by any name at all. (Indeed, the moment she decides to continue addressing him as “Father” is visible even before she gives voice to it, because the narrator resumes doing the same.)

Somehow, knowing the history of the Gallowglass Chair and of this particular incumbent, it did not surprise me that the staff of office is a sword cane. I wonder if that’s standard for every Chair endowed by the Gallowglass Foundation, or an individual improvisation. (I don’t for a moment consider the possibility that it might be a custom of this University: this is Delgado, after all. I expect Admin would be horrified if they had the slightest idea one of their professors was walking around with a bladed weapon.)

Fledgling – Chapter 17

Leave a Reply

Leisure and Recreation Studies: Practical Dance
Professor Stephen M. Richardson Secondary School
University of Delgado

In which Theo dances.

It occurs to me on this re-reading that Professor Noni’s remark about moving apart and coming back together being a normal part of life has particular relevance to Theo’s life these days. She showed a similar reluctance to encompass the moving-apart that was the shift to the Wall (though that’s perhaps understandable, since it was not and still is not accompanied by any assurance that there will be a coming-back-together to follow); it remains to be seen whether she will do better at accommodating herself to the moving-apart that is the trip to Melchiza — which Kamele apparently hasn’t told her about yet, if she’s making plans to go to the Saltation during Interval.

“Saltation” comes from the Latin verb meaning “to leap”, and has a variety of meanings, some more literal and some more metaphorical, in dance, biology, and geology. Even if Theo doesn’t make it to the dance festival, she has a saltation of some form in her future: Saltation is the title of the next book in the series. (What’s more, I seem to recall that we already knew that when this came out, suggesting that this chapter is a deliberate tease.)

Another bit of Delgado gender-role reversal: Theo’s conversation with Bek suggests that it’s not considered polite for a boy to ask a girl out, or directly issue any similar invitation; he’s limited to dropping hints and hoping that she will both recognize the hint and choose to act on it.