Tag Archives: Monit Appletorn

Fledgling – Chapter 5

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City of Efraim
Delgado

In which Theo goes shopping.

This is a quiet chapter in terms of what actually happens, but it introduces a lot of details that will crop up again later, especially during Theo’s bus trip.

Theo’s memories of her father in this chapter contain several call-backs to Scout’s Progress and Mouse and Dragon, with his ring and the toasted cheese sandwiches.

Mmmmm, toasted cheese sandwiches. I haven’t had a good toasted cheese sandwich in ages. I don’t seem to be able to find cheese that toasts well, lately.

Fledgling – Chapter 4

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Scholarship Skills Seminar: Advertancy
Professor Stephen M. Richardson Secondary School
University of Delgado

In which Professor Appletorn is late.

I don’t know if Advertance, as defined here, is an original concept, but it was new to me when I first read this novel and I’ve found it a useful concept on several occasions since.

It’s already been mentioned a couple of times that Theo is a member of Learning Team Three; in this chapter we begin to get an idea of what that involves. Each team attends classes together, and if one member of the team falls behind the whole team gets marked down, because the expectation is that the team members will support each other. Having been selected for a mix of abilities, so that a student weak in a particular aspect of scholarship may learn and improve from the example of more able teammates, they’re not necessarily friends, as evidenced by Roni last chapter choosing to spend her free time with another team. Or maybe that’s just Roni, whose weak point is evidently teamwork.

Here’s a thing: Professor Appletorn addresses his female students as “Miss Waitley”, “Miss Grinmordi”, etc., but the Safeties address the same students as “Ms. Waitley” and “Ms. Grinmordi”. I wonder if that’s significant.

Fledgling – Chapter 3

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Fourth Form Ready Room
Professor Stephen M. Richardson Secondary School
University of Delgado

In which Theo goes to school and learns something helpful.

It’s the return of our old friend, The Scene Where The Heroine Looks In A Mirror. At least this one does a reasonable job of staying inside the viewpoint character’s head. (And now I’m trying to remember whether we’ve ever had a scene where any of the male characters looks in a mirror for the benefit of the readers. I don’t recall any, but I’m willing to believe that that’s a fault in my memory rather than in the story-telling.)

I’m not sure I approve of that clock. It would depend to some extent on whether everybody is given the same amount of time between the first announcement and the note being made in their file, and what happens to people who are genuinely incapable of getting out of bed quickly. Either way, it’s the first of several details in this chapter that are starting to build up a picture of Delgado as a society that pays really close attention to whether its citizens are doing What’s Good For Them.