Tag Archives: Professor Flandin

Fledgling – Chapter 23

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History of Education Department
Oriel College of Humanities
University of Delgado

In which a conspiracy begins to be uncovered.

We’ve been told that Jen Sar and Ella don’t get on, and in this chapter we get to see it. At least part of it is that they approach conversation differently, Ella with her straight talking and Jen Sar with his Liaden tendency to curve unexpectedly, which makes it more difficult to tell if there are also incompatibilities in their underlying personalities.

I kind of wonder if Jen Sar would have thought better of Ella if she had succumbed to the urge to tell him that conversation with an old friend would be nice if only there were one present; it seems like the kind of response he himself might have given in other circumstances. But perhaps Ella’s right; if she had said it, she might have meant it too much.

Something I didn’t notice the first time I read this, when I wasn’t paying such close attention to the interweaving of details: the technician who tells Jen Sar about the “old wire” is doubtless one of Theo’s friend Kartor’s relatives.

Fledgling – Chapter 19

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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 15

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University of Delgado
Faculty Residence Wall
Quadrant Eight, Building Two

In which Kamele and Jen Sar make plans for the future.

If Theo was unhappy about moving from the suburb to the Wall, how much less is she going to like leaving the planet entirely? Even if it does solve a lot of problems.

I don’t think Jen Sar is unhappy with the idea of looking after Theo, as far as his own preferences go. But there is also to be considered how it would look to outsiders, if Kamele left her daughter in the care of a man — and not only a man she doesn’t have an ongoing relationship with, as far as the world knows, but a man with whom she recently broke off a relationship — rather than, say, her close friend Ella. And particularly at this point in time, when she’s moving in deep political waters and any deviation from customary behaviour may become a weapon against her. And Kamele knows all this as well as he does, which is why, I think, he’s surprised at her even making the suggestion.

Fledgling – Chapter 14

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History of Education Department
Oriel College of Humanities
University of Delgado

In which Kamele receives bad news and confusing news.

There’s a remarkable amount of world-building texture packed into the two paragraphs of Professor Beltaire’s family history.

If, as Kamele mentions, the University regards diversity of thought as a positive good, there’s likely to be some conflict with the Chapelia, which seems from what we’ve seen so far to incline toward the one-Path-fits-all attitude. On the other hand, there must be some kind of common ground, or at least lines drawn, otherwise the Chapelia would be busy at all hours accusing everyone in the University of consorting with complexity.

It occurs to me that we haven’t actually been told what happens to people the Chapelia choose to teach a lesson, though the message has been loud and clear that it’s not something to look forward to.

I find myself wondering where the Chapelia stands on the equality of the sexes. Are there male Simples? If so, are they treated the same as female Simples? Does it matter that their get-up obscures gender markers, or is that just a consequence, not significant in itself, of the general attempt to obscure all individual differences? The thing about only women being able to buy their children out of trouble may be only an acknowledgement about wider Delgado society’s view about who is responsible for children, and doesn’t necessarily show anything about the Chapelia’s own opinion of the matter.

Fledgling – Chapter 13

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History of Education Department
Oriel College of Humanities
University of Delgado

In which a late evening is unexpectedly extended.

Sinister hooded figures and a threat to the integrity of the entire University? That’s more like it!

And, speaking of things that are suggestive to the reader familiar with the wider Liaden universe: Jen Sar Kiladi’s alertness behind the wheel of his rally car. We know, though Theo doesn’t, that he used to be a pilot, and he’s been grounded for over a decade; racing the car is likely the closest he’s been able to get to flying in all that time. And, of course, the reviving of the pilot he used to be is accompanied by the reviving of other parts of himself that haven’t seen much use in the last few years.

I can see how the Simples fit in as an extreme form of Delgado’s emphasis on teamwork and consensus. That doesn’t make them less sinister, though.

(And a passing thought, brought on by Jen Sar’s Bjornson-Bellevale College and Kamele’s Oriel College: I wonder if those two colleges are named after women, and if the reason Theo’s school gets the full “Stephen M. Richardson” is because otherwise people would assume it too was named after a woman?)

Fledgling – Chapter 6

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History of Education Department
Oriel College of Humanities
University of Delgado

In which the EdHist Department comes to a decision.

In this chapter we start to get a clear picture of what Kamele’s motives are: she suspects that the scholar recently disbarred for falsifying sources is only part of a larger, yet-undiscovered problem, and has moved back into the mainstream of University life so that she can tackle it in a direct and timely fashion. (With, humming along underneath, the thought that maybe, if she hadn’t chosen to live outside the Wall, she might have noticed something before the problem got so bad.) Career advancement for its own sake, the part of her explanation to Theo where she resorted to general statements, isn’t a particular concern for her, but makes a plausible explanation for general inquiry, since it would be unwise to talk widely about her suspicions until she knows how bad the problem really is, and preferably has a solution in hand.

We also get, in passing, an explanation for Professor Appletorn’s mood in Theo’s class, which I appreciate. It would have been easy to write a bad-tempered teacher making Theo’s life difficult for no particular reason just because that’s what teachers in books do; having something behind it doesn’t, given the nature of the something, make him a better person but it does make him a more rounded character. And being another consequence of Kamele’s move helps build up Theo’s difficulties from the move and the feeling that the characters’ actions have consequences beyond the obvious.

The mention of the Antonio Smith Method of forensic literature analysis jumped out at me rather, the first time I read this chapter. It’s not that there haven’t been references to other SF works in the Liaden series before (there’s a Christopher Stasheff shout-out later in this same chapter), but most of those are older works; this one is striking because it’s a reference to a character, in a work, in a medium that are all younger than the Liaden series itself. ANTONIO SMITH, FORENSIC LINGUIST (the block capitals are mandatory; Smith is the kind of hero who doesn’t so much introduce himself as announce his presence) made his debut in the webcomic Narbonic in August 2000, when the Liaden universe was already a decade old.

Most of Kamele’s colleagues are new, but her friend Ella has already appeared once in this re-read, at the reception where we first met Kamele, and Kamele first met Jen Sar. Which leads us nicely into Kamele’s moment of retrospection…

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.