AMC--Chapter Forty-Nine

[dawn_felagund]

This week's chapter continues from the PoV of Maitimo. Last week, when we left, Maitimo sought news of Annawende and was going to first visit Vorondil to see if he had word, then use the seeing-stone. This week's chapter picks up in Vorondil's cabin and details the outcome of this excursion

Comments

[dawn_felagund]

Even the fact that the Noldor in general (not just Our Heroes) would worry about whether a couple are equally attractive speaks to me of a general shallowness and a certain misogyny.

Certainly. Perhaps Tolkien was guilty of being too human on that one. ;)

The Noldorin culture--perhaps even Elven culture in general--does seem to place a high value on beauty. The Noldor, especially, seem to center their lives around it, and those characters that are exceptionally attractive (Feanor, Luthien, Maedhros et al) always seem to get special mention. I've always seen their preoccupation with physical beauty as sort of a natural extension of their preoccupation with all beauty in the world around them, whether it be architecture, music, gemstones, alphabet characters...those characters who make beautiful things (or are themselves beautiful) always get special attention.

But it is misogynistic, especially in cases like the two you've presented here, where the implication is that both Feanor and Maitimo somehow "deserve" conventionally attractive partners.

I don't necessarily agree that I feel that it is an issue of "deserving" equally attractive partners. I've always felt that both Maedhros and Feanor wouldn't have it another way: to have a beautiful-yet-vapid woman in place of their partners who are intellectual equals though more average-looking. And I don't think that by noticing--or realizing that others notice--the disparity, that they are necessarily implying this.

It's the pity and contempt that they and their family exude towards the women that makes me see them as misogynistic.

Aside from Nerdanel (and I agree with you on their treatment of Nerdanel as it was quite intentional on my part), though, I don't see them treating any of the other women with pity or contempt.

Indis, yes, is viewed with contempt. But in light of the circumstances, I think it has less to do with her womanhood than it does her "usurping" of Miriel's place (in Feanor's decidedly biased opinion). The children, of course, learn to see her how their father presents her. However, in her last chapter, Maitimo began to recognize some respect for her and began to acknowledge that she was hardly the wicked stepmother that his father wants him to believe.

Feanor, I believe, is beyond conversion on this matter, as he is rapidly progressing beyond conversion on the contempt he feels for Nolofinwe.

As for Annawende, I can't think of an instance of pity or contempt but quite the opposite (and I think she'd kick squarely in the balls anyone who tried either--including Feanor!) She is not necessarily beautiful or the equal of Feanor or Maedhros in this regard, but I see more harm in them pretending otherwise, like her other attributes are nullified without an equally pretty face.

I suppose a lot of this stems from the fact that I--as an author--get very annoyed with stories where the heroes are always these ethereally beautiful creatures. Yes, I have Maitimo and Feanor as that, but to do otherwise would be a canon violation that seems rather pointless to me. I was reading a novel by a literary author whom I respect very greatly the other week, and she had this wonderful female character who was presented constantly as being shabby and dirty and with attributes certainly the opposite of conventional beauty: She shaved her eyebrows, for instance. And I liked that; she felt like a real woman, and I sympathized with her despite her lack of supermodel stunningness. Then, at the end of the novel, she is trying to seduce a man as part of a plot, and suddenly, she is this ethereally beautiful, seductive, irresistible creature...I certainly had a "Nrgh! WTF??" moment for that one.

[frenchpony]

There were defnitely some passages regarding Findekáno and Anairë where it came out as well. These had nothing to do with Anairë's looks -- it was the sneer that both Fëanor and Maitimo got in their voices when they talked about her, and that also began to show up in Findekáno's voice when he spoke of her after coming home from the visit with his cousins.

I'm not so sure that the focus in writing characters (in general, not just yours) should necessarily be on their objective physical appearance. There's a phenomenon that I am reluctant to name only because it sounds like the kind of really bad '80s pop song that my sister's ice skating coach loved to play at ice shows, but I can't think of any other name for it, so here goes: the eyes of love. Basically, if you love someone, after a while, it doesn't matter what they look like. Their appearance is beloved, and therefore it becomes beautiful.

I have a friend who is far from being manly-man gorgeous. He's short, skinny, entirely lacking in chiseled male model features, and for a long time was painfully insecure about his looks. One time (yes, alcohol was involved), he asked me, as his best friend, to give the final verdict: was he, in fact, as unattractive as he suspected he was? And be honest.

I couldn't answer him. He wasn't chick-magnet attractive in the way that, say, Peter O'Toole or Richard Burton were at their peaks. But he was my friend, and I loved the way he smiled, I loved the fact that he's just my height, I loved the looks he would get in his eyes -- it made me happy to look at him. I just didn't feel that I was qualified to judge his attractiveness objectively, because he was my friend, and I already cared about him. That was my honest answer, and he accepted it (very graciously, I might add).

I see a little of that in the way Fëanor thinks about Nerdanel (though if she is uncomfortable with having nude statuettes of herself around the house, he should certainly respect that), I see scads of it in the way that Macalaurë thinks about Vingarië (whose looks are hardly ever mentioned), and I see very little of it in the way that Maitimo thinks about Annawendë. The most I've seen was at their almost-wedding, and given Maitimo's proclivities, that's hardly the most convincing argument.

I guess, to me, there ought to come a point where the issue of whether or not a character conforms to accepted standards of beauty ceases to make a difference. If you look at this character through the eyes of someone who loves him/her, then that character should be beautiful, regardless of the objective standards to which s/he might be held.

In my mind, this is something I try to do with some of my Elven characters. Mostly I don't worry too much about their appearance to begin with, as I have more important things to do. But, ever since I started writing about Mirkwood, I've visualized Legolas as the sort of guy who'd be strikingly handsome if he gained fifteen pounds and had a chance to live in peace and plenty for a few months. But often, I write about him from Thranduil's perspective, and he's the single most important thing in Thranduil's life. Objectively, Legolas is too skinny and overworked to be really handsome. But Thranduil and the rest of the Wood Elves think he's good-looking, so he is.

[dawn_felagund]

These had nothing to do with Anairë's looks -- it was the sneer that both Fëanor and Maitimo got in their voices when they talked about her, and that also began to show up in Findekáno's voice when he spoke of her after coming home from the visit with his cousins.

Hmmm. The Findekano bit bugs me because this was not my intention. Findekano is close to neither of his parents, but he much prefers his mother to his father, and he will have some strife with Nolofinwe in years to come. I don't have time now to reread this chapter, but I will keep a keen eye on it during revision.

Regarding Maitimo and Feanaro, they feel contempt for Nolofinwe's entire family. They feel contempt for Findekano, even, in the beginning. (Feanaro probably still does, knowing him, although to a lesser degree.)

Basically, if you love someone, after a while, it doesn't matter what they look like. Their appearance is beloved, and therefore it becomes beautiful. *snippage* I see very little of it in the way that Maitimo thinks about Annawendë.

I'm pretty sure that there is a passage describing exactly the phenomenom you describe, from Mai's PoV about Annawende, however, I haven't the time to reread Maitimo's chapters to find it. (I did reread the "almost wedding" chapter and it's not in there.)

I tend to disagree with the notion, though that "If you look at this character through the eyes of someone who loves him/her, then that character should be beautiful, regardless of the objective standards to which s/he might be held." I believe that Maitimo, firstly, would say that Annawende is beautiful...to him. His love has nothing to do with her looks, which has been remarked upon as unusual because all of his prior dalliances were with beautiful women that would be a good "match" for him. Secondly, while I know that love or even familiarity can "blind" one to the physical flaws in a person's appearance, I personally have never experienced it to the degree where I am utterly oblivious to a person's appearance. I have friends also who are probably generally regarded as "unattractive"; do I label them as such? Of course not. Mostly because I don't care about their appearance so much as other things; love and friendship, for me, is not based on appearance. But if someone were to take me aside and say, "Honestly, do you think that this person is physically beautiful?" I would be able to point out the qualities that are both good and bad about their appearances.

And so I don't find it particularly odd that Maitimo can also do this; that he admits that he loves Annawende and that she is beautiful to him, but he knows that his people look at him askance wondering, "Why did you pick her?" Nor do I see it as a flaw. I would see it as a flaw if he was changing his treatment of her in some way or shamed by her appearance...but he is not. Quite the opposite. And if one takes HoMe as any sort of truth, then the Noldor wondered at Feanor's marriage to Nerdanel not because of the difference in their upbringings or temperaments but because she was not physically beautiful--and he was. So this seems common amid the Noldor at least, and I find it hard to find flaw in the fact that Maitimo wants to marry Annawende even as he knows that--by the standards of Noldorin beauty--she is not his equal. To me, a flaw would be the exact opposite: If he would suppress his feelings for her in favor of pairing with a more attractive woman.