The Raven Tower sync read post

[hamsterwoman]

For me and ikel89 and hopefully cyanshadow and anyone else who wants to join in!

This entry was originally posted at https://hamsterwoman.dreamwidth.org/1104287.html. Comment wherever you prefer (I prefer LJ).

Comments

through the end

[hamsterwoman]

OK, I confess I'm kind of underwhelmed by the ending. It's just so... Hamletty. Like, I mean, obviously it was doing Hamlet, but I was thinking it would do SOMETHING with that story -- tweak or subvert or tie it into the rock thread in some clever way, but I didn't feel like it did any of those things -- it just played Hamlet quite straight (or, with less nuance for some characters but happier endings for some others), and I'm just, like, but why? That was totally unsatisfying.

I'm not thrilled with what Mawat turned into in this last section, going from someone flawed who was probably not going to do great in the role of Lease to just plain irrational, a jerk, and kind of an idiot to boot. I do find it interesting that the two characters who die in the play who survive in the book are the Gertrude analogue and Ophelia analogue -- both the women, which I think is not a coincidence. And I liked Tikaz a lot, and Gertrude was my favorite in Hamlet, so I'm hardly complaining, but it feels like a fairly transparent agenda. And then ~Horatio survives, but whatever Eolo is, they're not a cis dude, so it's even more clearly "all the cis dudes die". Which is certainly A Choice.

Oh, speaking of Mawat, it occurred to me that Mawat's proclamations ("My father never fled" and his insistence that his father was dead, that Eolo was lying to him, that the Raven would preserve his life) were very much thematically linked to the thing where gods can speak fact into being, but if they say something that is untrue/that they cannot make true, that will rebound on them and drain their power/kill them -- that is a nice interwoven thread.

I liked the explanation of what was actually going on with the Raven and SaPotH -- I hadn't put it together so cleanly, but it all slipped into place nicely. And I was happy to see the Myriad in the role of Fortinbras, because I'd liked the Myriad and her friendship with SaPotH -- but it doesn't feel very satisfying because I was never particularly worried about SaPotH -- it had clearly shown its ability to outlast most anything.

And the final explanation of the second person narration didn't really do much for me either. It sort of makes sense, but it doesn't really snap anything particularly exciting into place, and Eolo... kind of doesn't have an arc? Nothing Eolo does in Vastai actually ends up mattering, except for flirting with Tikaz and lending her a knife, which doesn't feel very significant. And the whole interlude in the "present" is such a tiny portion of SaPotH's existence, it doesn't feel very significant either. So the whole thing just feels ultimately pointless.

Re: through the end

[ikel89]

Despite my lack of timely comments, I wanted to say thanks for pointing out the parallels I would have otherwise missed in my general meh-state of reading: indeed, mawat's "my father never fled" being akin to god bankruptcy, and rock's and Eolo's similar identity stances: they are all legit there and add to the structural polyphony of the book. It's a pity I don't like three-hour-long opera, to run away with the metaphor :P The turning of the wheel by Lease also didn't occur to me as a theory: I assumed the turning mechanism was enabled by the god's own powers.

PS. 100% with you on Gaspode :DDD

Re: through the end

[hamsterwoman]

PS. 100% with you on Gaspode :DDD

I'm glad I'm not alone in this! XD

the structural polyphony of the book. It's a pity I don't like three-hour-long opera, to run away with the metaphor :P

I really like that structural polyphony metaphor! But yeah, fair point about three hour opera. I'm actually a bit surprised I was able to enjoy this book as much as I did, because it is a decidedly, unapologetically, intentionally odd book.