The Jamey Dodger Society
For prevention of cruelty to reprobates.
Current Members
ninedaysaqueen
smallsotong
inkasrain
an_english_girl
dannybailey
filkferengi
mikkaybear
agh_4
frosted_feather
*rings gong*
I call to order the first meeting of the Jamey Dodger Society, a group for those who have read a "Thick as Thieves" arc or want to become as spoiled as Varuca Salt.
( Read more... )
Current Members
ninedaysaqueen
smallsotong
inkasrain
an_english_girl
dannybailey
filkferengi
mikkaybear
agh_4
frosted_feather
*rings gong*
I call to order the first meeting of the Jamey Dodger Society, a group for those who have read a "Thick as Thieves" arc or want to become as spoiled as Varuca Salt.
( Read more... )
1. There are multiple cases of ‘like recognizes like’ and of Costis and Kamet being terrible at pretending to be a slave or free man (respectively)
2. Costis keeps refusing to let Kamet carry his stuff.
3. Costis apologizes to Kamet and takes the blame for being a tourist and getting them in trouble - quite different from what Nahuseresh would probably do.
4. Kamet saves Costis from probable sexual assault by kicking him in the groin, and is sure that Costis will get revenge (because he expects more anger/vengefulness?). Kamet realizes that Costis’ apologies are genuine.
5. Costis and Kamet talk about Kamet’s importance vs. usefulness to Nahuseresh. Costis is pretty certain that Nahuseresh doesn’t value Kamet the way that Kamet thinks.
6. Costis’ ‘death’ and its effect on Kamet. Ennikar drops some words of wisdom and describes Costis as Kamet’s FRIEND. Kamet goes back for Costis.
8. Godekker: I saw the encounter with Godekker as the climax of Kamet’s journey. When Kamet realizes that he would choose to stay with Costis, but not with Nahuseresh, he learns that he IS capable of being a free man. When he shows Godekker kindness, he learns what kind of a free man he is.
9. Kamet practices ‘free man talk’ aka complaining :)
I think I mentioned somewhere that I originally appreciated Kamet as an interesting narrator, but didn’t necessarily like him that much as a character. So the journey was also a journey of me getting to know, sympathize, and grow to love Kamet. Some of these little moments were gut punches for me, and I did come out really liking him and feeling for him.
Another observation: Kamet is OBSESSED with how impossible the Taymet mountains are. He keeps repeating this over and over and then is surprised when they cross without incident. I think the Taymets represent a bit of ‘empire thinking’ - the Medes can’t conquer them so they must be impossible. Costis’ comment about the saying from Eddis (water finds a way) and his description of guerilla-like warfare is a very different way of thinking about things (less brute force like the empire, more creative and tricksy like Eddisians, like Gen?)
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(1) I found it interesting that Kamet makes a distinction between the humble and haughty slave and knows how to switch between those two personas when the situation calls for it. He's a master manipulator, which largely stems from necessity as it was his number one tool for securing his own survival.
However, he doesn't know how to pretend to be a free man, as so much of his behavior as a slave has become instinctive.
(2) & (3) Despite the opinions of others... (makes a face at Kamet) Cosits isn't stupid. I'm sure he knows Kamet isn't offering to carry his stuff, because he's just trying to be a cool dude. Costis seems very uncomfortable and disapproving of slavery as an institution. His friendship with Aris indicates that he is not on board with systems that unfairly rank people.
His treatment of Kamet is very specific and very sincere. Often times even gentle. He rarely jokes around with him or teases him at first. He's very careful to thank him and treat him with respect. It's a stark difference from how he treats Aris. From my perspective, Costis's and Aris's relationship reflect a typical male working friendship. There's a lot of good natured ribbing and feigned apathy towards one another. In contrast, Costis seems to recognize that sort of thing could set Kamet off and carefully avoids triggering what I'm guessing are panic attacks. Notice how he doesn't give him a sword again? XD
Now, his mission is to bring Kamet back alive, but he honestly tries to take care of Kamet in ways that are very sincere and sweet. It's a different sort of friendship. It's a mutually supportive and mutually beneficial partnership.
(4) Part of how abuse victims survive is recognizing possible triggers that can set their abusers off and carefully avoiding them. You'll notice that Kamet is super sensitive towards Costis's mood, and only freely speaks his mind after Costis was locked in a cell. I'm sure he does this as automatically as breathing and learning that he doesn't deserve and shouldn't expect abuse is part of the healing process and is depicted so skillfully here. Costis is treating him with the respect all humans deserve and Kamet, at first, doesn't even recognize this as sincere.
Am I a bad person for finding that scene so funny? Poor Costis...and Kamet's initial terror of, "OMG I'm so dead!" was hilarious. I'm just picturing Kamet crawling away as Costis pulls him back by the leg chains. XD
(5) Kamet had to convince himself of some pretty outlandish lies in order to survive. One of those being that Nahuseresh cares for him. You don't beat people up you care for.
(6) This is HUGE turning point for Kamet.
You skipped seven. :)
(8) I actually really liked Godekker. I feel really sorry for him! He's so bitter that I assume his sentiments come from personal experience. When he tells Costis that he thinks Kamet should bash his head in with a rock and Kamet PANICS... Costs is, of course, totally calm and reassures Kamet of his faith in him.
Kamet is making his own choices at this point which is great! He realizes that he is helping Costis out of his own free will and not an obligation as a slave. He has been doing so for a while, but doesn't admit it to himself till then. When he admits that he probably would've hit Nahuseresh on the head with a rock is a final turning point towards realizing he was being victimized and he doesn't have to like it.
(9) I love how Costis is always amused when Kamet starts acting more like a freeman.
A particularly gut punching moment for me was when Kamet recounted how he became a slave as a child. He has siblings out their somewhere he may never see again! He mother screamed at him to tell the slavers he knew how to read, because she knew he'd be better off. D: It's so sad...
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The empire and its class hierarchy of people create an order to the world, and Kamet is comfortable and knows his place in it. He represents a juxtaposition of grand political power with little personal autonomy, which I think is not that uncommon for high ranking slaves/eunuchs in various ancient empires (for a while I was wondering if Kamet was a eunuch, but he has a beard, so…). He looks down on the Attolian palace servants, who are (personally) freer than him but have much less knowledge and influence on the grand scale of things. Kamet doesn’t only have to overcome his victimhood, he has to separate himself from empire-think and value his personal autonomy over his political power in the empire. Gen took the political power part out of the equation by faking Nahuseresh’s death so that Kamet would leave Medea, but when Kamet encounters Melheret in Attolia, he has both options laid back out before him again - and this time he chooses personal freedom.
Personally, I think this may be why it took a while for me to warm to Kamet. I have a lot of strong personal feelings about colonial/post-colonial imperialist-think, and Kamet definitely pushed some of those buttons at the beginning.
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He rationalizes imperialsm/colonism, because he wants to weild the power of the empire as the emporer's slave and doesn't vaule his own personal freedom or the freedom of others. A lot of his ways of thinking were quite shocking and concerning to me, and seeing Costis slowly convince him that nothing is worth giving up your own autonomy was very satisfing. It's such an odd constract of little personal power with such massive political weight.
His tendency to look down on others was also concerning and odd. I remember thinking you're a slave, why do you think you're so much better, while at the same time laughing because his observations were often hilarious. Of course, that's another symptom of empire think, and I also saw his inflated sense of self importance as a survival tactic and rationalization of his slavery as being an okay thing. I'm sure someone in that situation would want to believe he has more power than he actually does.
At the end of the book, it was really great to see him describe Medea as the empire that enslaved him and to have the choice to return but reject it in favor for a free but uncertain future. It was also satisfing to see him finally realize Attolians can read! Maybe, that's why I was laughing so much, because he was so wrong about so much. His retrospective observations were far more generous, which lead me to believe he was going to undergo some major character development and also made me more patient with him and just enjoy his humor.
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I think that's why I loved the crossing of the Taymets so much - it definitely challenged Kamet's empire-think by showing him a different way of doing things. The mountains weren't impassable - they just weren't passable by the empire's armies, free people lived their lives and even helped each other out on the crossing (firewood in caves, etc).
And like I said, Kamet definitely grew on me. He's introspective and capable of observing and then admitting to himself when his own perceptions were wrong. He grows with each experience (whereas I think that Nahuseresh did not learn from his experiences). He represents the best we can hope to do in our lives - learning from new experiences and information, reflecting, growing, overcoming the limits that are placed on us by our past :)
(Upon more reflection, I think I was also disappointed with Kamet initially because I expected more of him based on the insightfulness he showed in QoA - the Kamet that I expected wasn't there at the start of TaT)
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Staying in Nahuseresh's apartments and waking up thinking he shouldn't be there followed by remembering he's free was very subtle but very poignant.
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