justice of toren collecting songs and one esk/breq constantly humming/singing them is such a good detail and ann leckie does so much with it. an incomplete list:
- justice of toren’s eager collection of songs is part and parcel of its violent destruction of cultures: these songs are cultural artifacts that it only learns because of its presence on those worlds during their conquest, and in many cases breq is the only one to remember them because their people have died out due to that violence. JoT preserves cultural artifacts for its own use at the same time it directly contributes to the need for that preservation in the first place.
- the matter-of-fact way in which this is narrated to us gives us information about JoT’s stance on respect and imperialism - that is, contrasted with other characters who look down on the conquered cultures, JoT does actually seem to appreciate their value. and yet it communicates to us no sense of remorse over its role in their genocide.
- singing can be a communal activity. this allows us to feel the difference between one esk’s multiple bodies singing together in harmony/in a round vs. breq singing alone. this has emotional weight, is an evocative image, and illustrates quite nicely some of the logistic considerations of having one vs. multiple bodies.
- the constant humming/singing is extremely notable and idiosyncratic according to other characters, which is a dangerous combination for someone who’s supposed to be undercover, so it adds a lil bit of fun suspense for us.
- the fact that no one ever figures out breq’s identity despite this giveaway tells us something about the other characters’ attitudes towards artificial intelligences (though see below about seivarden).
- the fact that it’s so idiosyncratic also tells us something about the ability of individual AIs to have personalities that distinguish them from other AIs, and the fact that one esk sings constantly but two esk doesn’t tells us something about the ability of different ancillary decades that are all part of the same AI to have distinguishing characteristics. this is very relevant to, and illustrative of, the series’ thematic throughlines around identity, personality, continuity, etc.
- the fact that breq personally has a bad voice also serves multiple purposes. because breq and seivarden both believe that the medic could have chosen a body with a good voice if she had wanted to, we can infer something about how ancillary bodies work, how much the AI (and, by extension, its medics) knows about the individual capabilities of those bodies while they’re in suspension, and what kinds of things the AI can and can’t control once it has unfrozen and taken over a body.
- we can also draw conclusions about the medic that chose that body and about intracrew relations on that ship.
- breq’s bad voice creates moments of humor and irony in the narrative, such as when breq’s constant singing - aka the most obvious clue that she is one esk - is precisely what makes seivarden so sure that breq can’t be one esk, because no esk medic would use a body with a bad voice for an ancillary.
- constant singing/humming imposes itself on the shared soundscape, meaning other people can’t easily avoid it and it has the potential to annoy them, especially if the voice itself has annoying qualities. the reactions of other characters to the frequency and/or quality of this verbal tic tells us something about the level of affection those characters have for one esk or breq.
- because singing involves words, the meaning of the lyrics being sung can be used to advance the plot, communicate things about specific characters, create irony in juxtaposition with what’s happening on the page, etc.
- i especially like what’s done with the lyric “it all goes around”. it’s woven throughout the story in such a way as to manifest its own meaning (the repetition of “it all goes around” is, itself, an example of something going around). by repeating the lyric, breq is the one making it true, and i would argue that her repetition of this particular lyric about things orbiting other things contributes to, and/or is a sign of, her growing understanding of the necessity/reality of interdependence and her place in that framework/her role in constructing it, or in other words, the extent of her own agency and the rights and obligations it confers upon her.
- because the singing/humming is a constant, background, automatic action, it only ceases when breq is experiencing a strong emotion. from this we are able to infer things about the emotional state of our famously-omits-details-about-her-emotional-state narrator based on other characters’ comments about whether or not she is currently doing this thing.
- we also aren’t even aware that breq is doing it constantly until another character says so. on a narrative level, this serves the dual purpose of making sure we know about how much she hums AND of reminding us that she’s not telling us everything.
- the humming is not mentioned constantly even though it is happening constantly - this helps us forget in between mentions that it’s going on while also simultaneously reinforcing just how constant it must be, so constant that to mention it every time it happens would be like narrating every time she breathes in or out. whenever someone brings it up, we are reminded anew that something has been happening all along that we forgot about. this means that ann leckie is able, by leaving information out, to hammer home to us how much we are not being told.
through this one character trait, ann leckie efficiently and elegantly communicates not just aspects of character but also of setting, plot, tone, theme, and narrative. there’s no extraneous exposition just to tell us about the song collection or singing; everything that tells us about it is serving other functions in the narrative as well. the ways in which she manifests this one character trait in the universe and in the narrative contribute to and exemplify both the story itself and the method of its telling.
bed of rice sounds like the coziest place to be
^ wet phone mentality
french accents arent real dude they invented those for disco elysium
breq agonizing silently over “taking advantage” of mercy of kalr when in reality it had been metaphorically doodling hearts around “captain breq + mercy of kalr” in its notebook for weeks
okay you know that one game you’d play on the playground with friends where one person was designated as the “watcher” and everyone had to move around when the watcher wasn’t looking, and freeze if they were? and if the watcher caught you moving you were out of the game?
what do you call this game???
night at the museum
statues in the garden
ghost in the graveyard
other (explain in tags)
i do not know this game/see results
please rb for sample size 💔💔
rating actual medieval names i have found as a medieval studies student but they get progressively more unhinged:
- William de Appeltrefeld: 8/10 bc appeltrefeld sounds like a nice place to live. who wouldnt want to live in a field full of apple trees? points deducted cause there are like fifty bajillion williams in england
- Luke de Luka, merchant of Luca: 6/10. ur parents really werent creative huh
- Hugh de Wlonkeslowe: 7/10. looks like a straight person trying to keyboard smash. *laughs in english place names*
- Roger Smert: 10/10 absolute banger of a name. does it make any sense? absolutely not! but you guys. i dont think you understand. smert!!
- John de la Bro: 7/10. when ur such a bro that its literally ur name and 800 years in the future its all people know of u
- Hugh Sad: 7/10. weve all been there buddy
- Gaylarde de la Mote: 10/10. slay. i bet this guys mote was the gayest mote youve ever seen
- Hugh de la Penne: 9/10. we stan a pasta man
- Richard de Astlegh: 10/10. verily, he shall ne'er give thee up, ne'er let thee down, nor shall he run with great haste and desert thee, he shall ne'er cause thee to weep, ne'er bid you farewell, ne'er shall he speak wicked falshoods in thine ear or cause thee harm
- Bindo Hug: 8/10. who is this man a hobbit???
- Eudo la Zusche: 6/10. deadass sounds like something youd see in a really bad fantasy novel
- William crisp: 7/10. w h a t.
- Asser son of Licoriz: 7/10 there is so much going on here i dont even know what to tell you
- Baldwin Panik: 10/10 cause this is a heckin mood
- Richard Cok, aka Dick Cok: 69/10. nice.
Why am I crying? Oh, no reason, just thinking about how if Katniss hadn’t volunteered for Prim, Peeta’s answer to Ceaser’s last question might have been, “Well there is this one girl, but I don’t think winning will help much in that case, because she would probably want her little sister back instead.”
fun fact about me is i actually have some experience moderating all-ages online spaces so whenever i log on a public server and see the mods butchering their one fucking job with a mildly annoying socially awkward teenager i just want to kill them with rocks 10000 years okay? ^_^ 💥
I don’t know brother i feel like a space that allows 14 year olds in it should require by default that its moderators know how to de-escalete conflicts and reason with children who are still learning how to appropriately coexist in a social space but maybe i am wrong OH WELL. agree to disagree. by the way i am lowering you into the Acid Pit Now buh bye
Oh, you think seagulls are “fuelled by spite”? What a bold, insightful take, untainted by recieved wisdom and pop culture. Do you also think owls are wise and snakes are evil?
milk is neat because its the only drink i can think of where you desperately want it cold and yet it would be unthinkable to put ice cubes in. a delicate limbo. a yuri of abscence. this post is nothing but you can look at it if youd like