FOREIGNER: Discussion Post #4

[krait]

I hope you enjoyed chapters 5 & 6, in which even more excitement finds Bren...

Discuss away! Has your view on anything changed? Do you have new suspicions or insights? Things you're hoping will happen, or hoping won't come to pass?

Comments

further thoughts!

[krait]

5. Are atevi really so direct-minded, or are they masters of giving the verbal runaround? The number of times Bren -- a trained linguist and diplomat -- has been "misunderstood" in ways that keep his questions from being answered is awfully high for just six chapters! "Doing what, nadi? I don't think the aiji-ji has a thing to do with hardwares in Maidingi" indeed, Banichi!

6. Random things I really love:

>>> Breath failed him. Self-control did. He flung it all out. "Banichi, I'd walk a thousand miles to have a kind word from you. I'd give you the shirt from my back if you needed it; if you were in trouble, I'd carry you a thousand miles. What do you call that? Foolish?"

Another flaring of Banichi's nostrils. "That would be very difficult for you."

"So is liking atevi." That got out before he censored it. "Baji-naji. It's the luck I have.


I can't help feeling so strongly for Bren, his frustration and his knowledge that even an ateva speaking Mosphei' and a human speaking Ragi can't bridge this one essential difference. D:

>>> "[...]We have to like somebody, we're bound to like somebody, or we die, Banichi, we outright die. We make appointments with grandmothers, we drink the cups strangers offer us, and we don't ask for help anymore, banichi, what's the damned point, when you don't see what we need?"

"If I don't guess what you like, you threaten to ruin my reputation. Is this accurate?"

I LOVE this bit! All the frustration and the lack of vocabulary and the yearning come through so strongly for me here! The way "we need another person to like, or we die [of despondency]" becomes "we require objects/foods that we like, or we disregard the efforts of others to keep us alive and allow them to be dishonoured" is really just... the giant faultline in the atevi-human foundation stone.