8 Bookmarks
List of Bookmarks
-
Bread and Circuses by Fontainebleau for JeannetteRankin
Fandoms: Biting the Sun - Tanith Lee
17 Dec 2021
Tags
Summary
Of course when the desert-dweller came to Four BOO it was the only story on the flashes for half a vrek. The first time it came on I was shopping with Vert at Silver Pyramid and everyone stopped what they were doing to stare at the screens; I was so distracted that I dropped the handful of platinum discs I was holding and they went rolling and bouncing all over the concourse so I had to pay for them all.
I’d heard the story of the Trial and the Exiles, the ones who live in the desert: it’s something you learn when you start being Jang. Idan said there used to be Picture-Vision of the first Exile and her garden, but the Q-Rs stopped showing it and now no one seemed to know much about the desert people, just that they lived outside in the sand and stones with no wave-net to protect them from lava or wild animals, and no food dispensers or clothing machines or anything. But here he was, an actual male desert-dweller, come back to live in the city.
-
Bookmark Collections:
Bookmark Notes:
I idly clicked on this story because I have fond memories of reading these books, and the fact that I say books should clue you in as to how long ago it was that I read them, early 80s I think, but once I started I couldn't stop, because it all came flooding back to me! I was entranced by your perfect Lee voice, the casual Jang slang (which again, all came back to me!) and even more so, the Jang perspective, all extravagantly beautiful bodies and clothing (and derisann little horns!), and mandated fun (with Sense Distortion to recover when fun's no fun any more). And best of all, all these trappings are in service of a truly excellent story, with a thoughtful theme and clever expression.
The fish-out-of-water plot here is particularly delightful because it's sort of a reversal of the usual trope. The point is not the adjustment of the stranger, but the effect the stranger has on the well-adjusted people who come to realize that perhaps their hermetically sealed utopia is not so perfect after all (which of course is Lee's theme in canon), that things (easts, hee!) don't grow and thrive without openness and uncertainty and possibility. The little hints of Kallis's growth are lovely, from her wondering about lesbian love to her decision to help Rain escape the dome, and the ending metaphor is of course perfect and made my eyes tear up a bit. Well done!
-
Bookmark Notes:
post-canon ideas