Winter's king - the Void Ghost (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} gethenian) wrote,@ 2007-09-18 06:33:00 |
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GIP!
New default.
Genly and Therem from the cover of a translation of LHoD in a language I cannot recognize. But the illustration is faithful to canon! For some reason, it makes me very happy that you can see from the cover of the book that the main character is black and Therem is dark-skinned. And it also makes me happy that Therem is in front. And he's SHORTER THAN GENLY. And they're wearing white pesthry-fur. Um yay. Attention to detail ftw.
Also, I am trying to make a playlist for LHoD stuff. Characters, theme, whatever. I'm not sure anyone who reads my journal has actually read this book. That's fine. But I'm looking for songs that are bleak and wintery and subtle and complex. Or just... thematically fitting. Thus far, the playlist consists of primarily the following:
Reach for the Light -- yes, I know it is the themesong from Balto. It's also LHoD. I said so.
Possession (Sarah McLachlan) - This song is very Therem/Genly, particularly from Therem's POV. It suits him. It has this quiet, even repetition of melody, simple, soft, gentle, and that same unassuming gentleness saying "And I would be the one to hold you down, kiss you so hard it takes your breath away..." The tone of the singer in that line is so very hushed and almost reverent, it takes you a moment to process what she just said and go WAIT WHUT. And that's very Therem. He quite clearly has this incredibly intense love for Arek, and for Ashe, and for his children, but it only comes through in negatives -- he expresses it only in a desire to hide it, or a passing mention as something not there. One gradually builds something like a shadow-concept of this great passion of Therem's -- by groping in the dark and paying close attention lest one misses the hints between the lines. Therem, it seems, is as deeply passionate a lover as ever there was -- and yet, he is so starkly reserved, it's difficult to imagine. But then one remembers -- the shape of his whole life has been driven by his love for Arek. He left Estre for Arek's sake, and for their son's. He writes to his son in canon -- one gets the impression that he does so regularly. When Genly bespeaks him using telepathy, he hears Arek's voice. The last word he speaks as he dies is his brother's name.
Digression: I really love the Therem/Genly thing in canon. Le Guin makes it VERY VERY VERY CLEAR that they were never sexual partners when Therem was in kemmer, but also makes clear that this was a rational decision on their part, and has Genly wondering if they were right to decide it. It's a beautiful relationship they have. It's a kind of love we have no word for. It is what we would call "platonic" by necessary default -- Genly is apparently straight, and though Therem has no gender at all most of the time, Genly can't seem to wholly separate himself from thinking of Therem as male. And yet, the love is there. The sexual tension is there. The DESIRE was there, clearly, or there would have been no need to make a decision and communicate it for the sake of record. It's so delightfully complicated.
And a part of me wonders if there might not be some curious future in which Genly/Sorve develops. It makes sense, certainly: Sorve, Genly says, is very much like his father, and just as close to Genly's age -- which in canon is given by Therem as "not yet thirty." Sorve is 19 or 20 when Genly meets him, and Therem in his mid-late 30's. (Since Sorve was the child of Therem and his brother, whom he must have joined in kemmering from a very young age, it is likely Therem was still a teenager when Sorve was born. Furthermore, it is told that Gethenians cease to be fertile in the female form at about age 40, and will no longer go into kemmer as female for the last few years before they become unable to reproduce. Since Therem goes into kemmer as female with Genly, he is clearly under 40.)
[/DIGRESSION]
Also on my playlist I have a handful of songs that came up when I entered "light and darkness" and "winter" into the search. They are all fairly generic and uninspiring. Then also I tossed in Fraser's Inuit soliloquy from Due South, which seemed fitting. I also have "I Will Follow You Into The Dark" by Death Cab For Cutie, and "In The Sun" by Joseph Arthur. I have "Treason" by Kalai for the bit where it says "I may be sleeping with my eyes closed, but I'll be dreaming with my mind wide open. And you became my brother, and you became my friend..." which just sums up the scene where Genly manages for the first time to contact Therem through mindspeech, reaching him as he is about to fall asleep, and Therem hears the voice of Arek, and that is when Genly begins calling him Therem instead of Harth.
I also lobbed onto the list this song called "Beyond The Dark Sun" by Wintersun. It's kinda metal-sounding. I only put it in because it sounds like what would happen if Grover the muppet joined a heavy metal band, and it reminds me of Tibe. I confess that I have yet to be able to listen to it all the way through, because it's loud and annoys me.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it, and now because my parents keep appearing and asking me if I've gone insane, I'm going to go to sleep for a while. Apparently it's been long enough since the last time I stayed up until past dawn drawing that they've forgotten my tendency to do that when I get into an artsy phase.
New default.
Genly and Therem from the cover of a translation of LHoD in a language I cannot recognize. But the illustration is faithful to canon! For some reason, it makes me very happy that you can see from the cover of the book that the main character is black and Therem is dark-skinned. And it also makes me happy that Therem is in front. And he's SHORTER THAN GENLY. And they're wearing white pesthry-fur. Um yay. Attention to detail ftw.
Also, I am trying to make a playlist for LHoD stuff. Characters, theme, whatever. I'm not sure anyone who reads my journal has actually read this book. That's fine. But I'm looking for songs that are bleak and wintery and subtle and complex. Or just... thematically fitting. Thus far, the playlist consists of primarily the following:
Reach for the Light -- yes, I know it is the themesong from Balto. It's also LHoD. I said so.
Possession (Sarah McLachlan) - This song is very Therem/Genly, particularly from Therem's POV. It suits him. It has this quiet, even repetition of melody, simple, soft, gentle, and that same unassuming gentleness saying "And I would be the one to hold you down, kiss you so hard it takes your breath away..." The tone of the singer in that line is so very hushed and almost reverent, it takes you a moment to process what she just said and go WAIT WHUT. And that's very Therem. He quite clearly has this incredibly intense love for Arek, and for Ashe, and for his children, but it only comes through in negatives -- he expresses it only in a desire to hide it, or a passing mention as something not there. One gradually builds something like a shadow-concept of this great passion of Therem's -- by groping in the dark and paying close attention lest one misses the hints between the lines. Therem, it seems, is as deeply passionate a lover as ever there was -- and yet, he is so starkly reserved, it's difficult to imagine. But then one remembers -- the shape of his whole life has been driven by his love for Arek. He left Estre for Arek's sake, and for their son's. He writes to his son in canon -- one gets the impression that he does so regularly. When Genly bespeaks him using telepathy, he hears Arek's voice. The last word he speaks as he dies is his brother's name.
Digression: I really love the Therem/Genly thing in canon. Le Guin makes it VERY VERY VERY CLEAR that they were never sexual partners when Therem was in kemmer, but also makes clear that this was a rational decision on their part, and has Genly wondering if they were right to decide it. It's a beautiful relationship they have. It's a kind of love we have no word for. It is what we would call "platonic" by necessary default -- Genly is apparently straight, and though Therem has no gender at all most of the time, Genly can't seem to wholly separate himself from thinking of Therem as male. And yet, the love is there. The sexual tension is there. The DESIRE was there, clearly, or there would have been no need to make a decision and communicate it for the sake of record. It's so delightfully complicated.
And a part of me wonders if there might not be some curious future in which Genly/Sorve develops. It makes sense, certainly: Sorve, Genly says, is very much like his father, and just as close to Genly's age -- which in canon is given by Therem as "not yet thirty." Sorve is 19 or 20 when Genly meets him, and Therem in his mid-late 30's. (Since Sorve was the child of Therem and his brother, whom he must have joined in kemmering from a very young age, it is likely Therem was still a teenager when Sorve was born. Furthermore, it is told that Gethenians cease to be fertile in the female form at about age 40, and will no longer go into kemmer as female for the last few years before they become unable to reproduce. Since Therem goes into kemmer as female with Genly, he is clearly under 40.)
[/DIGRESSION]
Also on my playlist I have a handful of songs that came up when I entered "light and darkness" and "winter" into the search. They are all fairly generic and uninspiring. Then also I tossed in Fraser's Inuit soliloquy from Due South, which seemed fitting. I also have "I Will Follow You Into The Dark" by Death Cab For Cutie, and "In The Sun" by Joseph Arthur. I have "Treason" by Kalai for the bit where it says "I may be sleeping with my eyes closed, but I'll be dreaming with my mind wide open. And you became my brother, and you became my friend..." which just sums up the scene where Genly manages for the first time to contact Therem through mindspeech, reaching him as he is about to fall asleep, and Therem hears the voice of Arek, and that is when Genly begins calling him Therem instead of Harth.
I also lobbed onto the list this song called "Beyond The Dark Sun" by Wintersun. It's kinda metal-sounding. I only put it in because it sounds like what would happen if Grover the muppet joined a heavy metal band, and it reminds me of Tibe. I confess that I have yet to be able to listen to it all the way through, because it's loud and annoys me.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it, and now because my parents keep appearing and asking me if I've gone insane, I'm going to go to sleep for a while. Apparently it's been long enough since the last time I stayed up until past dawn drawing that they've forgotten my tendency to do that when I get into an artsy phase.
