On Fri, 29 Aug 2003, David Silberstein wrote: > On Thu, 28 Aug 2003, Philip Hart wrote: > > >On Thu, 28 Aug 2003, David Silberstein wrote: > > > >> > >> >> I don't know if this has been commented on yet, but at the end of > >> >> _TLOCB_ Chapter 64, Grassfog and Iatha have a conversation about > >> >> "the social niceties" and belonging. It occurs to me that while > >> >> Grassfog is probably male (pg. 161), and at least one of Thong > >> >> and Iatha is probably female (pg. 131), there's a fair chance that > >> >> Grassfog and Iatha are a same-sex couple. > >> > > > > >> But you could also go back and check when Grassfog & Iatha are > >> introduced, when they have slid down the ropes, and see that Grassfog > >> is male and Iatha is female. So they are almost certainly just a > >> mixed-house couple. > > > >Nice try to kill my beautiful theory with an inconvenient fact, David > >- but you've failed miserably (I hope). > > You might take into consideration the possiblity of constructing your > theories on a somewhat more solid foundation, as the Vallista might > say, and to continue the metaphor somewhat, using materials that have > a certain weight and heft to them, and using structual designs that > layer said materials one upon the other in the approved fashion. > > Not that I've ever let that stop *me*, As above with "almost certainly just a mixed-house couple". > but nevertheless. ... > > > Piro's band includes Grassfog, Iatha, Ritt, and Belly. The last > >two could be a gay couple. > > Bah! And one might secretly be Mario, and the other the reincarnation > of Empress Undauntra. > > On what basis do you pretend that that particular notion is even > vaguely related to anything remotely resembling contextual fact? > > > > > And the first two could come, not just from the same House, but > >from the same house, if you catch my drift... > > > > I must again ask from where you think this to be even slightly > probable given the evidence we actually in point of fact have to work > with? Well, no doubt I did a poor (an even worse than usual?) job of projecting tone (which I recently saw defined as the writer's attitude to what he is writing) yesterday - passing myself off as a shark expert by accident, failing to clearly laugh at my readiness to change my theory midair. On the other hand, Paarfi does go to some trouble to end an eventful chapter on a discussion about "the social niceties", hence throwing said discussion into a certain dramatic relief and ruining Piro's exit. (Perhaps "casting" instead of "throwing"? Any sculptors out there?) And though Paarfi on occasion bores me, SKZB doesn't (well, excepting the painting portions of The Sun etc.) So since it would be boring for Grassfog/Iatha (who it should be noted speak full-bore Paarfian) to be a mixed-house couple, and since Ritt/Belly can't be such a couple without further being male/male, I hence conclude that something's up. What exactly that something is (and while incest between Dragaerans strikes me as slightly less icky than among humans but still icky) perhaps SKZB is too clever for me to follow, but I don't feel entirely unconfident. Still on the same hand, I think it's about time for a little more info about homosexuality in the Dragaeran universe to come out - as far as I recall, it's just Kiera being weirded out (to her surprise I think) about Vlad's suggestion that Savn is his catamite. We must have met a hundred Dragaerans by now and a few of them are likely gay if the human conditions still hold - and how their society views this fact (or, in case heterosexuality is the exclusive rule among Dragaerans, how they feel about this difference from Easterners) would be useful to know.