[Dragaera] Tiassa [nothing but spoilers]

[Philip Hart]

On Sat, 2 Apr 2011, Patrick Spinler wrote:

> On 4/2/11 2:03 AM, Philip Hart wrote:
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>> I quite liked the Cawti/Daro scenes.  I have to wonder if Daro will be
>> moved to learn a bit more than nothing (maybe that's unfair, but I'm
>> with Cawti here) about what's going on in the parts of the city where
>> she doesn't spend much time.  I'm a little surprised actually that she
>> is apparently so unfamiliar with such a large group of inhabitants of
>> her county (and presumably Teckla issues as well), given the very recent
>> upsets - and also Cawti herself has been at a lot of Morrolan's parties
>> not to mention being best friends with the Heir, which would one might
>> think make her known to Whitecrest.
>
> I think this is a really good example of narrator bias.  Parfi throws in
> several obviously lines about one character or another being disgusted
> with easterners.

IIRC, Savn is rather disconcerted by Vlad's body hair.  Which, well, I can 
imagine happening - consider what roboticists call the unseelie (oops, 
google says "uncanny") valley.  And I can well imagine the attitude about 
cleanliness etc. being routine from pervasive human examples.

Paarfi is certainly about the message though - that being Dragaeran 
society and the Other.  Interhouse attraction is if anything the exception 
in his writing.  Aliera/Mario, Khaavren/Illista, Tazendra/Aerich, 
Piro/Ibronka/Neritha, Pel/anything in a skirt (actually I don't recall any 
same-gender couples in Paarfi, interestingly), the Empress/Warlock, two 
of the bandits (though of course this is a biased sample)), etc. etc., and 
of course many of the major villains being crossbreeds (also a central 
point of _Jhereg_).

> Ergo, I take what he narrates about Cawti and Daro with a pretty big
> grain of salt.

I don't know - despite the previous paragraph, I'm inclined to not 
consider this reason to distrust the narrative.  I suspect we'll see more 
about this given Khaavren's hint at the end of the Text, esp. since it 
provokes such emotion from Vlad.