[Mrs. Cadvan]

Great idea for a thread - I've just come back from two weeks in France and was alarmed to find how much the forum has grown in my absence!! :eek: I've spent all morning trying to catch up on the threads!

So here's my first question to the Great One (and might I just add at this point, that the prohibitation of any questions concerning M&C's future love life had me hard pressed to think of another topic :D ) But never mind, I hope this question isn't too risque, if so please do disipline me severely :D :

Q: I believe you mentioned (albeit a loong time ago) that the culture of Edil-Amarandh was a fairy erotic one. Could you perhaps elaborate on this description? For example, how would things such as sex outside of marriage be perceived? Is there a strong emphasis on chastity, or perhaps on the contrary - are bards promiscuous people? Are there brothels in Edil-Amarandh? And does Cadvan frequent them? :D

[Bridie]

very interesting question mrs.c. pineapple from what i gather yes the crow is from saliman and hem's perspective-its set at the same time as the riddle and is their side of the story.

[-Pineapple-]

Thanks. :D

[alison]

Q: I believe you mentioned (albeit a loong time ago) that the culture of Edil-Amarandh was a fairy erotic one. Could you perhaps elaborate on this description? For example, how would things such as sex outside of marriage be perceived? Is there a strong emphasis on chastity, or perhaps on the contrary - are bards promiscuous people? Are there brothels in Edil-Amarandh? And does Cadvan frequent them?

Hi Mrs C - hope your holiday was a good one! Interesting question...the answer's actually quite complicated.

If I remember correctly, there's a small note in the appendices in The Gift about the erotic culture of the Bards, which is fairly sophisticated. (Not a fairy one as in your typo :D ) Silvia glances on it in a conversation with Maerad early on, when she says something like: "Among Bards it is different than among other people - partly it's because we are so long lived..." What she means is that although marriage and monogamy are by no means unknown among Bards - Maerad's parents are one example, Silvia and Malgorn another - it is not necessarily considered the norm, since it could mean a marriage of 200 years, and most Bards will have several significant partners during their lifetimes. They would not think in terms of either chastity or promiscuity, and would not judge the sexual behaviour of others in such ways. And Bards - as can be seen by their love of good food and wine - are very into pleasure.

However, Bards don't believe simply in hedonistic pleasure, which by their way of thinking can't but become empty and meaningless and ultimately degrading. Like everything, it's all part of the metaphysic of the Balance. They believe in something they call the Way of the Heart, linking love with enlightenment and self knowledge. The Way of the Heart - developed mostly in Turbansk, although all the Bardic Schools saw it as part of the Balance - is rather similar to the mediaeval love theology of Bernard de Clarivaux, only more literal (Bards are also pragmatically minded) or the mystic love of the Sufis.

So, to answer your last question: no, brothels don't exist among Bards. They would regard them with horror, not in any prurient sense, but because to them the idea of exchanging money for sex would seem to them to be a dreadful reduction of the self, a tragic lessening of the potentiality of being.

[Mrs. Cadvan]

Thanks for the reply - that shed a lot of light on the situation! But au contraire - I actually was referring to fairy erotica :D ...Damn dirty keyboards! :D

[Miss Brightside]

What are your favourite novels? And did you use any ideas/similar plotlines in your own books?

[whitesilkbreeze]

Not directly related to Pellinor, but I'm curious - Have you always wanted to be a poet/writer or did you toy with the idea of another profession, say, a culinary chef in outer space?

Also, if I have it right, music is considered the best form of expressing truth, knowledge, the Balance, e.t.c. Is there a particular reason why it is music that is closest to expressing this harmony of the world, and not another art form like painting, for example?

What do you personally feel about music in this world? (Do you happen to play any instruments?)

[Jaffa]

are the books set in a whole new world or just a different land?

why did you choose maerads instrument to be a lyre rather than say a violin or a flute etc?

[alison]

Hi Miss Brightside - welcome!

What are your favourite novels? And did you use any ideas/similar plotlines in your own books?

It's difficult to say what my favourite novels are - I actually have a lot of favourite novels, and it's probably fair to say that elements of many of them make their way into my books. I've mentioned Tolkien and Le Guin, who are important to The Gift, and Dostoevsky, who is a master of dramatic narrative. But really there are a lot of influences and they're woven into my own experiences, which is as important (tough of course I have never lived in Edil-Amarandh, I know what it's like to feel lonely, or to be a misfit, or to love). A film called Ivan's Childhood by the Russian film maker, Andrei Tarkovsky, was quite important for the character of Hem in the next book.

I think when a novelist influences me, what I take, more than anything else, is their technique, how they tell the story, how they structure the narrative. Technique does fascinate me...

Have you always wanted to be a poet/writer or did you toy with the idea of another profession, say, a culinary chef in outer space?

I wanted to be a poet from the age of about ten. Then my father told me that it wasn't a very practical profession (he was perfectly correct) so when I left school I became a journalist for a few years.

Also, if I have it right, music is considered the best form of expressing truth, knowledge, the Balance, e.t.c. Is there a particular reason why it is music that is closest to expressing this harmony of the world, and not another art form like painting, for example?

It's an old idea, not just mind ("music is the condition to which all art aspires") - I suppose I like it because music is something that exists in time, like language does, and because it isn't tied down by semantic meaning, like words are, so it can be a mystic thing.

What do you personally feel about music in this world? (Do you happen to play any instruments?)

I enjoy music, but am desperately unmusical. No, I don't play any instruments...

Hi Jaffa -

are the books set in a whole new world or just a different land?

I've chosen to set them in this world, in some non-specific ancient history. Partly because it's more fun to do so, and partly because then I can just use our years and seasons, familiar trees, etc.

why did you choose maerads instrument to be a lyre rather than say a violin or a flute etc?

To be honest, I really can't remember - the lyre just turned up with Maerad. But probably because the lyre is the instrument of the poet, and is one of the most ancient instruments there is.

[Tari]

A film called Ivan's Childhood by the Russian film maker, Andrei Tarkovsky, was quite important for the character of Hem in the next book.

Do you know how many people are now going to go lookng for that film?! Lol. :rolleyes:

Going back on the music thing. If you could play any instrument what would you play? do have a specific instrument you like the sound of?

~ Tari