wolfmaid7! I think this is the first time you've *liked* one of my posts!
I've liked quite a few including your Miasma essay if i recall.I really dug "A Song for Lya" this would make a nice movie or a great episode of Outer Limits
Definitely themes familiar to ASOIAF in a few ways particularly the symbiotic relationships.I loved the element of psychic investigators.The interaction between Robb and Lya very complex.
Great story.
"The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes"--Sherlock Holmes"
I really dug "A Song for Lya" this would make a nice movie or a great episode of Outer Limits
It really would. And the world in which it takes place would translate really well to the screen. A swampier version of the moon of Endor, where the Ewoks are far more peaceful.
Definitely themes familiar to ASOIAF in a few ways particularly the symbiotic relationships.I loved the element of psychic investigators.The interaction between Robb and Lya very complex.
Wonderful interaction. If you dig complex relationships, you can't beat GRRM's first novel Dying of the Light. I'll start a thread on it. I really can't imagine a more complicated relationship. It is an ingenius construct that bends the bounds of what we consider marriage and fidelity, set in a world facing a Long Night.
For reals. It fits in pretty well with my Weirwood Ghost theory too I think, and the idea that rather than greenseers being to blame for man's self destruction, that the trees themselves are driving man to self-destruct.
"I can see it. You have more of the north in you than your brothers."
That really sucks. I hope you get better soon. If you are bored, you can listen to audio books, it is not as good as reading, but a story is a story, better than nothing.
They will sound VERY familiar, as ASOIAF repeats them (at times, even verbatim). Hope you're feeling back to normal soon!
Thanks, voice! Although I read them when they were just posted in the reading club, this new format is better, with the stories separated. So started by listening to "Song for Lya" last night. :-)
Thanks, voice! Although I read them when they were just posted in the reading club, this new format is better, with the stories separated. So started by listening to "Song for Lya" last night. :-)
A Song for Lya is one of the best in the group. Dying of the Light is too, but it's rather long. Bitterblooms and A Song for Lya are probably my two favorite-favorites. I could listen to the woman who reads Bitterblooms all day. (and have ) LOL
"I can see it. You have more of the north in you than your brothers."
Thanks, voice! Although I read them when they were just posted in the reading club, this new format is better, with the stories separated. So started by listening to "Song for Lya" last night. :-)
A Song for Lya is one of the best in the group. Dying of the Light is too, but it's rather long. Bitterblooms and A Song for Lya are probably my two favorite-favorites. I could listen to the woman who reads Bitterblooms all day. (and have ) LOL
The man who reads Lya reminds me of my dad. I find myself tuning out, lol!
Bitterblooms is a great story and wonderfully read. The woman who reads it does a great job with the voices and with emotion.
I'm going to move these posts to the "Song for Lya" thread so we can discuss in more detail once you're finished!
I'm at the part where Lya is upset that no-one can hear her thoughts, and so doesn't feel that she can be known. She of course can hear thoughts, but refuses to do so because it's rude. Maybe she should listen to the rest of humanity being alone in their heads and misunderstood while drunk or stoned at age 19 or so. Or have a conversation with someone. Grr. Grrm and his whiny teenage mean girls. Not that empath-Robb is much help. "You know, Lya, everyone feels lonely. I should know, I'm an empath. Let's have sex!" Grr. Grrm and his horny teenage emo-boys. LOL, how am I doing, voice?
Alright, I'm done now. The last 30 minutes were quite good. So many parallels to the CotF, I thought. And Dino, walled off from emotion and faith, yet such a good administrative figure: haven't we met him before?
@morrigansraven, If anything I see the Greeshka as more of a parallel to the weirwodds than the CotF. But I'm not sure if that's right or not. The Shkeen do protect the Greeshka similarly to the way that the CotF protect the weirnet. In the end Robb decides that this isn't meant for him or humankind, thinking that something bigger and better is out there for humans, even though the draw is there and quite strong. Is the same thing true for humans and the weirnet. Or is the parallel the use of magic in general?
Why must I always be the isle of crazy alone in an ocean of sensibility? The should to everybody else’s shouldn’t? The I-will to their better-nots?
So voice, what makes this one stand out to you more: the Humans? Or the Grishka?
Both! We have a religious conversion of Men to "gods" that are a part of the world itself, and that by so wedding (final union), they forego all individuality and purpose in the name of peace and trancendence. It's really a expertly done critique of all religious expriences, as well as trancendent drug use. Brilliant stuff.
GRRM was a hippy, beyond a doubt, but was smart enough to see that it was only its own form of orthodoxy. It was just a neo-orthodoxy.
The Humans, two with the gift, are affected in vastly different ways by the Greeshka/Shkeen. Lya seems more like Bran (and who knows, maybe Lyanna... too trusting?), and Robb seems more like Jon Snow (hesitant, watchful, trusting, but not too much so).
Best quote in the book, imo:
"And Union, well, it's wrong to compare it to human sacrifice, just wrong. The Old Earth religions sacrificed one or two unwilling victims to appease their gods. Killed a handful to get mercy for the millions. And the handful generally protested. The Shkeen don't work it that way. The Greeshka takes everyone. And they go willingly. Like lemmings they march off to the caves to be eaten alive by those parasites. Every Shkeen is Joined at forty, and goes to Final Union before he's fifty."
Rather than be every cotf, only "greenseers" wed the weirwoods in ASOIAF, so he's made it a bit less like brain-washing.
But for me, the message in A Song for Lya is clear: the parasitic plants offer blissful euphoria in exchange for turning them into plantfood.
Morrigan, If anything I see the Greeshka as more of a parallel to the weirwodds than the CotF. But I'm not sure if that's right or not. The Shkeen do protect the Greeshka similarly to the way that the CotF protect the weirnet.
I too think that the Greeshka=Weirwoods. The cotf do not force men into the weirnet, the weirnet itself does. The cotf/Shkeen don't care about much and are not actively seeking men for any purpose, but they do have a communal reverence that seems to make them complacent in whatever schemes the Greeshka=Weirwood might have.
Cat can sense it:
"There are darker things beyond the Wall." She glanced behind her at the heart tree, the pale bark and red eyes, watching, listening, thinking its long slow thoughts.
People seem to glance right past the faculty of weirwoods and focus upon the humanoid race that dwells among them, but that is a mistake methinks.
In the end Robb decides that this isn't meant for him or humankind, thinking that something bigger and better is out there for humans, even though the draw is there and quite strong. Is the same thing true for humans and the weirnet. Or is the parallel the use of magic in general?
The sense of a godhead might be a side effect from Greeshka exposure, but I can't help but think GRRM wants us to ask these very questions on a personal level. He seems like a realist who wants to believe, and is trying to convince himself, and his readers, why they should... and shouldn't.
"I can see it. You have more of the north in you than your brothers."
@morrigansraven, If anything I see the Greeshka as more of a parallel to the weirwodds than the CotF. But I'm not sure if that's right or not. The Shkeen do protect the Greeshka similarly to the way that the CotF protect the weirnet. In the end Robb decides that this isn't meant for him or humankind, thinking that something bigger and better is out there for humans, even though the draw is there and quite strong. Is the same thing true for humans and the weirnet. Or is the parallel the use of magic in general?
Lady Dyanna, I think the humans already have magic (Talent). The Greeshka also have magic like the weirwoods, in that they give memories a place to live in exchange for your body. We don't see the Shkeen or the Children practice magic: isn't that interesting?
voice, do you think GRRM distrusts all of religion, or do you think he is just trying to point out the downside? You could make a Jonestown point with your quote above.