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Mairelon the Magician and Jane Austen's Persuasion

Today I finished Jane Austen's novel Persuasion.

It wasn't as engaging as I expected from the synopsis, and includes perhaps the most extreme example of passive-aggressive nonsense I've ever heard of.
Anne is visiting her friend Mrs. Smith, who congratulates her on her anticipated marriage to Mr. Elliot and how happy she will be. Anne tells Mrs. Smith she will not marry Mr. Elliot, no way, no how. Mrs. Smith then admits of how Mr. Elliot isn't as gentlemanly as he seems and how he did her a great wrong in the past.

And she would have let her innocent friend marry this jerk? 'If she doesn't know, I'm not going to tell her?' I know Mrs. Smith is the opposite of other characters in the book who are a bit too free with the advice, but that's craaaazy.


What I admire are writers who can craft an interesting plot and intriguing characters without clubbing us over the head with trauma. Take a book like Mairelon the Magician, a modern work of Regency fantasy. Mairelon is on good terms with his parents, who are still living. He doesn't get on with his brother, but it's not a big deal. He was in the war, but doesn't suffer PTSD. He's something of a spy, but he's not out to avenge a dead girlfriend or good buddy. And yet, I would never describe the story as boring.

 

Looong week

I just realized it looks like the dead guy is talking.
...yeah, sorry about that.

The doctor's bag I wrote about a while ago is now for sale at the store. Only, after further examination, I think it's a veterinary bag. Still, if you like old farm stuff....
 

It is not impossible

 Damn but it's sticky. The humidity is higher than the temperature (that's in degrees Fahrenheit, for you Celsius people). Maybe that's why I'm so crabby today.

...nah. Probably not.

 

And the last member of our elven cast appears

A few more humans may join us, but the fae cast is limited to four.

I was listening to a history of the Celts while I colored today, and some of it was spoken in Gaelic and Welsh. If you have seen written samples of either, you'll know they are pronounced nothing like they are spelled. You see, the Celts never had a written language. It was an oral tradition. Then the Romans conquered the British Isles, and record-keepers that they were, said that they must have a written language. "Fine," said they, "But you'll never be able to read it."

This might actually be true.

Aille gives the sort of advice no one wants to hear.

Aille: his name is pronounced like "I'll" or "aisle" or "isle."

On the subject of names, my husband & I were discussing Lord of the Rings and the movie Willow. In Lord of the Rings, just about everything has an unusual, meaningful and literate name. If by 'literate' I mean 'elven' or 'backstory appears in the copious appendices of the Silmarillion.' Then he names their destination Mount Doom? Major imagination fail.

The movie Willow was unusual in calling the human race something besides human, man, race of man, etc. They were the Daikini, and the little people were Nelwyn. It's cool to find something that gives the two equal footing rather than treating one as normal and the other strange. Willow is a good title name, easy to remember; but alongside names like Bav Morda and Mad Martigan, it sounds rather....bland.

Is he really dead? Yes, yes he is.

Did you think they were just elfing in the elfy forest?