Okay, was anyone else confused when Lissar discovered she was pregnant? I mean, right up until the last couple pages of chapter 18, it was driving me nuts. What the hell happened to the King's bastard child??? Seriously, it was on my mind the entire time. I couldn’t stop thinking about it- don’t get me wrong. I liked how she finally noticed that something was off, that the morning sickness and big belly clicked in her mind. I liked how she panicked (that sounds really wrong now that I re-read this but eh). It was written well, as a reader I felt rushed and disjointed, like Lissar. But the mysterious disappearance of a baby?? Ugh. Drove. Me. Nuts.
Although, we finally (okay not really, it’s more like a strong hint) find out what happened though….I can’t say ‘m surprised. Lissar spent months maybe barely caring for herself, let alone another. Had the baby survived, it probably would’ve died shortly after. There’s no way Lissar can care for a child, let alone one that was spawned by her father’s rape. And, story wise, it probably wouldn’t have been all that great for Lissar to lug around a bastard. Rather than get helped as she was, she might have been shunned away despite her (unusual but pretty) appearance.
So yeah, this entire blog?
Just me letting you all know I spent a good 90 some pages going crazy. :) Oh and I use the term bastard in the old fashioned way (as I’m prone to do with some other words I also use): a baby borne out of wedlock. I’m not insulting it, I swear.
When I was reading that section and came to the sudden jump in time it confused me as well. At first, I really wanted to know what happened to the baby but then the story started to move and Lissar left the cabin for an unknown destination. That began to intrigue me more. I think that we will find out specifically what happened to the baby but first we need to hear this other part of her story first. Lissar refers to an "empty, battered trunk or box or cupboard" that is not really empty but she "can close it for now, and put it away" to open when she is strong enough to face what is inside.(143) I believe this is the event of the child's birth or death or whatever it is that happened. After we hear the rest of Lissar's story and she has found her strength, which we all know she has, then I feel we will finally hear the story of what happened. Who knows, maybe the child did survuve and is being cared for by someone else. Part of me wants to find out right away but the majority of me wants to see Lissar become the powerful woman we can see but she cannot.
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ReplyDeleteI, too, was really squicked out when I realized when Lissar was pregnant, but I think that the pregnancy itself is supposed to represent a further part of her transformation. In this way, even though it is tragic, her having the baby is kind of like her shedding her previous life as a princess and as a dependent upon society. I was really sad though. I mean, it was bad enough how Lissar became pregnant in the first place, but then she had to go through this. But once again, I think that it was an integral part of Lissar's shedding of her previous identity. Also, the miscarriage itself is what put her into the situation where she basically goes insane, and thus finds her in the arms of the Moonwoman. Ultimately, it is these terrible events that transform Lissar into the superheroic character we see for the rest of the novel. Through her suffering, Lissar is tranformed into someone else, be it through trauma or her own sort of developing maturity.
ReplyDeleteI know I'm late but I just somewhat figured out this whole "blogger" business. But I agree with you on the whole being confussed part about the pregnancy. I still don't really understand how she didn't know she wasn't pregnant. Like I know she got raped by her dad and all, and yeah that would be a pretty traumatizing experience but come on now being pregnant is not something you miss like that. When I read it I kind of figured that the lady(forgot her name) that helped out Lizzar just made the baby vanish or fixed it like she fixed everything else!
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