MERCEDES-LACKEY Digest 2487 Topics covered in this issue include: 1) Re: Speaking of... by "Layla Voll" 2) Re: Music Query by "Taliesin Pereldan" 3) by Yvonne ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 04 Jan 2001 23:45:05 From: "Layla Voll" To: mercedes-lackey-+AT+-herald.co.uk Subject: Re: Speaking of... Message-ID: Natetoact-+AT+-aol.com writes: >Speaking of If I pay thee not in Gold, the head mage in Ancar's court was >named Pires Nieth... were Misty's feeling's less than amiable to Piers >Anthony after that little project? I would imagine that this could be >something of an underhanded, or at least under the table insult at Mr. >Anthony. Is this me being fanciful, or could it be true? It could also be the other way around. If I were quite fond of someone, and thought that they shared my sense of humor, I'd probably write him or her into a story as some wickedly evil person. Likewise, I think I'd get a kick out of having some evil, wizened crone named after me. Then again, I always thought Melificent was much cooler and more interesting than Sleeping Beauty, who struck me as a bit of a simp, and perhaps not the sharpest knife in the drawer. Layla --------------- Layla Voll Layla-Voll-+AT+-hotmail.com _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 4 Jan 2001 19:21:22 -0600 From: "Taliesin Pereldan" To: Subject: Re: Music Query Message-ID: <007901c076b5$d24a0b80$2797d6d1-+AT+-bellsouth.net> **FLUFF ALERT** A half-elf in Harper blue delurks in the middle of the room, with a gold fire lizard on his shoulder, and proclaims the following non-fluff statements: Sheebeg, Sheemore, composed by Turlough O'Carolan, an Irish Bard who lived at the turn of the 18th century. He was a legend in his own time, and you can get a cd of Patrick Ball performing his most well known songs from Firebird Arts. (Patrick Ball--Celtic Harp: The Music of Turlough O'Carolan). It was composed as an instrumental piece, and as far as I've been able to find, no one has ever written lyrics for it. The song is also available performed by Column MacOireachtaigh and the Irish Ceili Band on the Celtic Pride cd, published in Quebec by Retro Music (I found it at my local Borders) where the title is listed as Little Fairy, Big Fairy. Time to lurk once more....between holidays, and work, and working on holidays, I never have time to involve myself in discussions often, but I enjoy reading them :) --Taliesin Pereldan, impressed of gold Rhiannon Dragonharper Dragons rescued, Virgins slain, Knights barbecued ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 04 Jan 2001 19:08:20 -0700 From: Yvonne To: mercedes-lackey-+AT+-herald.co.uk Message-ID: <3A552C94.E7496937-+AT+-planet.eon.net> Heya all, 'If I Pay Thee...' It's been years since I read it, but I found that most of it seemed to be rather 'Piers' slanted, just in the style of writing, etc, and the only real 'Misty' feel I got from it was that section with the tree people that seemed undeniably Tayledras-ish. I don't remember it being an impossible read, though. I found the cross-gendered demon an extremely interesting device ... even if it was handled a bit crudely. I stopped reading the 'Xanth' books within 6 months of discovering them. They were fun the first, second, and even third books. Then they got tedious and, you're all right, sex obsessed. I don't mind sex in my books but it was getting grating, over the top, unimaginative, and quite frankly, disturbing. I agree with Cennydd there. His stereotypical portrayal of women as needing a man to be complete and holding marriage up as the Holy Grail of Happiness made me want to slap him silly -- especially as the Xanth books are aimed at younger readers. What sort of message is that sending out? All in all I think Misty, at least, has done a fairly good job at portraying both strong women AND men (I hate books where the author shows strong women and insipid, stupid men -- it's just as bad and only furthers the whole sexist attitude) and mostly normal relationships -- except for the lifebonds, which I think are a bit of a backslide into the Holy Grail ideal. My favourite couples are Eldan and Kero, and Kethry and Jadrek because they are strong people who don't *need* a partner, but instead choose to have one. They can stand on their own two feet and don't need someone else to prop them upright. I hate needy people. They're on my slap list too. As for Sharon Green ... I've only read the Blending series, and they are recommended, but they're fluff-reading. The characters seem to have an obsession with tea that rivals Xanth's panty fetish though ... lol ... I've *never* seen characters take so many tea breaks! Or eat so much ... I can't say that Arabs strike me as Companion material. They're beautiful to look at, but I've always imagined Companions as being large horses, and Arabs tend to be high-strung and somewhat silly, in my experience. *ducks* Thoroughbreds are beautiful horses too but their heads are tiny ... inbreeding, you know. On that side note ... there *is* a limited gene pool for the Companions ... I wonder if they *do* ever have any problems with inbreeding? Especially since they're supposedly descended from three animals ... the Grove-born's notorious fertility might be a combat for that ... they've got a fresh set of genes to add to the mix, and the more offspring they have the more likely that possible problems could be prevented. Maybe Grove-born aren't just around for 'special' Heralds ... maybe they also spring up to prevent the genetic line from producing problems ... or to keep them from becoming so similar, they won't all be wiped out by a plague. Yvonne Councillor of Mist Etc. ------------------------------ End of MERCEDES-LACKEY Digest 2487 **********************************