MERCEDES-LACKEY Digest 1026 Topics covered in this issue include: 1) Reap the Whirlwind by Melanie Dymond Harper 2) Re: several messages by "Katherine M. Brielmaier" 3) Re: Newbies/Meg'sMom/GreatestList/SRising/David by Mrocro-+AT+-aol.com 4) Re: focus stones by Minterra-+AT+-aol.com 5) Reply to: DT question by Rozanna McNeer 6) Re: mushy stuff/DT question by "Khenta B./ Birgit Hanel" 7) Focus stones/Mage school by JWSCHM00-+AT+-UKCC.UKY.EDU 8) Re: mushy stuff/newbies by Soljan-+AT+-aol.com 9) Lost Messages...AGAIN! by tygriss-+AT+-juno.com (Sara A Youngblood) 10) poll by Hades16-+AT+-aol.com 11) What about asexuals!!! by Hades16-+AT+-aol.com 12) Trek, Focus Stones, Chicago, Elspeth and Bondbirds by "Romylee A. Ejercito" 13) Phoenyx/HA/Darkwind&Elspeth/JRRT/L&W/newbie-niceness/Dragons by Mat the Cat in Green 14) Re: Lost Messages...AGAIN! by Mrocro-+AT+-aol.com 15) Asexual Characters by singer-+AT+-iglobal.net 16) Re: What about asexuals!!! by "Herald Michal" ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 19 Dec 1996 15:48:03 GMT From: Melanie Dymond Harper To: mercedes-lackey Subject: Reap the Whirlwind Message-ID: <199612191548.PAA15939-+AT+-vanyel.herald.co.uk> Cennydd asked if anyone had read _Reap the Whirlwind_? Yes, and I even wrote a short review for the archives :) Mel, poking her nose around the door briefly. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 19 Dec 1996 09:43:41 -0600 (CST) From: "Katherine M. Brielmaier" To: mercedes-lackey-+AT+-herald.co.uk Subject: Re: several messages Message-ID: On Wed, 18 Dec 1996, Mat the Cat in Green wrote: > ========================================================================= > On Wed, 18 Dec 1996, Katherine M. Brielmaier wrote: > > > On Wed, 18 Dec 1996, Ken Hyde wrote: > > Very true, but I think Cen, if you could see this thing, you'd agree with > > Mat. I think it's supposed to be Aragorn, but he looks positively > > anorexic--not at all like someone who'd spent a great deal of his life in > > the open country, fending for himself. This guy looks like he'd fall > > over if the wind got too strong. > > A moot point, though, since you can't see the picture. :) > > Anorexic says it all. And Kaatje, of you compare "Aragorn" > with Legolas at the bottom, they look kind of alike, don;t they (at least, > I'm assuming it's Legolas, since the matching circle on the left is > Gimli, and there are seagulls flying around L's head)) I assumed that too. And the paintings do look really similar. And did you notice they spelled "Gimli" wrong? It irks me every time I happen to notice it. Other than that, I really enjoy staring at the thing. I always notice something new. RE: The Bardic series On Thu, 19 Dec 1996, miyako hirao wrote: > Kaatje wrote: > >>> Got tired of cardboard characters, cardboard plots... > I did think that world was very well thought-out, though, even if she > didn't do anything with the bits I thought were the most interesting.<<< > > I found The Robin and the Kestrel extremely dry. The Eagle and the > Nightingales was interesting up to a certain point, but both of them just > seemed recycled. I think if Misty wanted to write a romance novel, she > should have made it into a romance novel so those of us who don't like them > can avoid a somewhat "romancey" book. And I didn't need that much detail > about T'fyrr's anatomy. And then On Thu, 19 Dec 1996, Rozanna McNeer wrote: > Personally I agree with the Alanda sereis getting old, but that's only > because it's always the Bards vs. the Church/Guild On the other > hand, that didn't stop me from buying E&N in HB in the (vain) hopes > that it would prove to be different. Actually, it was different in the > main thrust being towards freeing the king, but there was still alot > of Church tension thrown in, and seemed that it the whole series > was starting to feel contrived -> like Misty thought to herself, "oops! gotta > write a new novel since the bills still have to be paid. let's whip out the > Alanda series plan an crank out one of those..." That's exactly what it felt like to me. I didn't feel that, after L&W. there was anything to mark the series as being any different from the dozens of other fantasy novels out there. It was the standard "medieval society people go on adventure: toss in some magic and we have a book!" approach. Naah. Doesn't work for me. I think that may be a difficulty with fantasy as a genre: it tends to have a fairly narrow definition. There's magic, usually some sort of fantastic-type creature, some sort of adventure, a pinch of salt and stir. *Good* fantasy requires something more--a new point of view, writing style, character development...just *something* besides the same old song and dance to make it worth reading. And I think that's true of every genre, really. You can't (or shouldn't be able to) get away with just churning out words, the way I think that many recent fantasy authors are doing. I've been frustrated recently with what I've been seeing on the shelves in bookstores. A lot of it just doesn't seem worth the $6.95. When I do find a good author, I tend to stick with him or her as long as I can, which is why the Alanda series was such a disappointment. L&W was a pretty-well-done take on an old story, but the rest of the novels (sorry, Jake!) were just more of the same. ***** I'll be unsubbing for a couple of weeks as of tomorrow, so for those of you who celebrate holidays this time of year, have happy ones! 's e do bheatha, Kaatje ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 19 Dec 1996 11:20:12 -0500 From: Mrocro-+AT+-aol.com To: mercedes-lackey-+AT+-herald.co.uk Subject: Re: Newbies/Meg'sMom/GreatestList/SRising/David Message-ID: <961219112011_641752445-+AT+-emout20.mail.aol.com> Thanks for the warm welcome, It made feel right at home. It's amazing I never realized that there were so many Misty lovers out there. I'm go glad to have found this group. Sorry, to hear about your father. We are in the middle of the same thing here. My father has Cancer of the colon. They found it to late. We are hoping that he will make it through the holidays. We keep praying. chris olson Any ideas on names please help. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 19 Dec 1996 14:49:47 -0500 From: Minterra-+AT+-aol.com To: mercedes-lackey-+AT+-herald.co.uk Subject: Re: focus stones Message-ID: <961219144228_1255300187-+AT+-emout10.mail.aol.com> Just had to delurk for a moment to add this in. There's been a lot of debate recently over what focus stones really are. In OBreakers, Kery broke a focus 'vase' to send Thalkarash back to his dimension. So there, 'focus' means something that keeps ones power. But in MPrice, the focus stones used by mages are channels through which the mage purifies the ley-line/ambient energy around him/her into something that isn't as wild (sorry, no textev - IIRC, it was Van telling Stef about it). Now, when Elspeth and the others are using rythym to focus, it means they are focusing their _minds_, not their power. This way it's easier for them to use the energy around them, but it's still wild energy - not as 'tame' as if it had gone through a focus stone. It's kinda like (well, somewhat ;)) using a calculator to do math. If you do use it, it's easier to do those hard problems because ~it~ simplifies it for you. But if you can still go without it by concentrating enough on the problem, just more so than a person with a calculator. Bright be thy day, Rhodri ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 19 Dec 1996 15:05:44 -0500 From: Rozanna McNeer To: "mercedes-lackey-+AT+-herald.co.uk mercedes-lackey-+AT+-herald.co.uk" Subject: Reply to: DT question Message-ID: <199612191506_MC1-D7A-66EB-+AT+-compuserve.com> danyel asked > Question: Why such animosity towards the DT books? I personally loved > them, in fact that's how I got hooked on Misty. I'm not sure animosity is the right word; indifferent maybe, but not down right active dislike. Have you read the MPs yet? Once you've read those and realized what a great job Misty can do, you tend to measure the rest of her work against it (at least I do) and while Di is an engaging character who runs into all kinds of interesting conflicts (CotN and Satanic, Versus short story in MZB's Best SF&F Anthology are the best) it somehow lacks the depth of the MPs. ON the other hand, I like to read the Di books, Bedlam Bardz, SERRAted Edge, and even the Bardic books when I'm in the mood for what I call 'mind-candy'. Books that don't require much thought, nor provoke much thought, that I'm totally familiar with and are like a pair of old sweats --> comfy, known and fondly regarded. ask HTH the same question when she re-subs after x-mas vacation firemist ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 19 Dec 1996 21:21:14 +0100 (CET) From: "Khenta B./ Birgit Hanel" To: mercedes-lackey-+AT+-herald.co.uk Subject: Re: mushy stuff/DT question Message-ID: On Thu, 19 Dec 1996, Dan McEndree wrote: > Question: Why such animosity towards the DT > books? I personally loved them, in fact that's how I got hooked on Misty. Huh? IMO the fact that we don't discuss the DTs not that often can't be taken as animosity, although I know what you mean. I think there are probably 2 reasons for this: 1) There aren't as much DTs published as there are Valdemar novels, so there's per se not that much to discuss. Just as there's only one Fire Rose (would I be very wrong to label it RL/romance?) and 2 Bedlam Bards and so on, these aren't discussed that frequently, either. 2) They don't have as many fans as the Valdemar stuff and thus are discussed less often. Well, my very own personal opinion is that Children of the Night is one of the best books she ever wrote, right on par with LHM. The other 2 were ok reads, not much more, which probably shouldn't have been labelled DTs at all, 'cause Di herself did'nt make that many appearances. Minor and even-more-minor characters (like the many victims in Burning Water) and the Bad Guys got just as much, if not more lines. But, as stated above, that's just my point-of-view. Walk in beauty Khenta Blaufalk bhanel-+AT+-ix.urz.uni-heidelberg.de aka Skyfire k'Vala, Goddess of Incomplete Vocabulary and Garbled Grammar I will not expose the ignorance of the faculty... Bart Simpson ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 19 Dec 96 17:35:34 EST From: JWSCHM00-+AT+-UKCC.UKY.EDU To: mercedes-lackey-+AT+-vanyel.herald.co.uk Subject: Focus stones/Mage school Message-ID: <961219.180019.EST.JWSCHM00-+AT+-ukcc.uky.edu> Foxfire here, I remember a post by Kawrythen (SEE?? SEE?? I _CAN_ remember names, if I write them down *g*) talking about how present time mages don't seem to need focus stones. Something I thought of was "if a mage needs a focus, why doesn't he make one? internally?" Can someone verify/respond on this? Thanks. Someone else wrote about mage schools. Me thinks I can quote them relitively (sp?) well. "I know of the mage schools White Winds and Blue Mountain, but what are the specifics of them and can anyone tell me about any others?" Correct me if you want to on this quote. In response, I can think of the school "Blood Mountain", which is a blood magic school (rolls eye and mutters "_Obviosly_"). That's the only specific that I can think of other than it's in OBreakers, textev=P.#199 the mage in question had dull red robes that had brown banding. The school name isn't mentioned in this book, but I know I've seen the description somewhere else with the name. The (I think) spefs on White Winds is that they are a very "help everything that is good" school. They can draw energy from almost anything, and never coerce anything. The Blue Mountain school is mostly a "sit in one place and do stuff from there" school. They also specalize (sp?) in the defensive magics, I think. Oh, one last thing. While readinf the MageWinds tril, I wondered why Elspeth didn't get attached to a bondbird. My dad said that she probably had already used up that part of her psychic "mind" by being chosen. Anyone else wonder about this? Well, my mom wants me to get off, so I might as well.*resigned tone* Signing off, Foxfire, God of Obstinate Teenagers Homer J. Simpson- "DOOOHHHH!!!" ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 19 Dec 1996 18:05:41 -0500 From: Soljan-+AT+-aol.com To: mercedes-lackey-+AT+-herald.co.uk Subject: Re: mushy stuff/newbies Message-ID: <961219175752_1954905267-+AT+-emout20.mail.aol.com> Danyel: << I just wanted to say that I think that this is the coolest mailing list ever. Everyone here is really great and even though I've only been on a couple of days, I feel a sense of comraderie and friendship towards everyone on this list, new or old. I know that this is a little mushy, so I'll try to limit myself. >> Hey guys, I think we got our touch back! :) Remember our long "Are we friendly to newbies" discussion? :) Welcome Danyel! This list is a lot of fun, and it's very friendly and...interesting. Mushy? Mushy is fine! :) Especially when it's about the list! Just about anything is fine, except flaming. Chris said: >>Thanks for the warm welcome, It made feel right at home. It's amazing I never realized that there were so many Misty lovers out there. << Welcome Chris! Not many people *do* realize how many Misty fans there are. And it's great to have such a nice list of them. Hi to all the newbies who's names have been lost to the trigger-happy deleting finger! Hmmm...Auntie Mel, have you sent them all a copy of the FAQ yet? I think we'll need a repost if you don't. As for those saying how empty it is, I'll be staying here for the whole season, so you aren't alone! I might be gone for a day here and there, but I'll be around the majority of the days! Lady Silvermoon LIG, Leader of the DDMF, Dame of the OAM, LotPW, Goddess of Sensitivity "Do you feel the way you hate? Do you hate the way you feel?" Bush "Greedy Fly" ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 19 Dec 1996 18:41:18 EST From: tygriss-+AT+-juno.com (Sara A Youngblood) To: mercedes-lackey-+AT+-herald.co.uk Cc: LotPW-+AT+-aol.com Subject: Lost Messages...AGAIN! Message-ID: <19961219.173926.5119.1.Tygriss-+AT+-juno.com> Everyone who sent me personal messages, would you please send them again? I have the addresses from the MistyList but didn't get to the ones in the Bower. This stupid Digital is useless and always locks up when its been on for only 30 minutes. Sorry for the rant but this is extremely frustrating. And thank you for the kind words everyone has said re: the loss of my dad. Chris, I was reading your message about your dad when the thing went down. Send again, please? Love to all, Tygriss ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 19 Dec 1996 23:02:51 -0500 From: Hades16-+AT+-aol.com To: mercedes-lackey-+AT+-herald.co.uk Subject: poll Message-ID: <961219230249_404069455-+AT+-emout01.mail.aol.com> in answer to some poll Q's first ML book: Oathbound first S&M book: errr...ooops (embarassed blush) favorite ML book: errr...tough...either the White Gryphon or Magic's Pawn favorite character: Sa(y)vil or Silverfox ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 19 Dec 1996 23:37:10 -0500 From: Hades16-+AT+-aol.com To: mercedes-lackey-+AT+-herald.co.uk Subject: What about asexuals!!! Message-ID: <961219233710_1854290202-+AT+-emout16.mail.aol.com> I have a question for all of you. ML is known for not being reluctant to put gay characters in her books (disregarding the lesbian debate). However, have any of you seen any asexual characters. Well hmmm, I do not remember Savil's sexuality ever being hinted at. I feel it my duty as the Illegitimate God of Farfetched Theories and Miscontrued Ideas to bring this subject to the floor (the proverbial one of course, the list does not have an actual floor, which I gladly point out to the brain cell-impaired.) I think that people who are neither/nor are far more ignored than people who are either/or. I would really appreciate input on this topic. from Hades with platonic love "words are pegs to hang ideas on" Wordsworth (I think) ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 20 Dec 1996 00:05:22 -0500 (EST) From: "Romylee A. Ejercito" To: mercedes-lackey-+AT+-herald.co.uk Subject: Trek, Focus Stones, Chicago, Elspeth and Bondbirds Message-ID: ~~Trek~~ Summersong: Do you keep up with Deep Space 9? Mylee: No, I don't. Actually, ST:TNG never really came to the Philippines. The 2nd and 3rd seasons came in '93, so I basically watched the episodes in my friend's house. She always borrowed a whole bunch of tapes and we'd watch after school. And she happens to detest DS9. So she never borrowed the tapes. Unfortunately, we haven't gotten around to buying a new VCR and my mom refused to get cable, b/c it would Interfere With Studies. *grimace* Anyway, now that I'm in the US, I'm stuck in Middletown, which is appropriately named since it's in the middle of nowhere. Middletown does not have a mall, or a moviehouse. My dorm last year had a TV, but no cable and that was one measly TV for about 150 people. Now I'm in a house, and the house has no TV. Recently, a housemate brought his TV down to the common room, but he did it just before my Three Weeks of Hell, so I just never got around to watching. Also, we only get 2 channels. Now that I'm all done with finals, I'm vegetating and I just watched Watership Down, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, and a bunch of cartoon Christmas specials. /me grins. I plan on making up for not having TV for so long by watching TV all throughout vacation. That's what I did last year, but then again, I watched stuff on the Discovery Channel most of the time (geez, how nerdy!) so it's excusable. Summersong: Whatever happened to Troi-Worf relationship? Now, Worf is with Jadzia Dax Mylee: HE IS???? I know the main chars in DS9, but that was like, first season. I know nothing. But but but... I just started getting used to the Worf-Troi idea, and now they changed it again! Summersong: BTW, I thought Imzadi was good *anyway*! Mylee: Definitely. I love that book. I take it with me when I shuttle back and forth from home to school. I read it, I loved it, then was stunned when the Worf-Troi angle came up. Peter David's the best Trek writer IMO. ~~END~~ ~~Focus stones~~ Well, in Van's days, there were Herald Mages, and there was a "valdemar style" of magic. If they'd always used the stones in the past, then that's how Van would learn magic. Elspeth on the other hand, got taught by the Tayledras, who do not use the focus stones. So she learned magic Tayledras style, and so she doesn't use a focus stone. ~~END~~ ~~Chicago~~ Nina: Um..you'd better dress _very_ warmly. Winter decided to finally show up here..no snow as of yet, but the lovely Windy City is living up to its name once again (the current wind chill is about -20 to -25 and dropping). Consider yourself duly warned Mylee: Nooooo. It's so warm here, it feels like spring. It was only 40F today, and I was wandering outside in a sweatshirt and lightweight pants. It's not snowing either, which is a big change from last year. Well, thanks for warning me, I was planning to bring my lightweight winter coat with me. I did that last year when I went to Montreal, and I certainly regretted my decision. *sigh* I guess I'll have to wear that coat that makes me look like the marshmallow man. Firefox: Oh, one last thing. While readinf the MageWinds tril, I wondered why Elspeth didn't get attached to a bondbird. My dad said that she probably had already used up that part of her psychic "mind" by being chosen. Anyone else wonder about this? Mylee: I don't know. The Tayledras can bond to two birds at the same time. Kethry was planning on bonding to a kyree despite being bonded to Need (of course Warrl picked Tarma, but since K thought it was possible, then it's possible). Maybe she just didn't feel like having a bird. Plus, how happy can the bird be if she gets stuck in a city like Haven? I'm sure she'd prefer the forests/plains. Mylee Acolyte of the Great God of Procrastination Master of the Art of Being Dense aka Quicksilver, Unaffiliate ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ M. Ejercito rejercito-+AT+-wesleyan.edu I have one of the most brilliant minds on earth... BUT EDUCATION RUINED IT!!! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 20 Dec 1996 00:13:09 -0500 (EST) From: Mat the Cat in Green To: mercedes-lackey-+AT+-herald.co.uk Subject: Phoenyx/HA/Darkwind&Elspeth/JRRT/L&W/newbie-niceness/Dragons Message-ID: On Thu, 19 Dec 1996 Shdwflt-+AT+-aol.com wrote: > Mat wrote (about PHOENYX; KEEPERS OF THE FLAME) snip > *giggle* I DO have one. It's about a fifteenth generation copy though. NO > FAIR! *drool* The music is delicious. Oooh, how good (or bad) is the sound quality? I just love the copyright messages on Heather's Albums. _Wanderlust_ : "Unauthorized duplication of this album is a violation of applicable laws. If you fail to heed this warning, you will finds thorns in your bed, milk will spoil at your touch, and you will never achieve your heart's desire." _Life's Flame_ : "Unauthorized duplication of this album is prohibited by law. If you fail to heed this warning, dogs will howl at your presence, doors will be shut in your face, and your greatest pleasure will be denied." > JAKE'S TOP TEN THEORIES WHY KEEPERS OF THE FLAME WILL NOT GO BACK INTO PRINT. > > 10 - Like the Tickle Me Elmo craze, Heather Alexander wants to have the tapes > retail for about 1000% over list price. Uh, my mom scared the heck out of me with one of those. Last time I was home, she woke me up by putting a vibrating Elmo against my face. Those things are scary! That giglling is *insane*! :) > 9 - Other members of Phoenyx would have to quit their jobs in restaurant > management, pizza delivery, and auto part sales in order to go back on world > tour. (Offended? Well can YOU name anyone else from the band without looking > at the cover?) Umm, Little John something-or-other? And I don't even have the album. Forget the fact that I was looking at the Heathens' Newsletter just yesterday, and he's mentioned.... Yeah, forget that. Hey, lyric question for those who have Life's Flame. In "Defender of the Child", one of the choruses says Join as one, instead of two, If they loved me, then they love you, ???Wisdoms strong and mercies mild,??? Defender of the Child! Is the line with the ???s right? ============================================================================ On Thu, 19 Dec 1996 dbackhau-+AT+-isou10.estec.esa.nl wrote: > Yes - and in Storm 2 when Firesong is throwing his wobbly, he notices > Elspeth tapping a rhythm as she and Darkdoodit contain him. I think a > focus stone was just that, something to focus on, Elspeth found rhythm > worked for her. Now this is very distant vague thought - but didn't > Falconsbreath have a focus stone - the one Nyara smashes, sending him > into the void?? Nope, Darkwind is the dance guy. Elspeth does laser light shows. :) And the thingy Falconsbane had was a pseudo-Heartstone thingy/ > lurched into one of the Eddings books, when Garion lights a candle > that "giggles", so my head now has an image of a darked, high ceiling > room, Doodit (Garion's wife) asleep in a huge canopied bed, and a > giggling candle - oy yey, I need some sleep! Well, that's what he gets, using sorcery while drunk. :) ============================================================================ On Thu, 19 Dec 1996, Katherine M. Brielmaier wrote: > I assumed that too. And the paintings do look really similar. And did you > notice they spelled "Gimli" wrong? It irks me every time I happen to > notice it. Other than that, I really enjoy staring at the thing. I > always notice something new. Yeah, "Gimly" . :) And why do they have Gollum and Gimli's names, and not Legolas? Unless it's written in ??Sindarin??. > That's exactly what it felt like to me. I didn't feel that, after L&W. > there was anything to mark the series as being any different from the > dozens of other fantasy novels out there. It was the standard "medieval > society people go on adventure: toss in some magic and we have a book!" > approach. Naah. Doesn't work for me. I found the first half of L&W interesting. Until they added the Bardic Magic stuff. I normally like the magic stuff in books (I liked all the technical magic stuff in WoC), but this just felt tacked on. IMHO, R&K just stunk. I'm totally avoiding E&N. =========================================================================== Danyel wrote: > I just wanted to say that I think that this is the coolest mailing list > ever. Everyone here is really great and even though I've only been on a > couple of days, I feel a sense of comraderie and friendship towards > everyone on this list, new or old. I know that this is a little mushy, so > I'll try to limit myself. See? People who joined during or just prior to the Great Burning, *this* is more how we normally are. =========================================================================== Ah, the evil twin Dragons Research Paper have been slain. Now there's only the devious and cruel Creature know only as ..... the Physics Final. :( Mat Cat Person, Champion in Green, |"Hey diddle-dee, answer me this riddle, Adept, God of Procrastination | hey diddle-do, tell me what you will. Heathen #149, and OoUL/L of tLotPW | Dance all day with the Cat and the mtimme47-+AT+-magic.hofstra.edu | Fiddle. Come and lay with the Heather http://ada.hofstra.edu/~mtimme47/ | on the hill" --- Heather Alexander ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 20 Dec 1996 04:19:17 -0500 From: Mrocro-+AT+-aol.com To: mercedes-lackey-+AT+-herald.co.uk Subject: Re: Lost Messages...AGAIN! Message-ID: <961220041915_68555660-+AT+-emout08.mail.aol.com> Sorry to hear about your computer. I am praying for you, for your loss. I know how you feel. My father has cancer of the colon. By the time they found the cancer it was to late. We are hoping the he will just make it through the holidays. I can understand how hard this can make you getting in the holiday spirt. To have such a momentious event happen near christmas affects the rest of your life. My thoughts are with you. chris ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 20 Dec 1996 06:32:12 -0600 From: singer-+AT+-iglobal.net To: mercedes-lackey-+AT+-herald.co.uk Subject: Asexual Characters Message-ID: On 12/20, Hades wrote: > However, have >any of you seen any asexual characters. All the Kal'enedral are celibate. THey are quite beyond celibate, actually, rendered almost neuter by the Star-Eyed. They remain male or female, of course, but without a shred of sexual desire. They are the single example that I can recall. Some might consider Tremane asexual, because we never see him involved with or thinking about or even looking at *anyone* in an amorous way. In Tremane's case, it could be fear. I recall him saying something of the sort in SW-that he would not marry until and unless he was crowned Emperor, because of the risk to a wife and children becoming emotional barganing chips. Then again, this doesn't speak to whether Tremane *wanted* any such relationship or not. So there could be a good case for asexual beliefs and behavior there.....I bow out at that point. I don't know, and I wouldn't dare to speculate. :-) Asexuality as I would define it is when someone is uninterested in intimate relations with members of either sex. This goes beyond not liking it or whatever; it is a subject of no interest whatsoever. It is something that just doesn't occur to them, in the course of daily life. It holds no attraction for them. Bearing this in mind, it is possible that we don't see many asexual characters in Misty's work because there are not many human beings who would really fit this definition. From what I see of the world, humans tend to be interested.... At this point I wouldn't dare to speculate on whether asexuality is "naturally occuring" or whether it goes against man's basic nature and is a response of some kind. > do not remember Savil's >sexuality ever being hinted at. Hades, it was *much* more than hinted at. Savil was, erm, quite active in that department. Vanyel makes a comment in MPromise that "Savil gets more erotic exercise than I do." (Which, granted was not saying much at that point....but still, the implication is there). Also in MPromise, there is a hint or two early on that Savil may be involved with Jaysen. We know that she had been very much involved with Andrel, the Healer, from MPawn. In MPrice, when the Guardians link to form the Web, Savil is teasing Vanyel and he says something like. "You're the wrong sex and besides, you'd wear me out!" By that book she's pushing eighty, and she's joking about It with Starwind when she goes to k'Treva to bring them to Vanyel at Forst Reach. And then there was Yfandes............. Outta here. May all be well in your tents, brothers and sisters. Go Gently, Tresta Dear Goddess, I can't believe I wrote all that. Must be middle of the night stress again... %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Tresta shena Jor'ethan "Love must live free." Healer to horses -Shin'a'in Teaching Knight of Amber and Marigold %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% To be tired of horses is to be tired of life; horses are a gift to us." %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 20 Dec 1996 07:49:52 +0000 From: "Herald Michal" To: mercedes-lackey-+AT+-herald.co.uk Subject: Re: What about asexuals!!! Message-ID: <199612201454.HAA25378-+AT+-web.azstarnet.com> Heyla! > I have a question for all of you. ML is known for not being reluctant to put > gay characters in her books (disregarding the lesbian debate). However, have > any of you seen any asexual characters. Well, how about the kyree? Warrl was a neuter, right? He's the only one I can think of who'd be more than a bit-player, but in any case, they're still there. Oh, and happy Yule/Chanukkah/Christmas/whatever to everyone :) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | Herald Michal Alderan Skysong, Chosen of Tyr | | President of the VEVUWEC and member of the DDMF | | God of Useless Facts and Irrelevant Information | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ------------------------------ End of MERCEDES-LACKEY Digest 1026 **********************************