"A Civil Campaign"

[stoutfellow]

I'm still early in the reread, but this time through I'm struck by the number of times an offhand reference early on turns out to have significant bearing on later developments - not necessarily causally, but at least thematically. Cases in point:

• During the first conversation between Miles and Ivan, Ivan discusses the breakup of the "sweetheart deal" he had had with "Madame Vor-what's-her-name". He complains about the husband's sudden non-compliance in these words: "It was all so unreasonable. I mean, they're cooking up their kid in a uterine replicator. It's not like someone even can graft a little bastard onto the family tree these days." The case of Rene Vorbretten pops up in the very next chapter.


• During Kareen's discussion of her educational plans with her parents, her father trots out an old family joke: "Think what floating this harem would have been like back in the days of dowries!" The resolution of the Vormuir problem hinges on this very point.


• When Professor Vorthys returns from avoiding Ekaterin's would-be suitors, he is carrying a large bag full of pastries. He later takes half of them down to his basement lab for future consumption. Nikki trots along after him.  The fact that Nikki "knows where the Professor hides his cookies" pops up significantly in a later (and hilarious) scene.

Have I mentioned my appreciation of Bujold lately?

Comments

[hornedhopper.livejournal.com]

Nice points! I never noticed the threads being woven. It's so hard to pick a favorite Vorkosiverse book, but ACC and Memory are probably my favorites, each for different reasons.

[rfmcdpei.livejournal.com]

I picked up on the third point and perhaps the second, but are we so sure about the first? I mean, Vorbarra Sultana is filled to the gills with Vor.

[stoutfellow.livejournal.com]

Thematic, not causal. I'm not saying that Ivan's affair has anything to do with the Vorbrettens, but only that the question of bastardy - central to the Vorbretten case - is raised here. (In fact, the other Vor had just received a posting to Sergyar, so can't be Rene.)

[filkferengi]

And you're sharing these fun insights [good work, there!] over on the main list when?

Main List

[p-o-u-n-c-e-r.livejournal.com]

Any one of the three observations would be welcome. Kick off a thread (is that a mixed matephor or what?) that's on topic for a change ...

Interesting to me that Professor Vorthys of "no artificial shortages!" fame hoards food. Experience with REAL shortages? The ability to survive brief famines... Kou's experience in black-market grocery ... The urge to get Ekaterine and Nikki out of the capital before Counts collide ... Barrayarans of a certain age may have been thru civil disturbances frequently enough that real shortages of food, or at least luxuries like cookies, are a part of the background like Kansas tornados or New York City electrical blackouts. Are the Vorthys's old enough to have been living in the capital during the Pretender's War?

Re: Main List

[filkferengi]

Seems like they would've been, since ACC talked about how old their house was, & that they had raised both children and academic careers there. Since their children are all grown up, they may well be the same age as Miles & Ekaterin. Even if they're younger, the Vorthyses could be any age between the Koudelkas & Aral. They're described as relatively healthy and vigorous, but I don't recall ages being specified.

Re: Main List

[hornedhopper.livejournal.com]

Didn't Madame Vorthys have a heart condition? Or was that only when traveling off planet?

Re: Main List

[filkferengi]

A bit of both, I think. They talked about future plans to grow her a new heart, and travel [especially so protracted] is always exhausting. Throw in being threatened by terrorists, with interplanetary ramifications... as a Vor and a historian, Aunt Helen would know just how far-reaching those ramifications could really be. Stress, much?

Re: Main List

[stoutfellow.livejournal.com]

When the Professor is first introduced, at the end of Memory, he's identified as a Professor Emeritus. Hence he's old enough to have retired from the university. I'd be very surprised if he's any younger than the mid-sixties - not much younger than Aral, and possibly older.

Re: Main List

[hornedhopper.livejournal.com]

That was my assumption, as well.