Tam Lin, or...Once More, With Feeling
Mar. 20th, 2007 01:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
flyingskullFirst, take a peek at my icon. That thing really existed, hundreds of millions year ago, in the Cambrian era. Which makes me wonder why Fantasy author never bother to go look at past reality for their beasties, but such is Fantasy, never let it be tainted with real things, no matter how definitely extinct. Anyway, they've found fossils of it and they've named it Anomalocaris which means Odd Crab which also means they didn't get it right the first time. It was a winged lobster with double grabbing shrimp-like appendages and a circular bone-crushing maw. I rather love it and I decided this one's name is Tam Lin. Why? Because he used to wreck havock, back in the old days when humans were not, and Tam Lin is a hell of a havock wrecker on writers.
Which elegant transition brings me to my
I mean, I admit that the story of Tam Lin is a popular and lovely thing: after all it's got Evil Elves, which always pleases; it's got a Beautiful Young Man, which never hurts; it's got a Feisty Tenacious Heroine, which young gels everywhere can identify with; it's got a powerful storyline with suspense and romance, it's certainly got SEX! There are several version of the basic plot, but they are all about a Thomas (Tam's the Scot version of the name) who's too sexy and musical to be left in peace. Enter the Queen of Elfland and... voila! One sexy beauty in the hands of a pagan goddess gone to the bad. Enter young heroine who is not one to be set aside for immortal hussies, thankyouverymuch, so she grabs young Tam and the poor boy has never got a chance, has he? So between going to Hell, going to the Twilight or going to be married I don't know what to wish him, really. Anyway the story's Matriarchal and older than the current Patriarchy (which is why I presume the pregnancy is not always present and was pastede on yay! later) so the fact that the poor sod hasn't got a say in what happens to him - TAM *whingeing* "But I WANT to be celibate, you sodding harridans!" - is not very off-putting.
Pamela Dean takes this basic plot and rewrites it as a Young Girl Romance Series, I have NO idea why. The woman can write. She wrote the Secret Country Trilogy which is very very good. Then she ups and writes this interminable piece of drivel. I use interminable advisedly, though I freely admit it's not boring, not if you like college romance, American style, that is.
I was trying to give the plot, but really there's none that makes sense, given the book is Tam Lin by Pamela Dean and not My Life and Loves While at College by a Young Lady. As I said, four fifths of the book are about Janet's love story with Nicholas, an Elizabethan actor who's been seduced by the Queen of Elfland and is now, for reasons known only to an Elizabethan actor who worked with Shakespeare and got seduced by an immortal crumpet, an everlasting student at a minor American University. The only reason he would submit to such an everlasting boredom is that he spends his time screwing Young Girls Of Impeccable Reputation and Putting A Spoke In His So-Called Friend Tam Lin's Wheel of Being Rescued.
The Immortal Crumpet assumes the name of Professor Medeous (Ware the Punnish Names! She's supposed to recall Medea. Good grief! And what's Medea got to do with Tam Lin or anything except she was a witch? She also killed her babies, y'know? o very literate Dean!) and for quite incomprehensible reasons teaches Ancient Greek. Why Ancient Greek? Why not? What's Ancient Greek Literature got to do with Elves? Who happen to be a Gealic myth? Who cares? Am I the only one who got so thouroghly pissed off at Pamela Dean for her atrocious and pompous dissertation on Literature? That said - er... ranted - she's just hard as nails and also bi and that's it for the Queen of Elfland. This doesn't actually grate all that much because she's supposed to be a shadowy figure, a powerful force never quite seen as a person. But Ancient Greek Literature! And wouldn't you know our SuperHeroine would learn Ancient Greek in less than a term? HA!
That's more or less it. In the last fifth or sixth part Janet suddenly decides she wants to bonk Tam, she does, she gets preggers, she saves him, end of story. Can readers believe this second and WAY TOO LATE romance? NAH! There's a sort of retcon reference when one of her friends - but more about them later - says 'you wanted him for months' (not a precise quotation, I can't be arsed to re-read the thing) but, Pamela dear, it won't wash.
Not to say there aren't intimation of Eeriness and Mystery, 'cause there are. Actually the first time Janet goes to see Melinda Wolfe - yes, all names of professors are atrocious puns. *sigh* - we get a nice horror atmosphere which convinces us all who know the ballads or the story to think she's Elfland Queen, but alas, she's but an elfess and not even a lycanthrope, now I ask you, Wolfe!
There's a striving for normalcy which is odd in that the heroine seems to always have feelings, intimations and odd things happening, but she never once deviates from her chosen Young Girl Romance path. This is because the sodding story takes FOUR years to happen and if Spunky and Literate Janet were to sit and reflect on things with any kind of efficiency, said story would end in one term.
Now in DWJ's Fire and Hemlock which may not be one of her best book, but it sure as Death and Taxes is a profoundly disturbing and fascinating book, the whole thing takes what? Ten years. Yet you get told why and her Janet, who's actually named Polly, is made to forget by MAGIC! And MENACES! And TERROR! Also, as her Tam Lin has apparently set out to seduce her when she was ten, she HAS to be lots more grown up for the grand finale. Which is not really really happy as it shouldn't be. IMO, it's well worth a read AND a re-read.
Back to our poor Pamela. Now, Janet's friends: Molly. Molly is Zany! Molly wants to be a Marine Biologist, but with lots more literature and lots less science in it! Molly is Not Pretty, Nor Beautiful! Molly is an Optimist Who Has Always A Smile Ready! Molly Reads Fantasy and Sci-Fi and Children's Books! Molly has a Teddy Bear! Molly is Practical and also a Tower of Strength when she needs to be. Molly Smashes Bunkers With Her Field Hockey Stick (which, BTW, was a scene I really could have done without, because it's utterly pointless and tells me NOTHING about any of the three friends, excepts that the Author is trying too hard)! Molly gets the other Shakespearian actor, none other than the great Armin! Gosh, isn't Molly really super fab?
The sad thing is that no, Molly isn't any kind of super or fab, Molly is a poorly written character who fails to impinge on the reader in any way except as a mild irritation when the book goes on and on about her. The other one, Christina, somewhat randomly called Tina (Dear Pamela, a tip: you don't have to actually type the names of your character, there IS such a thing as a Remember Things Function in all the wordprocessors I know, it saves lots of time and aggro. Please remember to use it when you feel tempted to use nicknames because you can't be arsed to type the whole name. Thank you.) is a sort of placid cow, only not really, but yes, deeply down she IS a placid cow and all conventional and things. Her only reason for existing seems to be the one who Tam Lin is fucking for a lot of the book, though we MUST think he secretly lUUUUURVES Janet, and who gets to dump him for no apparent reason except he has to be dumped if he is to be saved by Janet, now, don't he? She's also Suddenly A Drama Queen For Reasons Of Plot. Still, it's the one I liked best, at least she's got Sense.
Janet is a rampant Mary Sue. 'Nuff said.
Tam Lin is Beautiful But In A Manly Way And Also Supposedly Kind Even Though He's Got Draco's Colours (I mean white blond hair, grey eyes and pale skin, not that he's green and silver, which I'd have preferred for reasons of originality). Actually he's... not. A cypher if I ever read one. A nothing. A name. On second thought, he's quite self-seving and a tad hysterical at times so maybe he's not only got Draco's colours, he's got a little of a Howlish personality as well. Or he would if he were. Anything.
To conclude a quote from Ellen Kushner's Thomas the Rhymer. the novel is divided into four parts each of which is in first person POV from respectively: Gavin, thomas the rhymer, Meg and Elspeth. Who are they? Read the book! This quote is from the Gavin section:
Then the dog at my feet, Tray it would be, son of old Belta that was, Tray goes stiff like he's heard something, though my ears caught nothing over the racket of wind and rain. "Soft, there, lad," I say, like you do to a dog that's spooking. "Easy lad. Silly hound, scared of a bit of weather."
See? STYLE and plenty of it. :-D
Well, methinks perchance me's ranted enow, good fellowes. Now to Shakespearian tragedy and love immortal...
Which elegant transition brings me to my
Why resurrect old tales of Magic and Otherness, Pamela, if you're going to write a Freshman Scandal bad romance?
I mean, I admit that the story of Tam Lin is a popular and lovely thing: after all it's got Evil Elves, which always pleases; it's got a Beautiful Young Man, which never hurts; it's got a Feisty Tenacious Heroine, which young gels everywhere can identify with; it's got a powerful storyline with suspense and romance, it's certainly got SEX! There are several version of the basic plot, but they are all about a Thomas (Tam's the Scot version of the name) who's too sexy and musical to be left in peace. Enter the Queen of Elfland and... voila! One sexy beauty in the hands of a pagan goddess gone to the bad. Enter young heroine who is not one to be set aside for immortal hussies, thankyouverymuch, so she grabs young Tam and the poor boy has never got a chance, has he? So between going to Hell, going to the Twilight or going to be married I don't know what to wish him, really. Anyway the story's Matriarchal and older than the current Patriarchy (which is why I presume the pregnancy is not always present and was pastede on yay! later) so the fact that the poor sod hasn't got a say in what happens to him - TAM *whingeing* "But I WANT to be celibate, you sodding harridans!" - is not very off-putting.
Pamela Dean takes this basic plot and rewrites it as a Young Girl Romance Series, I have NO idea why. The woman can write. She wrote the Secret Country Trilogy which is very very good. Then she ups and writes this interminable piece of drivel. I use interminable advisedly, though I freely admit it's not boring, not if you like college romance, American style, that is.
I was trying to give the plot, but really there's none that makes sense, given the book is Tam Lin by Pamela Dean and not My Life and Loves While at College by a Young Lady. As I said, four fifths of the book are about Janet's love story with Nicholas, an Elizabethan actor who's been seduced by the Queen of Elfland and is now, for reasons known only to an Elizabethan actor who worked with Shakespeare and got seduced by an immortal crumpet, an everlasting student at a minor American University. The only reason he would submit to such an everlasting boredom is that he spends his time screwing Young Girls Of Impeccable Reputation and Putting A Spoke In His So-Called Friend Tam Lin's Wheel of Being Rescued.
The Immortal Crumpet assumes the name of Professor Medeous (Ware the Punnish Names! She's supposed to recall Medea. Good grief! And what's Medea got to do with Tam Lin or anything except she was a witch? She also killed her babies, y'know? o very literate Dean!) and for quite incomprehensible reasons teaches Ancient Greek. Why Ancient Greek? Why not? What's Ancient Greek Literature got to do with Elves? Who happen to be a Gealic myth? Who cares? Am I the only one who got so thouroghly pissed off at Pamela Dean for her atrocious and pompous dissertation on Literature? That said - er... ranted - she's just hard as nails and also bi and that's it for the Queen of Elfland. This doesn't actually grate all that much because she's supposed to be a shadowy figure, a powerful force never quite seen as a person. But Ancient Greek Literature! And wouldn't you know our SuperHeroine would learn Ancient Greek in less than a term? HA!
That's more or less it. In the last fifth or sixth part Janet suddenly decides she wants to bonk Tam, she does, she gets preggers, she saves him, end of story. Can readers believe this second and WAY TOO LATE romance? NAH! There's a sort of retcon reference when one of her friends - but more about them later - says 'you wanted him for months' (not a precise quotation, I can't be arsed to re-read the thing) but, Pamela dear, it won't wash.
Not to say there aren't intimation of Eeriness and Mystery, 'cause there are. Actually the first time Janet goes to see Melinda Wolfe - yes, all names of professors are atrocious puns. *sigh* - we get a nice horror atmosphere which convinces us all who know the ballads or the story to think she's Elfland Queen, but alas, she's but an elfess and not even a lycanthrope, now I ask you, Wolfe!
There's a striving for normalcy which is odd in that the heroine seems to always have feelings, intimations and odd things happening, but she never once deviates from her chosen Young Girl Romance path. This is because the sodding story takes FOUR years to happen and if Spunky and Literate Janet were to sit and reflect on things with any kind of efficiency, said story would end in one term.
Now in DWJ's Fire and Hemlock which may not be one of her best book, but it sure as Death and Taxes is a profoundly disturbing and fascinating book, the whole thing takes what? Ten years. Yet you get told why and her Janet, who's actually named Polly, is made to forget by MAGIC! And MENACES! And TERROR! Also, as her Tam Lin has apparently set out to seduce her when she was ten, she HAS to be lots more grown up for the grand finale. Which is not really really happy as it shouldn't be. IMO, it's well worth a read AND a re-read.
Back to our poor Pamela. Now, Janet's friends: Molly. Molly is Zany! Molly wants to be a Marine Biologist, but with lots more literature and lots less science in it! Molly is Not Pretty, Nor Beautiful! Molly is an Optimist Who Has Always A Smile Ready! Molly Reads Fantasy and Sci-Fi and Children's Books! Molly has a Teddy Bear! Molly is Practical and also a Tower of Strength when she needs to be. Molly Smashes Bunkers With Her Field Hockey Stick (which, BTW, was a scene I really could have done without, because it's utterly pointless and tells me NOTHING about any of the three friends, excepts that the Author is trying too hard)! Molly gets the other Shakespearian actor, none other than the great Armin! Gosh, isn't Molly really super fab?
The sad thing is that no, Molly isn't any kind of super or fab, Molly is a poorly written character who fails to impinge on the reader in any way except as a mild irritation when the book goes on and on about her. The other one, Christina, somewhat randomly called Tina (Dear Pamela, a tip: you don't have to actually type the names of your character, there IS such a thing as a Remember Things Function in all the wordprocessors I know, it saves lots of time and aggro. Please remember to use it when you feel tempted to use nicknames because you can't be arsed to type the whole name. Thank you.) is a sort of placid cow, only not really, but yes, deeply down she IS a placid cow and all conventional and things. Her only reason for existing seems to be the one who Tam Lin is fucking for a lot of the book, though we MUST think he secretly lUUUUURVES Janet, and who gets to dump him for no apparent reason except he has to be dumped if he is to be saved by Janet, now, don't he? She's also Suddenly A Drama Queen For Reasons Of Plot. Still, it's the one I liked best, at least she's got Sense.
Janet is a rampant Mary Sue. 'Nuff said.
Tam Lin is Beautiful But In A Manly Way And Also Supposedly Kind Even Though He's Got Draco's Colours (I mean white blond hair, grey eyes and pale skin, not that he's green and silver, which I'd have preferred for reasons of originality). Actually he's... not. A cypher if I ever read one. A nothing. A name. On second thought, he's quite self-seving and a tad hysterical at times so maybe he's not only got Draco's colours, he's got a little of a Howlish personality as well. Or he would if he were. Anything.
To conclude a quote from Ellen Kushner's Thomas the Rhymer. the novel is divided into four parts each of which is in first person POV from respectively: Gavin, thomas the rhymer, Meg and Elspeth. Who are they? Read the book! This quote is from the Gavin section:
Then the dog at my feet, Tray it would be, son of old Belta that was, Tray goes stiff like he's heard something, though my ears caught nothing over the racket of wind and rain. "Soft, there, lad," I say, like you do to a dog that's spooking. "Easy lad. Silly hound, scared of a bit of weather."
See? STYLE and plenty of it. :-D
Well, methinks perchance me's ranted enow, good fellowes. Now to Shakespearian tragedy and love immortal...
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
Re: and another late and quick one
Date: 2007-04-25 09:06 pm (UTC)Hill? But he's so cerebral. So's DWJ.
The only one I can understand is Pratchett, who does appear to feel extremely strongly about everything he writes about, but who nevertheless keeps it very lowkey. It's sort of like being on a ship in the middle of the ocean - after a while, you don't think about the sea, but it's still all around you and it affects you at every turn. :)
I guess that might be because Pratchett is the one I've got a lot of experience with and if I knew the other ones better, I might see the same thing in them? =]
And yes, I agree about subtext. Good authors don't need to tell you what to feel. They know you'll feel it anyway. =]
Re: and another late and quick one
Date: 2007-04-26 12:13 am (UTC)Same goes for both Hill and DWJ, I think you're confusing intellect with atarassia (absence of all feelings). I know it's a Brit cliché: sitff upper lip and never show what you feel, but, in a sense, it's true of the best Brit lit - yea, even unto Shakespeare - write intelligently and let all the rage, love, pain, joy and things swim underneath.
Re: and another late and quick one
Date: 2007-04-29 10:08 am (UTC)(*shrugs*) But if you say so. Not like I've studied these books that deeply. :)
I can certainly think of a couple of characters that would be fairly nightmarish if taken seriously. Catherine du Burgh comes to mind... =]
I do see what you mean about subtext. Like I said, I suspect the reason why I can see passion in Discworld books is because I'm so used to them - I can read between the lines. On the other hand, I've read one book by Hill and, eh... three books by DWJ that I can remember. With them, I'm still reduced to reading literally. =]