A Fairy Tale About Words and Grammar

[pameladlloyd]

cloudscudding recently recommended The Grammarian's Five Daughters, by Eleanor Arnason, which I enjoyed very much. So, I, in turn, recommend it to you.

Enjoy!

Comments

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the recommendation--will check it out!

[pdlloyd.livejournal.com]

Hope you like it. :)

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Oh, it was really good! I'm sending the link on to my parents and to Wakanomori.

[pdlloyd.livejournal.com]

:)

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I loved in particular the various arrangements that the daughters came up with in the lands they lived in--marrying people of both sexes, or not marrying, or marrying someone other. That was so much fun. And of course the language use was just great :-)

(Could have done this as an edit to the last comment but....the lazy... I have it...)

[pdlloyd.livejournal.com]

Yes, I enjoyed that, too. I loved he way she took fairy tale tropes and turned them upside down, while at the same time staying true to their spirit. The whole story just felt so creative and playful.

One thing I find interesting is her choice to have the city from which the daughters leave home be unnamed, because it "no longer exists," while naming each of the places defined by the daughters on their quests. Even thought we have no place names comparable to those, that decision suggests that these places still exist in some way.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I found myself musing on the fact that the first city had no name, too! Funny the things that tug at the mind. It's like the Indo-European of cities, and the ones the daughters give names to are like the surviving languages :-)

[pdlloyd.livejournal.com]

What a cool analogy! :-)