Kate ([info]kate_nepveu) wrote,
@ 2004-09-11 22:01:00
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Entry tags:books, sff

SPOILERS: Deerskin by Robin McKinley

Over on my book log, I've just posted a comment on Deerskin, by Robin McKinley, in which I talk around some problems I had with the book. For the curious, I put spoilers behind the cut tag. This will probably not make any sense at all if you haven't read the book.

My problem with the magical help is this quote (page 226, Ace paperback):

She had lived. They were now only memories, and where she stood now the sun was shining.

Five years ago.

The Moonwoman had said, I give you the gift of time.

Time enough to grow strong enough to remember. Maybe the Moonwoman had known Lissar well enough after all.

Now, if the time had been so that people wouldn't associate her with the missing/presumed dead princess of her original kingdom, fine. Makes perfect sense to me. But those years lying on the mountaintop felt as though one night for her; she didn't experience them at all. I fail to understand how the passage of time, when not experienced, allows one to grow strong. Might as well have just healed her wounds and taken her memory away, and skipped those years completely—surely it would have been the same from Lissar's point of view?

This is what I mean about psychological realism (time to grow strong) not fitting well with fairy tales (magical sleep and healing on mountaintops).

My practical questions, by the way, were: what's going to happen to the kingdom of Lissar's father, now that he's old and broken and heirless; and what about Camilla, Ossin's sister, the responsible and interesting one who was to marry said nameless king? This isn't her story, but to me she feels like she has one.


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[info]pixelfish
2004-09-11 08:53 pm UTC (link)
I think my "except" for Robin McKinley would be her second Beauty story. I just couldn't get into it. I have....very little memory of it either, which is odd for me.

I wasn't so hot on Sunshine, but it survived for me, just because of the narrative voice.

I think the point you make about Lissar is a good one--in terms of time and healing. A misstep, but not one that ruins the story for me.

Doesn't Ossin's kingdom show up again in Spindle's End, as background against the other kingdoms? The references to a particular queen seem very similar to Ossin's family. Something about small households and making preserves and hunting dogs....


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[info]kate_nepveu
2004-09-12 07:15 am UTC (link)
I haven't read _Sunshine_ yet, though it's moderately high on the list. There is something about a small kingdom similar to Ossin's in _Spindle's End_, yes, but no more than a background reference.

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[info]sienamystic
2004-09-11 10:47 pm UTC (link)
Deerskin doesn't present the same kind of problems for me, but I have found that sometimes McKinley works better if I let her imagery wash over me without trying to work it out too much. Her endings can sometimes be too...what's the word I want...sensory? for me, where I want something a little more concrete that I can get a handle on. I do see the point you make about Lissar's healing being an interesting one, but it's not one that I would have ever noticed as a minor flaw in the underlying structure of the story.

The book of hers that I find the weakest (although I know that's not what you mean by it being her "except" book) is Spindle's End, which I found generally dull and posessed of the most "woo-woo" ending of all her books. I haven't had any urge to reread it, and I actually think I sold the book back to the used book store right away. Blue Sword, Hero and the Crown, and Sunshine are all on the top of the list of books I cherish, however, and I enjoy the two Beauty retellings. I even tolerate Outlaws of Sherwood, despite the fact that it became clear very early that Robin and Marion was not the story she was most interested in telling.

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[info]kate_nepveu
2004-09-12 07:17 am UTC (link)
I've never been able to get more than 15 pages into _Outlaws_; as I've said above, _Sunshine_ is still on the to-be-read pile. I love _Spindle's End_, but for the people, setting, and prose; the ending is pretty abstract, though _Deerskin_ is up there too.

My favorite of hers is probably _The Blue Sword_, but that's for comfort reading purposes rather than strict quality.

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[info]pixelfish
2004-09-12 09:24 am UTC (link)
I like Outlaws actually.

"Sensory" is exactly the way I think of certain endings, particularly Spindle's End and Sunshine. (As I said, I don't remember anything about the second Beauty book so I don't think I can really comment on it.)

My favourite is also the Blue Sword--which keeps manifesting itself subtly whenever I write. (My YA novel in progress could best be described as The Far Pavillions meets The Blue Sword meets Captains Courageous.)

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[info]schulman
2004-09-12 06:31 pm UTC (link)
The Far Pavillions meets The Blue Sword meets Captains Courageous

I would pay to read that, and I've never even heard of the Far Pavillions. (Just ordered it, though; if it stands in that company, I'll like it.)

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[info]papersky
2004-09-12 06:09 am UTC (link)
I took that comment to mean that she's five years older, an adult not a girl, and with the muscles she would have had if she'd been seriously working out all that time.

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[info]kate_nepveu
2004-09-12 07:18 am UTC (link)
Mmmm. I'm not sure I follow you--you think physical strength is relevant to the ability to withstand the return of her memories?

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[info]juliansinger
2004-09-17 10:54 pm UTC (link)
Yeah. I've struggled with that ending.

(I mean, I'm on the path toward working with trauma victims, m'self...)

I always took it to mean that she gave her enough distance not to be overwhelmed by the memories /all the time/, but close enough to them to be able to deal with them. (If I recall the book correctly, she was pretty much in a permanent state of overwhelmed-ness, before the break.)

And, yes, as Papersky says, that she was physically stronger. Physically more able to deal with the consequences of what happened.

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[info]juliansinger
2004-09-17 10:56 pm UTC (link)
Oh, and I like Outlaws a lot, I just don't think it's very, uh, mature? It doesn't really /challenge/ itself.

Sunshine is fabulous, and I love and adore _The Blue Sword_.

Spindle, uh, yes. Wonderful characterization. Ending's just a tad weak.

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