Wait a minute. Does this say she wouldn't feel
comfortable running around without her clothes?
I thought this was supposed to be a children's
book. Oh, never mind. Okay, I get it. All right.
Sorry. I got distracted by this craziness going
on. This is MJ. I'm an author. I'm an artist.
I'm an analyzer. This is Fortress Fiction, where
I talk about books, chapter by chapter, specifically.
The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander. I'm on
chapter seven, and it's called The Trap. In this
chapter, Elanwee and Taryn... are trapped in
the tunnels sort of or they go from one tunnel
to being trapped in another tunnel and a lot
of interesting stuff happens including along
the offering to take off her dress, and I'm assuming
she has an underdress, tear it up and, uh, plait
it into a rope, uh, and even maybe even cut off
her hair and plait that into a rope if she had
scissors or shoes to do it with, and, uh, make
a rope for Taran to escape from the pit that
he's fallen into. Turns out the pit is a tunnel.
They're in a system of tunnels in, uh, Spiral
Castle, which is being held and controlled by
her evil sorceress aunt. Um... Akhen. And yeah,
it's a lot of interesting stuff going on here.
The relationship dynamic between Tarn and Elanwi
is really interesting. I think I touched on this
previously, that I find it weird in children's
fiction when the author seems to be, the author,
the director, whatever, it's a movie or whatever,
seems to be like pushing the kids to like couple
up or whatever. And that doesn't seem to be what's
going on here at all, at least not yet. yet there's
a lot of weird things like honestly the first
time i read about this book uh the line about
her you know taking off her clothes and turning
into a rope like really threw me i thought is
this girl really assuming she's being you know
gonna run around naked after this but i i talked
to somebody else and they said no like you know
girls at that time they wore a dress they wore
like a shift or an underdress type thing and
like it would have been that probably that she
would have been running around it but that would
have been without her clothes and that's kind
of just like it's like a shocking statement,
but in the context it's, it's okay. You know,
we understand. Um, and it's not a weird thing.
Um, so I just want to kind of defend that real
quick. Um, but it was kind of shocking to read,
uh, or hear going through again as I'm listening
to the audio book. But anyway, uh, this chapter,
it's funny, like not a lot happens. It's kind
of a simple chapter, a little bit of a transitional
chapter, but I still feel like it really pushes
forward. Uh, The narrative in a small way, it
gives a lot of great character moments to Tarn
and Eilonwy. She calls him stupid again, but she
says that he's kind -hearted and that's more
important than being intelligent because he,
I think it's when he offers to save her. like
she offers for him to go and abandon him um and
then come back for him later if she can uh i
think honestly there's like two or three exchanges
we're trying saying like it's not worth saving
me at this point like save yourself uh you know
make sure you get to my companion and tell him
to flee and like you know leave me here like
tarn constantly keeps putting the mission in
front of himself he keeps putting the the deed
in front of himself so like uh gideon told him
uh the doer of the deed or what is it the deed
is more important than the doer so like getting
the mission accomplished is more important than
who accomplishes it and that can be taken a couple
different ways um i don't remember if in the
original context uh like charne was almost like
wanting the honor of doing whatever deed or or
what it was but here he's clearly um prioritizing
the mission getting accomplished and like he's
willing to sacrifice himself and get killed uh,
and be left, yeah, he's willing to lose all hope
and just, like, basically be a prisoner, be tortured,
be killed, uh, in order that the others may escape
and the mission can get done, which is really
great and wonderful and noble. And Alami mentions,
uh, she doesn't go as far as I'm going, probably
because they're in a tense situation and they
gotta keep moving, but, uh, she definitely acknowledges
that nobility and, uh, she appreciates that,
so that's cool to see that the boy's got something
to offer her. Uh, at least as a character, uh,
or, you know, as, as a person, uh, not, you know,
again, romantically, cause that's, again, that's
weird. And I'm not shipping kids in this, uh,
you know, in this book, especially, uh, well,
just cause that's weird anyway. Um, but it's
nice to see characters have moments where they
can't endure themselves to each other and where
you can see the other characters in the cast,
like getting emotionally attached to them. Um,
this is a quick aside. I happen to listen to,
uh, Treasure Island. And there's moments in there
where Silver endears himself to Jim Hawkins and
Jim endears himself to Silver. And seeing those
little moments was really interesting, really
fun and enjoyable. So similarly here, it's enjoyable
to see those moments between these characters
as well. So anyway, they move from, they're moving
through the tunnels of Spiral. castle and they
go through a pit hole or pitfall and they end
up in another tunnel and a laundry goes in there
with him uh and when she goes in there tarn is
so upset with her he's yelling at her calling
her names basically and he's doing this because
he cares but he doesn't quite know how to express
his concern um that she be trapped with him and
that she would you know end up dying because
she went to help him and i don't know if that's
because he well, I don't quite understand that
whole dynamic. I mean, the concept makes sense
to me. Don't risk yourself for me. You can save
yourself, whatever. Very noble, very self, you
know, self -minimizing, self -sacrificing. That's
good. That's what you want. But it's just funny
because like he can't, he's so caught up, Tarn
is so caught up in the dangers and in the negative
reality of what's going on that he is closing
himself off to. He's giving himself blinders
so he can't really see. the rest of what's going
on um along he tells him that it's a tunnel so
all tunnels have a way out and he then he um
and you know so let's go together in this tunnel
and uh you know it's a nicer taller tunnel and
i don't know why the tunnels that she was taking
him through originally was so cramped because
they were crouching and had a hard time moving
through it um and then this tunnel it's like
fully you're able to stand up in it so i don't
know she says spiral castle is kind of like honeycombed
with all these different entries and tunnels
and passages um and i don't know maybe that's
hinting at maybe that's a textual ruin um to
quote a term i've used from uh a tolkien analysis
podcast the prancing pony podcast um i don't
know if it's a textual ruin uh and they didn't
make that up there was a guy who wrote a book
about textual ruins and he says that tolkien
had them all over the place in his books i guess
maybe anyway um maybe it's a textual ruin that
alexander put in there that's implying that there's
like a long twisted history of uh spiral castle
that's funny i just kind of came up with that
on accident anyway and that like throughout the
years different people have done different things
there including putting all these secret passageways
as well as full -on like publicly known or well
-known tunnels and i guess they've stumbled into
one of these uh good tunnels from an from a so
-so tunnel and you know that's uh kind of interesting
so you know plot -wise like i said not a lot
happens here but you get a lot of character moments
so like um In the beginning of the chapter when
Elanri finally comes back for him after he thinks
she's abandoned him, after he thinks she's betrayed
him and all this stuff. He's just like having
his own reality going on in his head, not really
knowing or acknowledging like what other people
are actually doing. You know, she's gotten Melengar
and his companion out, which is great. And they're
hiding in the forest. And she was not able to
get the weapons. And she's just like, do you
expect me to do everything for you? Which I thought
was a real funny moment. and yeah i mean i just
i i enjoyed it like i thoroughly enjoyed it i
had a lot of fun listening to it and uh the end
of it is a great uh lead -in to the next chapter
it ends with the line uh something like uh like
doubtful tarn follow her and um they're going
uh i think they're they're about to get out of
the tunnel um No, they're still traversing through
the tunnel, I believe, at the end. But still,
it's like, oh, OK, they're in this new place.
They've had these moments together. They've had
this like back and forth. And, you know, now
as the reader hearing their exchanges, you're
in a certain place with them, a place of uncertainty
and doubt and a place of not knowing what's coming
next. And yet you're in a place where there's
this new opportunity. You're in this tunnel with
them and there's a way forward. And, you know,
the way out is through. And you're. excited and
like, uh, primed to see what's going to happen
next. And that's it. I'm primed to see what happens
next. I'm primed to see what happens in the next
chapter, which is, uh, chapter eight, the barrows,
which, you know, that's always exciting. Um,
so anyway, uh, that's all for now on my actual
review of this book, my reaction to it. Um, I
have a short you can check out too, which is
actually a long, because the shorts are longer
now. Um, you can check that out. You should be
able to find it here. I don't know if it'll pop
up or if I have to link to it or whatnot. But
more than that, I've been working on my book,
Mocking Mayhem. It's finished. My cover is coming
along. It's being worked on by somebody. I just
went through and I revised a couple more things.
Again, I'm finding that the more I'm writing
this book, the better it's getting. And the more
time goes on, I'm revising it more and more.
I also submitted like a bid for it to be worked
on with a professional editor. And yeah, so my
book's done. I feel really good about the manuscript.
The editor has been contacted and the book cover
is... in process and i have the book out to a
beta reader or two and i'm very excited to see
what their feedback is and anyway mocking me
him sorry i should have led with this is about
magical bugs battling monsters and those monsters
find out where the magical bugs live and they
go to kill them all in their hidden fort and
uh two of the young uh grow bugs in training
that's what they're called grow bugs this type
of magical bug um want to save their master and
they end up having to fight a one of these creatures
a mockwing and the challenge is will they survive
because they're not strong enough to take this
thing out on their own but together they might
have a chance but if they survive that will they
be able to save their master who's fighting other
mockwings at this time and if they can survive
that will they survive the rest of the flock
being there and possibly overwhelming them and
killing them all You can find out by checking
out Mocking Mayhem, which will come out at some
point soon. I'll let you know when. And you can
find out when it's coming out by signing up for
my newsletter. You can also get a guide to Mocking
Mayhem and the world of the grow bugs. You can
get a short story for free. And yeah, you can
find out more about the book. I'm seeing stuff
I'm going to be talking about and all sorts of
little different things that I'll be offering
in exchange for you coming and checking out what
I'm doing there. and you can find the links to
it on the show notes check out mgmovers .com
and mgmovers .com book specifically to find uh
you can see my my my cover that i made for the
book um it's like a placeholder cover uh and
you can learn more about the book there and uh
again access those uh cool free things and get
ready for that book to come out i think it's
gonna be a lot of fun i've poured a lot of uh
thought and energy and heart and soul into this
thing and um Yeah, I'm excited to write this.
I hope it'll be a success because I'd love to
write more in this world as well. But it's definitely
a standalone book that has a beginning, middle,
and end and tells, I think, a very satisfying
story. And I think it's a lot of cool. I think
it's a lot of fun. A lot of cool stuff happens
in it. So I'd love it if you would check that
out. Again, MockingWayham at MJMorninger .com.
Stick around for more book reviews. I will get
back to Secret Garden very soon. And I'm going
to be switching things up because trying to be
a full -time writer while you're... uh having
a full -time job and everything else is very
difficult and i'm trying to tweak things but
i'm definitely going to keep going with um these
lloyd alexander books and secret garden off to
see how i handle that and the rest of the books
on my big long list and i might be uh amending
my big long list to cover stuff that's similar
to mock ring mayhem and checking those books
out and seeing how i like them and how people
who um might enjoy mocking mayhem would like
them as well so that's just kind of a preview
of what's coming in the future so until next
time folks take care and be well