WEBVTT 00:00:00.300 --> 00:00:02.180 They say that everything happens for a reason. 00:00:02.279 --> 00:00:05.879 They say that everything that happens to you 00:00:05.879 --> 00:00:08.460 happens to you, or happens for you, not to you. 00:00:08.859 --> 00:00:13.720 And they say that, you know, you'll look back 00:00:13.720 --> 00:00:17.000 and laugh about this in the future. And while 00:00:17.000 --> 00:00:21.960 I do think that's true in life, it's more often 00:00:21.960 --> 00:00:24.000 true, or it's more evidently, it's easier to 00:00:24.000 --> 00:00:26.660 see in fiction. And that's something that... 00:00:26.829 --> 00:00:29.589 is happening in Chapter 8 of Lloyd Alexander's 00:00:29.589 --> 00:00:31.649 Book of Three, which I just finished reading. 00:00:31.929 --> 00:00:34.710 And I want to talk about a lot of things that 00:00:34.710 --> 00:00:37.710 are going on here, but I am stopping myself because 00:00:37.710 --> 00:00:40.250 I don't want to jump into Chapter 9 yet. And 00:00:40.250 --> 00:00:42.670 this is part of the bad thing about covering 00:00:42.670 --> 00:00:45.689 these books chapter by chapter, is when I've 00:00:45.689 --> 00:00:48.390 already read the book or when there's... Oh, 00:00:48.390 --> 00:00:50.909 desire for speculation. I hold myself back from 00:00:50.909 --> 00:00:53.909 indulging in that because I want to keep it topical 00:00:53.909 --> 00:00:55.250 to the chapter. And then eventually I'll talk 00:00:55.250 --> 00:00:56.689 about the book as a whole and I can have fun 00:00:56.689 --> 00:01:00.170 doing that when I do that. But yeah, there's 00:01:00.170 --> 00:01:03.609 things going on here that you could argue are 00:01:03.609 --> 00:01:06.250 convenient or contrivances or that's just because 00:01:06.250 --> 00:01:09.090 it's a book. But honestly, in my experience, 00:01:09.349 --> 00:01:13.189 that's how life works out. Crazy bad things happen 00:01:13.189 --> 00:01:16.159 to you and you don't understand why. You don't 00:01:16.159 --> 00:01:17.620 understand why you're suffering at this time, 00:01:17.659 --> 00:01:20.239 why you lost that thing, why this opportunity, 00:01:20.260 --> 00:01:22.920 you know, went away from you or whatever. You 00:01:22.920 --> 00:01:25.480 were, you know, unable to capture it. And then 00:01:25.480 --> 00:01:27.680 later on, three months, six months, three weeks, 00:01:27.719 --> 00:01:29.780 three hours down the line, something happens 00:01:29.780 --> 00:01:32.280 and you say, oh, wow, thank God this happened. 00:01:32.340 --> 00:01:34.840 So I was in this position so that I could be 00:01:34.840 --> 00:01:37.819 ready to receive X because X was exactly what 00:01:37.819 --> 00:01:40.980 I needed. And it reminds me of, what is it, the 00:01:40.980 --> 00:01:42.159 Beatles, right? You can't always get what you 00:01:42.159 --> 00:01:43.560 want. No, that's the Rolling Stones. But if you 00:01:43.560 --> 00:01:45.140 try some time, you... You just might find you 00:01:45.140 --> 00:01:47.439 get what you need. So Tarn and Elanui are stuck 00:01:47.439 --> 00:01:50.540 in this tunnel that isn't a very good tunnel. 00:01:50.620 --> 00:01:53.079 It's a dead end. And they want to get out of 00:01:53.079 --> 00:01:55.219 there. And Tarn, again, he's being pessimistic. 00:01:55.239 --> 00:01:57.060 He's seeing the negative side of things. Elanui 00:01:57.060 --> 00:02:00.379 is being her positive, optimistic self. And she 00:02:00.379 --> 00:02:03.939 is stumped. But she says, I'm not lost. I'm not 00:02:03.939 --> 00:02:05.640 really lost. I just don't know where I am right 00:02:05.640 --> 00:02:07.040 now. And there's a big difference between that. 00:02:07.280 --> 00:02:11.090 And Tarn can't see that. In retrospect, I'm not 00:02:11.090 --> 00:02:12.969 going to spoil exactly what happens in the chapter, 00:02:13.050 --> 00:02:14.550 even though I would have liked for you to have 00:02:14.550 --> 00:02:17.090 read it already, but they needed to go to the 00:02:17.090 --> 00:02:20.289 end of that tunnel with her confidence to backtrack 00:02:20.289 --> 00:02:24.169 one turnoff so that they could find their way 00:02:24.169 --> 00:02:27.810 out of Spiral Castle. That's what I'll say. And 00:02:27.810 --> 00:02:30.370 it's interesting because their perspectives are 00:02:30.370 --> 00:02:34.810 so different from each other. Tarin is coming 00:02:34.810 --> 00:02:38.789 from a perspective of fear and doubt. And a lack 00:02:38.789 --> 00:02:43.789 of self -confidence. And really, Elanui is this 00:02:43.789 --> 00:02:46.370 great foil to him because she lacks those things. 00:02:46.509 --> 00:02:48.849 She has confidence in herself. She doesn't fear. 00:02:48.889 --> 00:02:52.150 She trusts. And she knows that things are going 00:02:52.150 --> 00:02:54.210 to be okay. So she proceeds as if they will be, 00:02:54.270 --> 00:02:58.270 because they are going to be. And that benefits 00:02:58.270 --> 00:03:01.090 her because she sees opportunities where he doesn't. 00:03:01.090 --> 00:03:03.889 Or she can more easily see the opportunities 00:03:03.889 --> 00:03:05.870 when they come for success. And she takes them 00:03:05.870 --> 00:03:09.340 and seizes them. I'm just going to say she inadvertently 00:03:09.340 --> 00:03:12.659 does something in this chapter that really changes 00:03:12.659 --> 00:03:14.580 the course of the book and changes the course 00:03:14.580 --> 00:03:16.840 of the story and has, I think, a huge payoff 00:03:16.840 --> 00:03:19.759 in, like, book five, book four or five. But anyway, 00:03:19.900 --> 00:03:22.120 it's interesting because who they are as people, 00:03:22.240 --> 00:03:23.719 the way they're foiling each other, their perspectives 00:03:23.719 --> 00:03:28.860 on things, it's all naturally coming from the 00:03:28.860 --> 00:03:32.939 characters where these miscommunications, these 00:03:32.939 --> 00:03:35.500 missteps, them being out of sync with each other. 00:03:35.800 --> 00:03:37.360 It all makes sense with their characters. It's 00:03:37.360 --> 00:03:39.060 not a contrivance. It's not done for fun. Yes, 00:03:39.199 --> 00:03:41.419 Lloyd Alexander contrived them to be like this 00:03:41.419 --> 00:03:43.120 and set their characters like that so they could 00:03:43.120 --> 00:03:46.159 play off with these dynamics to show like the 00:03:46.159 --> 00:03:49.500 twists of fate or possibly what faith or the 00:03:49.500 --> 00:03:52.419 divine, what destiny has in store for these characters 00:03:52.419 --> 00:03:54.680 and how they can fulfill their destiny through 00:03:54.680 --> 00:03:57.819 making their own choices or by making choices 00:03:57.819 --> 00:04:00.479 that are wholly their own and not done like to 00:04:00.479 --> 00:04:02.419 manipulate destiny or anything like that. But 00:04:02.419 --> 00:04:05.419 I don't know. It's interesting. It's very interesting. 00:04:05.560 --> 00:04:07.060 But, like, that's clever. That's what a writer's 00:04:07.060 --> 00:04:08.139 supposed to do. They create the world, they create 00:04:08.139 --> 00:04:10.099 the fictional world, and they tell these fake 00:04:10.099 --> 00:04:12.639 stories in there to reveal deeper hidden truths. 00:04:12.840 --> 00:04:14.180 And I think that's exactly what we're seeing 00:04:14.180 --> 00:04:18.800 here. And it's funny. At one point, Tarn's upset, 00:04:18.899 --> 00:04:20.779 and he tells Elanri that she's like Dolben, and 00:04:20.779 --> 00:04:23.019 she asks, who's Dolben? And he says, he's mine. 00:04:23.079 --> 00:04:24.379 Then he cuts himself off and doesn't want to 00:04:24.379 --> 00:04:26.120 share with her. And I was about to say, yeah, 00:04:26.139 --> 00:04:28.279 he's your foil. He's, like, you know, what you're 00:04:28.279 --> 00:04:29.620 supposed to be. He's your master. He's the one 00:04:29.620 --> 00:04:31.480 guiding you. And now Elanri's taking that role. 00:04:31.759 --> 00:04:34.699 Gwydion took the role of guidance. First it was 00:04:34.699 --> 00:04:36.560 Dolben, then it was Call, then it was Gwydion, 00:04:36.680 --> 00:04:39.540 now it's Elanwy taking this place of, like, a 00:04:39.540 --> 00:04:43.540 mentor and a foil to Tarn directly, or to directly 00:04:43.540 --> 00:04:45.459 show him what he needs to be, to show the audience 00:04:45.459 --> 00:04:48.680 what he could be and what he isn't. And I just 00:04:48.680 --> 00:04:50.319 find that a really fascinating, really satisfying 00:04:50.319 --> 00:04:53.839 thing that Alexander's been doing in this book, 00:04:53.899 --> 00:04:56.939 and it's just really enjoyable. There's a lot 00:04:56.939 --> 00:04:59.949 of cool, like, creepy... lore bits like textual 00:04:59.949 --> 00:05:01.730 ruins and things like that in this chapter with 00:05:01.730 --> 00:05:04.269 like the king of this in this barrow and how 00:05:04.269 --> 00:05:06.769 did he design it and and build the castle and 00:05:06.769 --> 00:05:08.709 you know what is spiral castle and you know why 00:05:08.709 --> 00:05:11.370 is the why is he buried under it and why is that 00:05:11.370 --> 00:05:13.209 important why is the sword matter and all these 00:05:13.209 --> 00:05:15.310 different things um that are really interesting 00:05:15.310 --> 00:05:17.689 uh but i won't get into now but it was just a 00:05:17.689 --> 00:05:20.290 fun cool chapter um i listened to it twice because 00:05:20.290 --> 00:05:21.470 the first time i thought okay that was good and 00:05:21.470 --> 00:05:23.149 i listened to a second time okay okay now i'm 00:05:23.149 --> 00:05:25.269 picking up on more stuff and this really is a 00:05:25.269 --> 00:05:27.430 good chapter and there's It's like an interstitial 00:05:27.430 --> 00:05:32.470 chapter, but I love, but it's good, and it works 00:05:32.470 --> 00:05:34.430 on its own, and it has things in it that you 00:05:34.430 --> 00:05:36.509 don't realize are a bigger deal until they happen 00:05:36.509 --> 00:05:38.129 later. And then at the end, it has a great closing 00:05:38.129 --> 00:05:39.850 hook, which makes me want to read the next chapter, 00:05:39.949 --> 00:05:43.730 which was they see Melengar and a companion cloaked 00:05:43.730 --> 00:05:45.829 in hood or whatever, and Tarn had never seen 00:05:45.829 --> 00:05:47.939 this man before. Boom! Cut! And we don't know 00:05:47.939 --> 00:05:48.959 what happened. So it's like, well, what's going 00:05:48.959 --> 00:05:50.620 to happen? So you want to read the next chapter. 00:05:50.899 --> 00:05:52.980 And I held off because I know who it is. And, 00:05:53.000 --> 00:05:54.740 you know, it's going to be fun. So look forward 00:05:54.740 --> 00:05:56.860 to that. Anyway, if you want to hear more honest 00:05:56.860 --> 00:06:01.139 critique of books, you can subscribe. Check out 00:06:01.139 --> 00:06:03.819 mgmooners .com. You can find a link in the show 00:06:03.819 --> 00:06:06.300 notes to find more of me talking about other 00:06:06.300 --> 00:06:08.120 books. I talked about Secret Garden. I did a 00:06:08.120 --> 00:06:10.259 big, I did some chapter by chapter coverage on 00:06:10.259 --> 00:06:12.819 that. And I did a huge, like a 40 minute or so 00:06:12.819 --> 00:06:14.779 review of the whole book because I just finished 00:06:14.779 --> 00:06:17.860 it. all in one go. And I'm working on books that 00:06:17.860 --> 00:06:19.420 are going to be like my book, Mockering Mayhem, 00:06:19.439 --> 00:06:21.920 which is coming out in like before the summer 00:06:21.920 --> 00:06:26.959 or before the summer, hopefully of 2025. But 00:06:26.959 --> 00:06:29.800 I'm working on that and I'm going to start reading 00:06:29.800 --> 00:06:32.620 and reviewing some books more or less weekly, 00:06:32.740 --> 00:06:35.019 maybe every other week that are similar books 00:06:35.019 --> 00:06:38.100 to it to assess them and to talk about them and 00:06:38.100 --> 00:06:39.879 how they compare to the book, which by the way, 00:06:39.899 --> 00:06:41.899 if you want to check out my... Mockwing Mayhem, 00:06:41.959 --> 00:06:43.639 which is about magical bugs battling monsters. 00:06:43.819 --> 00:06:45.120 The monsters find out where the magical bugs 00:06:45.120 --> 00:06:47.019 live. They go there to kill them all. And the 00:06:47.019 --> 00:06:48.800 bugs have to defend themselves, especially two 00:06:48.800 --> 00:06:51.819 untrained, untested, untried grow bugs. Then 00:06:51.819 --> 00:06:53.439 check out the link in the description below. 00:06:54.399 --> 00:06:56.920 And it'll be on my website as well. You can sign 00:06:56.920 --> 00:06:58.740 up to my newsletter and you can get a free short 00:06:58.740 --> 00:07:02.000 story as well as a free guide to the world of 00:07:02.000 --> 00:07:04.600 grow bugs and mock wings. And it's very cool. 00:07:04.990 --> 00:07:06.149 I think you're going to like it. If you like 00:07:06.149 --> 00:07:08.649 adventure and fantasy, it's a very much like 00:07:08.649 --> 00:07:10.910 a secondary world within our world. And I think 00:07:10.910 --> 00:07:12.910 it's a really fun book. I think it's really cool. 00:07:12.990 --> 00:07:15.370 And I'm excited to get it out there. Just fine 00:07:15.370 --> 00:07:16.930 tuning stuff in the background to publish. It's 00:07:16.930 --> 00:07:18.069 the first time I've self -published a book or 00:07:18.069 --> 00:07:19.730 published a book at all. So I'm learning a lot 00:07:19.730 --> 00:07:21.029 as I'm going along, but I think you'll enjoy 00:07:21.029 --> 00:07:24.370 it. And I think if you like Tower and Wanderer, 00:07:24.370 --> 00:07:26.670 or sorry, I really like that book. If you like 00:07:26.670 --> 00:07:28.529 these Lloyd Alexander books, the Prydain books, 00:07:28.629 --> 00:07:30.509 I think you'll like Mocking Mayhem as well. There 00:07:30.509 --> 00:07:33.189 are some similarities, but they're very different. 00:07:33.449 --> 00:07:35.350 books from each other, but still the heroism 00:07:35.350 --> 00:07:37.470 and the core of goodness and nobility is there. 00:07:37.550 --> 00:07:40.069 And that's good stuff. Anyway, until next time, 00:07:40.110 --> 00:07:41.870 folks, take care. This is MJ signing out.