Sunshine
I just finished reading Sunshine by Robin McKinley - again. It's actually been a while since I've read Sunshine, but each time I do I leave with something else; each time I read it it's like I'm reading the book for the first time. Each time something else strikes me at my core. The recognition of something true.
My sunshine self, my tree self, my deer self. Do they outweigh my dark self?
I love the ending of the book, and I don't just mean the last chapter or so. I think what I like most about it is when Rae decides that she doesn't care - not that she doesn't care about life or things in general, but that she doesn't care that Constantine is a vampire. She knows that he is and accepts that which binds them. She accepts her fate, knowing, believing that she is going to die if she goes with him to fight Bo - and she does. Not just because she is bound to Con, but because it's the right thing to do. She does it despite of her fear, knowing that she will be leaving behind those that she loves - knowing that there was no hope. She did it anyway.
There is a character that really stuck with me this time around: Yolande the wardskeeper/landlady. She is a minor character, but has the best lines and the best part:
"Most magic handlers have a talent for one thing or another, and it is drawn from one area of this worked or another. A foreseer with a principal rapport with trees may see visions in a burl of her favorite wood, for example, rather than in the traditional crystal ball. A sorcerer whose strongest relationship is with water will be much likelier to drown his or her enemy than to meet them in battle, although one with an affinity for metal would forge a sword."
"Affinity" I said bitterly. "my affinity is for vampires."
"No," said Yolande, "Why do you say that?"
"Pat. SOF. That's why they want me. Because I'm a m-magic handler" - I could hardly get the phrase out..."with an affinity for vampires."
Yolande shook her head. "The hierarchies of magic handling are no particular study of mine. But your principal affinity is for sunlight; your element, as it were... and as for your - let us call it counteraffinity: your counteraffinity may be for vampires... It is the strength of the element in you that makes you more able to resist - and simultaneously embrace - it's opposite. You are not consumed by the dark because you are full of light" (McKinley, 333-334.)
Sometimes I feel very much like Rae Seddon, affinity for baking and vampires included.
My sunshine self, my tree self, my deer self. Do they outweigh my dark self?
My sunshine self, my tree self, my deer self. Do they outweigh my dark self?
I love the ending of the book, and I don't just mean the last chapter or so. I think what I like most about it is when Rae decides that she doesn't care - not that she doesn't care about life or things in general, but that she doesn't care that Constantine is a vampire. She knows that he is and accepts that which binds them. She accepts her fate, knowing, believing that she is going to die if she goes with him to fight Bo - and she does. Not just because she is bound to Con, but because it's the right thing to do. She does it despite of her fear, knowing that she will be leaving behind those that she loves - knowing that there was no hope. She did it anyway.
There is a character that really stuck with me this time around: Yolande the wardskeeper/landlady. She is a minor character, but has the best lines and the best part:
"Most magic handlers have a talent for one thing or another, and it is drawn from one area of this worked or another. A foreseer with a principal rapport with trees may see visions in a burl of her favorite wood, for example, rather than in the traditional crystal ball. A sorcerer whose strongest relationship is with water will be much likelier to drown his or her enemy than to meet them in battle, although one with an affinity for metal would forge a sword."
"Affinity" I said bitterly. "my affinity is for vampires."
"No," said Yolande, "Why do you say that?"
"Pat. SOF. That's why they want me. Because I'm a m-magic handler" - I could hardly get the phrase out..."with an affinity for vampires."
Yolande shook her head. "The hierarchies of magic handling are no particular study of mine. But your principal affinity is for sunlight; your element, as it were... and as for your - let us call it counteraffinity: your counteraffinity may be for vampires... It is the strength of the element in you that makes you more able to resist - and simultaneously embrace - it's opposite. You are not consumed by the dark because you are full of light" (McKinley, 333-334.)
Sometimes I feel very much like Rae Seddon, affinity for baking and vampires included.
My sunshine self, my tree self, my deer self. Do they outweigh my dark self?
posted by Rebecca at 10:26 AM
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