Free Komarr

[schneefink]

Sometimes I find a song I like and listen to it twenty times on repeat. Today: an a capella version of "Defying Gravity", found on Tumblr. I'd sing along, but I tend not to pay attention to how loud I get and LB doesn't like it, so I'm just moving my head to the rhythm and occasionally humming.

A new Vorkosigan book is coming out next year! "Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen." Great side-effect, dira is writing more The World That You Need fic. But overall I was less enthusiastic about the announcement than I would have been a few months ago. Part of the reason is that I didn't enjoy the last two books that much, and I really hope the new book doesn't continue that trend.

But another reason is that last December I read From the Old to the New by avanti_90. It's a 9k gen AU epistolary fic about the Komarran independence movement, and it's fantastic: One man can alter the course of history. A random encounter leads Duv Galeni to change his mind and return to Komarr.

As I wrote in my comment: "I never fully realized how imperialistic Barrayar was towards Komarr, somehow I didn't pay attention to that, and now I feel like I'm looking at canon in a different way. This is a great future! It's a better future than I can see in canon, and as much as I love Aral and Gregor and Miles and everyone else, now I wish this had happened instead." Afterwards I browsed DW, read a few more posts mentioning the ways in which Barrayaran society is fucked up (and some less good parts of the books) - most of it things that I was vaguely aware of, but never really paid attention to. As I saw someone say somewhere, I enjoyed deliberately believing in the books' fictions: Barrayarans are generally the good guys, Gregor is the rightful ruler and Emperor, things like that. And that's become much harder since reading about an independent Komarr. I can still usually do it, and it's not that hard for fic that doesn't mention politics - but politics was one of the things I really enjoyed about the Vorkosigan series :/

Another big reason why I'm less invested in the Vorkosigan saga by now is of course also that I found other things, like Bab5, that are fantastic and fascinating and that I love a lot right now. And I'm still in the middle of it! Season 3 was amazing; I'm not convinced by the beginning of season 4 yet, but I'm optimistic. I watch the political developments on Bab5 closely, and some of them I'm worried about... I've been too busy in March, but I hope we'll find time for more episodes soon.

Comments

[jae]

Sometimes I find a song I like and listen to it twenty times on repeat.

*raises hand* I totally do this too!

I think a tolerance for repetition must be built into the fannish mindset. :)

-J

[zombieallomorph]

Yep, guilty.

Also: \o/ Defying Gravity! One of my favorite musical songs.

[schneefink]

I didn't know it's a musical song! I just looked it up and the musical solo version is also very nice :)

[schneefink]

And maybe after thirty times I even start remembering more words than just the ten most obvious from the chorus! Good to know it's not just me :)

[extrapenguin]

It's been a while since I watched B5, but season 4 was fine IIRC. Season 5 was of lesser quality due to executive sheanigans ("you only get 4 seasons" -> JMS puts most of S5's meaty stuff into S4. "k you get a fifth one" -> S5 is extended and suffers from padding)

Where may I find these thoughts on the Vorkosigan Saga?

[schneefink]

I heard about s5, yes. That's the only reason I can think of why they already ended the Shadow War - just like that! Blink and it's over! I'm still not sure how I feel about that. Fyi, no spoilers whatsoever please :) (last episode I saw was 4x08)

I don't remember, sorry! I was just journal browsing, and I'm not good at bookmarking meta. When I found a Vorkosigan post I just followed that person's tags back a few months/years.

[sahiya]

Hmm. I think I always got from the books that LMB was pretty aware of how imperialistic Barrayar's behavior toward Komarr was. There is sort of the complicating factor of the wormhole, and the fact that Komarr proved themselves, ahem, a bit untrustworthy. So there's the sense in the books that Barrayar somehow didn't have a choice but to conquer Komarr, which is perhaps the most problematic aspect of things from my POV.

I think what I generally took from the books is that the characters are all good people, but the systems of which they are a part are often deeply messed up. Empires always are (and democracies are often not much better - Beta has its own issues). Cordelia is a great POV character for this reason - even after several decades on Barrayar, she isn't really "inside" the system the way that Miles and Ivan and Gregor (and Aral) are. She can see the ways in which it is a truly terrible place for many people, even while loving people who love Barrayar.

In fewer words: I think LMB is pretty aware of the world she's created.

[schneefink]

I agree that the characters are mostly good people even if the systems are not, but most characters (except maybe Cordelia) aren't fully aware of exactly how messed up the system is. But I don't think the books make much of an effort to present a different view than the characters'. Characters like Laisa appear more to support the Barrayarans' view of their actions toward Komarr, not to offer a different perspective. And I only wish we got more of Cordelia's perspective on Barrayar (maybe in the new book!) Sometimes I wonder how Cordelia feels about Miles' and Gregor's worldviews.

[sahiya]

I do hope we get some of Cordelia's POV on this in the next book. She certainly had perspective on it in Barrayar but forty years later . . . it'd be interesting. I think to some extent it's realistic - when you're so far inside a system, particularly when you have a lot of personal investment in that system, it's hard to see how completely messed up it is. And we do get characters like Duv Galeni and his father; granted, his father is presented as a terrorist, but it's easy to see how Barrayaran actions have bred terrorists like him.

I think how I think of it is that Barrayar is far, FAR from being anyone's ideal of anything. But there are people within that system, like Miles and Gregor, who have ideals, and it's possible to respect them and their ideals while seeing all the ways in which the system in which they exist is deeply flawed.

But I'm super excited about getting Cordelia's POV again. She remains my favorite, I think.