(no subject)

[avevale_intelligencer]

Jan's halfway through Pawn In Frankincense, and bemused by something. Are there any Lymond fans out there who can offer thoughts?

The plot revolves around two children, one of whom is Lymond's illegitimate son. Both have been brought up in the Middle East, and Lymond wants to rescue his, but he has never seen either and so doesn't know which is which. What Jan's boggling about is that one is the best part of a year older than the other, and at that age (1-2) it should be obvious. We don't know yet if it becomes clear which actually is which, though I've seen indications in my Googling that tend both ways. The consensus seems to be that he ends up with the wrong one, but it's hard to be sure...

Comments

[aunty_marion]

Um. Well, apparently they're not quite that far apart in age, and by the time of that story are more like 3 or 4, when the differences are a bit less clear. (And due to their different upbringings, one is less developed than he should be anyway.) It *does* become clear which is which, but he still gets the wrong one, alas... OTOH, due to various upbringing circumstances, this may not be quite so much of a bad thing as it might have otherwise have been. If that's any help.

[zanda-myrande.livejournal.com]

Well...Joleta has hers before she gets to England in May 1551. Oonagh has hers in March 1552. Finding a date for PiF is a bugger, but according to one net source it takes place entirely in 1552, when Joleta's is one and a bit and Oonagh's is, er, less than one. Even assuming a one-year span for PiF, that still puts them at two and a bit and one and a bit, which is a bit early for silkworm-sorting or any of the other activities we find them pursuing. And as far as I can tell, it's the younger one who's less developed anyway.

I realise this has probably been thrashed out by Dunnett scholars of far higher intelligence than I, but I haven't found it easy to locate any substantive discussions.

[aunty_marion]

I don't think I've ever examined the dates quite that closely! I certainly had the age 3-4 impression when reading.

There are various LJ/DW groups for Dunnett fans, and a Yahoo group which apparently won't let me log on to join it...