Welcome back to the Warbreaker reread! Last week, Siri nervously entered the God King’s bedchamber, Lightsong pondered, and Blushweaver flirted. This week, Siri wakes, sleeps, explores, and wonders what to do with herself.
This reread will contain spoilers for all of Warbreaker and any other Cosmere book that becomes relevant to the discussion. This is particularly likely to include Words of Radiance, due to certain crossover characters. The index for this reread can be found here.
Click on through to join the discussion!
Chapter 8
Point of View: Siri
Setting: The God King’s Palace
Timing: The following morning
Take a Deep Breath
Siri wakes, deeply uncomfortable from sleeping on the floor after kneeling for hours, but alone and undisturbed. Despite falling asleep, using her dress for pillow and blanket, looking directly at the God King, and generally not behaving as she’d been told, he had not, apparently, ordered her execution. With relief and a sense of having some small power, she puts her shift back on, looks around the room, climbs into the previously-undisturbed bed, and goes to sleep properly.
Siri wakes, rested and relaxed, then realizes that someone had come in while she slept: her dress has been removed and the fire replenished in preparation for the requisite burning of the sheets. This done, and with only her shift for clothing, she opens the door to find two dozen serving women, kneeling on the floor and waiting for her to emerge. They enter with a selection of clothing for her—more choices than she’s ever had in her life, all in bright colors and most cut far more revealingly than anything she’s ever worn. She finally chooses one that looks as nearly modest as possible, whereupon she is dressed, freshened, made up, styled, and perfumed.
Bluefingers stops in to check, but moves to leave as soon as he is sure she has properly disposed of the linens. She stops him, asking guidance for her daily responsibilities, and is unexpectedly dismayed to learn that she has none. Her task is to bear a child; beyond that, she can do as she pleases, as long as she stays within the physical boundaries set for her. This, it turns out, is far more restrictive than any duties she might have expected: for the first week, she must stay in the palace itself, and after that she must remain within the Court. She is free to summon any entertainment she desires, but she may not go outside—not even into the city, much less beyond it.
With nothing specific to do, she explores the palace, discovering that it is essentially a labyrinth of rooms, each draped in a single color, but none with a specific purpose. Whatever she desires will be brought to her in the room she chooses, whether it’s bathing, resting, eating, or anything else she wants. All her needs will be met by servants and entertainers—all except companionship. That, she seems destined to forego.
Breathtaking
Is this what my life is to be from now on? she thought. A night spent feeling half-used, half-ignored by my husband, then days spent surrounded by people, yet somehow still alone?
She shivered, her appetite waning. She set down the fork, and her food slowly grew cold on the table before her. She stared at it, a part of her wishing she’d simply remained in the comfortable, oversized black bed.
Frankly, that sounds both realistic (for her situation) and terribly grim. The contrast between her role in Idris and her role in Hallandren couldn’t be more stark. Idris was muted, dutiful, austere, but familiar and loving. Hallandren is bright, lax, luxurious, unfamiliar… and most of all, uncaring. Lonely.
Local Color
Chapter 8’s annotations are brief; not much really happens, right? But that turns out to be the whole point of the chapter, even though it’s not generally a good writing technique: Siri has nothing to do. I’m amused that this is the source of the modular rooms; it’s important to her character development that she has no direction, she’s drifting, but the chapter still has to have some source of interest in it. So, play with the architecture!
Snow White and Rose Red
Siri is in the unfamiliar situation of having nothing to do, nowhere to go, nothing expected of her except presenting herself naked to her husband every night.
All her life, Siri has avoided her responsibilities—yet she always knew she was loved, and she always had the company of people who liked her, however annoyed they may have been an any given moment. Whether it was her father, her siblings, the townspeople, or Mab the cook (and especially Mab the cook!) she’d always had someone to talk to or someone to tease. Now she has no responsibilities to escape, no way to escape her confines; she’s surrounded by people who watch her and serve her, but will not speak with her. Despite the luxury, life has taken on a grim tone. She’s suddenly had pressed in upon her the difference between solitude and loneliness, and I can’t imagine how suffocating this would be for her.
There are glimpses of growth, even in this directionless state. She asks after her escort, doing what she can to make sure that her men are safely on their way home. She seeks to be obedient, making sure she doesn’t endanger Idris by failing in her duties—except that there don’t seem to be any. She sets out to occupy herself, attempting to deliberately keep herself from the kind of impulsiveness she’d have indulged in at home. She even inquires first if there is any part of the palace she is forbidden to go—though once again, there are no expectations placed on her, except that she may not leave the building.
In Living Color
Trapped and aimless as she may feel, Bluefingers offers her two amusements. First (once the week of the Wedding Jubilation is complete), she may attend the Court Assembly, which meets weekly in full, and daily for lesser judgements. The logical assumption at this point is that the gods are the ones who will meet in Assembly to pass and deliver these judgements, but we know very little of it at this point. This is only the second mention of the Assembly, the first being in Chapter 7 when Lightsong mentioned that Blushweaver’s priests were among those in the Assembly calling for war. The idea of Siri being interested in politics is slightly amusing, given her past, but you just never know what boredom may drive her to do!
Second, she may have entertainers brought to her—and this reflects what we’ve already seen from Lightsong’s POV:
“… you may request an artist of the God King’s priesthood to attend you. His priests include devout and accomplished artists from all genres: music, painting, dance, poetry, sculpture, puppetry, play performance, sandpainting, or any of the lesser genres.”
Just a quick foreshadowing there: along with various forms of art—some of which we’re likely to think of as more prestigious than others—he tosses in “sandpainting.” Is this what Hoid will eventually do?
Exhale
There’s not a lot more to say about this chapter, but I have to quote a section which struck me oddly:
“Not that you’re to blame, of course,” Bluefingers said quickly. “But then… well, I certainly wish I’d had more forewarning.”
“More forewarning?” Siri asked. “This marriage was arranged by treaty over twenty years ago!”
“Yes, well, but nobody thought…” He trailed off. “Ahem. Well, either way, we shall do our best to accommodate you here in the king’s palace.”
What was that? Siri thought. Nobody thought… that the marriage would really happen? Why not? Did they assume that Idris wouldn’t keep its part of the bargain?
Yes, what was that? Is it merely that the Pahn Kahl assumed that the Idrians wouldn’t risk sending a princess into this situation, with all the stirrings of war (which they were creating)? I honestly don’t know, and don’t remember what we learn at the end of the book. I guess I’ll find out when we get there.
That’s it for the blog—now it’s time for the comments! Join us again next week, when we will cover Chapter 9, in which we see the result of Vivenna’s improper idea from Chapter 2.
Alice Arneson is a SAHM, blogger, beta reader, and literature fan. If you Facebook, you can join her in the Tor-Sanderson-rereader-specific group known as the Storm Cellar; since it’s a closed group, you have to ask to join. Identify yourself as a Tor friend, and one of the moderators will add you. Also, be watching next week for another dream-casting event from some Sanderson beta readers. Movie deals left, right, and center!
What was that? It’s Bluefingers trolling Siri (almost certainly), subtly trying to put a wedge between Siri and the “powers that be”. It quite smart because it sort of implicates himself too but when you consider that he’s “just a scribe” and not part of the executive it shifts the blame onto the priests. It’s not the sort of thing that Siri would be likely to double-check. I suspect what he’s saying is sort-of true (in that nobody particularly cares for Siri personally or is willing to go to any effort to look after her mental well-being) but also misleading – there’s nothing I can see that really suggests that the T’Telir side were caught unprepared by Siri turning up. According to Blushweaver some even went as far as investigating Dedelin, for example.
I assumed the sand paintings were sand mandalas.
For some strange reason, in this chapter, Siri reminded me of Marie Antoinette, the Queen of France famous for her non-quote “Let them eat cake!” (She never said it, actually).
She was 15 when she married Louis-Auguste, who would become Louis XVI. Marie-Antoinette’s only job – provide an heir to the French throne. But, Louis XVI had ED. No children for 8 years!!! Marie-Antoinette is not a well-liked historical figure. But at this point in time in her life, she had my sympathies. It’s not her fault she cannot conceive!!!
Back to Siri – she is not flamboyant like the French Queen, but Siri’s clothes can definitely compete with Her Majesty’s. :-)
I may not be remembering this correctly, but isn’t there a scene later in the book when we learn that the rooms aren’t all just one color, but actually multiple shades of that color? I think it’s the Third Heightening when you can distinguish perfect colors, but I may have made that scene up in my mind.
Also, sand mandalas would be amazing to see with the God King around.
I’m wondering if Siri felt like Dorothy did upon landing in Oz (at least from the viewer’s perspective) going from a drab, colorless landscape to a bright one with unbelievable colors enhanced by her God King husband.
Not much going on in this chapter. It probably would have been better to combine this with the next chapter.
I think this chapter may have been when I lost interest completely and quit the book. The set up just seemed so long.
I’m looking forward to seeing some action down the line! I am reading and following!
We were commenting a couple weeks ago on the title they use for Siri, “Vessel.” Obviously, we’re meant to be disturbed by a name that reduces Siri to an object. She’s not even recognized as the mother of the child she’s supposed to have. But, I’m wondering if this is one of those bits of misdirection Brandon sometimes slips in. I’ve been reading Arcanum Unbounded and the scholars’ term for the shard-bearing gods (as opposed to gods like Lightsong) is also “vessel.”
I don’t know what it means or if there’s a connection, but it turned Siri’s title on its ear.
Ellen @7 – Nice point. It does rather change our view of the term, doesn’t it? :)
As I noted elsewhere, in retrospect I think I should have combined this chapter with the previous; it would have been a natural combination, because it’s really just one scene. The next chapter, however, takes us into Vivenna’s first look at the city, and it just didn’t meld well with this one in terms of reread posting. It’s just possible that I’ll combine 9 & 10, but they’re much meatier chapters. Vivenna has such different reactions to the city than Siri did; I’m really looking forward to discussing it.
On the bright side, I got to bed at a reasonable hour on Wednesday night for once…
Sometimes a breather chapter isn’t such a bad ting (it may even build the anticipation). I love color (I’d fit in very well in Hallandren) so I just remember thinking I wanted a series of colored rooms like that. Purple is my very favorite, so how great would it to be to have a room in all shades of purple :D
@7 Interesting … I would like to think you are right but I don’ t know. We can’t forget the conservative Mormon Religion. I am not sure how it is done in Mormonism but is some (admittedly crazy) fundamentalist christian denominations the wife is referred to as the “submissive vessel”. *shiver* I am not much for some of the extreme feminists on the site – but the last thing I want out of a life partner is a submissive vessel….
You do know that Mormon women voted before women in Wyoming, right? Both territories passed laws for women to vote at about the same time. Wyoming passed it a bit sooner but Utah had an election before Wyoming. And that the first woman elected to a state senate (and the only woman to hold that office in the 19th century) was a Mormon woman. She was also a doctor and ran against her husband? The first U.S. town with all women elected to run it was in Utah in the early 20th century? “Vessel” is not a Mormon phrase for women. Also, Brandon likes to write strong, female characters.
dwcole, let’s see if I’m getting this right. (a) You don’t know much about Mormonism; (b) you heard there might be some crazy fundies that refer to a wife as a submissive vessel, but you don’t really know who or where; (c) the one thing you do know about Mormons is that they’re a lot like crazy fundies; (d) the author having been raised Mormon, he probably got his worldbuilding ideas and terminology from his faith.
All due respect, that’s pretty tenuous and, dare I say, disrespectful. I think it’s fine to have little interest in understanding “the Other” (Mormons and/or fundamentalists), but in that case maybe don’t try to offer commentary about them.
Who else found it both creepy and darkly funny that Siri was momentarily insulted thinking her husband thought she was not “good enough”, before realizing how stupid that line of thought was.
Heh. Speaking as a Mormon (and a not terribly sensitive one), allow me to make it absolutely clear:
No, Mormons are not taught that women are “submissive vessels”. At least not by our church – Mormons aren’t really any different from anyone else. We have our flaws, and we’re not a bunch of identical clones of one another. I’m sure you can find examples of LDS misogynists. I expect if you look closely you’ll find they learned it not at church, but from how their fathers treated their mothers, or vice versa.
Mormon teachings on the role of women is much more nuanced than may be apparent from the surface, and this is not the appropriate forum for such a discussion. Suffice it to say that no, Brandon’s treatment of women in this book is unlikely to be directly related to Mormon doctrine.
In fact, I think it’s much more likely to be directly related to the in-world views of the people, rather than anything Brandon himself feels or believes. Sometimes what we read characters in a book doing or saying isn’t coming from an author’s personal beliefs about what is right, but are instead a natural outgrowth of the world the author has created. A full-on progressive feminist could be quite out of place in a medieval society.
I would recommend reading some of Brandon’s annotations on Elantris. He talks there at length about strong women, and their place in fantasy books and whatnot.
@14 – I’m not Mormon (and have very little knowledge of Mormon teachings) but I just wanted to say I appreciate your comment and can understand where you are coming from regarding similar issues like this (I’m Catholic).
“Yes, what was that? Is it merely that the Pahn Kahl assumed that the Idrians wouldn’t risk sending a princess into this situation, with all the stirrings of war (which they were creating)?”
My assumption was that they didn’t expect Siri, they had done all their reconnaissance on Vivenna, so Siri’s appearance was a total shocker.
You know, now that I think about it, not having a room of one’s own or set places to sit, to dine, etc. would be VERY disorienting. And while I could stay in for a week easy provided I had books to read being followed everywhere by a train of people would drive me NUTS!