I might buy that if she wasn’t making the same types of comments 30 years later in Mirror Dance.
I think what shook him up the most was when she asked Kareen, point blank, if Ges was responsible for her dead husband’s corruption, which is pretty fucking bold by any standard.
She reminds me of a dear friend of mine who couldn’t be tactful to save her life.
Cordelia has 35 years of living in a culture where she’s not rude at all. Your standards don’t apply.
And then immediately go on to Paladin of Souls. If you like Cordelia, you’ll love Ista.
Maybe I need to go back and read Paladin again, because I LOVE Cordelia and Ista left me cold.
Yeah, I’m with you on that. When she was on Beta, before becoming a Survey Captain, she describes herself as awkward and lonely. I think she’s always been blunt to the point of rudeness, if not past it, and suffered socially because of it. Back home, people recognized it for a lack of tact. On Barrayar, everyone assumes that she’s like that because she’s a mad foreign woman, and actually cut her more slack than she got from her own people.
In the few scenes on Beta colony from Shards of Honor it’s kind of hard to get a sense of how she is perceived since their concern about her psychological condition seems to overshadow everything.
I tried to remind Sr. Weasel that she didn’t exactly choose to live on Barrayar in the fairytale ending sense. She basically had the option to sell out the man she loved, start a Civil War and undergo the horrors of ‘‘therapy’’… or take refuge on Barrayar. Not exactly a romantic dream come true, and I’m not sure if the stakes had been lower she would have made that choice. Clearly by a galactic standard Barrayar is viewed as a rough place for women as neither Quinn nor Elena have any interest in ending up there. Maybe part of the reason Cordelia is so outspoken is she is afraid of being swallowed up.
Yet I am under the impression that aside from the people who are trying to destroy Aral, she is respected on Barrayar, and even by some of Aral’s enemies (see: Vorhalas.)
I was basing that off how she described herself to Aral when they were sharing their romantic horror stories in the third person. She doesn’t say *why *she was lonely - but if she was as blunt with Betans as she is with Barrayarans, it wouldn’t be hard to see why.
Point taken. Part of Cordelia’s characterization is that she doesn’t really take Barrayaran customs seriously - she knows intellectually that Barrayarans take them seriously, but she has a hard time deeply believing it. So when she’s faced with a situation that seems easily resolvable except for those darn customs, she’s prone to make comments that are wildly inappropriate in the context of Barrayar (such as what she says to Vordarian at the reception early on in Barrayar, or her discussion of the slum district in Vorbarr Sultana - on Beta, talk about orientation is casual small talk, and bastardy isn’t a concept at all (with regards to Kareen, Cordelia is so shocked to be thanked for murdering Vorrutyer that she says things in reply that even she might not have done otherwise).
In Memory (I think) there’s a scene in which her tendency to dismiss Barrayan custom leads her to make a substantial mistake in predicting someone’s actions, as you’ll see soon enough, but on the whole, a lot of Barrayans probably benefit from someone who can help them see other ways of thinking about things.
I finished Mirror Dance, and it was a masterpiece. I’d rate it a perfect 10. It’s rare a book makes me cry, but that one did. It’s given me a new appreciation for book series as a medium because the story of this particular book couldn’t have been told without the foundation behind it, without a deep knowing of all the strange people in Mark’s new world. The fact that they’re all so familiar to us really dramatizes how alien they are to him. Everything in it hits that much harder as a result.
This is also the most disturbing of the books, for sure. It’s difficult to think Bujold could come up with an evil worse than Vorrutyer, but she did, in Ryoval. I think it’s kind of great that Mark already being a tortured mess kind of worked to his favor in surviving that ordeal. His redemption was really a thing to behold. This is the crux of Bujold’s brilliance, to me, because in any other book the sudden appearance of a clone would be a plot device and nothing more. In Brothers in Arms it was the birth of a person. There are no throwaway moments in these books.
Funny we were just griping about Cordelia, because Mirror Dance showcases all the ways her brutal honesty is a tool for good. If there is anything Mark truly needs in his life it’s someone to tell it like it is. And Aral needs that too, of course. In this book in particular she was the glue holding everything together. For all her tactless moments I’m not really sure where her family would be without her.
Memory is next. I’d be lying to say I’m not a bit afraid. *Mirror Dance *was a bit exhausting.
Huh, interesting point about the payoff from reading them in order. I skipped to the Brothers in Arms / Mirror Dance / Memory sequence right after I read The Warrior’s Apprentice and a couple of the short stories and nothing else, and now I’m curious to revisit them now that I’ve read all the others (except … I really don’t like Mark very much and find him kind of tedious to read about, so maybe I’ll just re-read Memory).
You should be on Memory about now. What do you think??
StG
Don’t read this Spice Weasel until you are finished Memory, but
I predict you emitted something along the lines of “Miles, nooooooooooooo!” at some point 
Okay, okay, I’ll start Memory soon. I wasn’t kidding that I found Mirror Dance emotionally exhausting.
On the plus side, I think Barrayar is finally under Sr. Weasel’s skin. He’s reading 3 chapters at a time now (we just finished the soltoxin gas attack chapter), and he’s already starting speculate about what Miles will be like (from a comic book guy, this is something along the lines of, ''He has mutant superpowers!") Heh. He does indeed.
For the Futurama fans, did it ever occur to anyone that Miles has degenerative bonitus?
I am two chapters into Memory.
I want to kick Miles for doctoring that report. It feels like something he would have done ten years ago, not now, he should really fucking know better! Especially after his negligence damn near killed a man.
Spice Weasel - Besides just not wanting to admit such a screw up, his fear of losing his career with the seizure disorder was driving him. And he really thought they were getting better, his medics told him they might just go away. Miles was also stuck on still being a lieutenant (even to the Naismith was an Admiral). And when Ivan (you idiot!) was showing off his captains insignia, after Miles had literally died for the empire…
StG
It took me a while before I could go back and re-read Mirror Dance again. (My visceral reaction to Mark’s torture lingered. I was kind of surprised later to realize that it’s only one chapter.)
Yeah, I’m not sure I’m ever going to totally get over that.
I am knee deep in Memory now and it is so gripping I was up until an obscene hour last night reading (about halfway through.) At first I thought it was kinda boring, then, unsurprisingly, Miles lost his job. I was never so angry with him as I was when he made Illyan weep. Ugh. I don’t care what his excuses were, he deserved measure for measure what he got - doesn’t mean my heart doesn’t break for him, though.
Ivan-you-idiot being the proverbial supportive cousin was wonderful.
I love that they brought Galeni back, and I love that Gregor is sometimes willing to do shit that is just as crazy as anything Miles could scheme, like make him an Imperial Auditor. It’s like Miles’ gleeful perversion of the rules infects him at times. I am so relieved that Gregor has finally found love, if anyone needs it, it’s him, though I hope to hell Laisa the would-be Empress is not implicated in a plot against Illyan.
As for Miles getting back to his Vor roots… I particularly liked his return to Silvy Vale. I’ve always felt a part of him was just dodging his troubles by being Admiral Naismith. I hope to see him embracing his role as Vorkosigan more fully.
I want Miles’ redemption through Illyan, I really do, but if nothing else he owes him his help, it’s the least he can do after ripping his heart out.
No update?
StG
I thought I had a pretty sizable update in the post before yours.
I’m chugging along, but not a lot is happening right now. Illyan and Miles went fishing. ImpSec has just discovered the memory chip was subject to some weird biological sabotage, but it’s not really clear where they’re going with this.
I’m beginning to suspect Alys Vorpatril has a thing for Illyan.
Sr. Weasel finished *Barrayar. * Reading that last Epilogue, with 5 year old Miles, was brilliant. It’s like a perfect little snapshot of the adult Miles will turn into.