Ancillary Mercy: completed

[asakiyume]

I adored the book. My review is here. The one thing I'll add here is this: In Ancillary Sword and Ancillary Mercy, there's some urgency about making sure that the Presger translators understand that organs, viscera, blood, etc., are supposed to be kept *inside* the body--sometimes with humorous effect, sometimes with pathos (and always with a hint of anxiety: this is a basic fact of how humans need to operate that we'd like others to understand about us).

That got me thinking about imagination. Imagination is something that's inside us--like (ideally) blood. But imagination works best (or at least, most generously) if we don't leave it there: if we get it outside us and into the world. We're all translators of our imaginations, struggling to find a language that will make it intelligible to others. When someone manages this, when they share their marvelous interior worlds with us, what a fabulous thing that is. Translator Leckie has done this. Well done, Translator Leckie--your imagination does belong outside your head, shared with the world.

Comments

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Very true about having servants! In lots of places, that's how the social safety net works, and you can indeed be quite poor and still have servants. I've known of people living in SE Asia (this was decades ago) who had very little to eat--but had a family servant.

[amaebi.livejournal.com]

Yes, indeed.