In which book did Tabini marry Damiri?
Got a question for Foreigner readers:
by CJ | Dec 1, 2011 | Journal | 35 comments
35 Comments
Submit a Comment Cancel reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
For some reason, I thought it was “before the start of the series.” Am I full of it or something? I admit my memory for these things isn’t good.
I find a listing of her as Tabini’s wife in Precursor. I think in the previous two books she’s referred to as the lady who’s sleeping with Tabini.
It happens off-screen somewhere between Inheritor and Precursor I think. At the beginning of Inheritor, Damiri has “… scandalized the whole Atageini clan by moving next door and residing openly with Tabini” (p 72 in the paperback version) but at the beginning of Precursor (p 48 of the paperback version) refers to Damiri as Tabini’s wife
I thought they were in a same species civil union.
If it was in ebook form we could do a find on it. I flipped the book open and had a small panic attack I couldn’t at least ctrl-f it. I think my left hand actually made the motion. In my mind it is unfindable now. I used to be great at skimming for a word. Or remembering phone numbers for that matter. These days I forget my iPhone actually is a phone. It is the thing that lets me access twitter on the go.
Lol–it accords with my memory that they were a couple before they were married. 😉
I remember them being a couple from the beginning. But I thought they were already married. I guess it is time to reread the series.
Weeble has it right. In Book 2, Lady Damiri has moved next door and Bren is trying to work out if she is Tabini-aiji’s future wife/consort, while Bren attempts to deal with Tabini-aiji, Lady Damiri, Lady Ilisidi aiji-dowager, Barb leaving, crazed Mospheirans, and crazed Phoenix ship and station spacers. Oh, and hordes of competing atevi factions, including the nuts-and-flakes convinced of alien death rays and the sky falling, all due to numbers that surely must not allow FTL or other such horrors like malevolent little pale aliens….
No, I can’t imagine why Bren might be under pressure while trying to translate between atevi and human, each and several insanities. Heh.
IIRC, the possessive for aiji is aijiia. One wonders what the equivalents for “lord” and “lady” are, or “dowager,” or for junior male and female nobles, e.g. “master” and “miss” or “damsel/demoiselle” (the latter not technically a word for noble, but still).
Actually, the quote about Damiri “scadalizing the whole Atageini clan” iis from Invader — but yes, the marriage happens somewhere between Inheritor and Precursor. At the beginning of Inheritor, when Bren is trying to follow what the assassination of Saigimi will mean, at the end of his train of thought (p. 110 in the hardback version) he notes: “…if Tabini could only recover Tatiseigi’s dignity in such a grand gesture as Tabini had made to salvage lord Geigi’s finances, then Tabini had the man and a very valuable alliance with the Atageini in his pocket and the potential mother of his heir with her man’chi secure and solid as a rock.”
On p. 381, after Jago reports “Tatiseigi has moved forces to Saduri headland,” Banichi remarks, “Either he’s approved the marriage or he’s tracked down the television set.” Tatiseigi joins the battle on the right side (p. 404).
Did I mention I’m sort of a fanatic? 😉
LOL well, I think variations on the ‘scandalizing’ line pop up several times, I just know the one I found was in Inheritor. I like Banichi’s line about Tatiseigi’s approving the marriage or finding the TV better than the scandalizing one but couldn’t find it when I was flipping through. The moving in definitely happened before the marriage though! The tension because she was picking her side before the clan head agreed to the marriage was a pretty big factor in Bren’s stress level when he was dealing with Tatiseigi.
@Levanah10 No, but we sorta figured it out on our own! 🙂
NEWS FLASH ! Being here indicates fanaticism……no figuring needed! 🙂 😀 😆
Right on! And proud of it!
You are proofing the “Intruder” galleys? SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
You mean they don’t remember? I’m not married and currently living alone but I used to get into awful trouble just for not remembering when we first met. I bet it’ll be Tabini’s fault and I bet he’s copping an earful about it 🙂
Weeble is probably right. At the end of Inheritor, we have “Either he’s approved the marriage or he’s found the television set” referring to Tatiseigi. I don’t know if that means they got married sometime after the party in Tatiseigi’s apartment, or their wedding happens after Inheritor. (Are Atevi weddings big events accompanied by celebrations, or do they just quietly sign papers somewhere?)
I have failed to find anything that states they have married. There appears to be a tranistion from a candle by candle arrangement into a more formal one. But there is nothing that specifies about the contract that seems to be referenced else where in the books for couples. But it must now be at least a contract for two children….
Actually they are no longer in a contract relationship—they are actually married, a fairly rare relationship in the highest families, who use contract relationships to position themselves and create bonds with other clans. Serial relationships. Shopkeepers are more apt to marry, which is a legal arrangement without a termination date or condition, and which requires more legal work to undo—it also requires monogamy, no external relationships. The Ragi atevi of high rank are legally monogamous, in a serial fashion; while Ragi atevi of lower rank are usually legally married, but may occasionally complicate their lives with uncontracted relationships—they do not have the degree of public record, public observation, and likelihood of consequences of the aiji, say, having an unscheduled relationship and ticking off a major clan or two.
Um, so when *did* they ceremonially marry? Was that the between Inheritor and Precursor, OR did it come later?
Fan-atics want to know! 😀
So what are Atevi weddings like? (I think we’ve already had a glimpse of Atevi divorce lawyers.)
It’s a nice ceremony involving, usually, a dinner in the venue of the proposed residence—in Tabini’s case, in the ceremonial hall downstairs, with the various clans involved in the relationship, signing and sealing of documents by both parties, as public an event as one wishes—or can afford, seeing drinks always follow, delivery of the signed, sealed, and ribbonned document, to an attending official, the signing and distribution of commemorative cards to the attendees—(the ceremony attending the dowager and Machigi is somewhat similar, though one assures you they were not married!) and thereafter socializing, drinking, etc. There is no usual expectation that the relationship has not already been consummated in a contract arrangement. The clothing is moderately extravagant, usually new; and it is celebrated as an end-all of clans jockeying for power and relationship via the individuals in the relationship: it’s more a celebration of stability, and future stability, and the numerology of the one-ness is important—Atevi don’t trust the number two.
This is interesting. It might be an idea to save some of these explanations of atevi marriage customers to the Foreigner Guidebook pages, or else the Foreigner ‘spoilers’ pages.
I’d recently read of one country surprisingly considering offering marriage contracts with something like a set period, meaning the contract would expire or would be renewed, with no muss, no fuss on expiration. While shocking to some; a little surprising to me, too, honestly; that could be a better option than a nasty, messy divorce, dragging the two (and all their wacky relatives) through the mire; or “staying together for the sake of the children,” who would be miserable in either event, and perhaps slightly happier if their mom and dad are not constantly fighting.
A contractual, serial monogamy makes better sense than having illicit affairs and then unacknowledged, unsupported children, who’d get …unpleasant… labels through no fault of theirs.
Not that atevi might not be as prone to falling prey to their hormones, emotions, or personal foibles, as much as any humans. And yes, just because atevi have different emotional bonds, doesn’t mean they aren’t subject to strong emotions and hormones.
They do have a rather unbending (and irreversible) approach to ah, terminating a contract. Or otherwise. Heh.
But the fully realized alienness, being alien in thoughts and feelings without being “better” or “worse” than humans, just different, in the way that other animals do things differently, for reasons that make sense to them, or the way that comments on “foreign” cultures versus “native” cultures; these are really important distinctions, and a distinguishing hallmark of CJ’s work. (Certainly, other writers have written remarkable, very alien, aliens too. But IMHO, few other writers do that so completely.)
I just got finished rereading the first trilogy a few months ago and halfway into the second, and NOW you ask… haha. Flipping back through Inheritor now, it seems they weren’t married at that point; Tatiseigi “approved” it in that book (Banichi jokes about that or Tatiseigi finding the television, when they’re out on the beach). So between Inheritor and Precursor Tabini and Damiri got married, one assumes?
Or was this a trick question? :p
BlueCatShip – As much as I am all in favor of making divorce easy on the children, a marriage contract would rarely if ever be in the best interest of the woman, who would be “stuck” at the end of the contract, having likely given up the possibility of a career in order to be a mother, and probably having sole custody of the children if the contract is not renewed. I read an economics paper some time back that stated that it was almost always in the man’s best financial interest to divorce, but rarely in the woman’s best financial interest unless she was physically or mentally abused in the relationship. Even then she was never likely to make up the financial cost unless a pre-nup was funded before the marriage with more than she could expect to lose. As I see it, only rich people could afford this kind of a marriage. Middle class and below would never be able to place enough money in financial instruments to secure the economic well-being of both spouses and any children. Let me also say that I am categorically opposed to pre-nuptual agreements except to protect a minimum estate for children of previous relationships. There are so many inequities that could result, that truly the only people who always benefit are the lawyers. The atevi would never stand for this type of division, mostly because a woman’s career would not be jeopardized by taking time off to be a mother any more than a man’s career would suffer for his being a father. Atevi seem to be a little mosre sensible than we.
The divorce lawyer disagrees,Ready-ji! [lol] I see your point, but only IF the contracts relied on current custom. Marriage in the USA is such a palimpsest of religion, custom, vestiges of laws that settled ownership of minors and one sex on the other, and (often unrealistic) expectations, that it’s a wonder when any couple can make a marriage work in this culture. Imho, the advantage of marriage contracts would be that the parties would discuss and commit to paper *beforehand* their expectations, financial and otherwise. I agree that antenuptuals have been of benefit mostly to men, but they’re also usually only used in high-asset or income situations, with a large differential between the parties.
I have more to say about this, *of course*, but won’t go on and on here!