Last night I dreamed you and I were lying in bed with the television on and reading books. It was a little like the ending of If on a winter’s night a traveler by Italo Calvino (with the Reader and Ludmilla in bed together at last), except that I think you might have been a mix between Vidanric from Crown Duel by Sherwood Smith and Mairelon from Magician’s Ward by Patricia C. Wrede. Only when I woke up, I forgot you at the same time that I reached out for you to hold me. I elbowed an empty space and felt sad, because now I think that you might have been my Ideal Reader, the me who is smarter and kinder and wiser than me. I might miss you, but I’m not sure.
As I got off of work, I walked through the parking lot toward my car, unlocked the door, and got inside. The problem with this emerged only when I realized I was sitting on the passenger side. I took this as another sign that my subconscious contains two people, Author and Reader, Speaker and Audience, Lover and Beloved. Self and Other Self.
I guess my other self is male and likes to drive, heh.
Also, I may have made all this up.
Robin McKinley’s young adult novel The Hero and the Crown most justly deserved the Newbery Award in 1985. It is a story told in high fantasy style about Aerin-sol, Dragon-Killer, the only daughter of the king. Aerin lives under the rumors that her mother was a witch who spelled the king into marrying her and died of grief when she saw she had borne only a daughter. The only redhead in a court full of petty brunettes, Aerin finds friends only in Tor, her father’s heir (and the name of a fantasy publishing house, ironically enough) and Talat, an aged and lame warhorse. When Aerin discovers how to make herself fire-proof, however, her life of seclusion changes drastically.
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