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jenettAs many of you know, I have a self-created divination deck, referred to as my quote deck. It works on three levels of meaning: the literal meaning of the words on the card, the quote in the context of the story, and the reason that quote has an emotional impact on me. One of my requirements for including a quote in this deck is that I have to know the book well enough that I can thumb directly to the page with minimal fuss.
I've been using version 1.0 since mid-2005, and it is time to do a formal update. I'm removing a few quotes that seem never to turn up, and that are reasonable duplicates of other quotes in the deck, and I'm adding some others. (You will see gaps in the numbers, as a result: I use the numbers as shorthand in my divination notes, so I don't want to renumber.)
This deck tends to be snarky, but *very* clear and pointed. I usually run it in tandem with a Tarot reading (one card of each for each position) which I find works really well, but I have also run it on its own. Reading for other people is tricky, because I've got to explain two layers of meaning: the context in the story (unless they know the work it comes from), and the emotional impact for *me* (which they won't know anyway).
1
Nothing is coincidence
(Darkhawk)
2
Those of us who are easily amused have more fun
(Darkhawk)
3
And she could not unwish Nikki, or all that she had learned, not even realizing she was learning, during her dark eclipse. Roots grow deep in the dark.
(Ekaterin, A Civil Campaign)
4
In my experience... the trouble with oaths of the form, death before dishonour, is that eventually, given enough time and abrasion, they separate the world into just two sorts of people: the dead, and the foresworn. It's a survivor's problem, this one.
(Miles, A Civil Campaign)
5
A very wise woman once told me - you just go on. I've never encountered any good advice that didn't boil down to that, in the end. Not even my father's.
(Miles, A Civil Campaign)
6
Reputation is what other people know about you.
Honor is what you know about yourself.
(A Civil Campaign)
7
Some prices are just too high, no matter how much you may want the prize. The one thing you can't trade for your heart's desire is your heart.
(Miles, Memory)
8
The dead cannot cry out for justice; it is a duty of the living to do so for them.
(Diplomatic Immunity)
9
He's not like any of them, he's completely alien to that whole bright, corrupt court. All of them are against him, even the ones who love him, and none of them can help him out of his terrible dilemma, because their minds and spirits are not like his. He is a stranger in his own country, and his own family. He hasn't got anybody.
Thomas, about Hamlet. Tam Lin
10
I would there were no age between sixteen and three-and-twenty, or that youth would sleep out the rest, for there is nothing in the between but getting wenches with child, wronging the ancientry, stealing, fighting.
Janet's sign in Tam Lin
11
They're not evil, even that is comprehensible, people can be evil. They're foreign. They're like Linear A. They look as if they ought to mean something, but you can't tell what it is.
Thomas, Tam Lin.
12
As I observed once before, you are the dimmest intelligent woman I have ever met.
Thomas to Janet, Tam Lin
13
Someone might have survived, with my name, in my body. It wouldn't have been me, anymore. It would have been a man I didn't much ... like.
Miles, being offered the Auditorship in Memory
14
What can bones tell you about a kind of wind that doesn't blow anymore?
Ferrell, Folk of the Air
15
You and I are what they used to call witnesses, vouching with our lives for something we never saw. The bitch of it is, all we ever wanted to be was experts.
John Erne, Folk of the Air.
16
"How can you plan for a new reality when you don't have the remotest idea what it would be like? That's not possible!"
"Precisely."
Aquina and Nazareth, Native Tongue
[17 removed]
18
She has her own glamour...All poets do, all the bards and artists, all the musicians who truly take the music into their hearts. They all straddle the border of Faerie, and they see into both worlds. Not dependably into either, perhaps, but that uncertainty keeps them honest and at a distance.
The Phouka about Eddi, War for the Oaks
19
See you there that bonnie bonnie road?
That winds about the fernie brae
That is the road to fair elfland
Where you and I this night must ride
Thomas the Rhymer: traditional ballad
20
The enemy's gate is down
Ender Wiggin, Ender's Game
[21 removed]
22
"Truth is a dangerous drug. The effective dose and the fatal are not far removed from each other."
"I didn't know I was dispensing truth. He told me the clothes would find the right owners, but he didn't tell me he would stand there and reel off everybody's qualities like that."
Janie and Baer, "This Fair Gift"
23
"Apparently," Nita's mother said, in a peculiar mixture of pride and pain, "they've learned that lesson better than we expected. Because now they seem to making themselves responsible for us. And a lot of other people."
Deep Wizardry
24
Nine-tenths of the power of wizardry comes from making up your own mind what you're going to do. The rest of it is just mechanics.
Carl to Nita about sacrifice. Deep Wizardry
25
What's loved, lives.
Carl, re: Timeheart. Deep Wizardry.
26
It's well said. And we will cause it to be well made, this Sacrifice. You, young and never loving. I, old and never loved. Such a Song the Sea will never have seen.
Ed in Deep Wizardry
27
Trouble is, you keep the Dark Stuff hidden, and it starts to look good, seductive, like something only grown-ups get to do.
The Steel Rose
28
You've been through horrors few men could imagine, but it will make a better Bard of you in the end.
re: Roland, Gate of Darkness, Circle of Light.
29
If he's willing to die for my world, I can damn well sing for it.
Roland, Gate of Darkness, Circle of Light
[30 snipped]
[31 snipped]
32
Suppose we have only dreamed, or made up, all those things - trees and grass and sun and moon and Aslan himself. Suppose we have. Then all I can say is that, in that case, the made-up things seem a good deal more important than the real ones.
Puddleglum, The Silver Chair
33
If you do not treat your sisters with honor, Monica, then your lot will be no better than that of a slave.
Christa to Monica, early on: Gossamer Axe
34
Music can be a demanding Goddess who calls Her priest to Her altar and possesses him utterly.
Christa to Kevin, Gossamer Axe
35
The remedy for lack of practice is practice
Christa to Monica, Gossamer Axe
36
Sin or sacrament ... which do you want it to be?
Christa to Kevin, Gossamer Axe
37
But he could stand between Danny and those who pointed; and if he could not cure, he could at least comfort. There was still time for that.
Kevin, re: his brother, Gossamer Axe
38
A people is a circle too. Everyone is a part of it, and everything flows around it. Commerce, religion, art... all depend on one another.
Christa, Gossamer Axe
39
"Tell Boo-boo that, indeed, I can sing." She turned to Christa, and there was acceptance and forgiveness in her eyes. "Tell her that I am a singer."
Judith, at the end of Gossamer Axe.
[40 cut]
41
"Take it. It's used to command you, isn't it? Well, take it, and command yourself."
"And what is the bargain you offer?"
"No bargain. Please. Just take it."
Jack, to the Huntsman, Jack the Giant-Killer
[42 cut]
[43 cut]
44
But if no one has told you who or what Uyulala is, there must be a reason. And before I know what that reason is, I can't decide whether someone who hasn't seen her with his own eyes has a right to know.
The Neverending Story
[45 cut]
[46 cut]
[47 cut]
48
"When the divines talked of your pious duties, Iselle, they didn't mean... they didn't mean..."
"They didn't mean for me to take them seriously?" she inquired sweetly.
Ser dy Ferrej to Iselle, Curse of Chalion
49
The gods have surely landed you upon my wrist. Bastard's demons take me if I haven't the wit to jess you.
The Provincara re: Cazaril, Curse of Chalion
50
But if you desire a man to tell you comfortable lie about your prowess and so fetter any hope of true excellence, I'm sure you may find one anywhere.
Cazaril to Iselle, Curse of Chalion
51
Do you think it would make him happier if I presented myself as a target for his foolishness?
Cazaril re: Ser dy Sanda, Curse of Chalion
52
Their fear, plus my ignorance - gods, Caz! Don't send me blindfolded in to battle.
Palli to Cazaril, Curse of Chalion
53
We slaves, we lords, we men and women, we mortals, we toys of the gods - all the same thing, Palli. They are all the same to me now.
Cazaril to Palli, Curse of Chalion
54
The Bastard is the most subtle of the gods, my lord. Merely because something is a trick, is no guarantee that it is not god-touched. I'm afraid that's just how it works.
Umegat to Cazaril, Curse of Chalion
55
Help me, help me, help me.
Oh.
Cazaril on the tower, Curse of Chalion
56
Since the day... that Fonsa's crow practically jumped up and down on your head crying This one! This one! My chosen god is, dare I say it, fiendishly ambiguous at times, but that was a little hard to miss.
Umegat re: beginning to glow, Curse of Chalion
57
But have you really understood how powerless the gods are, when the lowest slave may exclude them from his heart? And if from his heart, then from the world as well, for the gods may not reach in except through living souls.
Umegat, Curse of Chalion
58
A saint is not a virtuous soul, but an empty one. He - or she - freely gives the gift of their will to their god. And in renouncing action, makes action possible.
Umegat, Curse of Chalion
59
The gods do not grant miracles for our purposes, but for theirs. If you are become their tool, it is for a greater reason, an urgent reason. But you are the tool. You are not the work. Expect to be valued accordingly.
Umegat, Curse of Chalion
60
Had Ista ever really been incoherent? Or did we just not understand her?
Curse of Chalion
61
How long have I been walking down this road?
Cazaril, in Ibra, Curse of Chalion
62
And the Bastard grant us ... in our direst need, the smallest gifts: the nail of the horseshoe, the pin of the axle, the feather at the pivot point, the pebble at the mountain’s peak, the kiss in despair, the oneright word, In darkness, understanding.
An unexpected prayer to the Bastard. Paladin of Souls
63
“Whom did you have, Lady?”
Ista fell silent. She could not remember.
Had she truly been so alone?
Paladin of Souls
[64 cut]
65
Where should I begin? Ista asked the Presence within her.
Begin at the center, it replied. The rest will follow perforce.
Paladin of Souls
66
Instructing you, sweet Ista, would be like teaching a falcon to walk up to its prey. It might with great effort be done, but one would end up with a very footsore and cranky bird, and a tedious wait for dinner.
With a wingspan like yours, it’s ever so much easier just to shake you from my wrist and let you fly.
Paladin of Souls
[67 cut]
68
I offer you an honourable new beginning. i do not guarantee its ending. Attempts fail, but not as certainly as tasks never attempted.
Ista, in Paladin of Souls
*** new additions ***
69
He is not a tame lion
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
70
Even a traitor may mend; I know one who did.
Edmund, Horse and His Boy
71
"Safe?" said Mr. Beaver... "Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you."
re: Aslan - The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
72
Either your sister is telling lies, or she is mad, or she is telling the truth.
Professor Kirke, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
73
While I firmly believe that all persons should be allowed to wrestle with their own demons, it is nonetheless possible that two minds, working in tandem on the problem, might have more effect than one tired mind on its own.
Holmes, Locked Rooms
74
Why the devil was my husband positively grinning - and with what looked remarkably like relief?
Russell, Locked Rooms
[more forthcoming, but not yet]
I've been using version 1.0 since mid-2005, and it is time to do a formal update. I'm removing a few quotes that seem never to turn up, and that are reasonable duplicates of other quotes in the deck, and I'm adding some others. (You will see gaps in the numbers, as a result: I use the numbers as shorthand in my divination notes, so I don't want to renumber.)
This deck tends to be snarky, but *very* clear and pointed. I usually run it in tandem with a Tarot reading (one card of each for each position) which I find works really well, but I have also run it on its own. Reading for other people is tricky, because I've got to explain two layers of meaning: the context in the story (unless they know the work it comes from), and the emotional impact for *me* (which they won't know anyway).
1
Nothing is coincidence
(Darkhawk)
2
Those of us who are easily amused have more fun
(Darkhawk)
3
And she could not unwish Nikki, or all that she had learned, not even realizing she was learning, during her dark eclipse. Roots grow deep in the dark.
(Ekaterin, A Civil Campaign)
4
In my experience... the trouble with oaths of the form, death before dishonour, is that eventually, given enough time and abrasion, they separate the world into just two sorts of people: the dead, and the foresworn. It's a survivor's problem, this one.
(Miles, A Civil Campaign)
5
A very wise woman once told me - you just go on. I've never encountered any good advice that didn't boil down to that, in the end. Not even my father's.
(Miles, A Civil Campaign)
6
Reputation is what other people know about you.
Honor is what you know about yourself.
(A Civil Campaign)
7
Some prices are just too high, no matter how much you may want the prize. The one thing you can't trade for your heart's desire is your heart.
(Miles, Memory)
8
The dead cannot cry out for justice; it is a duty of the living to do so for them.
(Diplomatic Immunity)
9
He's not like any of them, he's completely alien to that whole bright, corrupt court. All of them are against him, even the ones who love him, and none of them can help him out of his terrible dilemma, because their minds and spirits are not like his. He is a stranger in his own country, and his own family. He hasn't got anybody.
Thomas, about Hamlet. Tam Lin
10
I would there were no age between sixteen and three-and-twenty, or that youth would sleep out the rest, for there is nothing in the between but getting wenches with child, wronging the ancientry, stealing, fighting.
Janet's sign in Tam Lin
11
They're not evil, even that is comprehensible, people can be evil. They're foreign. They're like Linear A. They look as if they ought to mean something, but you can't tell what it is.
Thomas, Tam Lin.
12
As I observed once before, you are the dimmest intelligent woman I have ever met.
Thomas to Janet, Tam Lin
13
Someone might have survived, with my name, in my body. It wouldn't have been me, anymore. It would have been a man I didn't much ... like.
Miles, being offered the Auditorship in Memory
14
What can bones tell you about a kind of wind that doesn't blow anymore?
Ferrell, Folk of the Air
15
You and I are what they used to call witnesses, vouching with our lives for something we never saw. The bitch of it is, all we ever wanted to be was experts.
John Erne, Folk of the Air.
16
"How can you plan for a new reality when you don't have the remotest idea what it would be like? That's not possible!"
"Precisely."
Aquina and Nazareth, Native Tongue
[17 removed]
18
She has her own glamour...All poets do, all the bards and artists, all the musicians who truly take the music into their hearts. They all straddle the border of Faerie, and they see into both worlds. Not dependably into either, perhaps, but that uncertainty keeps them honest and at a distance.
The Phouka about Eddi, War for the Oaks
19
See you there that bonnie bonnie road?
That winds about the fernie brae
That is the road to fair elfland
Where you and I this night must ride
Thomas the Rhymer: traditional ballad
20
The enemy's gate is down
Ender Wiggin, Ender's Game
[21 removed]
22
"Truth is a dangerous drug. The effective dose and the fatal are not far removed from each other."
"I didn't know I was dispensing truth. He told me the clothes would find the right owners, but he didn't tell me he would stand there and reel off everybody's qualities like that."
Janie and Baer, "This Fair Gift"
23
"Apparently," Nita's mother said, in a peculiar mixture of pride and pain, "they've learned that lesson better than we expected. Because now they seem to making themselves responsible for us. And a lot of other people."
Deep Wizardry
24
Nine-tenths of the power of wizardry comes from making up your own mind what you're going to do. The rest of it is just mechanics.
Carl to Nita about sacrifice. Deep Wizardry
25
What's loved, lives.
Carl, re: Timeheart. Deep Wizardry.
26
It's well said. And we will cause it to be well made, this Sacrifice. You, young and never loving. I, old and never loved. Such a Song the Sea will never have seen.
Ed in Deep Wizardry
27
Trouble is, you keep the Dark Stuff hidden, and it starts to look good, seductive, like something only grown-ups get to do.
The Steel Rose
28
You've been through horrors few men could imagine, but it will make a better Bard of you in the end.
re: Roland, Gate of Darkness, Circle of Light.
29
If he's willing to die for my world, I can damn well sing for it.
Roland, Gate of Darkness, Circle of Light
[30 snipped]
[31 snipped]
32
Suppose we have only dreamed, or made up, all those things - trees and grass and sun and moon and Aslan himself. Suppose we have. Then all I can say is that, in that case, the made-up things seem a good deal more important than the real ones.
Puddleglum, The Silver Chair
33
If you do not treat your sisters with honor, Monica, then your lot will be no better than that of a slave.
Christa to Monica, early on: Gossamer Axe
34
Music can be a demanding Goddess who calls Her priest to Her altar and possesses him utterly.
Christa to Kevin, Gossamer Axe
35
The remedy for lack of practice is practice
Christa to Monica, Gossamer Axe
36
Sin or sacrament ... which do you want it to be?
Christa to Kevin, Gossamer Axe
37
But he could stand between Danny and those who pointed; and if he could not cure, he could at least comfort. There was still time for that.
Kevin, re: his brother, Gossamer Axe
38
A people is a circle too. Everyone is a part of it, and everything flows around it. Commerce, religion, art... all depend on one another.
Christa, Gossamer Axe
39
"Tell Boo-boo that, indeed, I can sing." She turned to Christa, and there was acceptance and forgiveness in her eyes. "Tell her that I am a singer."
Judith, at the end of Gossamer Axe.
[40 cut]
41
"Take it. It's used to command you, isn't it? Well, take it, and command yourself."
"And what is the bargain you offer?"
"No bargain. Please. Just take it."
Jack, to the Huntsman, Jack the Giant-Killer
[42 cut]
[43 cut]
44
But if no one has told you who or what Uyulala is, there must be a reason. And before I know what that reason is, I can't decide whether someone who hasn't seen her with his own eyes has a right to know.
The Neverending Story
[45 cut]
[46 cut]
[47 cut]
48
"When the divines talked of your pious duties, Iselle, they didn't mean... they didn't mean..."
"They didn't mean for me to take them seriously?" she inquired sweetly.
Ser dy Ferrej to Iselle, Curse of Chalion
49
The gods have surely landed you upon my wrist. Bastard's demons take me if I haven't the wit to jess you.
The Provincara re: Cazaril, Curse of Chalion
50
But if you desire a man to tell you comfortable lie about your prowess and so fetter any hope of true excellence, I'm sure you may find one anywhere.
Cazaril to Iselle, Curse of Chalion
51
Do you think it would make him happier if I presented myself as a target for his foolishness?
Cazaril re: Ser dy Sanda, Curse of Chalion
52
Their fear, plus my ignorance - gods, Caz! Don't send me blindfolded in to battle.
Palli to Cazaril, Curse of Chalion
53
We slaves, we lords, we men and women, we mortals, we toys of the gods - all the same thing, Palli. They are all the same to me now.
Cazaril to Palli, Curse of Chalion
54
The Bastard is the most subtle of the gods, my lord. Merely because something is a trick, is no guarantee that it is not god-touched. I'm afraid that's just how it works.
Umegat to Cazaril, Curse of Chalion
55
Help me, help me, help me.
Oh.
Cazaril on the tower, Curse of Chalion
56
Since the day... that Fonsa's crow practically jumped up and down on your head crying This one! This one! My chosen god is, dare I say it, fiendishly ambiguous at times, but that was a little hard to miss.
Umegat re: beginning to glow, Curse of Chalion
57
But have you really understood how powerless the gods are, when the lowest slave may exclude them from his heart? And if from his heart, then from the world as well, for the gods may not reach in except through living souls.
Umegat, Curse of Chalion
58
A saint is not a virtuous soul, but an empty one. He - or she - freely gives the gift of their will to their god. And in renouncing action, makes action possible.
Umegat, Curse of Chalion
59
The gods do not grant miracles for our purposes, but for theirs. If you are become their tool, it is for a greater reason, an urgent reason. But you are the tool. You are not the work. Expect to be valued accordingly.
Umegat, Curse of Chalion
60
Had Ista ever really been incoherent? Or did we just not understand her?
Curse of Chalion
61
How long have I been walking down this road?
Cazaril, in Ibra, Curse of Chalion
62
And the Bastard grant us ... in our direst need, the smallest gifts: the nail of the horseshoe, the pin of the axle, the feather at the pivot point, the pebble at the mountain’s peak, the kiss in despair, the oneright word, In darkness, understanding.
An unexpected prayer to the Bastard. Paladin of Souls
63
“Whom did you have, Lady?”
Ista fell silent. She could not remember.
Had she truly been so alone?
Paladin of Souls
[64 cut]
65
Where should I begin? Ista asked the Presence within her.
Begin at the center, it replied. The rest will follow perforce.
Paladin of Souls
66
Instructing you, sweet Ista, would be like teaching a falcon to walk up to its prey. It might with great effort be done, but one would end up with a very footsore and cranky bird, and a tedious wait for dinner.
With a wingspan like yours, it’s ever so much easier just to shake you from my wrist and let you fly.
Paladin of Souls
[67 cut]
68
I offer you an honourable new beginning. i do not guarantee its ending. Attempts fail, but not as certainly as tasks never attempted.
Ista, in Paladin of Souls
*** new additions ***
69
He is not a tame lion
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
70
Even a traitor may mend; I know one who did.
Edmund, Horse and His Boy
71
"Safe?" said Mr. Beaver... "Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you."
re: Aslan - The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
72
Either your sister is telling lies, or she is mad, or she is telling the truth.
Professor Kirke, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
73
While I firmly believe that all persons should be allowed to wrestle with their own demons, it is nonetheless possible that two minds, working in tandem on the problem, might have more effect than one tired mind on its own.
Holmes, Locked Rooms
74
Why the devil was my husband positively grinning - and with what looked remarkably like relief?
Russell, Locked Rooms
[more forthcoming, but not yet]
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no subject
Date: 2009-01-02 10:00 pm (UTC)Is there a particular balance or diversity of quotes you try to maintain? Like, say, you deliberately have 3 quotes about family, 4 about career, 2 about love, etc.?
I'm guessing you don't put in every quote you like either, so how do you decide which ones do and don't make the cut?
no subject
Date: 2009-01-02 11:17 pm (UTC)As to your questions:
I don't try to keep a deliberate balance
I thought about it when I was first putting the deck together, but felt that I didn't need to: many of the quotes have multiple ways they can be read. Plus, there's the internal layers of meaning that come from the books.
And because the quotes are all (with two exceptions, the first two) from books, the stuff that *happens* in books covers the map - war, betrayal, treachery, magic, creativity, death, birth, life, relationships, sacrifice, etc.
I'd say it's most specific and nuanced about *types* of sacrifice, decisionmaking, and creative (especially musical) acts, but since those are things I'm also particularly likely to be nuanced about to a particularly fine degree, I think it's useful.
For example, my favorite quote in here:
7
Some prices are just too high, no matter how much you may want the prize. The one thing you can't trade for your heart's desire is your heart.
(Miles, Memory)
The first layer here (the meaning of the words) is about sacrifice and about figuring out what your true goals are.
The second layer (in the context of the book) is that it's about having integrity to your larger life, not making decisions based on what's convenient at the moment. The character in this case has been trying to make choices about that for, what an 8 book series. It's about being true to yourself at the deepest level.
And the third layer is why it's so meaningful for me - which is hard to explain, usually, but in this case, is about not making choices that diminish me, just because they seem like the more obvious things to do. And 'diminish' is meant in whole lot of ways, starting with being less than I could be.
But it's also about sacrifice, and a different kind of sacrifice than that in quote 26, or in quote 61.
The work with the deck has proven that it works quite well on a huge range of questions. The one thing it doesn't do terribly well is single card draws. (They're useful for meditation, but not "What should I pay attention to today" sorts of questions.) That's ok, though, since most divination systems have some stuff they're better at than others.
How I pick quotes
1) I've got to know the book well enough to be able to thumb through to the correct quote. This usually means I've read it at least 6-8 times, and that it's on my regular re-read pile.
2) Some books are far more quotable than others. Bujold writes gloriously quotable bits. (That's all the Miles stuff, the Ekaterin stuff, and all of the Curse of Chalion and Paladin of Souls stuff, among other bits.)
I want to find something that is clear, concise, and that encompasses multiple aspects of the situation the characters are in.
And I want to find something that's elegant about it - not just "Here's this concept" but something that continues to live and breathe and create connections even when it's a tiny excerpt of the whole work.
(The most complex of them is the one that's noted as Janet's sign: the actual *text* is from Shakespeare's _A Winter's Night_, but the use of it on the sign over Janet's desk in _Tam Lin_ adds about 5 layers of meaning. Why she's got a sign over her desk in the first place, and why that quote, and why it's important to the story.)
It's also somewhat time-consuming to collect new quotes - I keep wanting some Charles de Lint, and have not yet managed it, because as much as I love his work, I haven't found exactly the right sentences. (I think the next time I do a serious reread of Onion Girl/Widdershins, that might happen, but they're not quite deep enough in my psyche yet.
Likewise, the Russell and Holmes quotes are from Laurie King's series. (And I think that's the only straight mystery quotes in there: I know there's more quotes I was thinking of, but I just finished rereading them, and don't want to go rummaging for quotes just yet, because I'll just start reading them again.)
no subject
Date: 2009-01-02 11:27 pm (UTC)These would be the second layers of meaning -- do you find that this intertextual interaction affects the reading in any way?
no subject
Date: 2009-01-02 11:29 pm (UTC)Usually, once I get the cards down (and especially if I'm running it alongside Tarot cards), there will be an obvious gestalt and click in my head, and I'll understand how the cards are playing up.
And, for example, there are sets of cards that fit together - that individually might be talking about a number of different things, but if five of them show up in a reading, it points pretty strongly to filtering everything through relationships, or creating art, or making choices, or whatever else seems appropriate.
Does that help?
Next time I do a shareable reading, I'll see about posting it with explanation.
no subject
Date: 2009-01-02 11:40 pm (UTC)Yup yup. Sorry for all the questions, am just really curious because, well, a) it's cool and b) I've been thinking of trying something similar. When these second-layer meanings interact though, is it just the meanings that interact or do you see the stories mingling together as well?
OK will stop now. :) Thanks Jenett!
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Date: 2009-01-03 12:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-02 11:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-03 12:43 am (UTC)It sucks at multiple-card layouts, but if you want to sit there and fire questions at it, it's great. Bonus: there's an iPhone app that has all five canonical editions, and a similar number of widgets for various operating systems/ on various web sites, so it's infinitely portable.
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Date: 2009-01-03 12:49 am (UTC)I came up with the quote deck because I was expressing my frustration at doing the Tarot Card A Day thing to one of my teachers, who pointed that I was a verbal learner, not a visual one, and why didn't I go and do something about that?
(In hindsight, I suspect this may be the only really really good idea said teacher had for me - this'd be the one there's Significant Events about, not M and C, but hey, it's a good idea. Took me about 2 years to figure out what I wanted to do with it, though.)
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Date: 2009-01-03 12:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-03 01:08 am (UTC)(Have you read the Chalion books? If not, please tell me, and I will make sure some find their way to you. The first two of the three in particular. They are also Bujold, and her take on the religious stuff is utterly fascinating.)
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Date: 2009-01-03 01:06 pm (UTC)Gonna steal this idea and make my own deck.
Thanks for the homework (wry grin)
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Date: 2009-01-03 01:39 pm (UTC)Darkhawk - a friend
A Civil Campaign - Lois McMaster Bujold
Memory - Lois McMaster Bujold
Diplomatic Immunity - Lois McMaster Bujold
Tam Lin - Pamela Dean
Folk of the Ear - Greg Bear
Native Tongue - Suzette Haden Elgin
War for the Oaks - Emma Bull
Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card
"This Fair Gift" - Pamela Dean (short story)
Deep Wizardry - Diane Duane
The Steel Rose - Kara Dalkey
Gate of Darkness, Circle of Light - Tanya Huff
The Silver Chair - C.S. Lewis
Gossamer Axe - Gael Baudino
Jack the Giant-Killer (now in a duobound book called Jack of Kinrowan): Charles de Lint
The Neverending Story - Michael Ende (and if you haven't read it, I really recommend tracking down the hardcover that has different color inks - many libraries had it when I read it originally.)
Curse of Chalion - Lois McMaster Bujold
Paladin of Souls - Lois McMaster Bujold
Horse and His Boy - C.S. Lewis
Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe - C.S. Lewis
Locked Rooms - Laurie King
The first Bujolds listed are part of a long series, generally referred to as the Miles Vorkosigan books - the ones quoted from are all quite a long way into the series. Curse of Chalion/Paladin of Souls are a different series: they're easier to read independently, and there's one other note quoted from here.
Likewise, the Laurie King _Locked Rooms_ is the current end of a 8 book series (though there's another one due out in 09)
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Date: 2009-01-03 03:13 am (UTC)And surprising in how many of the quotes listed (or at least the books they come from) also resonate deeply with me.
Seeing the removed numbers leaves me curious about what the missing quotes were, also.
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Date: 2009-01-03 03:29 am (UTC)They're mostly from the same books, but for various reasons, almost never came up in readings or were close semantic duplicates. I figured a 2.5 year test run is long enough that they were less likely to, hence a new version.
I suspect there may be Shadow Unit quote or three in there at some point. I keep dithering about putting
"Stand up on it, damn you."
He took a shaky breath. "On belay?"
in there, but suspect I will not be doing so until it is slightly less potent in making me totally tear up. (which I suspect will be sometime this coming season, because there will be other stuff demanding equivalent attention by then.)
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Date: 2009-01-03 04:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-03 06:43 am (UTC)I do not remember which cards you cut, specifically, but I can tell that the ones you cut were actually the ones in your deck that spoke most strongly to me. (: Mostly, that is because they are not here and socking me in the gut personally. (;
Not that this is a bad thing -- it's your deck, after all, not mine. Just something I find funny. (:
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Date: 2009-01-03 01:24 pm (UTC)The good thing about the deck is, of course, that re-adding cards is as simple as pulling out a black pen and an index card. I'll try it with this round a few times, and then quite likely continue to make additions and changes.
(You can see the ones I removed if you go to the version 1 link, and match the numbers, too.)
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Date: 2009-01-03 06:10 pm (UTC)Your old #22 (not the new one), #21, #43, #45.
Edit: Especially #43. The road winds ever, ever on ... (:
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Date: 2009-01-03 09:13 pm (UTC)As far as the others - the stuff I pulled (and especially 43/45) are good quotes, and they still make me think. But they weren't showing up in readings, and they weren't being particularly relevant/helpful the few times they have shown up. And while the deck can vary in number (and I'm not fixed to a maximum number), I find 65-75ish is about as much as I can shuffle comfortably. (At least unless I shift to a denser card stock.)
(I suspect this is partly about what kinds of things I tend to use it for readings - many of my things are directional choices, where the religious-mystery pieces are not as useful in terms of advice as they might be.)
But as I said - we see. If I feel they're missing, I can always re-add. Much thanks for the comments.
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Date: 2009-01-03 10:14 pm (UTC)Mm, I think I just missed #22 the first time I was reading through your second list. (: