It's amazingly effective, too. (Not the right divination tool for all questions, but it often cuts right to the chase on the core issue.)
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
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.)