On this weeks very special episode of Weekly Maas, Anna and Jeffrey are joined by Charles, host of When Will it End? Charles is an author, critic, and wonderful friend who read A Court of Thorns & Roses just to be a guest for this episode. True work ethic.
Y'all know how to pronounce Feyre's name? Because it's questionable that Charles does. Listen in as we talk about authors such as Amy Hempel and Ann Patchett, wonder at the 1st person narrative structure of this book, and hear Anna's hot take that Bloomsbury is forcing SJM to write this series. Charles gives us his unique description of falling in love that feels... inarticulatable. But can they relate that to Feyre and Tamlin's supposed love? They certainly try. Charles gives us some hot takes that focus on etymology, paternal failure, and Prythian's class system.
The trio discusses Feyre's self-hate as she attempts to conquer her second... trial... task? Perhaps Feyre's self-loathing for her illiteracy isn't necessary, but the fact that she can't read matters during the second trial! Charles is astounded by Feyre's love for painting and speaks to why it distressing him so. Anna talks eloquently about her love for the Throne of Glass series and rags on ACOTAR and their fans... who are all of you, supposedly. Who is the audience for any of this? They're trying to figure it out. They try to take on chapter 40, but in the incisive words of Charles, "while there's lots of chapters and lots of pages... Not much happens." Anna agrees and they all decide this chapter isn't really worth discussing. Except for the part where Feyre tries to figure out if the first lever, the second lever, or the third lever is the one to pull. Square her reasoning, please. They all imagine Feyre dying again, but alas, this is written in first person, past-tense.
Discussing the nature of eyeball licking, they wonder at what the boundary of sexual assault is versus assault. Charles brings up the salient point that most things one would do with a tongue with another person is generally sensual if not outright sexual. Juries out.
Chapter 42 is a mess of storytelling. We don't know anything about the magic system, we don't know who sends Feyre her musical vision, we don't understand why Feyre is so self-deprecating, we don't understand why we get more about Feyre's painting fetish, and we don't understand the contrived meeting of Feyre and the Attor. This chapter... oh boy.
Charles dives deep on the passage of time for Feyre. Why does Feyre only recognize the world around her as if the world is constantly sneaking up on her? What does it say about the author that she focuses so heavily on the passage of time in this manner? Is this a failure of writing or the failure of first person as a structural device for this story? Maybe both. Who knows?
After having a brief discussion of grammar (do we like em-dashes?), Anna, Jeffrey, and Charles close out the episode by discussing Feyre's vision. She may have entered this magical musical vision suicidally, but she comes out calm and willing to persevere to live another day. They come to the conclusion that Feyre must be disassociating from life, constantly.
Aren't we all?
Want more of Charles? Did you fall in love? We sure did. You can find him on his own podcast, When Will It End, available on all places you may find podcasts. It's fun, it's insightful, it's interesting - it's everything you want a podcast about movie franchises to be.
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