Read the previous entry in the series here.
Read the next entry in the series here.

This chapter presents and discusses sexual assault.

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A brief formal commendation for Erek precedes “Silver,” which begins with Sedric and Carson conferring about a place to settle and how they should prepare for the coming times. Carson finds himself somewhat confused at Sedric’s desires for material comfort and appreciative of his lover’s appearance. As they walk Kelsingra together, Carson opens himself cautiously to the memories embedded in the stones, and he and Sedric recognize themselves as having entered an older part of the city. Exploring further, the pair find an open plaza that attracts the attentions of the dragons with which they are bonded, and they stumble upon the well of Silver that the dragons covet. The two arrive at some understanding of the importance of the site, and the dragons begin to join them.

Elsewhere in the city, Thymara starts awake from sleeping next to Tats. The two confer, touching on the need to fill the years of their expectedly lengthening lives and the issue of Rapskal, whose reliance on others’ memories is cited as becoming a problem. Tats reports the conversation in some detail, and considerations of the changes to social structures that extended lifetimes would necessitate are mentioned. The two grow increasingly comfortable together until they are summoned by their dragons to the well of Silver.

In Chalced, Selden wakes to hear Chassim‘s protests. He moves to investigate and finds her under assault by Eilik. Selden attempts unsuccessfully to intercede, and Eilik leaves him unconscious.

Later, Chassim shakes Selden awake, reporting her sexual assault and noting it as a recurring event for her. Selden reports his own experience of sexual assault, and Chassim offers only cold comfort. She turns their conversation to the changes Tintaglia has effected upon Selden, staying only briefly upon it before departing.

I‘ve noted before (here, for example) my impression that Hobb is borrowing from or working with the same tropes as Asimov at points in the Elderlings corpus. I think something similar is at work in the present chapter in the discussion between Thymara and Tats. When I was really introduced to Asimov’s writings more than thirty years ago–I remember being ten at the time, though I have dim recollections of my mother having a boxed set of the Foundation novels released just after the publication of Foundation’s Edge–it was by way of his Robot novels. Said novels make much of the Spacers, a subset of humanity that has achieved greatly extended lifespans due to medical and other technological advances and freedom from the prevalence of diseases on Earth. While Asimov does not necessarily delve deeply into the sociological implications of centuries-long lives, he does point out some changes among the Spacer worlds from how the more “normal” Earthpeople live, most notably in terms of sexual politics. (Yes, I am aware that it’s problematic. I’m also aware that I’m not up on the relevant scholarship–and I never really was; my focus was otherwise, for all my nerdiness.) The discussion between Thymara and Tats that comprises the second section of the chapter seems very much in that line; I don’t know that it’s enough to suggest explicit borrowing, but, given other factors at work in Hobb’s writing, I have to entertain the possibility–though I have to acknowledge, also, that it might simply be a matter of having been influenced by earlier reading or even a reasonable thinking-through of implications of the reality in which Hobb’s characters exist.

I’ve noted, too, the presentation of sexual assault in Hobb’s work. It’s to be expected, admittedly, given the prevalence of such acts in the readers’ world and in other works of fantasy literature. (Some revel in the presentation, as is readily seen.) Chassim’s frank discussion of it strikes me somewhat strangely, although I recognize that as being partly an artifact of my privilege. Selden’s confession of the same also strikes me, though differently, and I have to wonder what kind of internalized double standards remain at work in me that I perceive such a difference. I do note, though, that Hobb appears to give more space to Selden’s discussion than Chassim’s. There is doubtlessly something to find in that disparity, but, as I have noted, I am not up on the research I would need to be able to pull out any such thing.

I sometimes miss having ready access to reports of research. I more often miss having the time to spend familiarizing myself with those reports. Sometimes, though, I wonder if I am not better off now for not giving so much of myself to taking in those discussions as I used to do; there is no comfort in reading what others write about the many horrors of the world that have happened and that continue to happen, especially when the reader can do little or nothing to affect them.

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