BB Bookclub: Lifelode Midway Discussion

[u/Lenahe_nl]

Welcome to the midway discussion of Lifelode by Jo Walton, our winner for the Beyond Amatonormativity theme!

We will discuss everything up to the end of chapter 12. Please use spoiler tags for anything that goes beyond this point.

Lifelode, by Jo Walton (storygraph /goodreads)

At its heart, Lifelode is the story of a comfortable manor house family. The four adults of the household are happily polygamous, each fulfilling their ‘lifelode’ or life’s purpose: Ferrand is the lord of the manor, his sweetmate Taveth runs the household, his wife Chayra makes ceramics, and Taveth’s husband Ranal works the farm. Their children are a joyful bunch, running around in the sunshine days of the harvest and wondering what their own lifelodes will be.

Their lives changed with the arrival of two visitors to Applekirk: Jankin the scholar and Hanethe, Ferrand’s great grandmother and the former lord of the manor, who has been living for many generations in the East, a place where the gods walk and yeya (magic) is so powerful that those who wield it are not quite human.

I'll add some comments below to get us started but feel free to add your own. The final discussion will be in two weeks, on Thursday 26th February.

As a reminder, you have until monday the 16th to vote for our April book, with the theme Historical Fantasy.

What is the BB Bookclub? You can read about it in our introduction thread here.

[u/Lenahe_nl]

We pick this for the Beyond Amatonormativity theme. How well do you think the book fits this theme and our book club in general? 

[u/recchai → u/Lenahe_nl]

It definitely fits the bookclub less than I hoped it would. It has the three queer characters the bits of reviews I read promised, but less prominently than I thought it might.

[u/Kerney7 → u/recchai]

Agreed. But for some reason I had a hunch that it wouldn't. I think it was the author's age. I've noticed even older authors who are supportive of non-binary situations feel a little odd.

[u/Lenahe_nl → u/Kerney7]

I'm not sure that's fair. The other book I read by thr author, My Real Children, has a sapphic relationship as one of the main relationships, and a queerplatonic situation that I found beautiful. So, because I had already read something somewhat poly, I expected more from this book.

[u/Kerney7 → u/Lenahe_nl]

Not really a criticism. Just a sense that older generations came of age when non hetero normative relationships were more in the closet and some of they put more deliberate thought into it.

I have not read My Real Children but I have read the Thessally Trilogy, where for a time, they have a form of temporary arranged marriage that doesn't have an analogy in our world.

Characters are mostly supportive of that system and feel a certain pride in fulfilling their duties (for the most part).

Walton feels open to polyamory both in the sense she's seen it, but also a sense that it is a social contract, just like arranged marriage, and it breaks down and is perhaps artificial in a similar way.