Tam Lin

[tanaise]

From senior spring:

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I am rereading Tam Lin, and getting woefully sad that I don't have my own Thomas Lane. I realized freshman spring that one reason I fell for Scott (Smarmy boy) was that he fit my basic picture of Thomas Lane. Not as gorgeous, granted, but other than that...

This time through, I'm trying to figure out what Thomas's gift is. In _Fire and Hemlock_, it's the gift that what he says is the truth, but in Tam Lin, it's harder to figure out. I can't tell what it is. I know that he's Tam Lin, Thomas the Rhymer, Thomas Mendip, Hamlet, and that's just so far in the first 160 odd pages. One of my not-friends doesn't like the book because it takes so long to get to the story. But I think it all is the story, and very valuable for all that. I love sitting and yelling, no, damnit, you should be with Thomas!!! Stop wasting your time with that Nick boy. And I love the foreshadowing that you can see a little better each time you reread it. And all the hints that Janet is given, just like in F&H, but that she totally misses.

I love this story, because everytime I read it, I've read more of the works mentioned in it--since the last time, I've read Aristophanes and the Illiad, and I caught this time that Thomas is Hamlet--and I find it funnier, and insist on reading portions of it to my roommate and friends, which undoubtedly annoys her, esp when I insist on reading poetry without looking at it first, and run out of breath in the wrong places. But I love it. It makes me want to go on in Classics, which I think about every now and then. I had to reread it because I took _The Lady's Not for Burning_ with me the last time I walked downtown, and read large chunks from it aloud, even though I risked getting stared at for looking super weird. And I found a new signature that fits my mood now.

Okay, so I'm thinking that maybe his gift is related to the mood swings. I can't remember if I've found the gift in previous readings. I read it about once a year, in the spring I think--senior in HS, freshman, sophomore, I think junior, at least skimmed, and now. But Robin teases him about truth at one point, and at another, they talk about death. Truth is Rhymer's gift, and death is the gift that Mendip wants. And they talk about death and hamlet somewhere, and I find myself in need of an anotated copy of this book, with cliftnotes so I don't miss any of the key things in it. Please let me write things like this. And now it's probably time for me to go to bed, as I'm babbling too much.

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I went and looked for this email because I was thinking about The Lady's Not for Burning again tonight, quoting bear the part about 50 years. I'm pretty sure there is an annotated version of Tam Lin out there, but it isn't really what I want. I want to be able to annotate it myself. :) I love reading this book because it reminds me of the things I haven't read that I mean to, but just don't have time to, or have better things to do. I really should find my copy of this to read again.

Comments

[toratigris.livejournal.com]

Did you get a signed hardcover from Pamela Dean? She was offering them from her website a while back, and I got one. Made me happy. I told her in the email that every time I read it, I had this regret that I had always lived off-campus during my college years, and wished that I had, at least for a little while, lived in a dorm. She inscribed it something like (I don't have it here to check), "Within these pages, you did live in a dorm".

I love that book, and haven't read it in ages. I should get it out and find time to re-read it.