Dragonstone 16

Chapter 16
The Generic Elves spend a paragraph passing through the Greatwood, seeing no sign of any Baeron. Told ya. 
They travel, and they travel, and they travel. \~/ They stop at an inn and sing for their supper, and we're reminded that elves sing better than any of the lowly round-eared races and make our best singers sound like a cat caught in a garbage disposal. \~/
Travel, and travel, and travel, and travel. \~/ This is interrupted by Arin reminding us that they could have reached another, better place by now if not for the author's puppet strings. This does nothing to endear you to me, McKiernan. \~/
And we're traveling, and we're traveling . . . \~/
The Autumn equinox comes. McKiernan's elves have a specific song and dance they perform at the equinoxes and solstices. Fair enough, nice little cultural touch. The problem is, McKiernan describes it.
“Step . . . pause . . . shift . . . pause . . . turn . . . pause . . . step.
“Slowly, slowly, move and pause. Voices rising. Voices falling. Liquid notes from the dawn of time. Harmony. Euphony. Step . . . pause . . . step. Arin turning. Rissa turning. Darai passing. Alori passing. Counterpoint. Descant. Step . . . pause . . . step.”
As a variously-attributed quote puts it, “Writing about singing is like dancing about architecture,” and I can see why. I have no doubt that this song and dance is meant to be beautiful and lyrical and graceful and so forth, but that sort of thing is nigh-impossible to capture in the written word. 
McKiernan has chosen perhaps the worst way to convey it. Instead of conjuring a vision of harmony and inhuman grace, it conjures a vision of painstakingly memorizing arbitrary steps and pauses, which is pretty much the opposite of the intended effect. It would have been far better to simply describe the dance in poetic language, perhaps referring to the dancers' grace and the singers' clear tones, and let the readers imagine the rest. \~/
Well, at least he didn't subject us to the actual lyrics.
When the performance ends, we're told that the elves are back in their beginning places: “females facing north, males facing south. The motif of the pattern they had paced had not been random, but had had a specific design, had had a specific purpose, yet what that purpose was and is, only the Elves could say.”
And . . . ? Only the elves are present, and they presumably know what their purpose is. Why bring this up if not to explain it? It's not like there are non-elves present to be annoyed mystified. The reader would have no reason to think about this except for McKiernan pointing it out and saying “See this? It has a reason. I'm not telling you what it is.” \~/
Anyway, travel travel travel, and the Generic Elves finally reach the Wolfwood.
Drinks: 7
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