Dealing with Dragons - Chapters 1 to 4

[Prof. Sky Alton]

9 times out of 10, talking is a way of avoiding doing things

Here we’ll be discussing chapters 1 to 4 of Dealing with Dragons.

From Cimorene’s initial decisions to the dinner party later on, the differences between talking and doing are present throughout these first few chapters. A lot of the time in books, it takes the protagonist or someone else ‘doing’ to initiate the action or resolve the plot. But talking can be as powerful under the right circumstances, as our princess finds out when she manages to talk her way into her new position and avoid being rescued. Do you agree with the frog that talking is nearly always a way to avoid doing things? Or is it more complex than that?

'Do' use spoiler tags while you 'talk' about plot points.

[Prof. Tarma Amelia Black]

These first chapters are sort of hilarious!

I thought, oh, she's going to leave the normal world in which she grew and go join the dragons and all will be different there! The dragons won't care about 'proper procedure' and all that, right? They're dragons.

HA. They live longer (that's my impression so far anyway) and all that that has done is get some of them in their thinking ruts even deeper than the two-leggeds! At the same time, I do love all the collections of 'things' which are mentioned -- let alone, hey, magic.

Then the whole notion of being rescued, from what she wants, what she had chosen. I love how
Cimorene deals with the ones who want to rescue her -- and those who want to eat her. It's just very very funny so far.

[Prof. Scarlet Leslie-Lewis]

Talking often does make it more difficult to do things, especially when trying to make a point in the conversation, but it isn't necessarily done to avoid doing something. I do have a colleague who tends to make things out of nothing, so it seems like she spends way too much time on the phone than necessary. Most of the time, though, phone calls are needed to clarify details.

Cimorene did an excellent job at convincing the dragons to keep her alive. This also showed us that the dragons in this series are quite intelligent and reasonable. Unfortunately, that is not the case with the knights and princes. Cimorene wastes an awful lot of time explaining why she does not want to be rescued.

I chose this book for a paper years ago, so I did dissect it thoroughly. It's been a few years since I've read it and it's still so interesting to see how the different characters are introduced through Cimorene's perspective like the "old green dragon," etc. I think it's delightful that dragons are allergic to wizard magic.