The Foretelling (12 page)
I thought of our breath and our blood, how eventually it would fall on the yellow earth and disappear. I thought of how my mother's pearl ring fit me perfectly, as though it had been made for me. In the end, our people would decide for themselves. Some would follow Asteria, some would follow me. Maybe that's the way it was supposed to be. Each woman makes her own fortune, her own decisions.
I stopped as I always did at the place of the bear, but I didn't stay long. I had no time to think of Melek, or my brother, or even my sister, Io. My people could not wait for me. My country could not wait.
As for me, I was ready to return as the Queen. I had made something out of my sorrow. I had stitched it together with a rope made of hair from the tail of my mare; I had used the bones of my grandmothers and my mother and my sister as needles. I chanted my gratitude all the way home. Thank you to my sister the bear, to my sister-horse, to the goddess above us, thank you for letting me be who I am, for letting me ride into whatever fortune we made together. Thank you for letting me be Rain and no one else.
It was the ending of something. It was the beginning of something.
I rode harder.
I rode faster.
It was my country, my time, my age, my beginning. I went across the yellow earth, over the black rocks, through the streams where the water was so cold you could never forget winter, into a place where the sky reached on forever.
R
eferences to Amazon women have appeared in literature and art throughout time, most notably in ancient Greece. The remains of warrior women have also been found in graves around the Black Sea; their cultures may be the factual basis for the Amazon myths of the heroic age. In a time when nomads ruled the steppes of Russia and the Ukraine, there appears to have been women who knew war as well as any man. Let us hope they also knew peace.
Deepest gratitude to my editor, Andrea Spooner, for support, kindness, and wisdom.
Thank you to Alyssa Morris and Matt Mahurin for their visions.
Thanks also to Sangeeta Mehta and to Elizabeth Eulberg.
To my grandmothers, thank you for every word. I listened.
An Interview with Alice Hoffman
Question:
What inspired you to write a fictionalized account of Amazon culture? Do you see any parallels between Amazon culture and mainstream Western culture, perhaps in terms of rituals or violence against women?
Answer:
I've always been interested in Amazon culture—I think most girls and women wonder what it would be like to live in a world in which women have all the power. I was also wondering about how a war culture would be different or the same from Western cultures in which men were in power—would women be as cruel as men in times of war? As brave? As foolish? Would women be brutal to other women? What would it mean to be a mother and a warrior both? How would love surface in such a culture where weakness and compassion were a burden.
Q:
You wrote your novel
Green Angel
in response to September 11. Did you write
The Foretelling
in response to a certain event as well?
A:
I wrote
The Foretelling
in response to our current involvement in the Middle East.
Green Angel
is the story of one girl's response to losing everything she loves in a terrible disaster much like the tragedy of September 11.
The Foretelling
is the story of a girl who is bred to go to war but is drawn to peace and love and understanding. I wanted to know if it was ever possible to remove a society from an ongoing war. How do you step away from battle and rethink the universe and yourself?
Q:
In an interview with
Publishers Weekly,
when asked how we can remain hopeful in the face of troubling global events, you responded, “You can try to take sorrow and make it into something enduring, meaningful and beautiful.” One of the first characteristics we learn about Rain is that she is “born out of sorrow,” but by the end of the book, she says, “I had made something of my sorrow.” Has Rain let go of her sorrow, or has she transformed the meaning of sorrow into something positive and beautiful?
A:
I think both—she lets go of sorrow and the vision of herself as all that is negative and she takes her past and her mother's rejection and weaves her own strength out of the “negatives.” She accepts what is good and beautiful about herself, and that is the heart of her transformation.
Q:
The Foretelling
is rich with symbolism, from the bear claw to the sickle to the color yellow. Could you elaborate on what some of the symbolism means to you? Do you feel that symbolism is an important element of your work in general?
A:
I think the symbols grow out of the story itself. I never plan out symbolic elements—they just arise from the characters and the situations. The bear is a symbol for many cultures of the mother earth goddess, of nature, of female strength. Most of the others symbols are symbols of strength, courage, love.
Q:
One of the important messages of the book is that girls can empower themselves and change their future, no matter what is foretold, but there are many other messages in the book as well. What do you feel is the book's greatest message?
A:
I think the real message is that we each create and envision our own “foretelling.” We imagine and make our futures as best we can. No future is set in stone. The future shifts like water, and we can change not everything that happens, but we can change the way we feel and react. I think girls need to feel empowered, and they need to know the future belongs to them just as it does to their brothers and fathers.
Q:
Kirkus Reviews
praises that
The Foretelling
is “artfully structured to track Rain's spiritual quest from youthful warrior to Queen.” Did you go on your own spiritual quest when you were Rain's age, or do you see any other parallels between your coming-of-age experience and Rain's?
A:
Rain does go on a spiritual quest, one that takes her to unexpected places. I also found myself on an unexpected path: I never expected to go to college, or graduate from school, or to become a writer. Like Rain's dreams, these were my dreams, ones I was lucky enough to make happen in the real world.
Q:
When did you decide to become a writer? What advice would you give to young women who are considering a writing career?
A:
I always longed to be a writer, but I seriously began to write when I took a creative writing course in college. Then I went to a creative writing program at Stanford University, where I got a master's. My advice to writers is to write!! The more you write, the easier it is to face the blank page. I believe in writing courses and writing groups because they force you to write on a schedule, which is always a good thing.
Q:
You started your writing career with books for adults and have now written and published four books for young adult readers. Your book signings are often attended by mothers and daughters. How is it different writing for teen audiences than adult audiences?
A:
One of the reasons I began writing teen books was because I had so many mother/daughter readers. I always shared the books I loved with my mother, even during bad times when we barely spoke. We always shared that. I love that teens read both my teen and adult books, and that adults read both as well. A book is for everyone, regardless of age. And I think most of us are sixteen forever, in some place in our hearts.
Q:
What is the next book you're working on for young adults?
A:
The next book I'm working on for young adults is
Incantation,
a novel about betrayal set during the Spanish Inquisition that follows a family of Marranos, Jews who practice their religion in secret. It's about love and identity, magic and faith, friendship and hardship. Like
The Foretelling, Incantation
is set in the past, but its message still holds true today: In the end all that really matters is love and trust.
1) Animals play a strong role in
The Foretelling.
As Rain explains, “Horses were everything to us. Our goddess, our sisters, our sustenance.” Bees and bears (Usha) are also a significant part of the book. What does Rain learn from each of the different animals mentioned in the book? Can you think of cultures besides the Amazon culture in which people live side-by-side with animals and treat them as equals? Do you think this is possible in modern society?
2) Gift-giving is another theme in the novel. The smith gives Rain the bronze scythe he has made. Melek gives Rain gloves made from Usha's claws for her to wear in battle. Io gives Rain an amulet. Rain gives Deborah a headdress made of raven feathers. Rain describes horses and bees as gifts that her people have and that no men have been granted. And both Rain and her mother are given the gift of prophecy. Deborah says, “Sometimes a gift is meaningless, sometimes it means the world.” In what ways do you think her observation holds truth? How is the gift of prophecy in particular both a blessing and a curse?
3) Rain questions and ultimately rebels against some of the ways of her tribe. What are some of the ways she rebels in thought? In action? Do you believe that it is better to stay true to your duty and submit yourself to those who need you — or to break free from that which you don't entirely know and follow your instinct? Have you ever had to make such a choice? What were the consequences?
4) Rain describes the void between her and her mother at the beginning of the book. How does her relationship with her mother change during the course of the story? Why do you think she often refers to her mother by her first name, Alina, or as “the Queen”? How do you interpret their last conversation, in which Rain's mother says that she should have waited to name her, and Rain replies, “I'm Rain, and I'm grateful for that name”? Do you think Rain feels accepted by her mother in the end?
5) Why do you think that Rain feels such aversion toward Penthe and Io at the beginning of the book? “I had already decided to hate Penthe, and I quickly decided to hate Io as well.” What causes her change of heart?
6) In Amazon tribes, women reign. Do you believe that men and women can live apart? What are some of the positive attributes male characters, such as the smith and Melek, possess? What do you think draws Rain to Melek?
7) Rain spends her days practicing marksmanship and horsemanship. When she enters her first battle, she is both physically and mentally ready to strike down her enemies, and claims that she is stronger than fifty men. Do you think she is emotionally ready for battle? Why or why not?
8)
The Foretelling
is a story of both peace and war. What do you think is more important in life—power or love?
Don't miss
I
NCANTATION
by Alice Hoffman
now available
Burn me. Drown me. Tell me lies.
I will still be who I am.
—ESTRELLA DEMADRIGAL
SPAIN 1500
is the bestselling author of more than fifteen acclaimed novels beloved by teens and adults, from
Incantation, Green Angel,
and
Aquamarine
to
The Ice Queen, Here on Earth
(an Oprah Book Club selection), and
Practical Magic,
which was made into a major motion picture. She has also written the highly praised story collections
Local Girls
and
Blackbird House.
The author lives with her family outside of Boston and maintains a Web site at
www.alicehoffman.com
.
