Line #13 Literature/TheJourneyer


1	''The Journeyer'' is an historical novel by Creator/GaryJennings, first published in 1984. It follows the life and travels of Marco Polo, from his life in Venice as the son of a wealthy (if absent) merchant, across the Middle East and Asia, then through China and back to Venice.
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3	!!Spoiler alert! Some tropes associated with the novel include:
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5	* ArcWords: "Beware the bloodthirstiness of beauty."
6	* BatmanGambit: Marco's revenge in the last third of the book.
7	* BedTrick: Princesses Moth and Sunlight.
8	* BeenThereShapedHistory: Including inventing the bomb. Although it this case, it's probably Justified, as Marco Polo is an historical figure.
9	* BuryYourGays: In a strange mix of AuthorAppeal and ArtisticLicense, all Muslim men are portrayed as taking their sexual pleasure with men, while women are babymakers only. Marco frowns on homosexuality in general, and terrible things tend to happen to the more important characters who practice some form of homosexuality. [[spoiler: Aziz, Uncle Mafio, Nostril, etc.]]
10	* ChristianityIsCatholic: The Polo family is from Venice, where most people are Catholic, yet Marco continually refers to "Christians" and "Christianity."
11	* ColdBloodedTorture: Apparently in medieval China, it was both a trade and an ''art.'' Try to hold onto your lunch during the scenes with The Death of A Thousand.
12	* CunningLinguist: In addition to the Italian and French he speaks at the beginning of the book, Marco learns Farsi and a number of other languages through his travels, many of which are learned from his sexual conquests.
13	* DisappearedDad: Marco's father has been gone a long time, due to his work as a traveling merchant.
14	* DisproportionateRetribution: The Armeniyan Prince in the Levant. Hoo boy. He gets married to a young woman from another region, who is 14 and beautiful. [[spoiler: He gets drunk at his bachelor party and decides he doesn't need to wait for his wedding night to deflower her. He then forgets the whole thing and when he discovers she's not a virgin in their wedding bed, he wreaks his revenge by cutting off her nose and lips.]]
15	* DoorStopper: The paperback runs about 1100 pages.
16	* TheDungAges: ZigZagged. While set during the time, Marco comes from a wealthy family, and describes Venice as relatively clean due to the tides washing away refuse. The larger cities are crowded, dirty, and smelly.
17	* FamouslyMundaneFictionallyMagical: Discussed. Marco, expecting the opulent empires as described in the Bible, is disappointed that the largest cities from the Bible are little more than villages run by tribal chiefs. He also opines that the great leaders such as King David and King Solomon were probably also petty chiefs.
18	* FreeRangeChildren: Marco's mother died when he was seven, and his traveling merchant father was gone for many years at a time, leaving wee Marco to roam the streets of Venice with a pack of orphans.
19	* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Marco Polo, his family, and Kublai Khan.
20	* HistoricalHeroUpgrade: While the Mongols were an extremely powerful people, they have been portrayed as brutal savages. By contrast, in ''The Journeyer'', Marco Polo's dealings with the Mongols shows them as civilized, fair rulers. This is, arguably, TruthInTelevision, as Marco Polo historically defended Kubilai Khan as an employer and benefactor.
21	* MagicalJew: A man with "a beard like curly red fungus" appears mysteriously on many of Marco's stops, each time claiming they've never met, offering wisdom that he cannot apply to himself. Marco suspects he is one of the ''[[TzadikimNistarim Lamed Vav Tzadikim]]'', the 36 righteous individuals whose internal goodness stands between humanity and apocalypse.
22	* MarriageOfConvenience: When Nico, Marco's father, returns to Venice in the first arc, he quickly marries a neighbour after finding out Marco's mother passed away eight years previously. As he's going back to the East, Nico needs someone to take care of business and act as a figurehead while he's gone.
23	* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: Mordecai.
24	* MightyWhiteyAndMellowYellow: Both played straight and averted, although Hui-Sheng is a mellow version of the ManicPixieDreamGirl.
25	* NoDeadBodyPoops: Averted and discussed. Marco is discovering just how limited his ideas of the world are, and the messiness of death is one example.
26	* SexinessScore: Serving girls at Kublai Khan's court have their attractiveness measured, like the purity of gold, in carat, with the highest score being twenty-four. Marco Polo doesn't know how exactly these measurements are done: he is assigned two "twenty-two-carat" servants whom he thinks flawlessly beautiful and doesn't understand why they didn't get the highest mark. Later, when he sleeps with several "twenty-four-carat" girls (in accordance with Kublai Khan's plan of breeding a royal guard consisting of Marco's sons), he isn't impressed by any of them at all and instead falls in love with a deaf-mute maid who prepares the bed for them.
27	* StreetUrchin: Doris and her brother Ubaldo.
28	* {{Twincest}}: Biliktu and Buyantu.
29	* WhereDaWhiteWomenAt: Zia Zulia and her lover, Micholo the boatman. It's more scandalous [[spoiler:when they run off together]] because he's a slave. Marco seems to wish them well.

Context Literature / TheJourneyer