MovieChat Forums > The Clan of the Cave Bear (1986) Discussion > Questions

Questions

posted 17 years ago by Caprica_Tonks
4 replies | jump to latest

Here are some things I have wondered about the books. Please, feel free to answer or critisize them, or add questions of your own.

1. Who were Ayla's people? Will we ever know? Does is matter? Obviously they were travelling, but where and why? Personally, I think it may be significant.
2. Will the Zelandonii ever figure out they stole their Caves from the Clan?
3. Will Ayla ever see Durc again?
4. What was the dream Ayla had in the Mammoth Hunters (about her sons killing eachother) about? Significant?
5. What about the dream Mamut and Creb shared that was how Baby came to be adopted by Ayla?
6. Why does Auel feel the need to tell us that a pregnant woman notices the urge to pass her water at least five bloody times throughout Shelters?
7. WHEN IS BOOK SIX COMING OUT?! Is Auel going to include the Star Chart that was recently discovered, or wait for the 7th? (I think the Star Chart discoveries were actually why she was intending to write seven instead of six, and why six is taking so long)

Is there a Earth's Children chatroom to talk about these things and speculate about future things? The IMDb board doesn't seem to get much traffic.

~The integrity of my peanut butter cup has been compromised!~

[–] preciousthings77-1 17 years ago

Try www.ecfans.com.

1 and 3: IIRC, Jean Auel has said that Ayla's people will never be known, and that she will not see Durc again.

2. Don't know. That would be interesting, but for all we know, the people now known as Zelandonii might not have been the ones who actually took the region over-it could have been their ancestors, or another group that later moved east. I would like to see book 6 deal with Zelandonii/Clan relations via Ayla and Jondalar's interaction with Guban and Yorga, though. Given the amazement Guban showed that Ayla was raised by "Mogor One-Eye", I'd be surprised if they don't have more interactions. But I wonder if a Clan person will eventually figure out Ayla is death cursed.

4. A lot of people feel the dream is symbolic of the eventual replacement of the Clan (Durc-Neanderthal) by the Others (Ayla's other son-Cro-Magnon).

5. It's been a while since I re-read the books. Are you referring to the scene Creb sees play out while he's meditating to find Ayla's totem? I don't see that scene as foreshadowing Baby's adoption by Ayla. I shall re-read it, though.

6: Because about all you do when you're pregnant is pee, and it serves to connect the readers with the characters. Although I personally feel Shelters was a bit of a letdown in comparison to the first 4 books.

7. Jean Auel is still working on it, as of 12/27/07, according to the EC Fans site. Don't know if she's incorporating the Star Chart or not.

Zombies are supposed to be slow. They're scarier that way. :)

[–] Caprica_Tonks 17 years ago

Thanks for your answer!

I have seen EC Fans, but don't spend much time there as it isn't updated very much.

With question/answer 5, it was the scene Creb saw when meditating for Ayla's totem, it was also a dream that Mamut had in (or before the events of) Mammoth Hunters, and it was how Ayla came to adopt Baby. There was something Ayla relalized at the end of Plains (that she was destined to live with the Zelandonii, and that Jondalar was supposed to find her and bring her there) that made me think there was more to the dream.

I do realize that pregnant women have to pee more, but my complaint was the repeditiveness of most of Shelters using that as my example. We were told, in pretty much the same way, "Ayla noticed that she had to pass water more since she became pregnant". I get telling us this once, even twice, but we are told like five times! There were a couple other things like this that I noticed, but can't think of them off the top of my head.

I really hope it's not more than 10 years in between Shelters and 6 like it was between Plains and Shelters...

~We are not reconnaissance cows!~

[–] preciousthings77-1 17 years ago

I'll reread those scenes, especially Mamut's dream/vision.

Overall, I think Jean Auel just has a tendency to repeat things. A lot. As you know. Every book contains a summary of the previous books, and every time she shows someone the firestone, it's repeated. And the Whinney story. Etc. It'd be much easier, and she could fit more new story in, if she'd just say, "Ayla told the story of how she came to adopt Whinney. Many of the women listening understood why she took the little horse in." Instead of rehashing the whole thing again. Bah. But then, I've heard she intended for each book to stand on its own, so that's why she does it. It is a bit distracting, though, and let's face it, the story is so intriguing that you need to read all the books anyway.

The EC Fans forum is pretty neat, they have some nice fan fiction there. I'm not normally into fan fiction, but one poster has done one on Durc, and is in the middle of a second one on Durc, and they are both good reads. I think I like those ones because we likely won't ever find out much more about Durc.

Zombies are supposed to be slow. They're scarier that way. :)

[–] lisaboothe 16 years ago

There's a very good discussion forum, search under auelboard.com I think.