Discussion post: 1.1.1

[genarti]

It's officially April 21 (at least in my timezone), and Club Ninety-Three is a go!

Any thoughts on chapter 1.1.1: The Wood of La Saudraie? Put 'em here, or link 'em here, and let's talk.

Comments

Re: also copying from tumblr

[nami_roland]

I love the idea of her not even being an accurate depiction of herself. It was mentioned somewhere on tumblr that she'd not always been poor, and clearly she's just been through trauma, so in a very real way she's *not* herself, and she hasn't had the time to create a new self, so she's in this liminal space of being between people. (Pilf talked about the forest as a liminal space, and now I am sensing a theme. The old is torn down but there is not yet something new to replace it, and we are thus left with a vacuum. Maybe also something about how we can choose whether to fill that vacuum with horror, as the forest is filled with blood, or with compassion, as the regiment adopts Michelle and her children. I don't know how big a theme personal choice in the face of overwhelming history will be here, but I can see it playing quite a large role.)

Re: also copying from tumblr

[genarti]

(Oooooh, I really like these potential themes. I'll keep an eye out to see if they continue! The forest as a liminal space, a vacuum where change is in the progress of happening but is still in the wilderness between old and new, oh very cool. And personal choice in the face of history seems an extremely Hugovian theme, and also something that's fairly natural as a theme for a book set in this kind of tumultuous time period anyway.)