Flight of the Heron read-along: Part III chapters 3-4

[regshoe]

Keith is back! :D And so is Ewen, and so we get to the really good bit.

Next week we'll only read the one chapter—partly because chapter 5 is the last in Book III and I think sticking to the Book boundaries makes things neater, partly because it's a fairly pivotal chapter and I want us to have time to appreciate it properly...

Comments

[regshoe]

Once again we have some accurate historical background, and it's a bit grim this time. Keith's attitude to the atrocities committed by the Hanoverian army after Culloden is a difficult subject, I think, and in some ways one of the most interesting parts of the book. As a relatively decent Hanoverian he doesn't take the attitude of 'well, I'm not doing anything dishonourable so it's nothing to do with me' that he might do; we get language like 'a sensation of being branded' and 'feeling that he belonged now to a band of executioners'. And yet he doesn't take the opposite extreme of resigning and refusing to have anything more to do with it at all (there's a minor character in one of Broster's other books who does exactly this on discovering the moral bankruptcy of his military superiors, and it's often made me wonder...). The conflict between a moral sense more than typical 'gentlemanliness'—historically what we're seeing here is the logic of the British Empire working itself out, and that these atrocities were committed by people who regarded themselves as, and did in fact behave in other circumstances as, gentleman is really kind of the point—and the 'ambitious regard for his own career' that's so important to Keith's character is a fascinating one, and I've never really worked out exactly what to make of it in the end.

In any case, the incident of the dead woman and child is quietly horrible in a very effective way. Even with all the repugnance Keith shows about affairs in Inverness—and I think his attitude of a sort of irritated disgust, rather than more open horror, is very characteristic of him—he's still pretty naive about the extent of what's happening, not guessing the likely history of the woman as Mackay does.

So there Keith is, resignedly disgusted and believing he can't do anything about it—and he switches in a moment from that to running straight out in front of the levelled muskets when he recognises Ewen. Yeah, I think there's some significant character stuff there...! I also like the contrast between that immediate instinctive action and the conscious strategising Keith does later on in the scene while trying to figure out how to manipulate Guthrie in a way that'll keep Ewen safe—the combination of impulse and considered thought working together alongside his feelings for Ewen.

Another nice detail—Keith's indignant retort to Guthrie that Ewen is 'a Highlander and a gentleman'. Joining those two epithets, and emphasising Ewen's being a Highlander to assert that he'd never do something dishonourable—Keith has certainly come a long way from when we first met him. :)

The Gaelic 'herself' which Mackay uses in chapter 3—I've read somewhere, I think in an annotation to Walter Scott's Waverley, that the stereotype of Gaelic speakers inappropriately calling everyone 'she' came from a misunderstanding of how grammatical gender works (which seems odd; English doesn't have it but virtually all the foreign languages commonly taught in Britain do, besides the Celtic languages, and people like Broster would certainly be familiar with the idea). I don't know how accurate the rest of Broster's Gaelic is, but the phonetic accent is slightly annoying.

Major Guthrie is a highly unpleasant person! His constant aggravatingness towards Keith in chapter 4 is grimly funny, and I love Keith's careful self-control (for Ewen's sake...!). I especially like the dirty joking about how Keith's regard for Ewen must be due to a sister or wife whom he fell in love with—haha, Guthrie, you've nearly got it... Incidentally, 'kind as yon ither lass of a Cameron was kind to the Pretender’s son' is (I think) a reference to Jenny Cameron, a slightly mysterious figure who brought 300 Camerons to join the Prince at Glenfinnan and was endlessly slandered in the Whig press—the assertion that she was Charles's mistress was one of the less bizarre stories made up about her sex life. She was a Cameron of Glendessary, and a cousin of Lochiel, so it's quite possible she and Ewen know each other.

The omniscient narrator told us back in the prologue that 'Loch na h-Iolaire' means 'the Eagle's Lake', but how does Keith, who doesn't speak Gaelic, know that? Either Ewen or someone else must have explained it to him while he was there, which is a rather sweet scene to imagine, or he must have asked around about it afterwards.

[sanguinity]

I feel like Broster very much wants to convince us that Keith's hands are clean, emphasizing the disgust he feels for other men's actions. But Keith is also very obviously going along to get along, so there's an argument to be made that he's at least complicit.

Of course, he only goes along right until we recognizes Ewen. It is lovely how there's no conscious thought in his blind panic to throw himself in front of the firing squad: I rather think he's gotten feelings all over his debt of honour.

And the sheer amount of crap he eats from Major War Crimes' hands! He wouldn't take that from the Duke of Cumberland, but if it's Ewen's life at stake... (Again, Keith: you've gotten feelings all over your debt of honour!) I'll admit, when he all but offered to duel Major War Crimes, I was rooting for him to do it. Save everyone a bunch of trouble, Keith! Shoot Major War Crimes dead, then go back for Ewen and ride off into the mountains with him. Yes, sure, you'll have to keep Lachlan from slitting your throat when he catches up with you, but maybe if you talk VERY quickly and let him lead the horse...

Oh, and there's this interesting description: Keith, no Puritan himself, yet innately fastidious... Helpfully dropped there for any enterprising smut writers working out their characterizations, thank you Ms. Broster!

[luzula]

If you haven't been keeping an eye on the last post, I wrote up some historical notes on how holding an estate in the Highlands worked, and the implications for Ewen.

I love these chapters! I mean, the first one is grim, yes, but we're past the looming dread before Culloden, and Keith and Ewen are finally meeting again. I always felt that if I could design my own cover for FotH, I would want it to have Keith holding the scantily clad and swooning Ewen in his arms. It's so incredibly romantic: once Keith sees it's Ewen, he just runs with no thought of any consequences for himself.

Also I love the image of Ewen standing there before the firing squad, how he has nothing left but the proud and stubborn urge to meet death on his feet. ♥

More thoughts tomorrow; I had a busy and long weekend...

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

I am caught up. And support the bodice ripping cover design in the comment above.