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Date: Nov. 21st, 2021 11:57 am (UTC)Very insightful thoughts on Keith's position here, and I like your idea that Keith's ambition has become his fatal flaw. There's definitely a point somewhere in there about the wider consequences of Keith's rejection of personal love (if he had a passion left in life, it was military ambition)—it's not just a matter of it hurting him emotionally—and it then becomes very significant that his recognition of Ewen is what drives him to intervene in the execution.
The clan tartans seem to be the one place Broster's meticulous historical accuracy falls down—I wonder if it was really known at the time that they were a Victorian invention. My understanding is that, while official tartans used to identify specific clans didn't exist, there were consistent regional variations in the patterns made—so perhaps Keith is recognising a particular Lochaber tartan design that all the Camerons from the area around Ardroy wear?
Fetch my fainting couch.
:D
Oh, the intimacy of the shieling scene, yes... with
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Date: Nov. 21st, 2021 09:31 pm (UTC)I'm inclined, for my own sanity, to assume that when Keith recognises 'Cameron tartan' he's really recognising just whatever pattern is common to the region. I first read about the Sobieski Stuarts and the Tartan Scam as a kid and ever since then it has remained one of my major pet peeves when it comes to people misunderstanding Scottish culture. And yet for all that it's not really a part of historic Scottish culture, it has become such a strong invented tradition that it's everywhere now, and we'll never be rid of it.
Alison and Keith are both paralleled and also set up against each other in quite interesting ways. They are both meaningful people to Ewen in significant but different ways, although there's also this ambiguity to Keith and Ewen's relationship that makes it feel at times almost like — well, I don't want to say soulmates per se, but what with the prophecy and this sense of being guided by fate towards each other while also thwarted by circumstance it feels at times like there is a star-crossed element to their relationship. (Although one could argue the same for Alison and Ewen too.)
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Date: Nov. 30th, 2021 02:44 am (UTC)