Flight of the Heron read-along: Part IV chapters 1-2

[regshoe]

Lots of drama in this week's chapters...!

Next week we'll continue with Part IV chapters 3 and 4.

Comments

[luzula]

Very satisfying chapters! And sets up so well for the even more satisfying chapters that come next. First off, I really like the weather descriptions--the wind and rain feel so real.

And Keith may consider himself a cynic, but I really don't think he actually is one. Even from the start, he clearly has principles that a true cynic would not have (well, depending on how you interpret the word). He has managed to create a distance to his actual feelings, and reasserts that distance after leaving Ewen in the hut, perhaps because somehow he doesn't consider that to be part of his real life, the life he's supposed to have as a military professional? But it doesn't take much for his feelings to break through again... And as I've noted before, this sort of thing is just fannish catnip to me. That scene with Keith in front of Loudoun, just throwing everything to the wind. ♥

I don't know what to make of Captain Greening's feminine looks/manner? It makes me a little uncomfortable, I guess, that the only man we see who is described this way is a villain. Then again, the other villains are all manly men.

In other news, I've written up some of my recent research reading about female Jacobites here. Enjoy!

[sanguinity]

I think you're right that "cynic" is a deliberate cover for and distancing from his actual feelings (which are very deep and painful), rather than any philosophical attitude he feels naturally. I'd suggest his so-called cynicism goes hand-in-hand with his continual inability to identify his feelings: this is a man who's been training himself for years upon years to not credit or notice any feeling beyond irritation.

Because it is very clear that this man feels things very deeply: he would not have taken his prior rejections so hard as to reject all friendships, otherwise. And of course there's all the everything with Ewen. The way Keith just loses his shit all over Loudoun... wow.

(And that driving need to get back to Ewen to explain himself! So that Ewen not think poorly of him! Or think himself betrayed!)

I'm uncomfortable with you re all these "womanish" descriptions of Greening. :-/

And yay, thank you for more historical write-up!

[luzula]

I'd suggest his so-called cynicism goes hand-in-hand with his continual inability to identify his feelings: this is a man who's been training himself for years upon years to not credit or notice any feeling beyond irritation.

Yes! La la la, feelings, what do you mean, feelings? Nothing to see here, move on!

And, as you say, why reject love so hard if he truly didn't care?

[regshoe]

That is very true—Keith sets himself up as the cynic who doesn't have any feelings or care about/trust in love at all, but he's really a pretty decent person all along, besides the falsehood of the Don't Believe in Love act as revealed by his feelings for Ewen. There's that line earlier on about the 'careless, loose-living' London gentlemen whom Keith compares unfavourably with Ewen—and I suppose that also contrasts Keith himself with another kind of (moral) non-caringness.

Also, I completely agree about the suppressed/distanced feelings breaking through being fannish catnip. Ah, Keith :D

I don't know what to make of Captain Greening's feminine looks/manner?

I was wondering about that too, but had the same thought that most of the villainous characters are more masculine. (Trying to think of relevant examples from Broster's other books, it occurred to me that Raoul, of course, can pass for a woman in appropriate clothing—but we are also reassured that his face 'had no suggestion of the feminine about it'. Hmm.)

[luzula]

I started wondering what Laurent looks like, but couldn't find a good description of him! As for Aymar, the words "sweet" and "charm" are used, but then his looks are "without the weakness which sometimes accompanies the latter quality in a man".

[tgarnsl]

Re: Greening — I was chatting about this last week with sanguinity and I feel that Keith going out of his way to denigrate Greening on his appearance and mannerisms very interesting, as I think it speaks to his perceptions of his own masculinity in that moment. His reaction to Ewen's imprisonment was very emotional and in many ways irrational; he has thrown over his military duty, the one thing he is bound to, in favour of riding through a storm to his beloved former enemy — a reaction that could quite misogynistically be referred to as "womanish" behaviour. While his behaviour is not out of the realm for an 18th century man (good god they could be dramatic), in the hypermasculine world of the army I wouldn't be surprised if he suddenly feels very insecure over his own masculinity in that moment. Asserting himself as a man over Greening might make him feel more secure about himself, and more sure in his conviction that what he did was the sensible, rational thing to do. It is also possible to read that he is growing indirectly aware of his attraction to Ewen, something that might also threaten his masculinity and therefore his sense of self.

There's also the less interesting interpretation which is that Broster is a woman of the late 19th century, but I don't particularly care for that interpretation.

[regshoe]

Ooh, I like that idea! Very insightful. Keith does use the word 'womanish' to describe his thoughts about Ewen in chapter 2, doesn't he, so it's clearly something he is worried about (both the novel's other two uses of the word are descriptions of Greening). I think I'll adopt this interpretation, whether or not it was intended.