Flight of the Heron read-along: Part IV chapters 5-6

[regshoe]

I'm afraid real life is being stressful at the moment and I'm feeling a bit frazzled, so no comment from me today—but here's the post, so others can start on the discussion. :)

Next week we'll read chapter 7, the final chapter of Part IV.

Comments

[sanguinity]

I'm sorry things are stressful, regshoe! Thank you for hosting the discussion, and I hope life eases up and you get to come play with us soon!

 

Keith came very close to being "cashiered" after his antics with Loudoun. Possibly everyone here already knows this, but on first read I was under the false impression that cashiering was a bloodless and purely administrative action that would separate him from the army; tgarnsl had to introduce me to the whole ritual/ceremonial aspect of cashiering, the purpose of which was to publicly humiliate and degrade the disgraced officer. Keith didn't just risk his job and social environment for Ewen; he risked his honour, his face, his reputation, and his ability to ever again participate in polite society. (Would Lady Stowe or his stepfather receive him after being cashiered? I have my doubts.)

Consequently, I think there's an interesting parallel here with Ewen. Last week regshoe pointed out that Keith and Ewen met while both "having lost nearly everything that defined them" -- now they're both offered a choice between public and private honour. Loudoun offers Ewen a choice between being dishonourably ejected from Clan Cameron while retaining his own private sense of honour, or sacrificing his private honour toward Lochiel while retaining his public honour with the clan and his chief. Meanwhile, Keith is offered essentially the same choice: be cashiered -- humiliated, degraded, and ejected from his society -- while retaining his private sense of honour toward Ewen, or sacrifice his private honour and advance his standing within the Army. Both men of course choose their private honour over their public honour -- they're a well-matched pair in that! But I am nevertheless amused that the parallelism isn't reciprocal: the object of Ewen's private honour is his clan chief, and the object of Keith's is Ewen. (Does that make Ewen, in Keith's ever-evolving loyalties, Keith's symbolic clan chief?)

(Of course this makes me want fic where Keith is cashiered for Ewen's sake. It also makes me want fic where Loudoun spreads his lies and gets Ewen ejected from Clan Cameron. They do not have to be the same fic.)

I also note that immediately after Culloden, Keith was insistent that his "hands were clean of massacre" -- and in fact, the text was full of how revolted Keith was by what the Army was doing, and while he didn't try to overtly intervene, he did try to keep clear of it. But in these chapters... Well, Broster brushes past it fairly quickly, but Keith is apparently no longer trying to dodge what's expected of him, but is instead making a point of being seen unhesitatingly doing all the things that earlier revolted him. It's unclear exactly how dirty Keith's hands are right now from what he's been doing in Inverness? But I suspect that pre-shieling Keith would have been revolted and possibly even horrified by what Keith has been doing since his narrow escape from cashiering. There's an argument to be made that, in rejecting the alleged duty the Army now expects of him, he feels relief that this will get him ejected from the Army -- at least he'll get to stop doing all the things that are currently revolting him and making him miserable.

[luzula]

Of course this makes me want fic where Keith is cashiered for Ewen's sake. It also makes me want fic where Loudoun spreads his lies and gets Ewen ejected from Clan Cameron. They do not have to be the same fic.

I have written the first of those, but nobody has yet written the second. *g*

And re: your last paragraph, yeah, I noted that while reading but then never commented on it. This is really chilling: General Blakeney, a hard man, had no fault to find with Hawley’s disgraced staff-officer. Augh, Keith, what are you doing? /o\

[sanguinity]

Oh, excellent! I had your podfic of that cued up for work this week -- there are many hours of mindless tasks coming at me, and I was looking forward to your story keeping me company.

Augh, Keith, what are you doing? /o\ Not good, whatever it is. Ubarfgyl, V pna frr jul Oebfgre xvyyrq uvz va gur raq. Yvxr jvgu Znvgynaq, qrngu vf sne fvzcyre guna univat gb yvir bhg bar'f erqrzcgvba.

[regshoe]

Uzzz, lrf vaqrrq. Ohg ohg ohg gung'f rknpgyl jul V guvax vg jbhyq unir znqr n zber vagrerfgvat fgbel... V'yy pbzr onpx gb guvf cbvag jura jr qvfphff gur raqvat!

[sanguinity]

I look forward to it! There is a lot to be discussed there, I think.

[regshoe]

Very interesting analysis of the different types of honour and Keith and Ewen's parallel choices here!

I see luzula has already linked her fic featuring Keith getting cashiered (and I remember I was surprised and interested by the details of the procedure when I first read that, too), but I shall say I recommend it! And also that there's plenty of room for more takes on the idea... :D As for Ewen getting ejected from Clan Cameron—would Lochiel, whose honourableness inspires Ewen in the first place, believe Loudoun's lies? Would Ewen's own followers turn their loyalties from him if they thought he'd acted dishonourably? I'm not sure, but there are certainly ideas there.

The 'prudence' stuff is pretty horrible, isn't it? It's really sad the way Keith feels the need to make up for his own good choices, as it were, by doing more of the evil that's expected of him, and apparently trying to convince himself to see it as the sensible, if not the right, thing to do. And I think that argument could certainly be made, yes—Keith, who's been an officer for twelve years, clearly has expectations of the Army that it's not currently living up to (wishing he could get back to 'civilised warfare' and all), and I can imagine him, horrified at what his... home? has become, relieved to be thrown out of it.