Flight of the Heron read-along: Part V chapter 5 and Epilogue

[regshoe]

Better loved ye cannae be...

The final chapter.

I'm planning to do a sort of wrap-up post in a couple of days' time for any last thoughts, and to recommend some Flight of the Heron fic and some other books that may be of interest. I will say goodbye and thank you properly then!

Comments

[hyarrowen]

We're half in the Otherworld, Paradise, wherever, by the descriptions we get here. The ghostly bark, the fantastical peaks of Rum, and Keith's own thoughts of where he's been when Ewen lifts him. I gives a kind of ongoing sense of where he's going to be in a few minutes.

I think part of the reason for this is the date of publication of the book. Everyone reading it would have experienced WW1 in some form, and the 'flu pandemic. There had to be some kind of surcease. It seems to have worked, going by the publication history. t was a popular book. I don't know what the zeitgeist in the Uk was regarding religion; I think WW1 was a watershed in that respect, but maybe harking back to, and quoting, religious figures of the past was a conscious choice. She worked in Oxford after all, and would probably have seen reminders of the Oxford Martyrs every day.

The lightness of the Epilogue is therefore something that's necessary to counteract all the tragedy, imo. Like the jig at the end of a Shakespeare play, no matter how tragic. Or the last line in Lord of the Rings. Life goes on, even though Ewen didn't want it to while he looked down on Keith's body.

[regshoe]

I love this interpretation of the descriptions in this chapter—a kind of ongoing sense of where he's going to be in a few minutes, that's beautiful.

Yes, I get the impression there were a lot of people who reacted to the horrors of that time by turning away from religion, but it was by no means universal—Broster's use of religion was maybe old-fashioned (suited to historical fiction?) but not unusual. Good point about the religious context of Oxford too—that turns up more specifically in The Vision Splendid but more effectively here, I think.

Life goes on, even though Ewen didn't want it to while he looked down on Keith's body.

:( <3

[luzula]

We're half in the Otherworld, Paradise, wherever, by the descriptions we get here. The ghostly bark, the fantastical peaks of Rum, and Keith's own thoughts of where he's been when Ewen lifts him. I gives a kind of ongoing sense of where he's going to be in a few minutes.

Oh, that's a lovely interpretation.