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

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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!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

osprey_archer

I think the difficulty with having Keith make that decision in Ewen's favor is that Keith and Ewen are both so invested in the ethos of "I could not love thee, dear, so well, loved I not honor more." If Keith chose Ewen over honor/duty, Ewen would likely think less of him: duty and honor are supposed to come before family, love, romance, everything. And Keith too I think would have a hard time justifying such an action to himself.

From:

hyarrowen

If Keith chose Ewen over honor/duty, Ewen would likely think less of him

I think you've nailed it there.

The prophecy in any case argues against that as an option. Which begs the question: do they have free will in this universe? Or does Angus merely see what their free-will choices lead them to?

From:

regshoe

Yes, I think you're right. (Also, heh, that poem has occurred to me as one that'd make a perfect epigraph for this book/Broster's work in general).

I think if you really wanted to make something like that work, in fix-it fic or otherwise, you'd have to get really into the details of why Keith sees capturing Ewen as his duty and whether that's inevitable and all the messy political details of his allegiance and his status as a soldier, etc. etc., which could be terribly interesting but is not at all what's happening here.

—except, there are those hints which

tgarnsl pointed out last week, that Keith's identity and particularly the part of Keith that has learnt to care about Ewen can be disassociated from military duty, and perhaps that would be a truer and better thing, and perhaps that could be done convincingly and satisfyingly... and so the idea keeps picking at me, as I said. It's good fun...! :D

From:

luzula

Another way to slice it is that for an 18th century gentleman, personal honour was paramount, and more important than military duty. If Keith's honour would be better served by saving Ewen, which it might be, since Ewen let him go in Edinburgh, then he might let Ewen go...of course, Keith would suspect this line of thinking as probably being influenced by his emotions.

Then again, I can't pretend that I understand their sense of honour; it's really very alien to me. I keep coming back to this Duffy quote, which expresses both aspects: Having encountered so much that was bizarre or selfish about the cult of honour, it is impossible for us to withhold our admiration for the importance that the 18th century attached to the primacy of the individual conscience [in potentially refusing to follow orders].

From:

regshoe

If Keith's honour would be better served by saving Ewen, which it might be, since Ewen let him go in Edinburgh, then he might let Ewen go...of course, Keith would suspect this line of thinking as probably being influenced by his emotions.

Heh, very true!

Yes, the 'cult of honour' as Duffy puts it is a fascinating cultural Thing—one that certainly makes for good stories and emotional dynamics, but I don't really understand it either.