The Ringed Castle
May. 15th, 2011 12:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
petroniaSo I was like, fuck it, it's the weekend. XD; I'll post my thoughts in chunks, though, so spoilers stay progressive.
Chapters 1-5: the most elegant description of Francis’s effect on Richard’s existence... If you’d asked me in book 1, who’d still be around by book 5 to gossip about Lymond’s private life like an old lady, idk that I’d’ve pinpointed Lord Wharton. And yet. So Meg Lennox finds out ~the breaking news~, and finangles Philippa up to Mary Tudor’s court so she can get all Mean Girls about it.
Sybilla and Richard are equable(tm) but I suspect they’re wistful about keeping the Somervilles as in-laws. I would, if I were them. XD; Lymond/Philippa... something Fandom might have come up with. Philippa’s not unlike one of the Doctor’s girl companions; not a Rose or an Amy, certainly, but a Sarah Jane Smith. (She definitely thinks Lymond is 900 years old.) The thought had fleetingly crossed my mind, with Joleta of all people, before one found out she was ebil. Joleta would’ve been more like a Romana, I suppose. XD
In the meantime, Frangike Gavinovitch Crawford, Kremlinologist** is in Moscow as half of a live-in political tag team with Guzel, whom he’s not sleeping with - at this point - although she pokes at his intimacy issues with indulgence and makes him presents of docile bishounen. (Gossip ricochets around the Kremlin.) He calls up a few of his mercenaries from France, and nearly gets them all killed before he’s installed as general of the Tsar’s troops. (They gossip about him ecstatically.) It’s still a better consulting mandate than Malta. ...I find these sections absorbing; they vaguely remind me of A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur’s Court and my MBA degree, at once. XD;; Ivan fucking adores Lymond. Slaps him around, threatens him with objects sharp and blunt, makes him play chess, pulls out his hair. I have no choice but to start another list:
PEOPLE ON THIS PLANET WHO CAN MESS UP LYMOND’S HAIR
IVAN THE TERRIBLE
AGE: 24
TSAR OF RUSSIA
RATING: CRAZY BADASS
You have to take it as a sign.
Chapters 6-9: the progressive levelling up of Philippa -- who goes to London, makes friends, is devastatingly witty, dates boys sagely (being almost divorced except for needing someone’s signature on some papers and said someone deleting his emails unread, asshole), copes with the existence of Margaret Lennox, studies Latin, and gets completely addicted to politics. Mary Tudor is drawn sympathetically, Elisabeth rather less. Some folks are getting together a joint-stock company to trade in Russia via sailing through the Baltic, giving Meg Lennox an outlet for her Lymond-centric scheming. Plot circling once again around pregnancy, the lack thereof, fake children and imagined children and misrepresented children... Philippa’s side quest - by far the most compelling part of the book - is NANCY DREWING CULTER FAMILY SKELETONS, as Sybilla is unwell and Philippa assumes Lymond is staying away because he’s in denial about Marthe. She discovers two competing lurid narratives, neither (to my mind) completely satisfactory, which I’m going to have to stop and actually think about, although one could just as well have done so at the end of book 4. XD; Thusly:
OPTION ONE. Only Richard is both Gavin’s and Sybilla’s. Gavin fathered Francis and Eloise on one or more unknown women in France, and Sybilla (nee Semple) took them in.
--Richard, Francis, and Eloise have the same father. Richard is therefore the brother in the prophecy, that Lymond can’t meet again.
--Francis and Marthe have the same mother, but presumably not the same father, as there would be no reason for Marthe not to be taken in by the Culters otherwise. It’s almost as difficult to pin an age on Marthe as on Francis XD;; but I would say, out of her teens, not as old as Francis. She may in fact be younger than Eloise. In any case, in this scenario it’s pretty likely Eloise doesn’t share the same mother as any of the others.
--Further question: who’s the birth mom? And Marthe’s dad?
--Does not add up: does it actually make sense to anyone that Francis shares Gavin’s genes but not Sybilla’s?
--Total crack: Marthe is Eloise’s evil twin (what, no one else from the family saw her or knows about her) and that is why Francis was so freaked out by her from day one.
OPTION TWO. Only Richard is both Gavin’s and Sybilla’s. Sybilla was unfaithful and Francis and Eloise are by father(s) unknown. Unpleasant great-uncle claims to have written proof of this; also provides backstory re: tyrannical Culter grandfather, who apparently took Honoria (nee Bailey) as a teen bride, blew off to France, and left his son to grow up in squalor (not unlike Ivan the Terrible).
--Richard, Francis, and Eloise have the same mother. Richard isn’t the brother in the prophecy. We don’t know who the father or the other brother is. ON THE BRIGHT SIDE, IT’S NOT GRAHAM REID MALETT since they did meet quite a few times after that. XD;;
--Francis and Marthe have the same father - again, if Sybilla could hide Francis’s and Eloise’s illegitimacy, why not Marthe’s unless Marthe isn’t hers?
--Further question: who’s the genetic dad? And the mystery brother?
--Does not add up: does it make sense to anyone that Marthe doesn’t share Sybilla’s genes? Marthe would have to have a mystery brother that she never mentioned or doesn’t know about. Gavin wasn’t a complaisant sorta guy (although as it is, he all but stuck Francis in a cupboard under the stairs). Why would Sybilla have to trek off to France to give birth each time?
--Total crack: Francis’s parents are Sybilla and the Culter grandfather (i.e. Francis is Richard’s half-brother and uncle... crying hard how do I come up with this stuff). Supporting: the granddad was the one who was in France constantly and knew the Dame de Doubtance well. Sybilla is likely older than Gavin; unless there's been retcon, she was in her late 30s or early 40s when Francis and Eloise were born (this would also support her not being their birth parent altogether). The great-uncle has proof of something but I don’t doubt he completely misunderstood or misrepresented what happened. Not sure where that leaves the prophecy, Marthe, or Eloise, but hey, that’s why it’s crack speculation (and also, this stuff genuinely doesn’t add up anywhere).
Any other scenarios I can come up with involve even MORE hidden incest, but then in 1550s Scotland they did marry their aunts. XDD
** One remembers after a while that this book was published in 1971 - it's a reflex these days to look for othering in Muslim portrayals, but the Russians don't get off a whit less lightly than the Ottomans. I don't suppose Lymond ever makes it out to the Great Ming? XD The Portuguese had Macau by this point.
Chapters 1-5: the most elegant description of Francis’s effect on Richard’s existence... If you’d asked me in book 1, who’d still be around by book 5 to gossip about Lymond’s private life like an old lady, idk that I’d’ve pinpointed Lord Wharton. And yet. So Meg Lennox finds out ~the breaking news~, and finangles Philippa up to Mary Tudor’s court so she can get all Mean Girls about it.
Sybilla and Richard are equable(tm) but I suspect they’re wistful about keeping the Somervilles as in-laws. I would, if I were them. XD; Lymond/Philippa... something Fandom might have come up with. Philippa’s not unlike one of the Doctor’s girl companions; not a Rose or an Amy, certainly, but a Sarah Jane Smith. (She definitely thinks Lymond is 900 years old.) The thought had fleetingly crossed my mind, with Joleta of all people, before one found out she was ebil. Joleta would’ve been more like a Romana, I suppose. XD
In the meantime, Frangike Gavinovitch Crawford, Kremlinologist** is in Moscow as half of a live-in political tag team with Guzel, whom he’s not sleeping with - at this point - although she pokes at his intimacy issues with indulgence and makes him presents of docile bishounen. (Gossip ricochets around the Kremlin.) He calls up a few of his mercenaries from France, and nearly gets them all killed before he’s installed as general of the Tsar’s troops. (They gossip about him ecstatically.) It’s still a better consulting mandate than Malta. ...I find these sections absorbing; they vaguely remind me of A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur’s Court and my MBA degree, at once. XD;; Ivan fucking adores Lymond. Slaps him around, threatens him with objects sharp and blunt, makes him play chess, pulls out his hair. I have no choice but to start another list:
PEOPLE ON THIS PLANET WHO CAN MESS UP LYMOND’S HAIR
IVAN THE TERRIBLE
AGE: 24
TSAR OF RUSSIA
RATING: CRAZY BADASS
You have to take it as a sign.
Chapters 6-9: the progressive levelling up of Philippa -- who goes to London, makes friends, is devastatingly witty, dates boys sagely (being almost divorced except for needing someone’s signature on some papers and said someone deleting his emails unread, asshole), copes with the existence of Margaret Lennox, studies Latin, and gets completely addicted to politics. Mary Tudor is drawn sympathetically, Elisabeth rather less. Some folks are getting together a joint-stock company to trade in Russia via sailing through the Baltic, giving Meg Lennox an outlet for her Lymond-centric scheming. Plot circling once again around pregnancy, the lack thereof, fake children and imagined children and misrepresented children... Philippa’s side quest - by far the most compelling part of the book - is NANCY DREWING CULTER FAMILY SKELETONS, as Sybilla is unwell and Philippa assumes Lymond is staying away because he’s in denial about Marthe. She discovers two competing lurid narratives, neither (to my mind) completely satisfactory, which I’m going to have to stop and actually think about, although one could just as well have done so at the end of book 4. XD; Thusly:
OPTION ONE. Only Richard is both Gavin’s and Sybilla’s. Gavin fathered Francis and Eloise on one or more unknown women in France, and Sybilla (nee Semple) took them in.
--Richard, Francis, and Eloise have the same father. Richard is therefore the brother in the prophecy, that Lymond can’t meet again.
--Francis and Marthe have the same mother, but presumably not the same father, as there would be no reason for Marthe not to be taken in by the Culters otherwise. It’s almost as difficult to pin an age on Marthe as on Francis XD;; but I would say, out of her teens, not as old as Francis. She may in fact be younger than Eloise. In any case, in this scenario it’s pretty likely Eloise doesn’t share the same mother as any of the others.
--Further question: who’s the birth mom? And Marthe’s dad?
--Does not add up: does it actually make sense to anyone that Francis shares Gavin’s genes but not Sybilla’s?
--Total crack: Marthe is Eloise’s evil twin (what, no one else from the family saw her or knows about her) and that is why Francis was so freaked out by her from day one.
OPTION TWO. Only Richard is both Gavin’s and Sybilla’s. Sybilla was unfaithful and Francis and Eloise are by father(s) unknown. Unpleasant great-uncle claims to have written proof of this; also provides backstory re: tyrannical Culter grandfather, who apparently took Honoria (nee Bailey) as a teen bride, blew off to France, and left his son to grow up in squalor (not unlike Ivan the Terrible).
--Richard, Francis, and Eloise have the same mother. Richard isn’t the brother in the prophecy. We don’t know who the father or the other brother is. ON THE BRIGHT SIDE, IT’S NOT GRAHAM REID MALETT since they did meet quite a few times after that. XD;;
--Francis and Marthe have the same father - again, if Sybilla could hide Francis’s and Eloise’s illegitimacy, why not Marthe’s unless Marthe isn’t hers?
--Further question: who’s the genetic dad? And the mystery brother?
--Does not add up: does it make sense to anyone that Marthe doesn’t share Sybilla’s genes? Marthe would have to have a mystery brother that she never mentioned or doesn’t know about. Gavin wasn’t a complaisant sorta guy (although as it is, he all but stuck Francis in a cupboard under the stairs). Why would Sybilla have to trek off to France to give birth each time?
--Total crack: Francis’s parents are Sybilla and the Culter grandfather (i.e. Francis is Richard’s half-brother and uncle... crying hard how do I come up with this stuff). Supporting: the granddad was the one who was in France constantly and knew the Dame de Doubtance well. Sybilla is likely older than Gavin; unless there's been retcon, she was in her late 30s or early 40s when Francis and Eloise were born (this would also support her not being their birth parent altogether). The great-uncle has proof of something but I don’t doubt he completely misunderstood or misrepresented what happened. Not sure where that leaves the prophecy, Marthe, or Eloise, but hey, that’s why it’s crack speculation (and also, this stuff genuinely doesn’t add up anywhere).
Any other scenarios I can come up with involve even MORE hidden incest, but then in 1550s Scotland they did marry their aunts. XDD
** One remembers after a while that this book was published in 1971 - it's a reflex these days to look for othering in Muslim portrayals, but the Russians don't get off a whit less lightly than the Ottomans. I don't suppose Lymond ever makes it out to the Great Ming? XD The Portuguese had Macau by this point.
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no subject
Date: 2011-05-15 10:11 am (UTC)Your Jerott thoughts in the other post are fascinating, dying to leap in and talk to you about them, but really want to wait till you finish this book.
Suspect Sybilla can also mess up Lymond's hair?
no subject
Date: 2011-05-15 10:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-15 10:27 am (UTC)I think what I like best about those scenes is seeing Lymond take his ability to sway and to control those around him, and to focus it all with full intent on one person -- the least controllable person in history -- somehow keeping them both on this will-he-or-won't-he knife edge by sheer force of will and concentration.
no subject
Date: 2011-05-16 05:48 am (UTC)That being said, I am enjoying Russia, but in a... let's leave Lymond in his corner and go with the flow of the side characters, sort of way. I'm sympathetic to the fact that he ran. I don't really think he could have regrouped at home from what happened, and it did seem to me like he needed to regroup before he could deal. That he doesn't at current reading intend to deal is another question, but (I'm not sure Lymond realises this per se, he just did his thing) it's part of his healing process to have a challenging job and a language to learn and subordinates to boss around and a pretty house to occasionally relax in with a sophisticated and understanding woman. XD; A lotta ppl would've just sat around and felt sorry for themselves, with some justification.
no subject
Date: 2011-05-16 10:48 am (UTC)In the past his missteps have caused deaths for other people. This time, it's totally pure, put a foot wrong and he dies, no one else. It's easy to think that he yearns for his mistakes now to hurt him rather than others.
I'm sympathetic to the fact that he ran too. He needed something that was going to occupy all his attention and rebuilding Russia from the ground up while juggling one of history's greatest psychopaths at this point was about the only thing that could do it. He's sublimating so much at this point though, the new job and the pretty house and woman etc is like a freakish attempt to make that one part of himself that he is allowing himself to express to become the whole of himself, living out a facsimile of a full life.
no subject
Date: 2011-05-16 08:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-16 10:02 pm (UTC)Bear = Richard?
(Since it turns and lumbers off, I mean. I think Ivan would put up a better fight than that... Or, no, wait, bear = Ivan, except that this is a sane bear and Ivan is out of his everloving mind. If the bear was nuts then it would be the Russian situation TO A T)
I DID NOT REALISE GOLDEN EAGLES WERE BADDASS LIKE THIS
no subject
Date: 2011-05-16 10:24 pm (UTC)There are 30 breeding pairs in Scotland and the Daily Mail was up in arms as recently as this March over photos of them carrying off spring lambs. XD;;
no subject
Date: 2011-05-17 11:32 am (UTC)The wolves one is beautiful and frightening because it's so . . . tRC-esque, but the one where the eagle flies off carrying the 300 pound mountain goat is just, wow.
They really . . . shed new light on the scenes in tRC. *shudder*
no subject
Date: 2011-05-16 04:26 am (UTC)Haaaa my Jerott thoughts. I was really overinvested in that situation, in some sidewise manner. XD;
no subject
Date: 2011-05-17 04:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-20 08:08 pm (UTC)... and that is the sound of my brain, crumbling into rubble.
no subject
Date: 2011-06-20 08:22 pm (UTC)JUST LIKE NO ONE CONTRADICTED DANNY HISLOP WHEN HE SPECULATED LYMOND WAS A COCKTEASE
ONLY *TUMBLEWEEDS*
no subject
Date: 2011-06-21 03:56 pm (UTC)I sincerely hope, for the sake of what it says about your sanity, that you are wrong about this.
Although then again, this series has turned out to involve a lot more ~s3cr3t incest~ than I expected, almost on level with a VD Andrews novel, hahahahaaaa.
no subject
Date: 2011-06-23 02:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-23 04:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-26 07:29 am (UTC)Though in other news they are pondering a NAmerica Blur tour?? Maybe? LOL by "they" I mean "Damon pondered it while blazing the other day and hasn't actually spoken to the others"