I’m sorry for being late this time. I’ve been sick lately, but I’ve recovered and got back to the book. I finished four more pages; I’m a slow reader as usual, and that will never change. Anyway, enough babbling. Here are my questions this time for all you generous knowledge givers.
1- I looked up the name of the dog ‘Sohrab’ to learn its meaning and origin. To my surprise, I found it was not a Western name; it’s a Persian myth. I expected it to be Indian because of Mr. Oliver’s time in India.
2 – in this passage: “Nobody could pretend, as they looked at the shuffle of shilling shockers that weekenders had dropped, that the looking-glass always reflected the anguish of a Queen or the heroism of King Harry.”
Which King Harry exactly? There are six of them as far as I know. Or is that the point, that it could be any one of them?
3 – In this passage: “Oh,” she sighed, pegged down on a chair arm, like a captive balloon, by a myriad of hair-thin ties into domesticity.
“Pegged down” here implies she’s sitting; she’s nailed to her chair figuratively.
4 – In this passage: “She frowned. He was not a coward; her boy wasn’t. And she loathed the domestic, the possessive, the maternal. And he knew it and did it on purpose to tease her, the old brute, her father-in-law.”
So, Mrs. Giles Oliver hates being at home, being part of her family, and being a mother “the maternal”. If she hates all that, why did she get into it in the first place? also, What’s her relationship with her father-in-law? Does she hate him, or is it in a gray area between hate and love, or perhaps variable relationship like the breeze?
5 -I didn’t understand what ‘book-shy’ means here… ” Book-shy she was, like the rest of her generation; and gun-shy too”
6 – I didn’t understand ‘the age of the century’ here…’What remedy was there for her at her age—the age of the century, thirty-nine—in books?
7 – I reached this particular passage, and I screamed, ‘What the hell is going on here? Is this rape taking place or what?’
Here’s the passage: “She took it and read: “A horse with a green tail…” which was fantastic. Next, “The guard at Whitehall…” which was romantic, and then, building word upon word, she read: “The troopers told her the horse had a green tail; but she found it was just an ordinary horse. And they dragged her up to the barrack room where she was thrown upon a bed. Then one of the troopers removed part of her clothing, and she screamed and hit him about the face.”
Is ‘Whitehall’ the Horse Guards in England? Because that would explain the troopers and the horse with the green tail. but How can a rape be committed inside barracks?
8 – The word ‘sidling’ in this passage is driving me mad. ‘And in came Mrs. Swithin carrying a hammer. She advanced, sidling, as if the floor were fluid under her shabby garden shoes, and, advancing, pursed her lips and smiled, sidelong, at her brother.’
i looked up “sidling” and i found that it’s when one walks in a timid and furtive and unobtrusive manner, so i’ve been strugling to find its equivalent in arabic because i can’t picture this kind of gait, all i see in mind when i think of it is a crab-walk and that’s silly, so i looked in youtube for videos, i typed
” a man sidling” no relevant results, “a dog sidling” again no relevant results,hhm, that’s wierd, let’s type ” a horse sidling” because i’ve seen a horse walking sidelong before and… results, irrelevant ones, what the hell is this? is “sidling” an outdated word or what?… so could you please provide me with links of this rare sidling walk or at least the right key words to search by…
another question about the passage above… ” and, advancing, pursed her lips and smiled, sidelong, at her brother. ” so are these parenthetical clauses? because i think the right order should be : “and advancing sidelong she pursed her lips and smiled at her brother”
but i guess it’s a stylistic choice?
9 – in this sentence : ” The name Cindy, or Sindy, for it could be spelt either way, was short for Lucy. It was by this name that he had called her when they were children; when she had trotted”
so i saw a video of a horse trotting this day and i can remmeber when i was but a child this kind of half-running half-walking half-jumping gait i had, i’ll try to describe it… bear with me here, so you jump by a foot up and forward then when you go down you jump by the other foot up and forward and so once you pick up the rythm it will feel hard to stop because it so joyful, anyway is this what she means by “trotting” and if you’ve seen a video of a child doing this gait it online can you link it so i could reminisce my childhood
10 – in this ” The words were like the first peal of a chime of bells. As the first peals, you hear
the second; as the second peals, you hear the third”
she means when you hear the first one pealing you expect to hear the second right after, right?
11 – n this passage ” Mrs. Swithin say: “I’ve been nailing the placard to the Barn,” she knew she
would say next:
“For the pageant.”
And he would say:
“Today? By Jupiter! I’d forgotten!”
need i to say more than “jupiter”?!
12 – in this phrase : “The same chime followed the same chime, only this year beneath the chime she heard: “The girl screamed and hit him about the face with a hammer.”
for those who read the book,what’s your interpretation of that, did she really heard those words being recited, maybe when mr.oliver picked the newspaper and started reading, or did she remmebered the line and…. WTH… i swear to god i just realised she added “hammer” there, it wasn’t in the first one, so is she referring to mrs.swithin hitting someone with the hammer she came in with, or did the momery of mrs.swithin entrance holding a hammer got mingled and mixed with that of what she read in the newspaper…
13 – in this passage : ” Certainly the weather was variable. It was green in the garden; grey the next.” does she mean by “grey” shadow?
14 – There was a fecklessness, a lack of symmetry and order in the clouds, as they thinned
and thickened. Was it their own law, or no law, they obeyed?”
**question** : why is there only two possibilities? either they obeyed their law or it is randomness, it could be they’re obeying the law of an external force.
15 – “Beyond that was blue, pure blue, black blue; blue that had never filtered down; that had escaped registration”
this is charming writing right there, it escaped the book of magic, and became a spell on my heart, anyway, “registration”, what does she mean by that, the sky is available for human eyes and registraition, its blue can’t possibly escape registeration, when i think of something escaped registration, i think of big-foot or a UFO appearance
16 – We can only pray,” she added, and fingered her crucifix.
here first i understood it as her drawing a crucifix on the air, doing the famous sign but then when i got to this line… “She half covered the cross with her fingers” i thought about it again and i realised that maybe it was a real little crucifix the one connected to a chain and OMG… i swear to god… i just remmbered while writing this post a passage i read early on…
” . So she sat down to morning tea, like any other old lady with a high nose, thin cheeks, a ring on her finger and the usual trappings of rather shabby but gallant old age, which included in her case **a cross gleaming gold** on her breast.”
so it’s settled then but those moments of revelationare striking me one after the other i think it’s a good sign i should keep reading…
i leave you with that, bye.
note : thanks in a advance for my bros, those whose answers are the dope
by SaidNadir2021