This impression may change after reading the next book, but my feeling about Titus Groan is that it’s a novel about how change is felt within a structure that throttles it by design. Roles are abandoned and taken up, violent deaths go unseen, and Rottcodd, a minor functionary, feels a tremor only at the very end. This may lead to great upheaval for the world of Gormenghast or it might not. I like that Steerpike’s scheming, while causing much of this change either directly or indirectly, still only places him within a functionary role that maintains the status quo — the sisters might not ever have plotted against their brother without his influence, but by the end he has tasked himself with keeping the peace. This is not all due to the nature of the power structure, some of it is blind chance, but the old ways persist for the time being.
I loved the scene of the Earling, the image of baby Titus alone in the middle of the lake, the symbolic gesture of casting off the totems of his station, the castle denizens watching from the trees, the carvers thronged and watchful on the other side, and the mysterious harmony of two children crying out as if sharing a private understanding with each other. It’s an exquisite ending for a book that has a capricious relationship with its own plot, and reminded me again of Deadwood, in particular its high water mark “Boy The Earth Talks To”.
The bit from Backlisted I wanted to highlight is by Andy at about 53:00 — “I think the success of these novels after the second World War is totally fascinating: first, because of how many of these characters have physical disabilities, have sustained physical damage. That’s no coincidence, the betrayal of the body is a big thing for Peake, indeed, in a self-fulfilling prophecy before his own body betrayed him. But also, you mentioned Steerpike, Joanna. Steerpike seems to me like the precursor of that postwar figure represented by Joe Lampton in Room at the Top, or Camus’s The Outsider or Mr. Sloane in Entertaining Mr. Sloane. He prefigures that, to quote Morrissey, ‘jumped-up pantry boy who never knew his place’.”
I’m making some headway on Tony Judt’s Postwar this week as well, and one of the delights of that book is how Judt proves to be a great film buff, adept at using movies to track shifts in ideas of nationhood and popular sentiment. As I mentioned last week, I do think of Steerpike as a kind of revolutionary figure, if not a particularly effective one, and perhaps as in Andy’s reading a uniquely 20th century postwar type, the figure who knows he is alienated but doesn’t quite have a program to match his sense of entitlement and cunning. Perhaps the way we leave Steerpike suggests that there are always such figures within these civilizations; sometimes they make a dent in the world, and sometimes they just find a more comfortable perch.
Thanks so much for doing this, Fran, and credit to Phil as well for nudging this along behind the scenes. It’s been wonderful to read everyone’s comments. I will say I think end of July as a deadline for book 2 sounds good, maybe we can do another gut check around then to see how we’re feeling for book 3 (although it is rather shorter than the others).
postscript: one last JBOL for the road ...
"The Reverie of Lady Clarice: Her thoughts have been identical with those of her sister in every way save only in one respect, and this cleavage can best be appreciated by the simple process of substituting Cora's name for her own wherever it appears in the reverie of the former."
re: "Perhaps the way we leave Steerpike suggests that there are always such figures within these civilizations; sometimes they make a dent in the world, and sometimes they just find a more comfortable perch."
you make a great point here in that sometimes figures like this have movements in which to throw themselves and other times they are throwing themselves at seemingly stone edifices. obviously time will tell what the greater ramifications are but I am curious to see how Titus grows in this environment that exists only in the aftermath of his birth. it is hard to make a reader invested in the fate of a baby outside of like, baby as symbol for human life, but Titus remains a figure of profound potential - good or ill or useless - in coming books, I don't think we'd end with him quite as we do if not for that reason.
a lesser comedic writer would have just repeated everything in the Clarice reverie, or worse yet, drawn out their bantering past when it was funny. I really admire in a book so otherwise dense and fruitful that Peake knows to keep the funniest stuff pretty brief and succinct for maximum possible jbols.
thank you for all the references & research you've done into this book!!!
That’s the season 2 finale that ends with Ellsworth’s wedding and the town celebrating as several other events including a suicide occur in the background, while the community is on the cusp of change due to Hearst’s arrival earlier that day.
ahh, right. Perfect comp, then! Both share that sort of narratorial POV that suggests there are a lot more forces at play (micro and macro) than most of the individuals realize
I loved a lot of this final section, and I specifically loved the scene between Flay and Keda, to my knowledge their only "interaction," such as it was, in the whole book. Flay himself seems to be in a more elevated mental state than usual, having murdered his nemesis but then also having borne witness to the destruction-via-owls of the one person who had, at least as far as we know, given his life meaning. The fact that he, probably the most indoctrinated into the ways of the Groans and Gormenghast's workings (except maybe for Sourdust, though his purview was more over the ritual of it all) is the one to see the final moments of Keda (an outsider who chose not to stay with the family, where Flay was involuntarily cast out) read to me as a sort of message to Flay that there's more going on, dammit, than these weirdos in this castle. Peake goes sicko mode with the language here: "Through her, in microcosm, the wide earth sobbed." Whew!!
Whether or not Flay "got it" remains to be seen, or maybe will never be seen, but it made me think of times in my life when I'd realized that things that seemed so huge to me because of my career and the life I lead really don't matter that much to most other people. Kind of how Rottcodd in the final chapter finally feels a little bit of doubt about this lonely job he has living in a hall full of silent artwork, though it wouldn't have been in keeping with the rest of the book for him to have finally opened the door and gone to see what was up, allegory of the cave style. I love that none of these characters ever experience any sort of "development," another way in which this eschews any of the contemporary rules of storytelling. You can make a great book out of characters doing exactly what their personalities preordain them to do.
I will be installing a Hall of Spiders in my future home.
yes I thought a lot about the development - who/what changed and why. I think one of the most pervasive and annoying notes that we'd discuss across workshops across my writing career is what was changing and developing - there are actions and reactions, sure, but most people are very staid and regular and the same their whole lives. "You can make a great book out of characters doing exactly what their personalities preordain them to do." - EXACTLY!!
First off, a big TY to Fran for hosting Mervyn May!! For the second year in a row, it was a joy to read something I wouldn’t have otherwise read, and then to come here and see insightful posts and comments elucidating ideas I wouldn’t have otherwise understood. Hope ____ May lives forever, just like the ascendant Earl Groan who will surely live a peaceful, uneventful life!
Re: this final section, nothing (save maybe Flay taking a life-changing walk) grabbed me like those reveries. Beyond being such an electrifying formal departure and giving us such unprecedented access to each character’s inner monologue, I was struck by how thin the line is between unguarded stupidity/simplicity and poetry. High or low, scheming or sad—our thoughts all blur into one another / our everythings are connected / we are all poets!
“…and I will bring you flowers of every kind of colour and shape and speckled stones that look like frogs and ferns and all the beautiful things I can find and I will find books for you and will read to you all day and all night and never let you know I’m tired” - Lady Fuschia, Poet Laureate of Gormenghast
Overall, I had a really nice time with this book, though I do think Peake’s often-transcendent language buttressed a narrative I wasn’t overly intrigued by. In spite of a decent number of interesting things happening to a decent number of amusing characters, many of those characters just felt a little static and/or caricaturish once you sifted through all the gorgeous words describing them. That said, the exceptions (esp. Keda, Flay, sorta Fuchsia) were the most exciting parts, and I know this is just the start of a trilogy so it’s more than possible that this stage-setting goes on to blossom in a hundred unexpected ways. And one-note or not, I dug a lot of the ways Peake used his characters to explore bigger ideas about tradition, ambition, nature, passion, etc., etc. All in all, a totally unique experience I’m glad I shared with you all!
P.S. - Peake is so skilled at drawing epic, frozen drama from his moonlit action set-pieces (Keda’s boys, the Swelter Bowl) that I only wish he’d written more of them!
The Reveries chapter is incredible, almost a retread of the "Meantime" chapter I liked so much but the boundaries of thought and literal reality are fully dissolving and each character has given in to their own version of madness. Whereas the "Meantime" chapter was about physical preparation and movement and mental steadiness, Reveries gives way to lunacy and ambition and desire - all that is kept relatively zipped up in Gormenghast but that which also fuels the whole society.
thank you for reading! book club May will go on as long as I can manage it! we all love book club for one month and then no book club for eleven months!!!
totally! my favorite parts of the novel all involved some form of chaos (outside the castle, inside its denizens, etc.) pushing up against the staid tradition of Gormenghast, and I think the lunacy you described was one of the purest expressions of that chaos. Hope there's more to come of that kind of thing!
The wait is over, I’ve arrived! A week late, I am finally done with Titus Groan! What I found most engrossing in this final section is this sort of elemental intensity, previously only seen in Keda’s perspective, has claimed the entire castle. Perhaps bringing Keda into the castle sped that up, compounding against Steerpike’s manipulations. Nature in Titus Groan seems to be an absolute and all consuming danger while also being the only place that Real Life exists. The two things cannot exist without the other. The castle folk fear the danger and they also fear the ability to live a real existence. I found the shifts in tone and style to be masterful, subtle, and overwhelming.
The return of Rottcodd was a triumph. I’d missed him! He is the most grounded of the castle folk, because he only speaks to another living soul once every couple years, but he also fears real life.
Spogfrawne really made me lol, as did the descriptions of Steerpike’s body in the lake. Fuschia is so horny for him omg.
I do plan to read the following novels but I think my pace will have to be one a year, because I am a slow reader, and I need to read my next Ferrante over summer with a gin and tonic in my hand on a lawn somewhere.
the only jbol moment i have recorded from the final section is: "Ladies did not participate in 'situations'." ain't that the truth!
i will admit i really lost steam with the final section specifically because it is so plot-heavy. i loved the book most when (sorry) it read as the first act of a lanthimos movie, i.e. individuals run into one another in a haphazard way that proves, actually, to be quite choreographed, as suddenly those silly run-ins will create spaces and conditions that mean something, as you say, about nature and industry and class. like a lanthimos movie, though, i also felt there was suddenly an overwrought ending that tied things up too neatly: i didn't need to witness keda's finality, and the earl didn't need to be vacuumed up (?) by owls. i would have been more satisfied if they would have simply drifted away from the castle, as everyone else seems to drift to and fro steerpike. i don't think i have time this summer to commit to more deadlines, but i will buy the books so when i see them sometimes i will feel guilty about spending the money and eventually, at some point in the next 2 years, read them.
i love when you go "captain salazar" mode (reference pirates)
i don't disagree re: back half and like many here i did not mind when the first act was seemingly slow... i dont need "events" in a novel... but i am happy if they wind up happening... just don't need them.
I think it was so fascinating to see how the birth of Titus (and the parallel journey of Steerpike) seemed to spin so much of Gormenghast off its axis. While many of the characters didn't fundamentally change or grow in their personalities, so many of the routines of the castle did. And even more change/disturbance is foreshadowed in so many of Titus's first traditions. Like when he was dropped at the Christening or when he dropped the talismans in the pond at the end. Whether intentionally or not, the new Earling seems to be a portent of change - although it is unclear to me if it's good, bad, or neutral change he's foreshadowing. I'm excited to read the next couple of books to watch that play out!
The line that stood out to me to this effect: "The others were involved with counting the portentous minutes before their own particular clouds broke over them, yet at the back of their personal troubles, hopes, and fears, this less immediate trepidation grew, this intangible suggestion of change, that most unforgivable of all heresies."
Additionally, one of my favorite things about the book was how funny it was. A few of my favorite bits this section:
-Steerpike, having been hit by a cat, notes with interest that "cats can be used as missiles." Love that he files that away and I can't wait to see if that comes back around in one of the next books.
-Irma reminiscing on the one man she had a romantic interest in - SPOGFRAWNE! Like Peake is just teasing us with that one.
- One of Barquentine's roles in the breakfast ceremony was to walk across the table just on top of the food??
-On the Gormenghast traditions (like the above): "It was not certain what significance the ceremony held, for unfortunately the records were lost, but the formality was no less sacred for being unintelligible."
omg I forgot about Spogfrawne but I underlined it like six times and put a ?! next to it.... I can't believe that... just when I thought I was in hog heaven with "Barquentine"...
That last line really sums up the whole of it! And yes, great observation re: baby Titus and the ways in which tradition sort of eschews his baby-like (because he is a baby) qualities. It's hard not to be a little hopeful about him in some way or another, but tough to know in what way to feel hope for /about him.
What sticks out to me most about the fight scene between Flay and Swelter is how satisfying it is to read a beautifully written physical confrontation. One thing I notice about much of the genre fiction I read, including stuff by some truly brilliant writers, is how boring and blank it usually feels to read about two guys trying to hit, shoot, or stab each other. Not so, here. The roving 3rd person narration helps, as Peake maintains a focus on the psychology of multiple characters at a critical moment this way, but as we've discussed in previous weeks, Peake is also such a gifted writer of imagery. I don't know that the way he writes this scene exactly keeps me on tenterhooks, but I doubt that Peake is aiming for that effect either.
(Also, I just noticed that the BBC adaptation of the novels features Christopher Lee and Richard Griffiths as Flay and Swelter -- who wouldn't want to see the two of them duke it out?)
I was also struck by the vision of all the white cats moving through the castle to meet up with our crew post-Earling. It's a marvelously weird image to finish the novel with, and it connects to my overall sense that the cats seem to be the only truly enchanted creatures in this novel.
When Rottcodd figures out what's going on: "It was a bitter pill for him to swallow. He had been forgotten. Yet he had always wished to be forgotten. He could not have it both ways." Relatable.
Grateful to have read this and especially grateful to have had so many people to discuss it with!
That's a great point about the roving third during that fight scene - I was amazing that that moment carried the same energy, kind of, as Steerpike's big climb! The drifting tension allowed it to feel almost like a boxing match - really drawn out and nasty and exhausting and violent.
Didn't realize Richard Griffiths was Swelter... that is making me lol (was laughing at him in a clip from Naked Gun 2 this morning).
Rottcodd... maybe least issue-laden character in that book. He's vibing, he's forgotten, he's vibing again. Thank you for reading and leaving such good insights!!!
I am down with reading the next two books from the trilogy. Part 2 is the longest of the 3. I am curious to find out how the little Earl make it - who can he truly rely on? The scene that sticks with me is when Swelter, Sepulchrave and Flay are virtually floating in air on their way to their final showdown. Peake's writing can be so detailed in its description that my imagination doesn't need to fill in many of the blanks. Ultimately, Flay became my favorite character, more because he suffered the most due to his banishment but also because he seemed to redeem himself by doing so. I am sad about Keda but hope her child inherits her strength and plays a role in Groan's future.
An aside: does anyone know how Groan is meant to be pronounced? Is it like "grown" or is it like "g-row-an"? I found myself switching to the latter because it seemed more plausible. But maybe Peake liked the idea of readers groaning their way through these books.
I guess I assumed "grown" like "groan" the verb, just because of the creaky, rotting nature of the place... but I am open to Groan that sounds like our beloved Owen...
Sepulchrave perhaps saw the cruelest treatment in the book, but perhaps his negligent ruling invited it. Who is to say? Maybe even the most boring leaders of our time deserve a kind of punishment for their idleness.
I have a lot more thoughts that I will need to come back and address, but just for starters, as an arachnophobe, the room of spiders was a horrifying setting for the final showdown for Flay and Swelter. It definitely added to the tension haha! When he describes the spider on Swelters eye... shudder!
you are not the only arachnophobe in the Fran Magazine comments section and I sincerely apologize to the community for the grossness of that section!!!!
I read the whole trilogy about a year ago and thus could not take part in MervynMay, but I just wanted to say I’ve really enjoyed following along and reading everyone’s thoughts and I look forward to seeing you all experience the next two books.
This impression may change after reading the next book, but my feeling about Titus Groan is that it’s a novel about how change is felt within a structure that throttles it by design. Roles are abandoned and taken up, violent deaths go unseen, and Rottcodd, a minor functionary, feels a tremor only at the very end. This may lead to great upheaval for the world of Gormenghast or it might not. I like that Steerpike’s scheming, while causing much of this change either directly or indirectly, still only places him within a functionary role that maintains the status quo — the sisters might not ever have plotted against their brother without his influence, but by the end he has tasked himself with keeping the peace. This is not all due to the nature of the power structure, some of it is blind chance, but the old ways persist for the time being.
I loved the scene of the Earling, the image of baby Titus alone in the middle of the lake, the symbolic gesture of casting off the totems of his station, the castle denizens watching from the trees, the carvers thronged and watchful on the other side, and the mysterious harmony of two children crying out as if sharing a private understanding with each other. It’s an exquisite ending for a book that has a capricious relationship with its own plot, and reminded me again of Deadwood, in particular its high water mark “Boy The Earth Talks To”.
The bit from Backlisted I wanted to highlight is by Andy at about 53:00 — “I think the success of these novels after the second World War is totally fascinating: first, because of how many of these characters have physical disabilities, have sustained physical damage. That’s no coincidence, the betrayal of the body is a big thing for Peake, indeed, in a self-fulfilling prophecy before his own body betrayed him. But also, you mentioned Steerpike, Joanna. Steerpike seems to me like the precursor of that postwar figure represented by Joe Lampton in Room at the Top, or Camus’s The Outsider or Mr. Sloane in Entertaining Mr. Sloane. He prefigures that, to quote Morrissey, ‘jumped-up pantry boy who never knew his place’.”
I’m making some headway on Tony Judt’s Postwar this week as well, and one of the delights of that book is how Judt proves to be a great film buff, adept at using movies to track shifts in ideas of nationhood and popular sentiment. As I mentioned last week, I do think of Steerpike as a kind of revolutionary figure, if not a particularly effective one, and perhaps as in Andy’s reading a uniquely 20th century postwar type, the figure who knows he is alienated but doesn’t quite have a program to match his sense of entitlement and cunning. Perhaps the way we leave Steerpike suggests that there are always such figures within these civilizations; sometimes they make a dent in the world, and sometimes they just find a more comfortable perch.
Thanks so much for doing this, Fran, and credit to Phil as well for nudging this along behind the scenes. It’s been wonderful to read everyone’s comments. I will say I think end of July as a deadline for book 2 sounds good, maybe we can do another gut check around then to see how we’re feeling for book 3 (although it is rather shorter than the others).
postscript: one last JBOL for the road ...
"The Reverie of Lady Clarice: Her thoughts have been identical with those of her sister in every way save only in one respect, and this cleavage can best be appreciated by the simple process of substituting Cora's name for her own wherever it appears in the reverie of the former."
re: "Perhaps the way we leave Steerpike suggests that there are always such figures within these civilizations; sometimes they make a dent in the world, and sometimes they just find a more comfortable perch."
you make a great point here in that sometimes figures like this have movements in which to throw themselves and other times they are throwing themselves at seemingly stone edifices. obviously time will tell what the greater ramifications are but I am curious to see how Titus grows in this environment that exists only in the aftermath of his birth. it is hard to make a reader invested in the fate of a baby outside of like, baby as symbol for human life, but Titus remains a figure of profound potential - good or ill or useless - in coming books, I don't think we'd end with him quite as we do if not for that reason.
a lesser comedic writer would have just repeated everything in the Clarice reverie, or worse yet, drawn out their bantering past when it was funny. I really admire in a book so otherwise dense and fruitful that Peake knows to keep the funniest stuff pretty brief and succinct for maximum possible jbols.
thank you for all the references & research you've done into this book!!!
I love Deadwood but it's been a while... can you remind me which episode that is, and/or what about Groan's finale reminded you of the show?
That’s the season 2 finale that ends with Ellsworth’s wedding and the town celebrating as several other events including a suicide occur in the background, while the community is on the cusp of change due to Hearst’s arrival earlier that day.
ahh, right. Perfect comp, then! Both share that sort of narratorial POV that suggests there are a lot more forces at play (micro and macro) than most of the individuals realize
I loved a lot of this final section, and I specifically loved the scene between Flay and Keda, to my knowledge their only "interaction," such as it was, in the whole book. Flay himself seems to be in a more elevated mental state than usual, having murdered his nemesis but then also having borne witness to the destruction-via-owls of the one person who had, at least as far as we know, given his life meaning. The fact that he, probably the most indoctrinated into the ways of the Groans and Gormenghast's workings (except maybe for Sourdust, though his purview was more over the ritual of it all) is the one to see the final moments of Keda (an outsider who chose not to stay with the family, where Flay was involuntarily cast out) read to me as a sort of message to Flay that there's more going on, dammit, than these weirdos in this castle. Peake goes sicko mode with the language here: "Through her, in microcosm, the wide earth sobbed." Whew!!
Whether or not Flay "got it" remains to be seen, or maybe will never be seen, but it made me think of times in my life when I'd realized that things that seemed so huge to me because of my career and the life I lead really don't matter that much to most other people. Kind of how Rottcodd in the final chapter finally feels a little bit of doubt about this lonely job he has living in a hall full of silent artwork, though it wouldn't have been in keeping with the rest of the book for him to have finally opened the door and gone to see what was up, allegory of the cave style. I love that none of these characters ever experience any sort of "development," another way in which this eschews any of the contemporary rules of storytelling. You can make a great book out of characters doing exactly what their personalities preordain them to do.
I will be installing a Hall of Spiders in my future home.
yes I thought a lot about the development - who/what changed and why. I think one of the most pervasive and annoying notes that we'd discuss across workshops across my writing career is what was changing and developing - there are actions and reactions, sure, but most people are very staid and regular and the same their whole lives. "You can make a great book out of characters doing exactly what their personalities preordain them to do." - EXACTLY!!
First off, a big TY to Fran for hosting Mervyn May!! For the second year in a row, it was a joy to read something I wouldn’t have otherwise read, and then to come here and see insightful posts and comments elucidating ideas I wouldn’t have otherwise understood. Hope ____ May lives forever, just like the ascendant Earl Groan who will surely live a peaceful, uneventful life!
Re: this final section, nothing (save maybe Flay taking a life-changing walk) grabbed me like those reveries. Beyond being such an electrifying formal departure and giving us such unprecedented access to each character’s inner monologue, I was struck by how thin the line is between unguarded stupidity/simplicity and poetry. High or low, scheming or sad—our thoughts all blur into one another / our everythings are connected / we are all poets!
“…and I will bring you flowers of every kind of colour and shape and speckled stones that look like frogs and ferns and all the beautiful things I can find and I will find books for you and will read to you all day and all night and never let you know I’m tired” - Lady Fuschia, Poet Laureate of Gormenghast
Overall, I had a really nice time with this book, though I do think Peake’s often-transcendent language buttressed a narrative I wasn’t overly intrigued by. In spite of a decent number of interesting things happening to a decent number of amusing characters, many of those characters just felt a little static and/or caricaturish once you sifted through all the gorgeous words describing them. That said, the exceptions (esp. Keda, Flay, sorta Fuchsia) were the most exciting parts, and I know this is just the start of a trilogy so it’s more than possible that this stage-setting goes on to blossom in a hundred unexpected ways. And one-note or not, I dug a lot of the ways Peake used his characters to explore bigger ideas about tradition, ambition, nature, passion, etc., etc. All in all, a totally unique experience I’m glad I shared with you all!
P.S. - Peake is so skilled at drawing epic, frozen drama from his moonlit action set-pieces (Keda’s boys, the Swelter Bowl) that I only wish he’d written more of them!
The Reveries chapter is incredible, almost a retread of the "Meantime" chapter I liked so much but the boundaries of thought and literal reality are fully dissolving and each character has given in to their own version of madness. Whereas the "Meantime" chapter was about physical preparation and movement and mental steadiness, Reveries gives way to lunacy and ambition and desire - all that is kept relatively zipped up in Gormenghast but that which also fuels the whole society.
thank you for reading! book club May will go on as long as I can manage it! we all love book club for one month and then no book club for eleven months!!!
totally! my favorite parts of the novel all involved some form of chaos (outside the castle, inside its denizens, etc.) pushing up against the staid tradition of Gormenghast, and I think the lunacy you described was one of the purest expressions of that chaos. Hope there's more to come of that kind of thing!
The wait is over, I’ve arrived! A week late, I am finally done with Titus Groan! What I found most engrossing in this final section is this sort of elemental intensity, previously only seen in Keda’s perspective, has claimed the entire castle. Perhaps bringing Keda into the castle sped that up, compounding against Steerpike’s manipulations. Nature in Titus Groan seems to be an absolute and all consuming danger while also being the only place that Real Life exists. The two things cannot exist without the other. The castle folk fear the danger and they also fear the ability to live a real existence. I found the shifts in tone and style to be masterful, subtle, and overwhelming.
The return of Rottcodd was a triumph. I’d missed him! He is the most grounded of the castle folk, because he only speaks to another living soul once every couple years, but he also fears real life.
Spogfrawne really made me lol, as did the descriptions of Steerpike’s body in the lake. Fuschia is so horny for him omg.
I do plan to read the following novels but I think my pace will have to be one a year, because I am a slow reader, and I need to read my next Ferrante over summer with a gin and tonic in my hand on a lawn somewhere.
Thank you FRAN!
thank you BEN!!! now it's FERRANTE SUMMER!
i’m doing ferrante summer too fyi
the only jbol moment i have recorded from the final section is: "Ladies did not participate in 'situations'." ain't that the truth!
i will admit i really lost steam with the final section specifically because it is so plot-heavy. i loved the book most when (sorry) it read as the first act of a lanthimos movie, i.e. individuals run into one another in a haphazard way that proves, actually, to be quite choreographed, as suddenly those silly run-ins will create spaces and conditions that mean something, as you say, about nature and industry and class. like a lanthimos movie, though, i also felt there was suddenly an overwrought ending that tied things up too neatly: i didn't need to witness keda's finality, and the earl didn't need to be vacuumed up (?) by owls. i would have been more satisfied if they would have simply drifted away from the castle, as everyone else seems to drift to and fro steerpike. i don't think i have time this summer to commit to more deadlines, but i will buy the books so when i see them sometimes i will feel guilty about spending the money and eventually, at some point in the next 2 years, read them.
this was the flay/swelter fight to me: https://youtu.be/Ha3XYloizwk?si=86ZhgYh0MsZGxO7P&t=207
i love when you go "captain salazar" mode (reference pirates)
i don't disagree re: back half and like many here i did not mind when the first act was seemingly slow... i dont need "events" in a novel... but i am happy if they wind up happening... just don't need them.
I think it was so fascinating to see how the birth of Titus (and the parallel journey of Steerpike) seemed to spin so much of Gormenghast off its axis. While many of the characters didn't fundamentally change or grow in their personalities, so many of the routines of the castle did. And even more change/disturbance is foreshadowed in so many of Titus's first traditions. Like when he was dropped at the Christening or when he dropped the talismans in the pond at the end. Whether intentionally or not, the new Earling seems to be a portent of change - although it is unclear to me if it's good, bad, or neutral change he's foreshadowing. I'm excited to read the next couple of books to watch that play out!
The line that stood out to me to this effect: "The others were involved with counting the portentous minutes before their own particular clouds broke over them, yet at the back of their personal troubles, hopes, and fears, this less immediate trepidation grew, this intangible suggestion of change, that most unforgivable of all heresies."
Additionally, one of my favorite things about the book was how funny it was. A few of my favorite bits this section:
-Steerpike, having been hit by a cat, notes with interest that "cats can be used as missiles." Love that he files that away and I can't wait to see if that comes back around in one of the next books.
-Irma reminiscing on the one man she had a romantic interest in - SPOGFRAWNE! Like Peake is just teasing us with that one.
- One of Barquentine's roles in the breakfast ceremony was to walk across the table just on top of the food??
-On the Gormenghast traditions (like the above): "It was not certain what significance the ceremony held, for unfortunately the records were lost, but the formality was no less sacred for being unintelligible."
omg I forgot about Spogfrawne but I underlined it like six times and put a ?! next to it.... I can't believe that... just when I thought I was in hog heaven with "Barquentine"...
That last line really sums up the whole of it! And yes, great observation re: baby Titus and the ways in which tradition sort of eschews his baby-like (because he is a baby) qualities. It's hard not to be a little hopeful about him in some way or another, but tough to know in what way to feel hope for /about him.
What sticks out to me most about the fight scene between Flay and Swelter is how satisfying it is to read a beautifully written physical confrontation. One thing I notice about much of the genre fiction I read, including stuff by some truly brilliant writers, is how boring and blank it usually feels to read about two guys trying to hit, shoot, or stab each other. Not so, here. The roving 3rd person narration helps, as Peake maintains a focus on the psychology of multiple characters at a critical moment this way, but as we've discussed in previous weeks, Peake is also such a gifted writer of imagery. I don't know that the way he writes this scene exactly keeps me on tenterhooks, but I doubt that Peake is aiming for that effect either.
(Also, I just noticed that the BBC adaptation of the novels features Christopher Lee and Richard Griffiths as Flay and Swelter -- who wouldn't want to see the two of them duke it out?)
I was also struck by the vision of all the white cats moving through the castle to meet up with our crew post-Earling. It's a marvelously weird image to finish the novel with, and it connects to my overall sense that the cats seem to be the only truly enchanted creatures in this novel.
When Rottcodd figures out what's going on: "It was a bitter pill for him to swallow. He had been forgotten. Yet he had always wished to be forgotten. He could not have it both ways." Relatable.
Grateful to have read this and especially grateful to have had so many people to discuss it with!
That's a great point about the roving third during that fight scene - I was amazing that that moment carried the same energy, kind of, as Steerpike's big climb! The drifting tension allowed it to feel almost like a boxing match - really drawn out and nasty and exhausting and violent.
Didn't realize Richard Griffiths was Swelter... that is making me lol (was laughing at him in a clip from Naked Gun 2 this morning).
Rottcodd... maybe least issue-laden character in that book. He's vibing, he's forgotten, he's vibing again. Thank you for reading and leaving such good insights!!!
I am down with reading the next two books from the trilogy. Part 2 is the longest of the 3. I am curious to find out how the little Earl make it - who can he truly rely on? The scene that sticks with me is when Swelter, Sepulchrave and Flay are virtually floating in air on their way to their final showdown. Peake's writing can be so detailed in its description that my imagination doesn't need to fill in many of the blanks. Ultimately, Flay became my favorite character, more because he suffered the most due to his banishment but also because he seemed to redeem himself by doing so. I am sad about Keda but hope her child inherits her strength and plays a role in Groan's future.
An aside: does anyone know how Groan is meant to be pronounced? Is it like "grown" or is it like "g-row-an"? I found myself switching to the latter because it seemed more plausible. But maybe Peake liked the idea of readers groaning their way through these books.
I guess I assumed "grown" like "groan" the verb, just because of the creaky, rotting nature of the place... but I am open to Groan that sounds like our beloved Owen...
Sepulchrave perhaps saw the cruelest treatment in the book, but perhaps his negligent ruling invited it. Who is to say? Maybe even the most boring leaders of our time deserve a kind of punishment for their idleness.
I have a lot more thoughts that I will need to come back and address, but just for starters, as an arachnophobe, the room of spiders was a horrifying setting for the final showdown for Flay and Swelter. It definitely added to the tension haha! When he describes the spider on Swelters eye... shudder!
you are not the only arachnophobe in the Fran Magazine comments section and I sincerely apologize to the community for the grossness of that section!!!!
I read the whole trilogy about a year ago and thus could not take part in MervynMay, but I just wanted to say I’ve really enjoyed following along and reading everyone’s thoughts and I look forward to seeing you all experience the next two books.
thank you for reading everything!!!