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Chapter 1 - part 3

PostPosted: September 22nd, 2008, 8:41 pm
by Kanakaberaka

PostPosted: September 22nd, 2008, 10:11 pm
by Stanley Anderson
Ah, one of my favorite sections of the book! Lot's to say about this section, and also lots I don't know what to say about this section -- ie, it is sort of like Till We Have Faces one of Lewis' best, but what I've described as a "hard diamond" in that it (TWHF) is such an "integrated" jewel, it is hard to take apart and find particular things to discuss about it. And this section of THS has a bit of that quality too. But not enough to hold me off!:-)

The first thing I note about it -- and one of the things I so love about it -- is how "out of place" it is. Lewis writes in the first person (though he does momentarily in other places too, but here the whole section is Lewis talking directly to the reader), and the whole other-worldly quality gives the reader the best hint thus far that the book might not be as "mundane" as it might seem for the first few chapters (in comparison to the fantasy-laden imagery of OotSP and Perelandra anyway). And curiously enough, like the description of the wood as a walled garden, this section, because of that odd "out of place" quality is very much like a walled garden itself, in the context of the structure of the book. As Lewis writes of the wood, "I suppose the mere fact of being walled in gave the Wood part of its peculiar quality, for when a thing is enclosed, the mind does not willingly regard it as common." This is indeed how this section, being "enclosed" from the rest of the book, strikes me.

K talks about the description of the journey into the garden and the various transitions one makes in getting there. I've mentioned in the (sadly incomplete) study of The Discarded Image that THS is, to me, very like a fictional version of TDI. And in this passage into the wood, I think, Lewis intentionally brings in, as mentioned in TDI, the four "contraries" -- hot, cold, moist, and dry ("raw" components which we find on earth only in combinations that comprise the well-known four elements -- ie, hot +dry = fire, hot + moist = air, cold + moist = water, cold + dry = earth). Thus we enter the Newton quadrangle as "dry", then the tunnel as "cool", then the Republic quantdragle as "moist", and finally to the Lady Alice quadrangle as "warm" (ie, "full daylight").

Perhaps this is a bit of a doubtful and fanciful supposition on my part. After all, the journey continues with the bridge and the Fellows bowling green, but I think the first parts before that do correspond nicely enough to the four contraries that one might say they are the raw portions that combine to create, or lead into, the "world" of the Wood. By the way in TDI Lewis does note that there were originally six contraries, "light" and "heavy" being the other two, and normally condensed to the four above, but light and heavy don't seem to fit in conveniently here (at least not in a cursory first-glance sort of way -- any thoughts about that though?).

This section has always evaded, for me, "classification" into the chessboard view as either part of the NICE/Belbury or St Annes "sides". I have said that except for the king-piece-like aspects of Ransom and Alcasan, the image of a chessboard was rather arbitrary -- that I could have used any "opposing images" game or situation to describe this view of the book. But here there is a bit more, I suppose, of specific chessboard imagery. Bragdon Wood is, if you will, really the "center" of the book, a place that both sides are interested in and striving for "control of". And as such, one might think of it much like the center portion of the chessboard that it is always of strategic advantage for either side to "occupy" or get control of.

And though this jumps ahead in the story a bit, we find that it is "surrounded" by the "lesser" parts of the two sides. What I mean by this is that neither Edgestow nor Bracton College seem to be "fully" part of either Belbury or St Annes. And yet, if we think of them sort of as the "pawns" in the game -- ie the lesser and less powerful, and yet not totally non-influential pieces of chess, they each provide their "play" into the struggle between Belbury and St. Annes. And indeed, we see, even in the chapter sections that "surround" the Wood section 3, that section 2 shows a bit of Edgestow -- the "pawns" of St. Annes if you will, and on the other side, section 4 (that we haven't gotten to yet), shows a bit of Bracton College, of which the fellows there can be thought of as "pawns" of the NICE/Belbury crowd.

Well, there's so much more I'd like to say about this section -- every sentence -- or even every phrase -- is like a sparkling jewel that one can gaze at. But I'd probably better end this post here. Perhaps more later.

--Stanley

PostPosted: September 25th, 2008, 5:13 pm
by a_hnau
Perhaps clutching at straws here, but as the suffix -thon can mean just 'the text or narrative of', here is the only reference to balach I've been able to find is .

[Edit: a more interesting lead is that chthon is the Greek word for 'earth, earthy, underground' - this is much more promising given that Merlin does in fact lie underground in Bragdon Wood. I'm still pursuing bala, but because it's a very simple CVCV morpheme, unfortunately it exists in a huge variety of languages. In Sanskrit and in general Indo-European, it translates as 'young', or also [short vowel instead of long] as 'strength' or 'power' - this is an interesting possibility.]

[Welsh 'bala' is 'the outflow of a lake' - possible link to Merlin's well, and the fact that 'the ground is too wet to build on']

[Wikipedia has this about Strabo: 'Strabo also mentions British kings who sent embassies to Augustus' (cites Strabo's Geography - of course 'geo' is 'earth' as is 'chthon' but I've not found any source which links the two words - the Geography is originally the 'Geographika'). So at least we have evidence that Strabo writes about Britain, even if only in passing.]

[In fact, the Geography has a whole book about Britain, tagged as Chapter V on the Perseus site at Tufts. I can't see anything obvious about Merlin in the English translation but there may be textual issues which mean an apparent reference in the original is lost in translation.]

[Strabo also wrote about druids, I haven't been able to track down an original source reference for this yet]

Squinting at Merlin's Well

PostPosted: September 27th, 2008, 4:59 am
by Kanakaberaka

Re: Squinting at Merlin's Well

PostPosted: September 27th, 2008, 7:59 am
by a_hnau

Re: Chapter 1 - part 3

PostPosted: October 11th, 2009, 10:20 pm
by MrtreashHouse
Its greyt! So interesting!

Re: Chapter 1 - part 3

PostPosted: October 12th, 2009, 5:20 pm
by Kanakaberaka
Thank you MrtreashHouse for your comment. I want to contlinue my study of THS, but I need to have readers put in their own opinions about the book. So feel free to write your own feelings about this rather complex novel. The more input from readers the better.

Re: Squinting at Merlin's Well

PostPosted: October 12th, 2009, 7:24 pm
by Sven

Re: Chapter 1 - part 3

PostPosted: December 4th, 2009, 9:25 pm
by jo
Are we still doing this? I would love to contribute .. not sure how or where to start.

Re: Chapter 1 - part 3

PostPosted: December 5th, 2009, 5:56 am
by Kanakaberaka

Re: Chapter 1 - part 3

PostPosted: December 6th, 2009, 7:53 pm
by jo
hiya Jim :)

i need to get a new copy .. mine fell apart :D. But I will join in of course!

Re: Chapter 1 - part 3

PostPosted: December 7th, 2009, 6:25 am
by a_hnau
Hiya Jo - I was still watching this topic so got an email when you posted, thanks for giving a push - I practically live in THS, in my head anyway :read:

Re: Chapter 1 - part 3

PostPosted: December 7th, 2009, 7:15 pm
by jo
It is wonderful isn't it? Much the best of the trilogy, to me :). I am happy to discuss any aspect of it that anyone wants.

Re: Chapter 1 - part 3

PostPosted: December 7th, 2009, 7:42 pm
by a_hnau
Let's wait a bit and see what K comes back with. I've been working on my book on and off this year (the Cosmic Trilogy versus Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land) but more off than on. At this rate the Olympics will beat me to it. I might post some excerpts of the draft here, if you guys don't mind - I promise to give you credit for suggestions in the preface! :snow-wink:

THS Chapter 5 - part 1 is posted

PostPosted: December 7th, 2009, 8:33 pm
by Kanakaberaka