by jo » April 3rd, 2006, 11:47 am
I finished it :). Have been reading a few other things the last few days as well so had been rather neglecting it. This read confirmed for me that it is my favourite of the ST, though very different from the other two, I think. I liked most of the characters much more this time around than I had previously done, too.
I especially liked Jane better - I found found her rather bland and boring hitherto. I saw something in her this time which I hadn't noticed last time I read - a sort of nobility, perhaps, although superficially lacquered over with notions of modernity. Mark unfortunately i wasn't able to like any better than last time though and I still felt 'let down' for Jane in a sense. I know that this is entirely what the reader was NOT supposed to think of course but I just can't bring myself to believe in Mark's redemption, half hearted and rather weedy as it was.
Most of the 'evil' characters were as they had been previously; rather empty and hollow, lacking in something. By sacrificing their essential 'selves' to that cause of 'progress' and 'modernity' which Mark and Jane dabbled in and ultimately rejected they become lesser, not greater men. The degree of revulsion they inspire varies according to the level to which they have been initiated into the NICE; the most replusive, Wither and Frost, being genuinely disturbing because of what they have lost.
When I read this book the first time I was fascinated to see the character of Fairy Hardcastle, because I knew that it was a long running joke that Stan was 'fixated' on her. I was disappointed, really. Fairy is grotesque but inconsequential. In every despotic organisation there exists such a person or people - sadists who do the 'dirty work' which the organisation's leaders consider beneath them. Fairy is perhaps unusual (though not unique) because of her gender but she is essentially nothing but a hired thug, attracted by Belbury because of the scope it offers for her perverted pleasures. She is not important enough to be one of the 'inner ring' and presumably, had Belbury survived, would eventually have been devoured by a yet more brutal and sadistic successor.
A couple of points: a friend with whom I discussed this book years ago made the point that the names are rather 'obvious'.... 'Wither', 'Frost', 'Hardcastle', 'Jewel' 'Curry' etc. At the time that didn't bother me but on this reread I did take my friend's point that this was a slightly unnecessary device. I didn't find it all that irritating but nonetheless, there could have been other and better ways to convey the state of the Belbury inhabitants souls ;).
"I saw it begin,” said the Lord Digory. “I did not think I would live to see it die"