"So Much Of The Book’s Cruelty (in The Main Characters, I Wouldn’t Really Count Like… Straike)

I don’t have links but I really want to talk about The Last Hours because I’m so excited, so I’m just gonna ramble??

The theory I heard that makes a lot of sense to me is that the baby Sona is currently pregnant with will be raised by Alastair. This would explain how Alastair had a child (despite claiming he’d never marry) and is the great-grandfather of Emma Carstairs according to the family tree. It would also explain why the third Carstairs child is nowhere to be found on the family tree itself; since CC has claimed that it’s been purposefully altered, perhaps this is one of the alterations -- Sona had a baby, for some reason could not take care of that child, and so they were taken in by Alastair and raised as his. This is a sad theory though, because Sona is lovely and I don’t want anything to happen to her at all :( 

I am really hoping there will be a very close relationship that will develop between Jem and Alastair and I base it on this one point, in Forever Fallen, where Jem mentions a specific cradle, which he’d personally seen carved over 100 years earlier at Cirenworth ---

“The cradle had been carved more than a hundred years ago from an oak felled in these woods. Jem had seen it made, with careful hands and patient love.”

He doesn’t mention who carved it by name, but Cirenworth has only been owned by the Carstairs since 1895. It was bought by Elias Carstairs, years after Jem had become a Silent Brother, so the only way this passage could make sense is if he’d seen either Elias, Alastair or a child of either of the two build the cradle. 

Now, he can’t have seen Elias, because it’s known and pretty much canon that Elias refused to allow Jem to visit or be near his family whatsoever. It can only either be Alastair or someone directly after Alastair, which means Alastair must’ve had a close enough relationship with Jem if he’s just let him casually show up for a day of woodworking or to be close enough to his child that he’d be there if his child were the one doing it.

So, there is a baby; there is a cradle built by either Alastair for a child or a child of Alastair that Jem would’ve seen at Cirenworth.

I don’t know if this makes no sense but I just wanted to write it all out. I’m really excited!

I’m looking to go down the rabbit hole of theories for Chain of Iron and Chain of Thorns from The Last Hours trilogy. If anyone wants to comment, or link me to any of the theories, I would be much appreciated.

Always really funny when I read a book where I relate to the main character, really see myself in them and understand their pain completely, and the reviews and comments are all "what an insufferable whiny bitch, i can't stand them"

why couldn't it just be that jem saw Jessie get belial's marks stripped off of him and that's what he was talking about when he told Emma about it

I may be reading too much into this passage, or maybe someone's mentioned it before but I think it's so funny; it seems to me he's just describing Ralph and Andrew when talking about Hamlet and Brutus (and how he dislikes them 😭), and it seems to say a lot about how different Laurie is when we see him after Dunkirk.

So I wanted to ask you a bit more about Bunny and Ralph and their ‘domestic ménage’!  I find it weird too.  It’s never really clear, they seem to speak in code, then there is the separate kettles thing, that freaked me out when I noticed it, and that weird ‘Bunny’s gone’ except that he hasn’t, and then Ralph ‘Do you feel like believing that?’  What do you think is going on there…….

Honestly, I have no idea! I was very meh the first time I read about their relationship (before the car scene, of course) because I was convinced that Laurie was just blowing it all out of proportion. It seemed to me to be a casual relationship: stuff like the separate kettles, Ralph having his own apartment (even though Bunny lives downstairs), etc. all formed this idea in my mind that they were just messing around and weren't anything really serious. Now, I don’t think that’s true anymore but I’m no more clear on the intricacies of their relationship than I was before. Ralph certainly doesn’t seem to respect Bunny and Alec seems to agree that he’s not suited to him (which Laurie reiterates through his constant questioning of how Ralph can stand him). But other than that, I’ve no idea what is going on.

I think a major reason I thought their relationship was weird is because of the fact that all the information we get of it comes from Laurie, who himself feels that way but doesn’t know enough about the situation to provide an answer as to why Ralph would be in it in the first place; he doesn’t know most of the story, is only there at the end, adores one-half of the equation while despising the other…and he’s the only one we can follow along with! It doesn’t help that most of his observations only serve to reintroduce/reinforce the same two questions constantly in his mind: 'why is Ralph with someone like this?' and ‘how can Ralph stand him?’ And that's all we get as readers! It's just Bunny being odd or painfully tone-deaf (the comments about Bim) or actually evil (the car scene+what he does to Andrew) and Laurie looking at Ralph, who he adores and has been dreaming about for years, going: 'but why though?’

I don’t have many other thoughts but I would love to hear more (real, unlike mine) theories! I’m really in the dark about Bunny generally; I feel there’s lots of stuff I didn’t pick up on regarding his character because I was too busy focusing on Laurie and Ralph. Oh, and as far as the ‘can you really believe that?’ comment, I assume it’s just that Ralph is used to such things being disbelieved. Laurie himself has a moment where he thinks they might get back together so long as no one intervenes to keep them away from one another in 48 hours (I think so anyway, I might be misremembering what he said). But anyway, thank you for the ask! I'm sorry I don't have much more to say!

"Quivering" is my least-favourite word in the english language. Nothing and nobody should be quivering. If you're quivering right now, stop that shit immediately. Tremble or shake if you must but the quivering has to stop.

The TE Lawrence quote ‘Sacrifice uplifts the redeemer and casts down the bought’ – you mentioned that it might be a clue to how Alec/Ralph’s relationship ended.  I wondered what your thoughts are on this?  I can never work out if it is that Alec wants to ‘look after Ralph’ or doesn’t want Ralph to ‘look after him’.  I mean, a bit of both I’m sure, but I still wonder what it looks like? And also, how was it reading that cliffhanger ending for the first time?

So, my whole idea comes from the fact that Alec and Ralph seem somewhat similar in personality to me. I got the impression that both wanted to take some responsibility; Ralph in literally everything, and Alec in a relationship...about the T.E. Lawrence quote: full disclaimer, I haven’t read the book it's from. I'm probably way off base, but just on its own, the quote to me came across as: complex men understand that sacrifice uplifts the one who partakes in it, and casts down the one for whom it is done. The first redeems the second, but the second will always be beneath the first; he is ‘bought’ (i.e. indebted) and also ‘cast down.’ When it’s mentioned by Alec, I assumed he was referring both to himself and Ralph as being those ‘complex men’ who also 'sacrifice.’ There was also a direct mention of Sandy prior to it being brought up, so I linked the whole thing both to Alec’s relationship (and impression) of Ralph (who he says is ‘complex’ but remains innocent about it), along with his relationship to Sandy (who I assume is the one ‘bought’).

So, the way I read it was: Alec identifies himself as a ‘complex man' who understands the implication of being the one to sacrifice for another person; he identifies Ralph as such a complex man too, but seems annoyed that Ralph doesn't understand that the people for whom he sacrifices are inevitably 'cast down' and 'bought.' He maintains an innocence about things in general and this bothers Alec. Later on, Alec obviously says that Ralph never let him do anything in their relationship, so I made a leap and connected this comment to the quote and came away with a vague idea that in their relationship Ralph probably would’ve been the one who 'sacrificed’ and Alec would’ve been the one who was ‘cast down,’ i.e. Alec was expected to depend on Ralph, who took all responsibility while Alec was never allowed to fulfil any similar role; Ralph never let himself depend on Alec, or let him help in any way. This would’ve been an inherently unequal relationship and I don't think Alec would've liked it (because again, I see him as similar to Ralph in the sense he wants responsibility; he himself also says most of their arguments resulted from Ralph's inability to just let him help or do anything).

Re the cliffhanger: the first time I read it, it did a number on me…I didn’t much understand it, because I was rushing to get through and see what happened with Ralph. When I finally got to the end, and read ‘I should’ve had to come back,’ I was honestly...flabbergasted, I think is the correct word? I didn’t realise that Laurie was lying, so it seemed the sweetest thing in the world. I remember the whole day after I finished the book, I kept thinking about those words and wondering what happened! The last paragraph seemed to indicate a happy ending (I read it like three times over lol), but I hated how abrupt it all was. It wasn't until some time had passed that I actually started to liked the abruptness. Also, it really made me want to read the Phaedrus!

what studying literature feels like

Wolfsena / sue zhao