Great Fire Notes

Fascinating Passages

In the interest of coherence, an infinity of impressions have been sacrificed and, along with them, some experienced truth.  So it must be reworked.  In the meantime, the thing emerges as worth doing (87).

He said, “I should get back to my China puzzle” (176).

These two passages, while they ostensibly refer to Leith’s writing project, give me a better sense of how Hazzard feels about her own work, and this novel in particular.  At least that’s my theory.  The process of writing is likened to assembling a puzzle, but one that requires sacrifice and prioritizing, one that is anything but straightforward.  Most importantly, though, Leith sees the importance of the thing he is constructing, and decides not to abandon it.  I have found this to be true with my own projects.

. . . Peter watched these disputations, thick-bodied women stumping off to fetch cake and a bowl of sugar . . . the airy room, the light of Asia, and strange red lilies in a vase could do nothing for them (83).

I found this passage really intriguing because of the sexist subtext in it.  There were also other places in the novel where a character (usually Exley) would size up women in a wholly physical sense and make snap judgments about their worth.  How impressive that Hazzard, a female author, was able to capture that degradation in such a natural, subdued way, without making it come across overblown.

Vocabulary

antipodes: places diametrically opposite each other on the globe.

imprecations: curses, maledictions

unguent: ointment or salve used on wounds

deciduous: falling off or shed at a particular season

inanition: exhaustion from lack of nourishment;

pusillanimous: lacking courage or resolution; cowardly;

avuncular: of, pertaining to, or characteristic of an uncle:

jingoistic: a person who professes his or her patriotism loudly and excessively, favoring                             vigilant preparedness for war and an aggressive foreign policy

Sensuality (as in the senses)

Leith encountered on a landing the smell of hospital—of military hospitals behind the lines, to which regulation antiseptic soups and soaps were common.  Field hospitals, by contrast, smelt thickly of mortality: reek of spilt intestines and festered blood, of agony, fear, decay (13).

Filth was in fact on Peter Exley’s mind those first weeks: the accretion filming the Orient, the shimmer of sweat or excrement . . . and the great clots and blobs of tubercular spittle shot with blood, unavoidable underfoot: what Rysom called “poached eggs . . .” (73).  Really felt grounded in the scene here—much more visceral and appealing for me than  some of Leith’s sections.

With celluloid spoon, the professor probed slack pudding (18).

She thought his eyes, well, beautiful (12).

Interesting Dialogue

“Her age is the devil.” / “And partly the attraction.” (147).

“You look a sight, I must say . . . as if you’ve been pulled backward through a hedge.” (152)

He asked, “Why do I tell you this?” / “You’re telling yourself.” (199).

Aphoristic Language

A man who hasn’t killed is incomplete, analogous to a woman who has never given birth (133).  Prime example of Hazzard’s use of aphorism.

Woman’s sympathy should be complete, untainted by the reproach of common sense” (188).

How, with the evidence before them, men can contemplate more war is incomprehensible and terrifying (317).

Strategies/Choices of the Author

-Hazzard has a habit of interrupting dialogue, the first part spoken, the second part reported by the omniscient narrator who, for a moment, is pretending to be limited (24).  I’m thinking this could be interesting for a time, but it seems overused.

-Found the section(s) with Peter Exley much more visceral and appealing, at least for the most part.  The details and sensuality of things were given more attention, reflecting inward on Exley’s persona, (70-. . .

-Leith doesn’t seem to have anything definite at stake until around page 120-130, when it becomes clear that he is infatuated with Helen, and serious about her.

-Narrator says that Leith has “killed, hand to hand,” but we very rarely catch a glimpse of this, or even the notion that Leith is struggling with it.

-repeated use of “another man might have” or “any other man . . .” to show intimacy between Peter and Aldred, the uniqueness of their relationship (145).

- Helen looks at me as no one has for years.  Perhaps, no one ever (101).  POV shifts to first person here, in the middle of the section, without warning.  Hazzard does this a few times, and I feel resistant to it, but I want to believe it’s doing something important.