Passages
Page 6: Colonel Joll. "First
I get lies, you see-this is what happens-first lies, then pressure, then more
lies, then more pressure, then the break, then more pressure, then the truth. That
is how you get the truth." I wrote this down, then I saw that it was
plastered all over the cover of the book. It's the most powerful line in here,
and honestly it's not even close.
Page 48: "Blank, like a fist
beneath a black wig, the face grows out of the throat and out of the blank body
beneath it, without aperture, without entry."--???
Page 49: "But with this
woman it is as if there is no interior, only a surface across which I hunt back
and forth seeking entry. Is this how her torturers felt hunting their secret, whatever
they thought it was? For the first time I feel a dry pity for them: how natural
a mistake to believe that you can burn or tear or hack your way into the secret
body of the other!"
Page 110: "The truth is that
I am not myself, I have been terror-stricken, I perceive, since the moment in
my cell when I saw the guard's fingers clamp over the shoulder of the little
boy to remind him not to speak to me, and knew that, whatever it was that had
happened that day, I was to bear the blame for it. I walked into that cell a
sane man sure of the rightness of my cause, however incompetent I continue to
find myself to describe what that cause may be; but after two months among the
cockroaches with nothing to see but four walls and an enigmatic soot-mark,
nothing to smell but the stench of my own body, no one to talk to but a ghost
in a dream whose lips seem to be sealed, I am much less sure of myself."
Themes
Waiting (A lot of time feels idle,
and the question is constantly asked, does the thing that we're waiting for
exist?)
Power
Futility
(sexual, railing against power, even hunting, knowing someone completely)
Senseless
(there seem to be no reason for Joll's visit, the torture, who he picks, why he
tortures them, why he leaves, why the magistrate does anything at any time--picking
the woman, going to see the woman, hunting)
Othering
Knowledge/lack of/certainty--and
the absurdity of all of these
Techniques
Immediately brought into action,
but slow introduction to world: character and his place in it aren't
specifically and exactly given until page eight.
The magistrate's inability to
remember the woman before she was burned feels like clear foreshadowing of some
surprise/secret about her, or about her role in the story. Also possibly serves
to emphasize that all "others" look the same, that she exists to him
solely because she's been made different (via the torture)?
A glossing over, almost
idealizing of details. I don't know what anyone looks like, except for the
barbarian woman, and even her just a little bit. The Empire has no name, no
specific territory. The places in the capital are generic. The weather that's
mentioned constantly is also constantly generic. This seems to be heavily
intentional -- to reinforce the tedium of waiting?
First person present is an
intriguing technique, for how little scenework exists in this story, and for
how often we jump in time. Why does it work?
Pg. 128 and 129--A built-in hobby
of the character's that he doesn't fully understand (his passion for history of
the previous people) that he can then use in a time of distress to create his
own interpretation to fit within his narrative. Genius!
Words
Patois: A ruralized form of a
language
Debouches: To march out from a
narrow or confined space (usually troops); to come forth/emerge
Masticated: To chew; to reduce to
a pulp by crushing/kneading
Fetlock: The projection of the
leg of a horse behind the joint between the cannon bone and great pastern
bone--somehow, that's less than helpful until I decide to spend that year
studying animal anatomy.
Maieutic: the method used by
Socrates, eliciting knowledge in a person by interrogation and insistence on
close logical reasoning
Obdurate: Unmoved; stubborn;
unyielding. Also, resistant to moral influence.
Ostler: A stableman
Stories/lines/ideas
to steal/attempt
Page eight: "It has not
escaped me that an interrogator can wear two masks, speak with two voices, one
harsh, one seductive."
Also,
"I did not mean to get embroiled in this," pretty much perfect first
line freewrite prompt.
Page 26: I have the feeling he
knows how much his affectations irritate
me.
Also,
"Throughout a trying period he and I have managed to behave towards each
other like civilized people."
Page 72: Not for a moment do I
imagine…--a story based, framed, in sets of negative affirmations.
Page 91: In my opposition there
is nothing heroic -- this level of self-awareness yet still lacking
self-concern; and yet still somewhat of a sympathetic character.
Page 73: "I must be
tired," I think. "Or perhaps whatever can be articulated is falsely put."
General Thoughts
Setting/technology immediately: Sunglasses are brand-new, he sleeps in an inn, guards have muskets--shades of Roman empire in feel, but the tech is more advanced. Also, it's carefully built in so that I'm wondering about it, but accepting it as true.
What defines barbarian? Simply "not of Empire?" How do they communicate -- many of these details are simply ignored. Time, also, doesn’t exist much.
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