Book Chat 15: Salman Rushdie/The Enchantress of Florence

May, 2009

sylvia said...I didn't expect to like this at all. I've never read anything by Rushdie but when I started the book, it felt so ponderous. If it wasn't for the book chat, I don't think I would have read on.

Evil Editor said...I was really into the story of Mogor Dell Amore which was basically Book 1, then I got a bit lost (bored?) in Book 2 when Mogor was telling his history leading up to the enchantress showing up. Book 3, which was the enchantress/mirror story I loved, and the ending was unexpectedly fantastic.

sylvia said...I agree. I'm not sure how far in I was when I realised I was entranced. Even then, I expected a gentle ending, not further improvement.

Evil Editor said...So though I could have done without all the names and places, and with less of the history, I came away with a sense of having been in the hands of a great storyteller, weaving dozens of short pieces into the big story. I think I'd enjoy it more if I read it again. Or maybe it's just that I'm in love with the enchantress . . . and her mirror.

Robin S. said...I didn't expect to like this book - and I did. But it took some work.

I had never read a Rushdie novel before - purposefully - because when I'm told over and over someone is amazing, I balk.

Evil Editor said...It was hard work, no doubt about that. I had to just ignore names and places and hope they weren't important.

ril said...I was late to buy it, so I've only read a few chapters. Frankly, I was reluctant to buy a Rushdie book. I expected ponderous, so far, I've been pleasantly surprised.

Dave F. said...This was the only way I would pick up Rushdie and read him. I normally like plainer language and less dense presentation but this entertained.I also thought part two dragged.

BuffySquirrel said...hated this book. Misogynist or what? I got it in a 3 for 2 deal at Waterstones, so wasted as little money on it as I could. When I hit pages 188/189, I nearly tore the book in half.

Robin S. said...Misogyny and history run together, especially in the age in which this story was told - but that was only part of the story.

BuffySquirrel said...The historical characters being misogynist is one thing; when it's the author, that's another. I want my taxes back.

Evil Editor said...I think you need to see it as being told by Mogor to the emperor, not by Rushdie to us.

BuffySquirrel said...I suppose, EE. But I probably still would've hated it.

sylvia said...I sort of accepted that in the same way as the fantastical elements, Qara Koz loves each man she's with because that's how the story goes. If she were cold and mercenary about it, it would be more realistic but when all said and done, it's a romance and a tragedy. If we got her viewpoint on the story (even as told by Rushdie) I think the details would have been very different.

Dave F. said...I knew an Egyptian fellow a few years ago and he was terribly misogynistic. It was charming in a way.

Evil Editor said...Did you finish it Buff?

BuffySquirrel said...Nope. I gave up during the paean to brothels.

Dave F. said...The enchantress of Florence really was a woman and the enchanter of palace city was a man.

ril said...I was surprised how many liberties were taken with punctuation...

Robin S. said...I suppose when you're in R's shoes, you can do whatever you want with punctuation. Those sure would be the good old days...

Robin S. said...How did you guys feel about the way Rushdie wove history into and out of his story? ril said...There was history?

Evil Editor said...There's Vlad Dracula.

Robin S. said...Obviously, history IS the story, in a manner of speaking - but with this novel, I felt as though I was reading an intricate fairy tale. I actually remember a few times, reading certain lines, feeling the same way I'd felt as a kid, reading, well, fairy tales.

sylvia said...I really liked the way the story was interwoven with history - I think because it was so fantastical, I didn't get bothered about what was and wasn't real. They were clearly characterisations rather than historical figures.

Dave F. said...It does walk through history as much as the last book walked through Palestine and Lawrence. This is the spice trade and the opening of the far east and Asia.

BuffySquirrel said...I think it's more fairy tale than historical. Rushdie takes all kinds of liberties--except, of course, with the attitudes towards women.

Robin S. said...The views on women were distasteful (I say this as a certified occasional ball-buster and a Southern American woman who still has to give idiots the evil eye on occasion, here and there) - but they worked for this book. They belonged there.

BuffySquirrel said...Just how necessary to the book was the paean to brothels? I wonder.

ril said...I got a kind of Don Quixote or Baron Munchausen vibe from it. Not saying it read like a bad translation or anything...

sylvia said...Fairy tale was exactly how I felt about it - something about the way he got around the suspension of disbelief. He keyed into the same part of me that accepts magic mirrors and gingerbread houses. Grimm's Maerchen meets Arabian Nights.

BuffySquirrel said...Unless you believe in magic, it ain't history.

Robin S. said...I think it is history - because what we read in history books is a dry and scattered translation of what life felt like and was lived in past times. To actually inhabit that space.

Evil Editor said...Not to spoil things for ril, but once you finish the book, it's not clear that what happened on pages 188-189 did happen.

BuffySquirrel said...Well, if it hadn't happened on those pages either, I might have carried on reading....

Evil Editor said...One of the things I like is that we don't know how many of the stories Mogor recounts are just a yarn he was spinning, how many were true, how many he believed were true even if they weren't. Probably there are some of each. Did Akbar have him figured out? Akbar turned out to be pretty sharp, and his idea of what really happened was reasonable.

Robin S. said...Yeah, EE - I liked the ambiguity - what did and didn't happen - and whether it mattered, or whether the telling of the story was the end in itself.

ril said...Fear not the spoilers. I'd already figured out the "tall tales" aspect -- hence the Munchausen reference...

sylvia said...Why was his (historical, within reason for the context) attitudes towards women not taking the same sort of liberty?

BuffySquirrel said...He changes things when it suits him; but he keeps the attitudes to women the same. Same with Susanna Clarke in Jonathan Norrell. Anything can change in Fantasy except, it seems, that.

sylvia said...The brothel and specifically the women he met there were critical to the story, buff.

BuffySquirrel said...And all the loving descriptions of the brothels before and after they were closed on pages 188/189 were necessary? I can't see it.Not that I'm not accustomed to the male fantasy of prostitutes falling in love with them. Just bored to death with it.

Evil Editor said...Did you find the attitude toward the enchantress herself despicable?

BuffySquirrel said...She didn't really appear in the story (unless there's some big reveal I missed) by the time I gave up. I kinda thought maybe the magician was a woman for a while.

Robin S. said...I have to say, it was hard to believe Rushdie thinks well of women - thinks of them as equals - while reading this. Either that or he is truly gifted - it felt to me as though the secret parts of himself that agreed with his storytelling came shining through - but that didn't detract from the amazing job he did, weaving this tale. And it does make one think - while reading gorgeous, intricately woven prose.

Dave F. said...I enjoyed the book and thought it was a well done love story. It fits a strangely romantic portion of history with a strange and wonderful story of love.

BuffySquirrel said...Romantic portion of history? Maybe for the men.

sylvia said...Yes - that's how I felt. It was a romance, which I was not expecting, hooked into a historical context which I already have fantastical associations with (Florence of the Medicis and the Ottoman Turks)

BuffySquirrel said...(don't think it helps that I also read Galileo's Daughter around the same time)

Dave F. said...Galileo's daughter is biography, this is storytelling for the story's sake. It never pretends to be real. The Enchantress is a book for enjoying the story, for sitting at a pleasure palace (like a bubble bath in your own tub, pretending)... It's the extravagant chocolate and expresso for dessert when the dishes are piled in the sink for much later. The extravagant held up to plain life.Galileo's Daughter is a story of wonder for it is real and we stand in wonder at Her accomplishments. It has a sadness because only now, we realize just how brilliant the daughter was and we stand in awe of her.

ril said...There have been more jokes, so far, than I expected for a Rushdie book. I've always been somewhat prejudiced against his writing, without having read any of it. Always assumed it would be heavily pretentious and overly dry.

Evil Editor said...I saw one of his novels on a list of the best rock and roll novels ever.

Robin S. said...Some of Rushdie's lines were amazing and funny. I laughed out loud a couple of times in the beginning, and surprised myself. Anyone else do that?

BuffySquirrel said...Robin, I don't think I did much laughing in amongst the fuming :D.

Robin S. said...Pg. 45"Birbal", said Akbar, "as you know, our favorite queen has the misfortune not to exist."

Pg. 146The cassock of holiness cloaks the codpiece of evil, every fucking time.
These were a scream - including how that comma was placed in the last one.

Evil Editor said...I remember that comma.

sylvia said... I think the humour worked partially because it was so unexpected. I can see people could have issues with cultural appropriation - taking myths and legends and reinterpreting them. I meant to look up whether he got any negative repercussions from that.

ril said...Negative repercussions from a Rushdie novel? I'm still inclined to finish the book.

BuffySquirrel said...Not actually trying to stop you, Ril!

sylvia said...You should definitely finish the book, ril!

Robin S. said...I enjoyed the dreamworld aspect of the novel - and the way the dreamworld was woveninto the real world - not only as prose, but as part of the story.Pg. 312...but they lacked imagination and opposed all intrusions of dream-worlds into the real. How many times have you wished your particular dream-world was real - and wondered why it wasn't as real as what passed for reality?A kind concept, uncovered in the novel.

Evil Editor said...It was strange the way the invisible woman seemed to exist even when the emperor wasn't around.

BuffySquirrel said...That was interesting, EE--but of course all her thoughts revolved around the Emperor just the same.

ril said...And not only in the minds of the court and subjects, but somehow in her own, non-existant, mind.Perhaps she did exist?

sylvia said...When we first met his dream wife I was thinking, this is going to get silly now. The fact that he called her into existence (rather than just dreaming her and controlling her existence) made it work for me.

Robin S. said...Yes, perhaps she did, ril. Again - weaving the known, dirt and brick and mortar world with the world of fantasy and the mind. I like it.

Dave F. said...I think we onl see Akbar from inside his head and therefore, his imaginary wife is always present.

Evil Editor said...Until he dumps her for the enchantress.

Robin S. said...Well, EE, I'm guessing every one of us has fantasies we don't talk about, and sometimes the focus of the fantasies change. So the move from Jodha to the enchantress felt natural to me.

ril said...And she was an enchantress, so it wasn't his fault...

Dave F. said...We see the Johda/Enchantress replacement (or its reverse) in lots of romance stories today. One lover has an ideal that can't be found and suddenly finds another less perfect lover to be real. In Akbar's case, he replaced his vision with a more enchanting vision.

sylvia said...I think we onl see Akbar from inside his head and therefore, his imaginary wife is always present.Hmm. I hadn't thought of it that way but that fits. *ponder*

ril said...Of course, if you feel the need to be in control of a woman, and the flesh and blood ones aren't quite doing it for you, inventing one is a pretty, un, inventive solution. And if you're "infallible", then exist she must. Although, I wonder if he was totally in control of her.

sylvia said...She was certainly totally focused on him.

ril said...From his perspective...

Sylvia said...It sort of brings new meaning to "reason for living" though :)

BuffySquirrel said...As Sylvia says, her lack of any life outside him certainly suggests he had control.

BuffySquirrel said...If the Akbar fantasy interpretation is correct, everything's his perspective. Which leaves him in complete control.

sylvia said...Well yes, but he makes that clear at the start.

Robin S. said...I think Akbar wanted to control everything - all things. Loved the inner discussion about referring to himself as I, rather than We. Old movies with the British Queen chick saying 'We are not amused' always pissed me off - but it made me grin here, because I was in this man's head at times.\

ril said... With the caveat that I haven't read too much, one could almost think maybe she was in control...It was interesting that when he referred to himself as "I", she didn't react as he had anticipated.

sylvia said...I really wanted to see that touched on again.

BuffySquirrel said...Maybe that whole We/I thing was taking place entirely in his head...just his way of working it through and deciding it was a bad idea.

sylvia said...That could be, actually. The lines are never firmly drawn.

fairyhedgehog said...Yes, the I and we bit was interesting.

Robin S. said...I agree, Sylvia and ril.That was interesting - how Jodha, an imaginary woman, reacted to the 'I' with purposeful indifference.

fairyhedgehog said...There are whole threads through the book about how we are in relation to other people and the I/We seems to have been part of that.

Robin S. said...Maybe this was Akbar's way of beginning to tire of Jadha. After all, she was his contruct.

ril said...Or he, hers.Hmm. Got to be careful not to be writing a different book here...

Robin S. said...I see what you mean, FH. The I/We, the real/unreal, the magic/non-magic - what is actually there. Metaphysical argument, or internal discussion.

Dave F. said...Look at his descriptions of his sons, all raised in some unacceptable way, all with character flaws, all ready to overthrow him, brilliant yet flawed... and yet he imagines a perfect wife. He has a seraglio of wives and none as pure as his vision. But then enters a stranger, a story teller who charms his way into the kingdom. Remember those lines about how the other Rulers were mere men and didn;t believe in divine right? And Akbar did? This is Akbar's dream kingdom.

fairyhedgehog said...Sorry I'm late I got the time zones confused.I found this a tough read as it was so complex and so patchy. I really loved some of it and struggled with other parts. I nearly didn't finish it.

Dave F. said...One practical thing is that this is a long story and it requires patience to finish. Rushdie takes his time in delivering the excitement in the midst of all his words. This is like the fantastic Arabian nights tales but told by a traveler on his return his hometown bar. He is sitting with his friends and telling of Akbar, the great ruler of some land east of Persia, of a once great empire like so many imagined empires.

fairyhedgehog said...I'm not sure I'd use the word excitement. I found it lush, and colourful, and exotic. I also struggled with the casual cruelty and murder. I didn't have as much problem with the attitude to women as I think Buffy did but it was a niggle. It was like being in a whole other world but I did feel I had to work hard to stay there.

BuffySquirrel said... Hmm, maybe my Arabian Nights translation/retelling/whatever was a bad one, but I wasn't much impressed by it. The chat almost makes me want to give the book another chance...almost!

Robin S. said...It was tough read in parts- I'd read and read, and then be 'stopped out' of it. And have to put it down for a while. Kind of the opposite of what I've traditionally thought of as a good way to tell a story, but somehow, it worked for me this time.

sylvia said...The writing was heavy, I thought. As I said, if it hadn't been for the book chat, I think I'd have put it down and let it collect dust. Even once I started getting into it, I just read a little bit each day rather than read for a couple of hours straight at the weekend like I usually do.

Dave F. said...One of my favorite books is "The Name of the Rose" and that has 150 to 200 pages of sheer punishment and penance to get through to enjoy the story. Rushdie is not as hard to read but he comes close. It's a challenge to get through the detail.

Evil Editor said...In the end I thought the reward was worth the effort. Not sure I'd want to read a non-fairy tale by him. It's kind of embarrassing to read a fairy tale and need a dictionary every other page.

Robin S. said...I didn't need a dictionary as much as I needed a contextual guidepost - because I was quiet literally out of my realm, historically. I had no mental map markers to help me on my way. Like being lost in a foreign country, and being frustrated by that until becoming acclimated. And I think that may have been part of the point, at least for Western readers.There was a lot of exploring and traveling and other-word to conquer, both as a character in the novel, and as a reader of it.

BuffySquirrel said...Eh, I don't mind hard to read if I'm getting something out of it. Big if.

fairyhedgehog said...I have to say that as it was a Fairy Tale I had hoped for a much more upbeat ending. (Is it all right to talk about the ending or should I not do that in case it spoils it for ril?)

ril said...Don't worry. I'm reading purely as an academic exercise, and to impress my peers.

Robin S. said...Ha! ril - well, in that case, if you don't mind hearing about the ending, I thought it worked well, in that it was a circling back, or a journeying on, maybe, with the beginning of the novel. I liked that - I liked the open 'resolution'.

Evil Editor said...That gave away a lot.

fairyhedgehog said...One thing that made it a difficult read for me was not knowing who I could sympathise with. I didn't know if it was the story of three friends, or of one of the friends, or of Akbar...It didn't seem to be the story of any of the women, except briefly

BuffySquirrel said...There was one point where I thought we might get one of the women's stories...forget where, exactly, but early on, obviously!

sylvia said...I loved the ending hugely. The return to real-world logic but then swirled with the fantastical one last time.

ril said...Perhaps it was back when you thought the blond haired guy was a woman?

BuffySquirrel said...Lol, Ril, maybe it was! I dunno, that was just one of those fleeting thoughts...perhaps crediting Rushdie with too much plot ingenuity.

sylvia said...It's definitely never a woman's story - all of the women are only ever as seen (fantasized) by the men.

fairyhedgehog said...That's it exactly, Sylvia. Maybe that's what made it an irritating read for Buffy. It certainly made the women characters less real for me.

BuffySquirrel said...I think Sylvia has definitely hit on what made it so annoying for me.The enchantress may have more of a role past the point where it was destroy the book or stop reading, but in what I read, she was only acting through a man.

Dave F. said...It didn't seem to be the story of any of the women, except briefly. I disagree. I think it all about two women - the enchantress and Johdha and their effects on a small piece of history.Without the Enchantress, there would be no history of Akbar. She's both his past and future.

Evil Editor said...Certainly it's the story of the enchantress and her mirror in large part in Book 3. She may be the most beautiful woman in history, but she's also a complex character.

sylvia said...I think the difference is whether it's a story about a woman (which it was) or of a woman (which it wasn't).In the same way that Dreamer's of the Day was about Laurence of Arabia but it wasn't his story.

BuffySquirrel said...*ponders skipping to Book 3* I was going to say, at least Lawrence didn't have to work in a brothel...and then I thought, maybe he'd've liked to.

fairyhedgehog said...Her main characteristic was the pragmatism shown by her willingness to go with whoever was the victor in a battle - for most of the book, at least.

sylvia said...Her main characteristic was the pragmatism shown by her willingness to go with whoever was the victor in a battle... and the fact that it was always true love rather than just the means to an end. But for me, it was part of the context and expected. Hansel never pulled Gretel's hair, either.

Evil Editor said...But she didn't take advantage of the opportunity to escape when it meant losing her true love.

BuffySquirrel said...Ah, cos in that case pragmatism wouldn't have served the plot.

Evil Editor said...I liked the ending. The part where Mogor explains who he is and I'm thinking, Aha, amazing, and then Akbar says, Not so fast, I have another theory, and his fits equally well, and we're left wondering.

sylvia said...I definitely felt that the (bits of) knowledge I had of Florence at that time helped me to remain grounded in the story. I looked up Akbar on Wiki towards the end :)

Robin S. said...Towards the end of the novel, when the discussion turns to the New World being discovered by Europeans, the concept of time is beautifully drawn.Pg. 328."The locals, those few who mastered European languages, confirmed that theirs was a world without change, a place of stasis, outside time, they said, and that was the way they preferred it to be. It was possible, and there were philosophers who argued the point vociferously, that time had been brought to Mundus Novus by the European voyagers and settler, along with various diseases."What makes this gorgeously drawn prose for me is that there's the tall tale or feeling drawn of workd-without-time, and then the uppity feel of Euros 'starting' time, and then the stark reality that in a way, they did, with their 'various diseases'. that's a beautifully drawn timeline, not of journalistic reality, but of the way it might have felt, as it was lived.

fairyhedgehog said...I think that whole passage for me was part of the Fairy Tale telling of the story. I felt like I shouldn't be asking "is it true?" in the literal sense but seeing more as myth.

Robin S. said...I loved the ending hugely. The return to real-world logic but then swirled with the fantastical one last time. I read the ending the same way, Sylvia, and I loved it, too.

BuffySquirrel said...If they had no time, why did they create sun calendars?

Robin S. said...I don't think it was literally true as much as it was felt, buff. That nothing changed and that was the world.

fairyhedgehog said...I didn't enjoy the ending because too much had been lost by then and too many of the characters I was following had died.

Evil Editor said...In view of Rushdie's being on the outs with certain religious groups, I paid some attention when religion came into this book, and it doesn't seem he's started pulling his punches. Not that I recall anything specific.

ril said......Maybe he's testing, to see if anybody actually is reading?

BuffySquirrel said...It would be a shame if he had started pulling punches. After all the effort that went into keeping him alive.

Robin S. said...Yeah, EE - I thought about the religions as well.On page 220 there's a good one - that "Whatever is decreed by God will occur" stuff. It still goes on, even though it's not PC to speak of it, (so I will).My ex was in the desert of the Middle East for a while - and he had guys training mechanics - from the region. It wasn't going too well, though, because they kept saying no matter what they did to the engines, etc., it wouldn't matter, because it was the will of God that decided whether or not a plane would fly...Don't even get me started.

ril said...A quick Google for "G K Chesterton & mysogyny", suggests we'll be on safe territory next month...

BuffySquirrel said...Oh dear, Ril, if I'm so annoying I shan't come!

ril said...Not at all. Just like to be prepared.

BuffySquirrel said...Hmm, first hit for Salman Rushdie + misogyny: This article explores the function of misogyny in Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children (1981), an aspect of the novel which is often too easily interpreted as a shortcoming on Rushdie's part rather than as a conscious and multi-layered strategy. The article identifies two main trajectories of the theme of female monstrosity, one aimed at criticizing the nation's unwillingness to grant women an equal status and the other designed to demonize Indira Gandhi.

fairyhedgehog said...That's a bit beyond me, Buffy. I did feel that the Enchantress had women mainly as adjuncts to men although I think there were hints that they led their own complex lives. A bit like humans writing about cats, maybe.

BuffySquirrel said...I think the article would be beyond me, too. And that's just quoting from the abstract. Also, I gave up on Midnight's Children after about three lines! lol

Evil Editor said...1981? Man he must be getting old. So old he's regressing. This time a fairy tale, next time a nursery rhyme. Writing Exercise: create a nursery rhyme in the style of Salman Rushdie.

BuffySquirrel said...Mary had a little lambOr rather it had herShe's just an extension of the lambShe's there to comb its fur

Sylvia said... I don't think I could do it but I'd LOVE to read the submissions

Robin S. said...I like these Saturday morning chats. More people can attend, it seems.

ril said...Would any of you have read this book if it were not for the Book Chat?

Robin S. said...No, ril, I'd never have picked it up. You?

BuffySquirrel said...Definitely not, Ril. Indeed, I haven't read it now.

Robin S. said...By the way, gutenberg.org has Akbar, Emperor of India - one of Rushdie's sources for his novel.(I don't know about you all, but this geek reads the bibliography every single time.)

sylvia said...I would have been unlikely to try it and I certainly wouldn't have pushed on past the start.

ril said...No. I was extremely prejudiced against trying Rushdie's work.The "function" of misogyny? Interesting choice of words...

fairyhedgehog said...No. In fact, it was only Robin's urging that got me to read it. It was hard work but now that I've read it I don't regret it.

Robin S. said...Exactly how I feel, FH. I won't forget it either. It was worth the slog through - and I have to say, most books I pick up casually go in one 'brain ear' and out the other. Kind of makes me wonder why I bother with them at all.

fairyhedgehog said...Oh, and being able to get to the book chat was a good incentive. This is a good time for me if I don't get confused about the hour.

ril said...I suspect many of the people who blurbed on the cover didn't read it either. "...whirlwind of a narrative," anyone?

Robin S. said...No way was this a whirlwind of a narrative. It was a tent slog through the desert without water, at times, spaced between long and wondrous oases.

fairyhedgehog said...Some of the oases were indeed wondrous. I'm left with pictures in my mind of jewels and palaces and exotice places but I really had to work to get there.

sylvia said...Yes. I was trying to work out a way of explaining how it didn't continually get better but that it felt somehow stepped. This is it.

Robin S. said...Also, Akbar was one of the few Mughals, if not the only, who openly practiced religious tolerance. Wonder if that's why Rushdie chose him as a grounding point for the novel. No Brits have mentioned the Elizabeth correspondence. I thought that was amusing.

ril said...She didn't return his calls. I suspect she didn't actually exist.

BuffySquirrel said...I remember someone describing London as "exotic". I nearly choked. Guess it's all in where you're coming from.

Robin S. said...I agree, Buff. Exotic is everyone's own particular 'little red wagon'.

BuffySquirrel said...I suppose the correspondence with Elizabeth slipped my mind cos it was so silly.

fairyhedgehog said...I'd forgotten about it but it was amusing. All part of people misjudging what is real and what isn't.

BuffySquirrel said...Hmm, Elizabeth not existing leaves us with a huge hole in our history :D.

ril said...And Shakespeare in Love would just not be the same movie.

Robin S. said...Yes - the Elizabeth section was good, for me. It grounded me in something I at least had a passing knowledge of - so that the Akbar story then made sense, from my point of view - historically. He was 'them' - part of history I didn't hear anything about until the last decade or so.

fairyhedgehog said...I see what you mean, Robin, but somehow I liked being immersed in Akbar's world without trying to work out how it fit into any history I'd ever known. It was like being in a galaxy far, far away, or in any story that starts "Once Upon A Time".The only history that really impinged on me was Machiavelli and I couldn't remember how he fit in. I should have googled.

Robin S. said...I thought a Brit might also have mentioned pg. 96 - "The English had no future on this earth," he told himself..." Especially considering the way things went.

ril said...Proof indeed of the fantasical nature of the tale.

BuffySquirrel said...We're used to being dismissed, though.

fairyhedgehog said...It gave me a small, wry smile. Just a small one, though.

Robin S. said...Maybe it's because I'm in your place quite a bit, but always a visitor, that I find it extraordinary how such a small island nation was able to control such a vast amount of the planet for so long.

fairyhedgehog said...It seems quite normal to me. Maybe that's a problem...

BuffySquirrel said...And who knows? The future is still in the future, after all.

Robin S. said...No - not a problem. It's because you're 'from there', don't you think?Anyway, the last time I was there, one of my British relatives remarked that we - the Americans - think we're like the Brits because of the English language - when, really, other than language, we're worlds apart. It's made me think, ever since. And I think that's another thing about this book - it plops you out-of-culture and out-of-known-context, if you're Western, and you look at life from a different persective . . . if you stick it out and make it through.

ril said...Looks like the party's over. Off to read another sentence or two of the Enchantress, and then sleep...