Peter's Room read-through: Chapters one, two and three

[lilliburlero.livejournal.com]

Again, posting on behalf oflegionseagle, a little later than planned owing to some email glitches at my end, for which, apologies.

--L.B.



At the Antonia Forest conference in Bournemouth in 2006 someone observed:

"Trennels is basically a TARDIS. It has all these extra buildings which only materialise when the plot needs them." (And dematerialise, too, natch: hence Great-Uncle Lawrence and His Amazing Disappearing Hawkhouse.)

In Peter's Room it's the turn of the Old Shippen (available for general storage, coal- and coke-bunkering and winter hobby pursuits. Black Masses extra.) and the adjacent Old Yard, which has ten-foot high walls and a gate to match. (What were the Marlows who built it trying to keep in? Prize wallabies?)

For the first time since TMATT we have Peter foregrounded. While chopping wood in the Old Yard (so avoiding Madame Orly) he's also making the better acquaintance of Daks, who here makes his first on-screen appearance. Another inventive literary device, the infodump via pedigree poodle pup, and it works rather well, especially given the buttoned up nature of Marlows in general and their attitudes to animals by way of contrast (Mikes observed in How to Be an Alien that it's quite acceptable for the English to have a long walk with their best friend and never exchange a word with him; if one takes one's dog instead you must converse.)

Mrs Bertie – developing traces of a personality here, compared to the stereotype of Falconer's Lure – tells him to stack the chopped wood in the Old Shippen, a disused cowshed across the yard. Daks vanishes, then his barking leads Peter into a hidden room above: a place stuffed with junk and possibilities.

We get a first glimpse of Rowan at work. She, Mr Tranter and Ted Coulthard, the cow man, are building a lambing pen in a bitter wind when Peter arrives to ask if he can use the room for his own purposes. There follow two and a half pages of pure comedy shot through with nice flashes of observation (Rowan, having banged her thumb with a mallet is "concentratedly silent, sucking it").

Discussion of the Old Shippen's murky past leads into one of the themes of the book: the Marlow family's connections with the district and how the "present management" are coping with being simultaneously newcomers and a family with a long and colourful local history.

Harry Marlow, who built the Old Shippen, had a popular reputation for being in league with the Devil. The building's evil reputation lingers. Beasts put in it never do well, the previous vicar's refusal to carry out an exorcism remains a bone of contention, and Ted Coulthard's grandfather, when a boy, claimed to have encountered the Devil in person, sitting on the roof-tree and singing to himself (the best tunes, presumably).

One of the questions the book raises is whether the fault is in people's stars or in themselves. The debate's terms are outlined in the original discussion between Rowan, Peter, Ted and Mr Tranter. Is the building itself cursed or is it the choices people make with respect to it which causes things to go awry?

The light, up-beat tone of the chapter – it's the start of the holidays, Christmas is coming – is sustained even through the intended bombshell of Miss Keith's letter regarding the row about the twins, the match and the Play.

On which topic, Madame Orly's devastating comment that the twins had obviously shown greater artistic integrity than Miss Keith, so she should stop complaining, will never stop being funny.





This is a darker chapter than the first in several ways, only lifted in the last pages by the hustle and bustle of the others' arrival from Kingscote.

Forest paints an evocative picture of how the room above the Old Shippen looks at dusk. Furthermore, all the bits Peter choses to save from "the Viking's funeral" he makes of the junk are evocative of death: tropical butterflies pinned to cards, blown birds' eggs and a heap of antique swords and pistols.

Given Peter's spotty record with guns (series bag to date: one Kontenadmiral (intended); one goshawk (emphatically not)), his pointing the pistols nonchalantly down the stairs and firing them in the hope they're loaded makes my blood run thick with cold, especially with Daks running loose about the place (how on earth would Nicola have explained that to Esther???).

In a throwaway line, we learn that Trennels was built out of the proceeds of slavery (So far as fic goes, so far as I know only ankaret in her brilliant piece Sugar has tackled this aspect of Marlow history).

Finally, Peter discovers farm logs in a trunk, going back at least to the 17th century (any historian want to comment about the plausibility of the ease with which Peter deciphers the older entries?) He learns of an ancestor, Malise, who broke with his family and rode away on his 16th birthday "to serve the Man of Blood Charles Stuart."

Peter immediately identifies with Malise – his support for the loner, the rebel, trumps even his natural political inclinations (he's been a Parliamentarian since the first term of prep school, at least) and ignores the heartbreak of a family at war with itself. "O Absalom my son my son" is a cry of loss ringing across the ages, but falls, as far as Peter is concerned, on closed ears.

This book is the one with the most direct references to TMATT, so the echoes of the last time Peter found ancestral papers in a trunk are almost certainly intentional (there's even the "By Watch and Ward"/"Under Two Flags" thematic link of discarded, out-dated, jingoistic juvenile fiction.)

Lieut. Foley, too, identified with an ancestor who set himself apart from his community: Fabian the wrecker. It's an unsettling parallel, underscored when the sovereigns Peter thought he'd found on a beam turn out to be unused farthings.

"Fairy gold" is his immediate assumption, not his own will to believe causing him to overlook the direct evidence of his senses. Nicola, though, sees and appreciates the farthings for what they are, rather than what delusion turns them into.






The third chapter is almost as long as the first two put together and packed. It's at first kaleidoscopic (the vivid economy with which Forest gets Christmas over is breath-taking) and then slows down as Nicola re-encounters Patrick, is forced to face the prospect of hunting as well as fears about keeping hawks over the winter (Patrick is his normal tactful self about how she's been managing to date: "They say's the worst thing you can possibly do") and Doris is introduced.

Doris is a great improvement on Mrs Bertie – not least because she avoids the "Miss" and "Master" forelock-tugging and also has a lively style as a raconteur. Furthermore, she's not afraid to act as the voice of authority. When, in another flashback to Lieut. Foley, Peter twists Nicola's arms up behind her back and carries on doing it after she's told him "Don't , Peter. You're hurting" only Doris's decisive intervention stops it from going – where? It's an unexpectedly unsettling moment.

Patrick arrives, is shown the upper room, takes to the farm log (like a duck to water) and Peter tentatively raises the topic of Malise. Patrick is about to say something when they're all interrupted by Lawrie, in a high state of agitation and crying, "it's not fair".

Which, I have to say, for once I agree on. Catkin's an equus ex machina as regards large swathes of the plot, especially the Patrick/Ginty relationship. Patrick first really meets Ginty when she's on Catkin's back – calm, confident, in control and yet needing just a little help that only he, Patrick, can supply. It does, however, make no apparent sense why the Marlow parents choose at this point to give a gift which is not only disproportionate to the family finances but to any gift ever given to any of the other seven children. All suggestions gratefully received.

Anyway, the four younger Marlows, three dogs, one merlin and Patrick colonise the room above the Old Shippen (somewhat to Peter's suppressed resentment) and, when snow shuts off other options, we get the introduction of Gondal. Which I suspect will be a major point for discussion below the line, so on this point I'll simply flag up two issues – why is Nicola, the Polar Expedition, so visibly reluctant to engage with the proposed Gondal, and how does it tie in with other indications of her exclusion elsewhere in the chapter? Secondly, does anyone fancy writing Gothic fanfic in the style of the Misses Ramsey?



General discussion points – a few that spring to mind:

Superstition – from the "X" drawn across the water to avert a quarrel to the whole business with the shippen. The Devil on the roof-tree – yes, no or on the fence?
The Marlows in transition, from holiday visitors to members of the local community.
Rowan, working side by side with Ted Coulthard and Mr Tranter: can we say the relationship modelled here is, "Wet behind the ears but promising junior officer, very senior NCOs"?
Peter's character – bearing in mind earlier questions about Peter's judgement (of himself and others, and of situations). How does his obsession with Malise tie in? What about the Foley parallel?
Ginty and Patrick. Patrick and Nicola. Wedges, exclusion, serially monogamous friendships and awkwardness.
The Brontes as filtered through Marlow consciousnesses – a match made in Hell?
Gondal – again, so far as we've got, what issues are already developing? Do the hidden agendas (of Ginty, identifying with Emily Bronte, of Peter, identifying with Malise, of Lawrie, just wanting to act at any price) complement or conflict?

Anything else? Have at it!

Comments

Artisitc integrity

[sprog-63.livejournal.com]

"On which topic, Madame Orly's devastating comment that the twins had obviously shown greater artistic integrity than Miss Keith, so she should stop complaining, will never stop being funny."

Indeed!

And perhaps a contrast between this and Branwell B's belief that being a poet made him different / better / allowed to behave badly (which Marlow's / other characters believe this and which don't?!) I dis agree with BB in general but find myself (paradoxically) agreeing with Mme Orly. Typical Forest complexity.

Re: Artisitc integrity

[legionseagle (from livejournal.com)]

A relevant distinction may be that Branwell Bronte's bad behaviour actually detracted from his artistic talents (such as they were) whereas because of the utter daftness of Miss Keith and her ideas on casting the kids are forced into behaving badly to achieve a good outcome artistically.

[ankaret.livejournal.com]

A while since I did philology, but seventeenth century hand takes a sharp turn for the readable, as opposed to late fifteenth and early sixteenth which looks like it was written by Martians.

[oursin.livejournal.com]

Palaeography? I've commented below about the relative readability of learned vs basically literate C17th handwriting.

'junk'

[scarletlobster.livejournal.com]

It always seems to me that the family are very casual about saying that Peter can have a whole room full of 'junk', with the only proviso that he mustn't burn anything that his mother might want. Wouldn't someone even want to glance at the room before he burns nearly everything? Even things like the dance programme and the hatpin might be interesting to someone. And there is a contrast between Nicola's worrying about the others not being allowed to ride Buster - breaking the big-family rule that everything major is shared - and the absolute acceptance that the room belongs to Peter, along with all the contents, and that he has sole decision rights over everything. I find myself coming over all Lawrie and wanting to say, "but it's not fair! Where's my special room full of old stuff?"

I am finding it difficult to envisage the "slim wooden case" that slips behind the trunk, but which contains "a completely enormous stuffed bird". Does the stuffed falcon somehow inflate when the case is opened?

Re: 'junk'

[carmine-rose.livejournal.com]

I figured it would be a case about 4 inches deep, by 18 inches wide and maybe 3 feet long. If the bird is stuffed"in flight" as it were, it wouldn't need to be very deep, but would need to be long for the wingspan.

Re: 'junk'

[antfan.livejournal.com]

I wonder though if the "sharing around" thing was the rule when the children were younger, and then is less and less applied as they grow up and become individuals rather than just "lower deck"? That would explain why it is only Lawrie (re Catkin) and Nicola (re Buster) who hark back to this principle, which nobody else seems to take seriously.

[hagsrus.livejournal.com]

Ironic that those mint farthings would be worth a very tidy sum today!

Agree about the cavalier burning of stuff. Visualising Lovejoy howling with anguish...

[oursin.livejournal.com]

On the other hand, sometimes crap is just crap! There does sound to have been that whole 'it's completely broken but let's just shove it away in the Old Shippen' going on for generations.

[oursin.livejournal.com]

I found these chapters really interesting (after many re-reads going back decades) in terms of foreshadowing, both the 'fairy gold/farthings', and the way that Patrick has just no idea about family dynamics (Only Child Privilege?)- though feel it applies to group dynamnics more generally, given his spotty school attendance, or just general character.

Catkin - could this possibly be related to a gradual apprehension by the parents of the continuing effects of her trauma in TM&TT? - building up Ginty's wider confidence through an area in which she is already competent. (Though on general parental form, rather implausible.)

I larf liek drayne at Ginty's self-identification with Emily Bronte!

[legionseagle (from livejournal.com)]

In some respects Peter's self-identification with Malise is even dottier given how little he has to go on (and no apparent inclination to find out, which is odd).

Patrick's combination of lack of understanding of group dynamics combined with his status within the group (eldest, outsider) lead to lots of the subsequent problems, imho.

Catkin purchase - why?

[antfan.livejournal.com]

Having just finished rereading End of Term, I wonder if Mrs M's remark about Ginty "I suppose she is [a pretty child]. Mercifully she doesn't seem too aware of it yet" might point to the reason.

Ginty is easily influenced, possibly unstable, and very pretty, and riding (which helped bring her back into the family fold at the end of FL) could be just the kind of wholesome, outdoor activity she needs to take her out of herself and keep her from the dangers of her own prettiness. Or so Pam might think. Which is rather ironic, as Catkin then takes her straight into the ambit of the Merrick boy, and we all know how that ends...

Adding in Pam's record as an impulse-purchaser (she buys herself a horse at the same time!) and I don't think the whole thing is so unlikely.

Re: Catkin purchase - why?

[carmine-rose.livejournal.com]

I once inadvertently started a huge and quite vitriolic discussion about this very thing, back when I was new to the community! I don't know if this link will work: here (http://trennels.livejournal.com/3795.html?nc=183#comments), but if I've screwed up the HTML, it was back in August 2005!

For what it's worth, I still think it was outrageously unfair of Mrs Marlow.

Superstition

[antfan.livejournal.com]

Seeing all the references written down, I'm realising now how strong the superstitious element is. (Though why is a cross on the water supersitious? I've never heard of this before.) I'm actually wondering if Forest was tempted to go even further in this direction and write a Marlow book with a supernatural element (after all, the Marlow books, though a series, are also a vehicle for lots of very different kind of book). I'm partly wondering this because of the passage in FL in which Nicola and Patrick discuss ghosts, and the reader does seem to be being asked to believe that there is a Merrick ghost. So many of the elements of Peter's room - family history, old buildings, children's imaginings that get out of hand - do often go along with some kind of supernatural/ghost/time travel element in many children's books (I'm thinking of the Green Knowe books, Charlotte Sometimes, Tom's Midnight Garden, A Stitch in Time and many more) and I wonder if Forest flirted with this possibility and then held back?

As it is, all those superstitious elements in Peter's Room are completely consistent with the idea that the Marlows are just a bit easily spooked/overly imaginative in a very ordinary human way. (I'm glad Forest didn't press these elements any further if she was considering it. Although it does seem she could write many different kinds of book, I'm really not sure about a Nicola Marlow time travel story. Though I do agree that Ankaret's Marlow ghost story is brilliant.)

Re: Superstition

[legionseagle (from livejournal.com)]

They're a bunch of sailors who also farm, descended from one bunch of actors and with another actor manque in the family. If they weren't as superstitious as all Hell, something would surely be wrong!

[katlinel.livejournal.com]

If anyone isn't that familiar with C17 handwriting, have a look at weekly posers on scottishhandwriting.com (http://scottishhandwriting.com/posers/date.asp) (link goes to list of posers by date) and the practice examples at the National Archives (http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/palaeography/further_practice.htm) (also listed by date) to see what Peter might have been tackling in the farm log.

[oursin.livejournal.com]

I've been thinking about this, and have concluded that while formal C17th scribal hands are a nightmare, the handwriting of the just-about-functionally-literate was likely to be a lot easier for the modern person to decipher, on the basis of my acquaintance with a large number of manuscript household recipe books of the period - the kind of thing you can find online here (http://wellcomelibrary.org/about-us/about-the-collections/archives-and-manuscripts/digitised-recipe-books-project/).

[jackmerlin.livejournal.com]

"Patrick first really meets Ginty when she's on Catkin's back – calm, confident, in control and yet needing just a little help that only he, Patrick, can supply."
Put like that it makes a little bit of literary sense, but please, please don't try this at home - sitting on a horse, in a horse box, with the horse rearing at the top of the ramp. Apart from the lack of head room which actually makes it impossible to do this, it is insanely dangerous. Mrs Marlow might as well be calmly watching the twins play in the fast lane of the motorway.
Pedantic rant over. I've just flicked through the older thread on giving Ginty Catkin. I've always considered it insanely unfair that Ginty is given Catkin. If the Marlow parents thought that it was a good idea for Ginty to ride to help her get over the MATT trauma, why not give her Prisca and buy Rowan a decent hunter. She's the one who's going to be able to go out hunting every week all season whereas Ginty will only ride in the holidays. (And we learn in Attic Term that Ginty doesn't care enough about Catkin to take him to school.) And Rowan is the one who deserves the decent present.
As one of a largish family (not as large as the Marlows) I was used to occasional discrepancy of presents, usually for significant ages, or relating to someone's particular interests, which over time averaged out. But Catkin is so hugely disproportionate to anything else. In Thuggery we learn that Ann has had to save up for her own bike. And before the last few pages of FL Ginty had shown no interest in horses at all.

[scarletlobster.livejournal.com]

Technically, I think Rowan deserves her own sizeable cottage and enough pay to live in it, since that is what Mr Tranter got. It is quite concerning the way she always seems to rush in, grab a bite of food, then rush out again to carry on working.

As a total non-rider I had to google 'cob' to see what Rowan has (and find that she has a short-legged horse, though whether that means it is poor at hunting I can't tell.)

I suppose from a dramatic point of view, AF is setting up the hunt as a big set-piece and Lawrie's escapades with the hired pony are part of the drama.

[legionseagle (from livejournal.com)]

Thanks for the expert input! It sounded a bit off, but without that information plausible. Though given the outrageously stupid things (Leeper's Bluff) Patrick gets up to, I think (in universe) the very daftness may help the relationship.

[mrs-redboots.livejournal.com]

I think, though, that I like the explanation proffered in the other thread (which I have also just read) that it was Chocbar who was the real extravagance, and Catkin just shoved in as a makeweight, if you like (could well be Pam was offered a good price for both horses, making it nearly impossible to refuse), and then Ginty being really the only child - and having a convenient birthday just then - that he was suitable for. Yes, it's unfair, but so is life....

[schwarmerei1.livejournal.com]

No no, thank you for the pedantic rant! This is my first time reading PR and as I realised Ginty was trying to *ride* Catkin out of the float I assumed we were about to see a terrible accident!

I found it quite problematic. I think readers could tell that the cliff-walking of FL was bloody dangerous. But would the average punter know that riding a horse on/off a truck or into a stall is incredibly stupid? An actual pony book would have made that clear -- it would have been done by the pig-headed idiot character and she/he would have been set straight by the book's authority figure OR suffered the natural consequences.

The twins artistic integrity

[mainerobin.livejournal.com]

Loved that comment from Mme. Orly too.

And this part: "Splendidly unlikely" Brilliant!

"Can we help?" said Nicola, seeing a splendidly unlikely vision of herself galloping to and fro on Buster cracking a stock-whip while the lowing herd raised clouds of dust under the prairie sun. But Rowan thanked her politely and indicated that Shep and Rouser might be expected to manage quite nicely without Nicola's help: even—possibly—a little better.

Re: The twins artistic integrity

[legionseagle (from livejournal.com)]

Oh, yes!

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

The bit I found most surprising in the reread was that Lawrie is apparently a "miles better" rider than Nick. I know that Need ck didn't get on with the school horse who wanted to roll on her, but given Nick seems the more accomplished sportswoman (though Lawrie not NAD herself), Lawrie presumably might have missed a fair bit of riding after the tmatt accident AND Nick getting much more practice with Buster, it seemed a little unlikely.

[jackmerlin.livejournal.com]

It does seem a bit odd. But Nicola is a nervous rider. Lawrie is probably better simply she because she is (probably wrongly) more confident in her own abilities.