Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Moonstonier and moonstonier

Here we are, in week two of the readalong! I wanted to thank you all for your wonderful and frequently hilarious comments last week. I am the absolute worst at replying to comments at the best of times, and I've somehow been even worse -- yes, worse than worst -- this past week. But I love you all, and you're all awesome and so on.

Onward!!


1. I can't quite remember where we left off (Kindllle!) but I think it was before Rosanna killed herself? My first thought was that maybe someone had engineered this to make it seem like she had killed herself, but in fact she was still alive somewhere. Oh sure, that sounds crazy, but this is a Wilkie Collins novel. I think she's really dead though.

2. Sergeant Cuff describes himself as having spent his career "employed in cases of family scandal, acting in the capacity of confidential man." Confidential man like... con man? (LOL, fun with evolving language.) Remember in Woman in White when Laura gets an anonymous letter warning her about Percy Glyde, and everyone's like, "oh, one of those"? In this novel, having someone in your family run up an enormous secret debt and then engineer an elaborate fraud in order to pay it off is just part of life.

3. I don't buy the brilliant Sergeant Cuff's explanation though. He's being safe and unimaginative with this "debt" nonsense. Think crazier, man!

4.
"I have several worthy ambitions, Betteredge; but what am I to do with them now? I am full of dormant good qualities, if Rachel would only have helped me to bring them out!"
AHAHAHAHA! Hilarious.



5.

On Friday, nothing happened -- except that one of the dogs showed signs of a breaking out behind the ears. I gave him a dose of syrup of buckthorn, and put him on a diet of pot-liquor and vegetables till further orders. Excuse my mentioning this. It has slipped in somehow.
SURELY THIS WILL BECOME SIGNIFICANT. WILKIE "WILKSTER" COLLINS, IF YOU DO NOT MAKE THIS IMPORTANT, SO HELP ME...

6. Miss Clack, of course, fills us in at length (and, as it turns out, more than once) about the parameters she is supposed to stick to in her account. Does Collins think this is more authentic? Does he generally think we're too stupid to get it? It doesn't bother me, but it bothers me, y'know?

7. Miss Clack lives in "a Patmos amid the howling ocean of popery" of France. Rad.

8. Genuine question here: Miss Clack says "my aunt and her daughter (I really cannot call her my cousin!) had arrived". W-why can't she call her "cousin"? Did I miss something, or is this foreshadowing about the True Character of Rachel?

9. Wilkie "The Wilk Master" Collins is absolutely in his element in coming up with the names of the various "good works" of Miss Clack and her ilk. A tract titled "A Word With You On Your Cap-Ribbons"? The Mothers' Small Clothes Conversion Society? "Satan under the Tea Table"? The British Ladies' Servants' Sunday Sweetheart Supervision Society?

Clack Tract
10. What's really fascinating in all this is what Wilks has done to Mr Godfrey. When he was introduced, he was sort of a golden boy, with his Ladies' Societies: maybe a little bit suave and even unmanly, but nothing especially special. A guy who spends all his free time helping the administrative end of charities might be a little boring and goody-two-shoes, but whatever. Now, though, Wilkie shows us what he really thinks: that these Ladies' Societies are risible and useless, and that Godfrey is toadying up to pathetic old ladies.

11.
I looked through the window, and saw the World, the Flesh, and the Devil waiting before the house--as typified in a carriage and three horses, a powdered footman, and three of the most audaciously dressed women I ever beheld in my life.
I really want an opportunity to say "You look like the World, the Flesh, and the Devil in that dress!"

12. I can't help but be genuinely sad that Miss Clack didn't get anything in Lady Verinder's will, and she missed out on the gift she was promised. Sure, she's maybe not the most lovable character, but gee.


We've been given a lot of information in this section, and yet it is still completely unclear what the heck is going on. Why is Rachel acting so crazy, and what has she done? And what has Godfrey done? What did Lady Verinder know? Why have I totally passed over the weird kidnapping thing? Who can say!

29 comments:

  1. Dang you! I just got done safely ticking Rosanna off my suspect list because she's dead. I'll think more on this while I'm working. Hmm...

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  2. Oh man, Clack entirely deserves nothing! 'Oh, I must save this dying lady by leaving her crazy ass tracts even though they will TOTALLY UPSET HER'

    I had Godfrey's number from the start, you know. I was like 'well, he's clearly inferior to Franklin' even though Betteredge didn't think so. What does Betteredge know about men?

    ALSO I totally think Rosanna's not dead either! Well, she might be. And ALSO, that girl who lived in the cottage was TOTALLY in love with her (we were going to live 'as sisters'. Right.) and I can't believe I forgot to mention it. Hmmmmm....

    AND I totally noticed the dog thing and am really suspicious of it! Maybe the DOG ATE IT! OMG MYSTERY SOLVED!

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    1. SHE THOUGHT SHE WAS HELPING HER

      I'm glad this whole dog mystery's been solved finally.

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    2. Well she THOUGHT she was helping because all she could think about is how AWESOME she was being and not how upsetting this all was to others. Also she's crazy.

      That said, I was sad that she didn't get anything. Maybe Lady Verinder was messing with her? That would be extra cruel

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    3. I REFUSE to believe Lady Verinder was messing with her. Maybe Rachel'll give her something. Because underneath it all, Rachel is nice.

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    4. Alice, you are like Hope springing eternal from the pits of despair. /slowclap

      Miss Clack is a hypocrite and we're supposed to know it. BUT she's also endearing and we're supposed to like her. Because who wouldn't peek at such a proposal scene? (I harbor a seeeekrit thought that maybe Clack is a lil in love with Godfrey herself...)

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    5. Miss Clack is definitely all over Godfrey. She's a swooner.

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    6. Do I need to quote the scene where she kisses his hand again? YES I DO.

      "I put his hand, in a kind of spiritual self-forgetfulness, to my lips. He murmured a soft remonstrance. Oh the ecstasy, the pure, unearthly ecstasy of that moment!"

      THAT.

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  3. "Remember in Woman in White when Laura gets an anonymous letter warning her about Percy Glyde, and everyone's like, 'oh, one of those"?'"

    This is why it's totes worth it to read Victorian novels. Among other reasons. And YES to picking the same Patmos quote.

    No. 8 -- I TOTALLY WROTE A QUESTION MARK BY THAT. Because what the what? Wait, if Miss Clack is related to Sir John and not Lady Verinder, MAYBE RACHEL IS NOT SIR JOHN'S DAUGHTER. DUN DUN DUUUUUN!

    That is an excellent Clack tract. Good work, madam.

    I don't think anyone cares about the kidnapping, 'cause it happened to Godfrey (ooooooh Godfrey burn). And yeah, I was bummed about Miss Clack not getting her legacy or whatevs. She does not have an awesome life.

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    1. When I read that, I just thought Clack was saying she has so little respect for Rachel as a person that she can't even call her a cousin...even though she technically IS her cousin. Yes?

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    2. ...you're ruining yet another one of my theories, Meg.

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    3. I'm THAT person in the group.

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    4. I think I only care about Godfrey because I picture him as Godfrey Gao...

      Of course, the chances are relatively slim that Godfrey is supposed to be a beautiful Chinese man, but this is literally the only thing making me tolerate Godfrey at this point.

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    5. I had to look him up. Preeeettttyyyyy.

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    6. That is indeed a fine-looking man.

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    7. I don't want our villain Godfrey to be THIS Godfrey. So preeeeetty

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  4. I passed over the kidnappings too, which in a normal book would have been front-and-center of the wtf-ness. But not in a Wilkie work. I was far more interested in the Clack Tracts which are the best thing. Especially when she uses them in place of a tip with the cabbie and then has to run away from his yelling.

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    1. And then throws another one in the cab while he's driving off. Dude, Clack.

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    2. I definitely LOL'ed when she did that, and again when she tucked one into the fence. LITTERBUG!!

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    3. She's saving people's souls by warning them of Satan on the Sofa! That trumps littering

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  5. Cuff KIND of alludes to the fact that young ladies from rich families often run up debts for pretty clothes and such and ALSO for other reasons that he won't be indelicate enough to mention. Could he have meant abortion there? Was that a thing back then?

    And that whole bit about the dog. I have to laugh at myself because I never once thought it might be important to the story. I just thought, "Awww...Betteredge loves dogs." My simple, simple mind in action.

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    1. Definitely meant an abortion. Or drugs. A drug abortion.

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    2. Damn you, kids, and your constant drug abortions!

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    3. I feel like abortion would be really far off the radar in this context. Cuff is more likely hinting that she'd be saving up to elope, or paying off a blackmailer. Or worst case scenario, that she's pregnant and trying to get money so that when her mom throws her out she can find somewhere to go.

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  6. I didn't talk about the kidnapping thing EITHER. What is with all of us? Clearly this is not important. Speaking of, I dunno man; I think Betteredge is just a rambley rambler and the dogs won't come back into the story.

    #6. TOTES bothersome. I think she's doing this on purpose, to bother Franklin. "I could say SO MUCH MORE but alas..."

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    1. ME, EITHER! Maybe because they were kidnapped and then... nothing happened because of it? And also, Clack Tracts.

      And WHAT is with Rachel getting engaged to Godfrey? He's such a ponce.

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    2. Neither did I!

      Godfrey is just so ... meh. I would have been a tad more interested in it if Godfrey hadn't been so 'no biggie, just your everyday, run o' the mill kidnapping.'

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    3. Complete ponce. He definitely just plays it down to seem more heroic.

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  7. I noticed the dog thing, too. You can't fool us, Wilkie! I love theorizing that little details are going to be the most important clues. Like how I'm still holding tight to my theory that Dr. Candy was poisoned by someone at Rachel's birthday dinner... I know, the dog was poisoned, too!

    I can't believe I forgot to mention Rosanna's death in my post. Although I actually read ahead last week, so I wasn't thinking it was up for discussion this week. Poor Rosanna. Quicksand has to be one of the worst ways to die :(


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