"The Evacuation still proceeds..." GR Part 1 Section 1

[Tim Strzechowski]

Well, perhaps Paul's point here is that there's a *lot* of information flung 
at the reader in a short space of narrative and, with references to specific 
historical facts (e.g., Evacuation, Prohibition) juxtaposed with enigmatics 
(e.g., the antecedent of the pronoun "he" is delayed until we meet Prentice; 
the darkness of the evacuation contrasted with references to "judgment" and 
"salvation"), the dream sequence makes for a mildly daunting experience for 
a first-time reader, I would imagine.  I know I didn't "get it" the first 
time I read it.

Tim


jbor:

>
> Why not? The reference to "The Evacuation" tunes the reader in pretty 
> quickly. And we find out that it's a character's dream in under two pages. 
> It's only later on when other complexities of character and plot become 
> apparent that these start to be factored into the opening, and its field 
> of potential associations broadens considerably.
>