M&D - Chapter 16 - A personal tragedy, a divine comedy
Mark Kohut
mark.kohut at gmail.com
Tue Mar 24 04:01:31 CDT 2015
Yes! Linking Mason's unreliability as teller with his lost love is superb. I wondered why Mason would be presented that way, he has seemed reliable enough but heartbreak makes us all self-deceiving dramatizers.
Sent from my iPad
> On Mar 23, 2015, at 8:20 PM, Johnny Marr <marrja at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> "Here is what Mason tells Dixon of how Rebekah and he first met. Not yet understanding the narrative lengths Mason will go to, to avoid betraying her, Dixon believes ev'ry word"
>
> We've established that M&D is a novel boasting a Russian Doll structure of unreliable narrators - Mason, Cherrycoke, TRP himself. Is it possible to have a reliable narrator in the first place? Especially when you're telling the story of how your heart broke and you lost the greatest love of your life.
>
> I also believe we've previously mentioned a link between Mason and Rebekah and Orpheus and Eurydice. Rereading the start of chapter 16 now brings to mind The Divine Comedy
>
> “Amor, ch'al cor gentile ratto s'apprende
> prese costui de la bella persona
> che mi fu tolta; e 'l modo ancor m'offende.
>
> Amor, che a nullo amato amar perdona,
> Mi prese del costui piacer sì forte,
> Che, come vedi, ancor non m'abbandona..."
>
> "Love, which quickly arrests the gentle heart,
> Seized him with my beautiful form
> That was taken from me, in a manner which still grieves me.
>
> Love, which pardons no beloved from loving,
> took me so strongly with delight in him
> That, as you see, it still abandons me not...”
>
>
> Mason's suffering from a similar heart shattering personal loss, and is undertaking a deep personal examination of what his lost love meant to him and how he can properly honour her memory.
>
> Like Dante, Mason soon realises “My course is set for an uncharted sea.”
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