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*rambles on about F&N*
(I will actually have brain to reply in the BSG post tonight)
spoilers for Freedom and Necessity.
The thing about re-reading F&N something like once every nine months is that, after a while, it's like an old friend. You have the same conversations, but sometimes, you each phrase things differently and find new ways to argue.
To wit:
1. The Coslicks. Given James's comments, one can assume they were members of the Chartist underground. Given Richard's, they were members of something else. A counter-Trotter's Club? Something neutral in the entire matter, an off-shoot of the TC? Or were they members of the club of Callendars that were offering Kitty a birth-right of some sort? The latter seems most likely, given their comments as to Richard and Kitty's abilities and James's lack of interest in matters arcane.
2. Richard ought not to mock Kitty for her studies (opium or not), given his own insistence on things like bits of Iron and sprigs of Mistletoe, not to mention marrying Kitty to avert--what?
3. Which leads to the thought that perhaps James wasn't the target in Southampton, perhaps it was Diccon himself, given that he could have brought things to the table (and did, as without him the matters at Cauldhurst would have gone rather differently). Were there rumors about Kitty's and Richard's preferences towards matters arcane? Enough to give the conspirators pause--which I think leads us to Eleanor T., given that she's the only one who knew where James was. And Richard would be an encumbrance to her plans for her child and Cauldhurst (recall, too, David was still alive, then). James, I think, would still never relieve himself of the guilt at having caused the attack.
4. I shall never not find it amusing that Susan and James settled in Wisconsin and proceeded to repopulate the Cobhams (with help from Richard and Kitty, I'll wager). Though she would never have married him.
I am curiously reluctant to read the last bits of Richard's journal. I've already read Susan's side (in fact, before I'd even begun to re-read, which is rather silly), and it's not exactly an easy matter to forget, the disposition of the conspirators and the destruction of certain lives.
spoilers for Freedom and Necessity.
The thing about re-reading F&N something like once every nine months is that, after a while, it's like an old friend. You have the same conversations, but sometimes, you each phrase things differently and find new ways to argue.
To wit:
1. The Coslicks. Given James's comments, one can assume they were members of the Chartist underground. Given Richard's, they were members of something else. A counter-Trotter's Club? Something neutral in the entire matter, an off-shoot of the TC? Or were they members of the club of Callendars that were offering Kitty a birth-right of some sort? The latter seems most likely, given their comments as to Richard and Kitty's abilities and James's lack of interest in matters arcane.
2. Richard ought not to mock Kitty for her studies (opium or not), given his own insistence on things like bits of Iron and sprigs of Mistletoe, not to mention marrying Kitty to avert--what?
3. Which leads to the thought that perhaps James wasn't the target in Southampton, perhaps it was Diccon himself, given that he could have brought things to the table (and did, as without him the matters at Cauldhurst would have gone rather differently). Were there rumors about Kitty's and Richard's preferences towards matters arcane? Enough to give the conspirators pause--which I think leads us to Eleanor T., given that she's the only one who knew where James was. And Richard would be an encumbrance to her plans for her child and Cauldhurst (recall, too, David was still alive, then). James, I think, would still never relieve himself of the guilt at having caused the attack.
4. I shall never not find it amusing that Susan and James settled in Wisconsin and proceeded to repopulate the Cobhams (with help from Richard and Kitty, I'll wager). Though she would never have married him.
I am curiously reluctant to read the last bits of Richard's journal. I've already read Susan's side (in fact, before I'd even begun to re-read, which is rather silly), and it's not exactly an easy matter to forget, the disposition of the conspirators and the destruction of certain lives.