After writing the 4-7 links second part of this three part post, I thought of another one 'Cuckoo'-'Grave' parallel [see the comments after the (B) post for three additional 1-4-7 echoes]. Strike and Robin in the early days of their investigation into Lula Landry's death, go online and read to each other the commentary there about her supposed suicide. They spend a significant part of this initial research time in 'Cuckoo' scanning the photos of the people who attended the super-model's funeral. Fast forward to 'Grave' and witness Strike's attention in scanning the pictures posted online of Charlotte's funeral.
There will be more on this in the pieces that Nick has written and I will be writing about Charlotte's death being a murder not a suicide.
I love your comments on the significance of word "now," how Strike's profession of love for Robin means "she now has to compare Ryan to Cormoran.." That section of your comments on the parallels between the latches of CC and RG is beautiful.
One of the parallels I see between CC and RG that I find interesting is that the titles both come from poetry on death. It's interesting because there's more than one poem with the phrase "running grave." A contemporary of Dylan Thomas, George Barker, wrote a poem about the near death of a friend that has this phrase "that cold sea at Cromer like a running grave," and Strike noticed that Wace plagiarized his poem when his first wife drowned. Interestingly, it's the plagiarized version of Barker's poem that is a parallel to Rossetti's elegy.
Both villains In CC and RG have jiggling, bouncing knees when they are interviewed by Strike.
Both books use the French word froideur to describe a feeling Strike noticed between Robin and himself and both times he curbs his tone with her. (CC, page 292 and RG, page 187)
Both books describe someone with similar eyes. In CC Robin notes Rokeby's "wild eyes...the left eye off kilter." In RG Robin sees Mazu's eyes as "crookedly set."
Both books describe feelings Robin gets in her stomach. In CC she feels "a sharp stab of panic to the stomach" when she sees Strike's reaction to the message Charlotte charged her with relaying to Strike. Twice in RG she gets "an electric shock in the pit of her stomach." One happens upon hearing from Prudence she's "clearly the most important person in Strike's life," and the other happens when Strike tells her he needs to tell her something before she goes to Chapman Farm. At the end of RG she gets a similar feeling when Strike said that Charlotte knew "I was in love with you," only this time she feels the shock in her brain. The distinction is startling, and also telling because this feeling has more weight, more permanence. It's not a passing feeling but one she can bank on.
Great finds, Sandy! I wish I had caught that Rossetti-Barker link between the epigraphs and those jiggling knees -- the latter would have been a great 'tell' for the 'Running Grave' murderer.
Thank you. In your defense the rabbity look of the Graves clan didn't help, especially when that descriptor was repeated so much.
And I'll be honest, I kept getting the poems mixed up, especially when the excerpt at the end of CC doesn't mention Tennyson, and he also wrote an elegy, In Memoriam, which is reflected in Deathly Hallows. I'd write something I thought was clever and thankfully realize what nonsense it was and start over.
Did you mention all the ways Strike's name is screwed up? CC has "Cameron Strick" at the end, but I loved Shelly's "Condoman" in the same chapter in which Ilsa told Robin about Bijou telling coworkers about taking a used condom out of a bin...
And Abigail calling him Cormarion was particularly interesting when I looked it up. "You might be psychic, but not know it. You are frank, methodical and believe in law, system and order...always looking for an opportunity to investigate the unknown." How ironic she dubbed him with a name that, though not his, aptly described the one who'd find her out. Gotta love it!
I am extremely intrigued by how Rowling uses eyes in this series. More often than not, the initial description of eyes seems to function as an accurate “window to soul” of the character, or how the character relates to the larger story. In particular, there are many cyclops characters - including Creed, whose one eye was wounded in a prison fight. His interview is preceded by a description of the “cyclopian eyes” of the security cameras. One of the podcast commentators made an excellent argument for the interview as a retelling of Odysseus’ defeat of the cyclops! But I’ve lost count of the number of characters with an injured/ mismatched or crooked eyes. An incomplete list includes: Owen Quine, Satchwell, Mazu, the Wace brothers, and I believe there are a few villains who get injured in the eye during capture. I wonder if further books will shed light on the meaning behind mismatched eyes. Does anyone else have ideas or remember other characters with odd eyes?
Here's a few: Guy Somé has exophthalmic or bulging eyes, Noel Brockbank has one eye socket that is sunken, caved in towards his nose, Della Winn is blind from birth from bilateral microphthalmia, Irene Hickson has hooded eyes, Ricci has a drooping eye, and both Tansy and Carl Oakden have eyes "fractionally/slightly" too close together. I already mentioned Rokeby's left eye being off kilter.
There was an article here about eyes. Anybody remember what its title is?
After writing the 4-7 links second part of this three part post, I thought of another one 'Cuckoo'-'Grave' parallel [see the comments after the (B) post for three additional 1-4-7 echoes]. Strike and Robin in the early days of their investigation into Lula Landry's death, go online and read to each other the commentary there about her supposed suicide. They spend a significant part of this initial research time in 'Cuckoo' scanning the photos of the people who attended the super-model's funeral. Fast forward to 'Grave' and witness Strike's attention in scanning the pictures posted online of Charlotte's funeral.
There will be more on this in the pieces that Nick has written and I will be writing about Charlotte's death being a murder not a suicide.
I love your comments on the significance of word "now," how Strike's profession of love for Robin means "she now has to compare Ryan to Cormoran.." That section of your comments on the parallels between the latches of CC and RG is beautiful.
One of the parallels I see between CC and RG that I find interesting is that the titles both come from poetry on death. It's interesting because there's more than one poem with the phrase "running grave." A contemporary of Dylan Thomas, George Barker, wrote a poem about the near death of a friend that has this phrase "that cold sea at Cromer like a running grave," and Strike noticed that Wace plagiarized his poem when his first wife drowned. Interestingly, it's the plagiarized version of Barker's poem that is a parallel to Rossetti's elegy.
Both villains In CC and RG have jiggling, bouncing knees when they are interviewed by Strike.
Both books use the French word froideur to describe a feeling Strike noticed between Robin and himself and both times he curbs his tone with her. (CC, page 292 and RG, page 187)
Both books describe someone with similar eyes. In CC Robin notes Rokeby's "wild eyes...the left eye off kilter." In RG Robin sees Mazu's eyes as "crookedly set."
Both books describe feelings Robin gets in her stomach. In CC she feels "a sharp stab of panic to the stomach" when she sees Strike's reaction to the message Charlotte charged her with relaying to Strike. Twice in RG she gets "an electric shock in the pit of her stomach." One happens upon hearing from Prudence she's "clearly the most important person in Strike's life," and the other happens when Strike tells her he needs to tell her something before she goes to Chapman Farm. At the end of RG she gets a similar feeling when Strike said that Charlotte knew "I was in love with you," only this time she feels the shock in her brain. The distinction is startling, and also telling because this feeling has more weight, more permanence. It's not a passing feeling but one she can bank on.
Great finds, Sandy! I wish I had caught that Rossetti-Barker link between the epigraphs and those jiggling knees -- the latter would have been a great 'tell' for the 'Running Grave' murderer.
Thank you. In your defense the rabbity look of the Graves clan didn't help, especially when that descriptor was repeated so much.
And I'll be honest, I kept getting the poems mixed up, especially when the excerpt at the end of CC doesn't mention Tennyson, and he also wrote an elegy, In Memoriam, which is reflected in Deathly Hallows. I'd write something I thought was clever and thankfully realize what nonsense it was and start over.
Did you mention all the ways Strike's name is screwed up? CC has "Cameron Strick" at the end, but I loved Shelly's "Condoman" in the same chapter in which Ilsa told Robin about Bijou telling coworkers about taking a used condom out of a bin...
And Abigail calling him Cormarion was particularly interesting when I looked it up. "You might be psychic, but not know it. You are frank, methodical and believe in law, system and order...always looking for an opportunity to investigate the unknown." How ironic she dubbed him with a name that, though not his, aptly described the one who'd find her out. Gotta love it!
I am extremely intrigued by how Rowling uses eyes in this series. More often than not, the initial description of eyes seems to function as an accurate “window to soul” of the character, or how the character relates to the larger story. In particular, there are many cyclops characters - including Creed, whose one eye was wounded in a prison fight. His interview is preceded by a description of the “cyclopian eyes” of the security cameras. One of the podcast commentators made an excellent argument for the interview as a retelling of Odysseus’ defeat of the cyclops! But I’ve lost count of the number of characters with an injured/ mismatched or crooked eyes. An incomplete list includes: Owen Quine, Satchwell, Mazu, the Wace brothers, and I believe there are a few villains who get injured in the eye during capture. I wonder if further books will shed light on the meaning behind mismatched eyes. Does anyone else have ideas or remember other characters with odd eyes?
Here's a few: Guy Somé has exophthalmic or bulging eyes, Noel Brockbank has one eye socket that is sunken, caved in towards his nose, Della Winn is blind from birth from bilateral microphthalmia, Irene Hickson has hooded eyes, Ricci has a drooping eye, and both Tansy and Carl Oakden have eyes "fractionally/slightly" too close together. I already mentioned Rokeby's left eye being off kilter.
There was an article here about eyes. Anybody remember what its title is?
I also remembered that Gus is introduced with one eye so swollen that his mother doesn't want him driving the next day.