Running Grave, Part Zero: A Ring Reading

The Prologue as a Ring Structure

Being far more of a paragon of patience, our Headmaster Dr John Granger has been delaying his gratification of completing The Running Grave by charting each part of the book into (hopefully) a classical ring structure complete with latch, turn and turtleback. Currently you can see his results of Part 1 here and Part 2 here.

I was very privileged to be given an almost complete day tutorial on ring structure with John when he visited Wales this Summer using The Ink Black Heart as a text. This was a remarkable act of generosity when you consider he was only in the country for a few days, and one was already reserved for accepting his doctorate from Swansea University.

In a Skype call last weekend we were discussing John’s progress in charting Part 1, and I was trying my very best not to give any indication of the plot or structure past this, having completed my first reading that morning. Conversation moved to the Prologue, which as it both starts and finishes with letters from the Edensor parents also likely was chiastic in structure.

I had bought a physical copy of the book (Sarah, my wife, prefers this, and she wanted to see if Aylmerton shared similarities to a community she spent some time with as a child - it didn’t, thank goodness) so in less than forty minutes we sketched out a fair (if not perfect) ring structure.

Helpfully each of the sections were labelled in the Prologue which helped identify the turn axis of legal correspondence (and major data dump) to Sir Colin Edensor and Kevin Pirbright. John has noted that the meaning here seems to be that the law is helpless in aiding the injured but can be easily weaponized to serve the powerful. In this case, even the rich and connected Sir Colin and his lawyer, have to defer to the UHC’s lawyers unless they or Kevin can find some corroborating evidence.

The section is bracketed with the letters from Sir Colin and his wife to Will, forming the latch, with the turn reflection being the very data rich letter from UHC’s lawyers to Kevin Pirbright, coming directly after the first batch of family letters.

The first line of turtlebacks are formed by Kevin’s letter to Sir Colin and then Sir Colin’s letter to Kevin. Kevin, who’s death is revealed in chapter 4, and his agony tortured memories make clear warning for what Will might become if not rescued from the cult before too long.

The next turtleback line is formed from the wonderfully tilted Zeitgeist and ClickLit magazines from the UHC’s pet celebrities Noli Seymour and Giles Harmon, contrasting strongly the star’s shallowness and egocentricity with Kevin’s squalid but genuine pain.

Other than the turn reflection letter from Coolidge and Fairfax, this is a clear ring structure with two turtlebacks. The latch of the family letters are needed to focus the section on the need of the family for the Strike-Ellacott Detective Agency, and the turn and turn reflection are needed just for the sheer amount of exposition that can be dropped without the need for dialogue.