Every farthing of the cost
Jun. 12th, 2009 23:24![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
starladyI've just finished reading Farthing by Jo Walton (aka ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
papersky). It is an utterly brilliant, and brilliantly chilling, little book--though it's a quick read, it packs a great deal of wallop into a very unassuming structure, that of the English country-house mystery. In point of fact, I'm reminded more than a little of Robert Altman's movie "Gosford Park," though of course "Gosford Park" doesn't have the naissance of British fascism, in an alternate 1949 in which Britain sued for peace with the Reich in May 1941, hanging in the balance.
Lucy Khan, the renegade daughter of the leaders of the so-called Farthing Set, the faction within the Tories that made peace with Hitler, and her Jewish husband David Khan are prevailed upon by Lucy's mother to come down for the weekend, and when another member of the Set is found dead in his room with a Jewish star skewered to his chest, suspicion inevitably rests heavily on David, though Inspector Carmichael of Scotland Yard is too smart not to do his own thinking (and indeed, perhaps too smart for his own good). I quite liked Lucy, and David, and Carmichael too, though I did feel a bit annoyed at David, who is something of a political naif, all faith in England and its (unwritten) civil institutions--of course, by the end of the novel he's been disabused quite thoroughly of his notions. There is also an awesome Quaker character, Lucy's former governess, who helps Lucy out and who was responsible for much of Lucy's unique viewpoint (so much so that I found Lucy entirely believable, right down to the few grace notes Walton slips in that indicate the true extent of her background's privilege).
Walton is subtle, but very well nuanced, on matters of class and the difference they make; she's also quite insistent on laying bare the homosexuality that is usually hidden by history and by "keeping the side up" (to the point perhaps of being unsubtle, but then they wouldn't be aristocrats if they weren't louche and power-hungry, would they? But of course, that's the same sort of thinking-by-categories that enables facism past and present). In some ways I was reminded quite strongly of "V for Vendetta," because the means are the same, no matter the time or place: modernity enables fascism, fascism is modernity's dark side; human nature, molded by societal structures, does the rest. It happened before, in Germany, Italy, and Japan; it nearly happened here in the United States, in 2001-05 (and some would say, it did happen); it can very easily happen again.
On an unrelated, happier note, Hallmark sells same-sex couple wedding cards (though the ones I saw were either for male couples or generic. as usual, the lesbians are invisible). If that's not progress, I don't know what is.
papersky). It is an utterly brilliant, and brilliantly chilling, little book--though it's a quick read, it packs a great deal of wallop into a very unassuming structure, that of the English country-house mystery. In point of fact, I'm reminded more than a little of Robert Altman's movie "Gosford Park," though of course "Gosford Park" doesn't have the naissance of British fascism, in an alternate 1949 in which Britain sued for peace with the Reich in May 1941, hanging in the balance.Lucy Khan, the renegade daughter of the leaders of the so-called Farthing Set, the faction within the Tories that made peace with Hitler, and her Jewish husband David Khan are prevailed upon by Lucy's mother to come down for the weekend, and when another member of the Set is found dead in his room with a Jewish star skewered to his chest, suspicion inevitably rests heavily on David, though Inspector Carmichael of Scotland Yard is too smart not to do his own thinking (and indeed, perhaps too smart for his own good). I quite liked Lucy, and David, and Carmichael too, though I did feel a bit annoyed at David, who is something of a political naif, all faith in England and its (unwritten) civil institutions--of course, by the end of the novel he's been disabused quite thoroughly of his notions. There is also an awesome Quaker character, Lucy's former governess, who helps Lucy out and who was responsible for much of Lucy's unique viewpoint (so much so that I found Lucy entirely believable, right down to the few grace notes Walton slips in that indicate the true extent of her background's privilege).
Walton is subtle, but very well nuanced, on matters of class and the difference they make; she's also quite insistent on laying bare the homosexuality that is usually hidden by history and by "keeping the side up" (to the point perhaps of being unsubtle, but then they wouldn't be aristocrats if they weren't louche and power-hungry, would they? But of course, that's the same sort of thinking-by-categories that enables facism past and present). In some ways I was reminded quite strongly of "V for Vendetta," because the means are the same, no matter the time or place: modernity enables fascism, fascism is modernity's dark side; human nature, molded by societal structures, does the rest. It happened before, in Germany, Italy, and Japan; it nearly happened here in the United States, in 2001-05 (and some would say, it did happen); it can very easily happen again.
On an unrelated, happier note, Hallmark sells same-sex couple wedding cards (though the ones I saw were either for male couples or generic. as usual, the lesbians are invisible). If that's not progress, I don't know what is.
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Date: 2009-06-14 01:44 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-06-14 02:26 (UTC)