BLACKWOOD FARM CHAPTER 35
Sep. 23rd, 2017 05:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
a_sporking_ratI've been keeping rats some 15 years or so, and never had this amount of incredible bad luck. Rocket has now gotten sick too, and it doesn't seem to be the same respiratory illness that took Darcy, Topaz, and Dodger. For whatever reason, he's not eating, and as a result has lost weight and is lethargic/weak. I've taken him to the vet, and they don't know what it is but they gave me some meds, and I'm taking him back in regularly for fluids. Meanwhile at home, he's getting a lot of tempting treats like roast beef, yogurt, avocado, and eggs in order to encourage him to eat. I hope he recovers, I really don't want to lose another rat so soon, especially what was just recently a strong young healthy buck like Rocket.
In the meantime, enjoy...
BLACKWOOD FARM CHAPTER 35
They end up touring Europe for three and a half years. Nothing of note really happens. It jumps around a lot so I'm going to divide it into sections, but the only part really worth reading about at all is Goblin.
AUNT QUEEN
Her health is getting worse as they go. Finally, in Cairo, her nurse Cindy says they have to go back home for her sake, no more traveling. Quinn, Tommy, and Nash all agree. Quinn notes when Tommy speaks up that is now a "pretty tall twelve years old" and it's placed/phrased in such a way that it accidentally (I'm pretty sure this was not intended) sounds like his height is supposed to be relevant to his telling her this, so my mind automatically jumped to "what, is he supposed to be threatening her with his height?" Again, not intentional, I'm sure. I think that Rice wanted to let the readers know how old Tommy is at this point, and probably added in the height as a detail because he's related to Quinn who is now 6'4, but did it at such a place it makes it seem like she meant something she didn't. It's just a little thing but I feel like it's one of those little things that shows she would benefit so much from an editor, even one that wasn't allowed to give input on the plot and characters.
TOMMY
We are assured by Quinn that Tommy is a genius. He asks lots of questions, buys souvenirs for his siblings, Aunt Queen spoils him, and Quinn loves him. Quinn plans to never ever give him back to Terry Sue unless Tommy "madly insisted upon it" but Tommy never does and "on the contrary, by the second year he did not correct me or even go silent when I said 'When you come to live with us at Blackwood Manor'"
...maybe that's because after a year of you clearly not listening to what he's saying, he gave up? I don't want him back with an abusive mother either, just Quinn is still kind of an ass here.
After it's decided that it's time for them to go home, they have a big party and Tommy, now thirteen by a matter of days, reads a poem about how he's a man now thanks to Quinn.
MONA
They have passionate correspondences as Ophelia Immortal and Noble Abelard and there is now "no question" that they shall be in a "chaste marriage" which Quinn describes as "lust without penetration"
...as a lesbian who doesn't do penetration, his idea it's not sex if you don't put a penis in a vagina is HILARIOUS to me.
He also phones her, and he talks to Michael and Rowan as well, who assure him her condition is stable and she has no need for Quinn to come home. Michael tells him that he's been a "godsend" though because thanks to him Mona has stopped her "erotic roaming"
Then they discuss all the films she's watching which I guess must be Rice's favorites or something.
At around the same time they all decide to take Aunt Queen home, Mona's correspondences stop coming. After two weeks without an email from her, Quinn tries to reach Mona by phone as soon as they're checked in to their next hotel.
But not before he informs the reader that oh by the way he's a huge suite and Aunt Queen has the penthouse floor. I am getting so fucking tired of him just dropping in how fabulously wealthy he is. And like, normally I don't mind rich protagonists? I don't care either way? And I love reading about beautiful things and expensive surroundings, so I reasonably should enjoy it....but the way Quinn does it just feels exactly like when someone you're having a conversation with drops in some kind of humblebrag, like you can TELL they want you to KNOW this and BE IMPRESSED and it's so obnoxious and that's how this reads. Also there's not actually any beautiful descriptions anyway. Which do make more sense from the "he's telling a story to Lestat" perspective, but like, as long as he's not gonna give a shit about that IN GENERAL anyway, can I get some of Rice's beautiful purple prose about architecture and interiors? She's so good at that and I know she loves doing it, which makes Quinn's nondescriptive "oh by the way" manner of mentioning these things to the reader seem that much more like it's just there to ensure us he's rich because did you know he's rich? If it was an opportunity for Rice to write about beautiful things, I'd be a bit more indulgent, but it's not, it's just her fetish/fascination for insanely rich people.
For your own judgement, this is the exact passage:
"And I was anxious about Mona. She hadn't answered my E-mails for over two weeks. As soon as we were checked in---I was in a huge suite with a very long broad terrace, right below Aunt Queen, who had the penthouse with Cindy--I tried to reach Mona by phone and got a taciturn, somewhat solemn Rowan."
See what I mean? It's very quick, I can't be annoyed about it being dwelled on over much or anything, but it's so very irrelevant to the matter (the very IMPORTANT manner that his SERIOUSLY ILL GIRLFRIEND has not contacted him at all for TWO WEEKS) that the way it's shoved in there just makes it seem, like I said, like Quinn is one of those dudes who just has to be sure you know he had the super duper best suite because he's super duper rich. Which comes off especially douchey as something to think about at the aforementioned VERY WORRISOME SITUATION. And of course, I don't think Rice means for Quinn to come off like this, which is the biggest problem (I could probably find his douchery HILARIOUS if it were intentional, smug d-bags crack me up to no end and are frequently my favorites when done intentionally. I absolutely fucking LOVED Emma Roberts character in the first season of Scream Queens for that exact reason, and let's be real, who really gives a shit about Cady in Mean Girls, that was REGINA'S movie. And Hexiva, since I know you're reading this, they're basically FOR YOU at this point---do I even need to mention CERTAIN REDHEADS? DO I?)
Speaking of the worrisome situation and another redhead, two weeks seems a really long while to wait to check up on her. I realize they're traveling but surely they're staying in a hotel or something each night, and surely ones that have Internet and/or phones? I mean, can you imagine them NOT? I wonder if Rice decided he hadn't heard from her in two weeks to make it seem dire, and then didn't consider that it seems very out-of-character for the selfish-but-still-obsessive Quinn not to call before then.
Anyway.
According to Rowan, the deal with Mona is she's going to be at Mayfair Medical for "some tests" for "several months" and will not be able to see Quinn. When Quinn asks if she's taken a turn for the worse, Rowan says that she doesn't know for sure and that's why they're doing the tests, but she's been running a fever for months and her immune system is compromised and "somebody sneezes in the same room as her and she comes down with double penumonia"
...that sure sounds like "worse" to me but I'm not a super prodigy Mayfair doctor so what do I know?
Anyway, Rowan says Quinn can't talk to Mona on the phone because Rowan doesn't want anything to upset her, and Mona can't know she's on his way home either because then she'd be upset she can't see him, as she's in isolation. Okay, three years have passed, right? Mona is eighteen now. If not exactly eighteen, surely very close. Hell, even if she were younger, I think this would still be like...very infantilizing and not-okay on Rowan's part. But like, I also feel like it's not necessarily unrealistic either? I can't remember shit about Rowan's personality, but she is Mona's guardian, so---wait. Wait a second.
Isn't it illegal for a doctor to treat their own children/relatives? Isn't that considered a...conflict of interest or something? Am I wrong?
In any case though, this attitude, especially towards someone who is both chronically ill and her responsibility as a guardian, is something I don't find unlikely even if I do find it wrong. I'm hoping Rice is thinking about it that way, is all.
Anyway, Rowan confirms that Mona hasn't been telling Quinn she was actually "sick all along" and just "protecting" Quinn all this time from it, Quinn tells Rowan how much he loves Mona, Rowan thanks Quinn for how good he's been for Mona and how he got her to stop doing things that hurt her.
Quinn wonders if he fell so in love with the E-mails of Ophelia Immortal that he lost the real Mona herself.
POMPEII
When they visit the site of Pompeii, Quinn has a dream about the eruption of Vesuvius where he's trying to evacuate slaves from the island. They get on a boat, the boat turns over, Quinn falls into the water and feels another body "enveloping mine" and then in the night sky he sees Petronia standing on a balcony. He calls her a devil, wake up violently, goes to Aunt Queen and tells her he had a nightmare. She tells him "You come get in this bed with me right now, you poor little boy" and he does so.
Yeah, I should be used to how weird this is, but I'm not.
As for the real Petronia, Allen has reported finding evidence that 'someone' is using the Hermitage during the evening.
GOBLIN
Goblin faded away while Quinn is on the plane. In the last moments before he disappears altogether, Quinn asks him to watch over Blackwood Farm and everyone there. It's interesting to me that Quinn doesn't panic at all, he doesn't worry whether Goblin is "dying" or not, he assumes he'll just go back to Blackwood Farm. Is that what happened when Quinn went to New York? I can't remember, and I can't find that part in the book.
He's also only lonely and shocked for but "a full hour" before being okay with this and feeling how "free" he is to do things like "the tasks of Manhood" and being Tommy's nephew and making Aunt Queen happy. I feel like this separation should be more of a big deal. I'm torn because even so, I don't WANT to read pages upon pages of Quinn coping without Goblin, but like, I still feel like there should be more to it than an hour/a paragraph in which we're simply informed he was in agony and then it's done.
Also, he turns out to be right about Goblin just going back to Blackwood Farm. When he calls home, Jasmine tells him he's smashing up the kitchen (to the delight of guests---they came for a ghost, after all!) and breaks all the windows. He also turns on the computer and types QUINN COME HOME. Quinn has Jasmine type back on the computer that Quinn will send him email "care of my computer name, King Tarquin." Apparently it takes Jasmine "a good while" to get this message "straightened out" and I realize Quinn does talk like he's from a century ago but that still feels a little insulting to Jasmine on Rice's part.
Also "as Lord of Blackwood Manor, I saw no reason to tell the others that almost every window in the house had been broken." Lord of Blackwood Manor. I can't with this. And then he thinks how maybe his email name should be Noble Abelard and he should "insist" that Mona be Ophelia Immortal and Goblin should be...Goblin.
Anyway they get an email correspondence up, but while Mona's emails are passionate, Goblin's get weaker and weaker "only confessing his need of me and his love." I really do feel bad for this little ghost. Quinn says he's worried about this but that there's nothing he can do that he hasn't done already. Um, ask to go back?
...I mean. It's crappy Quinn is beholden to Goblin. And, you know, the rape thing. But since Rice doesn't seem to intend that as rape, and does mean, I think, for Quinn to sincerely love Goblin, it seems pretty shitty for him to not even consider returning.
Aunt Queen thinks he's much improved by being without Goblin and it's much better for him because he's not constantly distracted by him. While I do feel for Goblin, she is probably right.
OTHERS
We get lots of informed attributes about Nash without actually seeing him do anything onscreen. We're just told. Okay, technically everything is being told by Quinn after the time, but you know what I mean. He's a very nice very smart man and he does a lot of extra work for them like faxing and bills and gratuities and physically assisting Aunt Queen. Managing faxes and bills and shit sounds like a job in itself, like I'm sure that's an actual job, and I wonder if he gets paid for that.
Patsy is still doing okay. Quinn realizes no one had given her any thought and he feels kinda bad for it, and wonders if she'll have "the sense" to get the medical treatment she needs. She's successful with her music for the most part but not as successful as she hoped/expected, and spent a lot of money on a music video that didn't get proper airtime, and Clem invested his entire inheritance in an album of hers that flopped so now he wants to sue her.
Also, now that they're going home, Quinn says that his concerns about what's waiting for him---Goblin, Petronia, Mona---have a "Byronic" hold on him. I can't help it, I'm cracking up. Who seriously compares themselves to a Byronic hero? Quinn, apparently.
So the chapter ends, there's less than 200 pages of this book left, and it still seems like pretty much NOTHING is happening.
In the meantime, enjoy...
BLACKWOOD FARM CHAPTER 35
They end up touring Europe for three and a half years. Nothing of note really happens. It jumps around a lot so I'm going to divide it into sections, but the only part really worth reading about at all is Goblin.
AUNT QUEEN
Her health is getting worse as they go. Finally, in Cairo, her nurse Cindy says they have to go back home for her sake, no more traveling. Quinn, Tommy, and Nash all agree. Quinn notes when Tommy speaks up that is now a "pretty tall twelve years old" and it's placed/phrased in such a way that it accidentally (I'm pretty sure this was not intended) sounds like his height is supposed to be relevant to his telling her this, so my mind automatically jumped to "what, is he supposed to be threatening her with his height?" Again, not intentional, I'm sure. I think that Rice wanted to let the readers know how old Tommy is at this point, and probably added in the height as a detail because he's related to Quinn who is now 6'4, but did it at such a place it makes it seem like she meant something she didn't. It's just a little thing but I feel like it's one of those little things that shows she would benefit so much from an editor, even one that wasn't allowed to give input on the plot and characters.
TOMMY
We are assured by Quinn that Tommy is a genius. He asks lots of questions, buys souvenirs for his siblings, Aunt Queen spoils him, and Quinn loves him. Quinn plans to never ever give him back to Terry Sue unless Tommy "madly insisted upon it" but Tommy never does and "on the contrary, by the second year he did not correct me or even go silent when I said 'When you come to live with us at Blackwood Manor'"
...maybe that's because after a year of you clearly not listening to what he's saying, he gave up? I don't want him back with an abusive mother either, just Quinn is still kind of an ass here.
After it's decided that it's time for them to go home, they have a big party and Tommy, now thirteen by a matter of days, reads a poem about how he's a man now thanks to Quinn.
MONA
They have passionate correspondences as Ophelia Immortal and Noble Abelard and there is now "no question" that they shall be in a "chaste marriage" which Quinn describes as "lust without penetration"
...as a lesbian who doesn't do penetration, his idea it's not sex if you don't put a penis in a vagina is HILARIOUS to me.
He also phones her, and he talks to Michael and Rowan as well, who assure him her condition is stable and she has no need for Quinn to come home. Michael tells him that he's been a "godsend" though because thanks to him Mona has stopped her "erotic roaming"
Then they discuss all the films she's watching which I guess must be Rice's favorites or something.
At around the same time they all decide to take Aunt Queen home, Mona's correspondences stop coming. After two weeks without an email from her, Quinn tries to reach Mona by phone as soon as they're checked in to their next hotel.
But not before he informs the reader that oh by the way he's a huge suite and Aunt Queen has the penthouse floor. I am getting so fucking tired of him just dropping in how fabulously wealthy he is. And like, normally I don't mind rich protagonists? I don't care either way? And I love reading about beautiful things and expensive surroundings, so I reasonably should enjoy it....but the way Quinn does it just feels exactly like when someone you're having a conversation with drops in some kind of humblebrag, like you can TELL they want you to KNOW this and BE IMPRESSED and it's so obnoxious and that's how this reads. Also there's not actually any beautiful descriptions anyway. Which do make more sense from the "he's telling a story to Lestat" perspective, but like, as long as he's not gonna give a shit about that IN GENERAL anyway, can I get some of Rice's beautiful purple prose about architecture and interiors? She's so good at that and I know she loves doing it, which makes Quinn's nondescriptive "oh by the way" manner of mentioning these things to the reader seem that much more like it's just there to ensure us he's rich because did you know he's rich? If it was an opportunity for Rice to write about beautiful things, I'd be a bit more indulgent, but it's not, it's just her fetish/fascination for insanely rich people.
For your own judgement, this is the exact passage:
"And I was anxious about Mona. She hadn't answered my E-mails for over two weeks. As soon as we were checked in---I was in a huge suite with a very long broad terrace, right below Aunt Queen, who had the penthouse with Cindy--I tried to reach Mona by phone and got a taciturn, somewhat solemn Rowan."
See what I mean? It's very quick, I can't be annoyed about it being dwelled on over much or anything, but it's so very irrelevant to the matter (the very IMPORTANT manner that his SERIOUSLY ILL GIRLFRIEND has not contacted him at all for TWO WEEKS) that the way it's shoved in there just makes it seem, like I said, like Quinn is one of those dudes who just has to be sure you know he had the super duper best suite because he's super duper rich. Which comes off especially douchey as something to think about at the aforementioned VERY WORRISOME SITUATION. And of course, I don't think Rice means for Quinn to come off like this, which is the biggest problem (I could probably find his douchery HILARIOUS if it were intentional, smug d-bags crack me up to no end and are frequently my favorites when done intentionally. I absolutely fucking LOVED Emma Roberts character in the first season of Scream Queens for that exact reason, and let's be real, who really gives a shit about Cady in Mean Girls, that was REGINA'S movie. And Hexiva, since I know you're reading this, they're basically FOR YOU at this point---do I even need to mention CERTAIN REDHEADS? DO I?)
Speaking of the worrisome situation and another redhead, two weeks seems a really long while to wait to check up on her. I realize they're traveling but surely they're staying in a hotel or something each night, and surely ones that have Internet and/or phones? I mean, can you imagine them NOT? I wonder if Rice decided he hadn't heard from her in two weeks to make it seem dire, and then didn't consider that it seems very out-of-character for the selfish-but-still-obsessive Quinn not to call before then.
Anyway.
According to Rowan, the deal with Mona is she's going to be at Mayfair Medical for "some tests" for "several months" and will not be able to see Quinn. When Quinn asks if she's taken a turn for the worse, Rowan says that she doesn't know for sure and that's why they're doing the tests, but she's been running a fever for months and her immune system is compromised and "somebody sneezes in the same room as her and she comes down with double penumonia"
...that sure sounds like "worse" to me but I'm not a super prodigy Mayfair doctor so what do I know?
Anyway, Rowan says Quinn can't talk to Mona on the phone because Rowan doesn't want anything to upset her, and Mona can't know she's on his way home either because then she'd be upset she can't see him, as she's in isolation. Okay, three years have passed, right? Mona is eighteen now. If not exactly eighteen, surely very close. Hell, even if she were younger, I think this would still be like...very infantilizing and not-okay on Rowan's part. But like, I also feel like it's not necessarily unrealistic either? I can't remember shit about Rowan's personality, but she is Mona's guardian, so---wait. Wait a second.
Isn't it illegal for a doctor to treat their own children/relatives? Isn't that considered a...conflict of interest or something? Am I wrong?
In any case though, this attitude, especially towards someone who is both chronically ill and her responsibility as a guardian, is something I don't find unlikely even if I do find it wrong. I'm hoping Rice is thinking about it that way, is all.
Anyway, Rowan confirms that Mona hasn't been telling Quinn she was actually "sick all along" and just "protecting" Quinn all this time from it, Quinn tells Rowan how much he loves Mona, Rowan thanks Quinn for how good he's been for Mona and how he got her to stop doing things that hurt her.
Quinn wonders if he fell so in love with the E-mails of Ophelia Immortal that he lost the real Mona herself.
POMPEII
When they visit the site of Pompeii, Quinn has a dream about the eruption of Vesuvius where he's trying to evacuate slaves from the island. They get on a boat, the boat turns over, Quinn falls into the water and feels another body "enveloping mine" and then in the night sky he sees Petronia standing on a balcony. He calls her a devil, wake up violently, goes to Aunt Queen and tells her he had a nightmare. She tells him "You come get in this bed with me right now, you poor little boy" and he does so.
Yeah, I should be used to how weird this is, but I'm not.
As for the real Petronia, Allen has reported finding evidence that 'someone' is using the Hermitage during the evening.
GOBLIN
Goblin faded away while Quinn is on the plane. In the last moments before he disappears altogether, Quinn asks him to watch over Blackwood Farm and everyone there. It's interesting to me that Quinn doesn't panic at all, he doesn't worry whether Goblin is "dying" or not, he assumes he'll just go back to Blackwood Farm. Is that what happened when Quinn went to New York? I can't remember, and I can't find that part in the book.
He's also only lonely and shocked for but "a full hour" before being okay with this and feeling how "free" he is to do things like "the tasks of Manhood" and being Tommy's nephew and making Aunt Queen happy. I feel like this separation should be more of a big deal. I'm torn because even so, I don't WANT to read pages upon pages of Quinn coping without Goblin, but like, I still feel like there should be more to it than an hour/a paragraph in which we're simply informed he was in agony and then it's done.
Also, he turns out to be right about Goblin just going back to Blackwood Farm. When he calls home, Jasmine tells him he's smashing up the kitchen (to the delight of guests---they came for a ghost, after all!) and breaks all the windows. He also turns on the computer and types QUINN COME HOME. Quinn has Jasmine type back on the computer that Quinn will send him email "care of my computer name, King Tarquin." Apparently it takes Jasmine "a good while" to get this message "straightened out" and I realize Quinn does talk like he's from a century ago but that still feels a little insulting to Jasmine on Rice's part.
Also "as Lord of Blackwood Manor, I saw no reason to tell the others that almost every window in the house had been broken." Lord of Blackwood Manor. I can't with this. And then he thinks how maybe his email name should be Noble Abelard and he should "insist" that Mona be Ophelia Immortal and Goblin should be...Goblin.
Anyway they get an email correspondence up, but while Mona's emails are passionate, Goblin's get weaker and weaker "only confessing his need of me and his love." I really do feel bad for this little ghost. Quinn says he's worried about this but that there's nothing he can do that he hasn't done already. Um, ask to go back?
...I mean. It's crappy Quinn is beholden to Goblin. And, you know, the rape thing. But since Rice doesn't seem to intend that as rape, and does mean, I think, for Quinn to sincerely love Goblin, it seems pretty shitty for him to not even consider returning.
Aunt Queen thinks he's much improved by being without Goblin and it's much better for him because he's not constantly distracted by him. While I do feel for Goblin, she is probably right.
OTHERS
We get lots of informed attributes about Nash without actually seeing him do anything onscreen. We're just told. Okay, technically everything is being told by Quinn after the time, but you know what I mean. He's a very nice very smart man and he does a lot of extra work for them like faxing and bills and gratuities and physically assisting Aunt Queen. Managing faxes and bills and shit sounds like a job in itself, like I'm sure that's an actual job, and I wonder if he gets paid for that.
Patsy is still doing okay. Quinn realizes no one had given her any thought and he feels kinda bad for it, and wonders if she'll have "the sense" to get the medical treatment she needs. She's successful with her music for the most part but not as successful as she hoped/expected, and spent a lot of money on a music video that didn't get proper airtime, and Clem invested his entire inheritance in an album of hers that flopped so now he wants to sue her.
Also, now that they're going home, Quinn says that his concerns about what's waiting for him---Goblin, Petronia, Mona---have a "Byronic" hold on him. I can't help it, I'm cracking up. Who seriously compares themselves to a Byronic hero? Quinn, apparently.
So the chapter ends, there's less than 200 pages of this book left, and it still seems like pretty much NOTHING is happening.
no subject
Date: 2017-09-23 11:42 pm (UTC)"Tommy, now thirteen by a matter of days, reads a poem about how he's a man now thanks to Quinn."
I can't read more right now because I am screaming forever over this. Where my mind went is not good. But I can't think of anything else that could even mean!
no subject
Date: 2017-09-24 02:49 am (UTC)