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Apocryphal
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Comments
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Thanks, @RichardAbbott - I'll probably read this one, too.
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Very nice analysis @RichardAbbott !
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Hmm, I may have been confusing what I read about Georges Sioui (who was born in Wendak, Quebec) when I wrote that. According to Wikipedia, Boyden claims Ojibwe and Nipmuc heritage (and previously Mi'kmak and Metis.) However, this shift in my percept…
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We’ll, fist off, I disagree with the thesis that it’s doesn’t read like fiction. It reads to me like all historical fiction, where the events are known but the details and character motivations are not. I can only speculate as to why he wrote it…
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The big changes to the world around them largely go unnoticed by them in their villages. It’s only at the end, when the Iroquois show up en mass, that the effect is really felt, I suppose. Before that, it’s mainly just Bird’s creeping malaise sugges…
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We don't know for sure that the feud would have ended - it may well have continued even after Snow Falls was returned. If the English had not given the Iroquois guns, things might have ended differently, too. But it seems inevitable to me that the E…
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Although there's a fair amount of mysticism in the Wendat camp - Gosling, for sure, as a sort of medicine woman, but Snow Falls is also prone to some bouts of mysticism. But Christophe is, too, in his own way. He accurately predicts when the rain wi…
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I don't understand the 'no dramatic thrust to the events' comment - the books seems full of dramatic events, many of which are brought about by the character's actions. I do agree that there's definitely a slice of life quality. I don't see that thi…
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Some reviewers seemed to think that the Iroquois were the villains, and that Christophe was the hero, and that this made the novel 'predictable'. I certainly didn't see things that way. I think each of the main characters are the hero of their own s…
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Yes, I had forgotten about that.
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Keep in mind the question are there to spur on discussion, so there may be many good interpretations. In the first part I was meaning to ask in it was inevitable that the Jesuit mission ended in flames, that the Jesuits would be brutally murdered b…
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I also didn't realize both groups were Iroquoian. I had assumed the Hurons were Algonquin. Which tribes, perhaps strangely since they occupied Southern Ontario, don't make much of an appearance in this book. Gosling is, I think Ojibwe from further n…
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I'm talking about a hypothetical person, and since I was comparing it to 'easterners' and 'orientals' (which are only eastern or oriental from a 'western' perspective) I put it in quotes. The term 'native' lumps a whole lot of different people toget…
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I'll work on putting the questions up on Friday.
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No I didn't. I just pointed out these things aren't unique to the black community.
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Well, I'm glad to hear that 'white people' isn't one of the reasons, anyway. Most of these reasons can be applied to any group. Why don't bankers play RPGs? 1. They don't know about them. 2. They aren't interested in them. 3. Banking culture doesn'…
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Great, thanks Richard!
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Ok, np - lots of time still left in the month. Are you reading this one, @BarnerCobblewood ?
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No change. My mistake. My thoughts: Thematically, I like it. Kind of like Napoleonic naval fiction, but on airships - and I like both of those. Will it stand up to the high standards set by O’Brien, Woodman, Kent, and Forester in that genre? …
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How is everyone doing with this book, btw? Neil, Richard, and I all finished it. Anyone else still reading it?
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So is The Guns Above by Robin Bennis what we're doing for May?
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In The Orenda, three islands are mentioned toward the end, the largest of which is now named Christian Island, so that puts the action somewhere between Tiny Township and Midland Ontario.
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I’m pretty sure Hiero travelled from Manitoba (he was somehow descended or associated with the Metis) around the north edge of Lakes Superior and Huron/Georgian bay. I remember Manitoulin island being referred to, and maybe that’s where he fought an…
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I think the author assumed a Canadian level of familiarity. As someone who grew up in Montreal and lived in Ontario for the second period of his life, the geography is somewhat plain to me. To give some geographical context. The Wendat land, We…
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Snow Falls also also says several times that there were places in the palisade where someone could slip through. I think this palisade would stop may arrows, likely not all. There’s another Iroquoian village at Crawford Lake, Ontario, and the constr…
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In the story, they also visit Quebec, shortly before the death of Samuel de Champlain in 1635. Champlain founded the permanent French colony of Quebec in 1608. Before that, his base had been at an earlier French trading fort called Port Royal, which…
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As we're reading (or thinking back on the read) I thought I'd post a few photos of some re-created historic settlements. This first batch is from Tsiionhiakwatha Archaeological Site near St. Anicet, Quebec, on the south side of the St Lawrence rive…
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I can order Five Decembers as a hardback, so I'm OK if you want to proceed for February.
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Hmmm. Good to know.
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I have no issue with quality musicianship, and I like that prog bands experimented and made long, variable songs. But even so, I like them to still be melodic and, you know, hummable. A lot of, for example, King Crimson’s driving metal work doesn’t …