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dangermousieNote to Self: reading bits of Atonement in the store during lunch is a bad idea as you will end up having red eyes.
It’s interesting that I love the book so, because the main protagonist (insofar as there is the ‘mainest’) is Briony, someone I never like and my opinion of her doesn’t change during the book. I love Robbie and I love Cecilia, but Briony herself I want to choke.
I don’t care for her from the start, as I cannot stand over-dramatic, ‘mememememe’ children but she remains a realistic character throughout. In fact, the story reminds me of two other works I like: John Knowles’ ‘Separate Peace’ and Lillian Helmann’s ‘The Children’s Hour.’ As in Knowles, one action leads to a future blighted, and the story is narrated by the perpetrator who I end up loathing throughout, but who ends up trying to cope with his guilt. But even more so, this makes me think of Helmann’s play.
In the play (made into a movie in the 1930s and 1960s), a child accuses two female teachers in a boarding school of being lesbians in a relationship. It is an untrue accusation, that in that time and place, dooms them. In the 1930s ending, there is a glimmer of hope: one of the teachers hangs herself (on realizing that she has, indeed, been harboring feelings) but the other one leaves it all behind and is able to restart with her doctor fiancé. The 1960s movie is closer to the play and the end is pitiless.
You have the same cascade of disaster on an innocent person(s) and those related to them, through a thoughtless malicious accusation of a child, an accusation all the more readily believed because of its ‘monstrousness,’ for what could a child know of lesbianism or sexual assault unless they really saw it, runs the wisdom.
In Atonement, Briony’s motives are much more complex than those of the tattletale in TCH (who just hated the teachers, the end). It’s partly her desire to get 100% of everyone’s attention again: Cecilia’s, her brother’s, her Mom’s etc, partly a childish jealousy (of her former crush on Robbie, who after all preferred her elder sister). But more than anything, it is her need to dramatize that swallows her whole. And she puts in facts of life, everyday happenings within her preconceived schema. The scene that sticks with me so is after Robbie is being taken away by the police (and later convicted, solely on Briony’s word that he was the one who assaulted Lola). It is written through Briony’s eyes and what gets me is her view of Cecilia’s reaction. She sees Cecilia with Robbie, whispering to him, almost clinging, and then as he is being driven away, she sees her sister cry. And Briony is only thinking, with a theatrical exultation, of how kind Cecilia is, to forgive Robbie, and how this will so bring them closer together as sisters. Even though anyone can tell that this is not it, not at all. Because she cannot conceive any reality outside of what she wants it to be. And aside from everything else, that is so horrific (or horrific because adults believe her) because her reality is limited by her inexperience (she transforms a consensual, loving, and awkward encounter between Cecilia and Robbie that she witnesses accidentally into some sort of an assault and transposes/merges it into the event with Lola, because she is too young to understand the proper
meaning of things).
I am so interested to know in how she felt once Cecilia refused to speak to her and left the family? Whether it sunk in right away, or had to filter slowly first.
Nothing is real to Briony, not really, not any more real than anything between the pages of the book. Word and life have even reality for her, which is why her novel is her atonement. Rehabilitation, reanimation of the lovers is enough for her, is the most she can do. But this is not so for me. I think ultimately, what gets me, is that I find her atonement so unsatisfying. I am much more of a practical actions girl. It costs nothing to write a novel, one you are not even going to publish until your death. Yes, there is a difference between life on pages and real life. Giving Robbie and Cecilia a happily-ever-after between fictional pages is really not the same. Going to visit your bereaved sister before she was killed, would have been much more. Yes, she would have thrown you out. That is still the thing to do. Not to mention trying to get the truth out to at least your family, before 1940, might have been a good idea. I suppose I am simply too practical.
I don’t think she really understands reality, or life, or ‘atonement,’ not even at the end, not even when she is old.
But the interesting thing is that the trauma is so severe, so irreversible (for Robbie and Cecilia) in part because of the time period they are living in. If it wasn’t for the War, they would have been together again, in reality, not the brief moments in 1935 and when he is shipped off. And if Briony didn’t tell her lie? Robbie would still be in the army, and who knows,
might have been killed, in the same battle or a different one. But at least they then would have had more time together.
Also, once you know the twist, the part where Robbie is wounded and falls asleep in Dunkirk, thinking of Cecilia and her letters and her 'come back to me'...made me bawl. Because isn't it when he dies, in reality, as opposed to Briony's happy-end novel? You just assume hegot rescued and better, in the third part, but then...
I wonder if it will be yet another of those before-the-war British love story movies like The White Countess and The Painted Veil that had limited release but that I loved so much (though seeing it opened the Venice Festival, it will probably better known). Hey, after all, my second most favorite movie
ever is one of that category: The English Patient.
In other, unrelated news, I have to say, I really like Michael Repnin. I don’t want him to get the girl (he is too normal, what is the fun in that?) but he is certainly the best-adjusted of the lot, as Vladimir is far too busy being a Byronic hero to ever win that competition.
Yup, I am addicted to Bednaya Nastya. It’s like a guilty pleasure romance novel come to life. EEEE!
But anyway, back to Michael. Even though I am incredibly predictable and thus the messed-up, snarky, cold-acting Vladimir is my favorite (mmmm, fictional
bad boys), I think I’d be a Michael in any situation. I love how he is the only one trying to bring some common sense to the utterly insane situation of his best friend preparing to fight a duel with the Crown Prince. CP is being kinda an immature jerk here, IMO. Fine, Vladimir insulted him, but he apologized as soon as he found out who it was, and kept on apologizing, but apologies were not accepted. If CP was anyone normal, I’d say fine, go and shoot each other like a pair of idiots, but this is not just stupid on CP’s
part (like it or not, he is not a private person), that is a horribly uneven playing field. Poor Vladimir is stuck, stuck, stuck and dead, dead, dead no matter what happens, for private fun of Alexander ;) Either he is shot by Alexander (in which case, clearly dead), or if Alexander misses and he has a chance to shoot, he will be hanged even if he delopes because pointing a gun at the Heir? Ummm. Yeah. And his apologies haven’t been accepted, so the only other way to avoid death is to go and hide and not show up. Which is something sensible Michael points out to his majorly freaking-out friend, but our Vladimir being Alpha Male and moreover, Incredibly Byronic, just says that he can’t be a laughingstock of the city, and moreover, if he ran from a duel, his father would kill him himself, so hey, dead in any case.
Did I mention that even completely freaking out, he still has a yummily gallows sense of humor? And is a dead shot while practicing? Heh. It’s good to be a drama hero :P
The thing that I really like though, is that despite his high-faluting talk, he IS freaking out like mad. He’d need tranquilizers, actually. And despite the whole ‘I won’t run away from the fight,’ if he had an honorable pretext, he totally would. Btw, I decided, I do want to smack Korf Sr. for real (though what would a drama be without annoying parents?). GRRRRR. Fine, you are not noticing that your kid is resembling a high-strung ghost lately. But then when you tell him you are needed on business back in the village and he
totally jumps at the chance and offers to go with (because that would offer him an honorable excuse not to show) you are not even curious as to what is going on (and you wouldn’t have to be, if you just listened to him as opposed to just letting everything not Anna related fly from one ear and out the other) but instead order him to stay so he could take care of Anna. Argh. When he points out the house has plenty of servants for this purpose, jumping down his throat and yelling that he has to obey you while you are alive or
else you’ll disown him, doesn’t get you any parental brownie points either. You suck.
When your kid is telling his best friend (in response to his trying to talk him out of the duel by saying that his death would break Daddy’s heart) that Daddy will be fine, his death or not, as long as he has Anna, and he is not being snarky but he means it, you have gone severely parentally wrong. Ehhhh. But where would be the drama otherwise?
Oh, I also feel bad for Olga, Alexander’s mistress. She is clearly head over heels for him, but while he thinks he is, at the moment, clearly, he is very easy about this thing and if she wasn’t forbidden fruit, he’d get over her in two seconds flat.
And because I am incapable of posting without a drama ref, OMG, I am now watching ep 12 of Why Why Love and hyperventilating and loving it and
giggling and misty-eyeing and everything. So much love. Also, I am getting preliminarily obsessed with Capital Scandal but must not start anything
until I finish at least two dramas! Hmmm, must finish Lovers then…
It’s interesting that I love the book so, because the main protagonist (insofar as there is the ‘mainest’) is Briony, someone I never like and my opinion of her doesn’t change during the book. I love Robbie and I love Cecilia, but Briony herself I want to choke.
I don’t care for her from the start, as I cannot stand over-dramatic, ‘mememememe’ children but she remains a realistic character throughout. In fact, the story reminds me of two other works I like: John Knowles’ ‘Separate Peace’ and Lillian Helmann’s ‘The Children’s Hour.’ As in Knowles, one action leads to a future blighted, and the story is narrated by the perpetrator who I end up loathing throughout, but who ends up trying to cope with his guilt. But even more so, this makes me think of Helmann’s play.
In the play (made into a movie in the 1930s and 1960s), a child accuses two female teachers in a boarding school of being lesbians in a relationship. It is an untrue accusation, that in that time and place, dooms them. In the 1930s ending, there is a glimmer of hope: one of the teachers hangs herself (on realizing that she has, indeed, been harboring feelings) but the other one leaves it all behind and is able to restart with her doctor fiancé. The 1960s movie is closer to the play and the end is pitiless.
You have the same cascade of disaster on an innocent person(s) and those related to them, through a thoughtless malicious accusation of a child, an accusation all the more readily believed because of its ‘monstrousness,’ for what could a child know of lesbianism or sexual assault unless they really saw it, runs the wisdom.
In Atonement, Briony’s motives are much more complex than those of the tattletale in TCH (who just hated the teachers, the end). It’s partly her desire to get 100% of everyone’s attention again: Cecilia’s, her brother’s, her Mom’s etc, partly a childish jealousy (of her former crush on Robbie, who after all preferred her elder sister). But more than anything, it is her need to dramatize that swallows her whole. And she puts in facts of life, everyday happenings within her preconceived schema. The scene that sticks with me so is after Robbie is being taken away by the police (and later convicted, solely on Briony’s word that he was the one who assaulted Lola). It is written through Briony’s eyes and what gets me is her view of Cecilia’s reaction. She sees Cecilia with Robbie, whispering to him, almost clinging, and then as he is being driven away, she sees her sister cry. And Briony is only thinking, with a theatrical exultation, of how kind Cecilia is, to forgive Robbie, and how this will so bring them closer together as sisters. Even though anyone can tell that this is not it, not at all. Because she cannot conceive any reality outside of what she wants it to be. And aside from everything else, that is so horrific (or horrific because adults believe her) because her reality is limited by her inexperience (she transforms a consensual, loving, and awkward encounter between Cecilia and Robbie that she witnesses accidentally into some sort of an assault and transposes/merges it into the event with Lola, because she is too young to understand the proper
meaning of things).
I am so interested to know in how she felt once Cecilia refused to speak to her and left the family? Whether it sunk in right away, or had to filter slowly first.
Nothing is real to Briony, not really, not any more real than anything between the pages of the book. Word and life have even reality for her, which is why her novel is her atonement. Rehabilitation, reanimation of the lovers is enough for her, is the most she can do. But this is not so for me. I think ultimately, what gets me, is that I find her atonement so unsatisfying. I am much more of a practical actions girl. It costs nothing to write a novel, one you are not even going to publish until your death. Yes, there is a difference between life on pages and real life. Giving Robbie and Cecilia a happily-ever-after between fictional pages is really not the same. Going to visit your bereaved sister before she was killed, would have been much more. Yes, she would have thrown you out. That is still the thing to do. Not to mention trying to get the truth out to at least your family, before 1940, might have been a good idea. I suppose I am simply too practical.
I don’t think she really understands reality, or life, or ‘atonement,’ not even at the end, not even when she is old.
But the interesting thing is that the trauma is so severe, so irreversible (for Robbie and Cecilia) in part because of the time period they are living in. If it wasn’t for the War, they would have been together again, in reality, not the brief moments in 1935 and when he is shipped off. And if Briony didn’t tell her lie? Robbie would still be in the army, and who knows,
might have been killed, in the same battle or a different one. But at least they then would have had more time together.
Also, once you know the twist, the part where Robbie is wounded and falls asleep in Dunkirk, thinking of Cecilia and her letters and her 'come back to me'...made me bawl. Because isn't it when he dies, in reality, as opposed to Briony's happy-end novel? You just assume hegot rescued and better, in the third part, but then...
I wonder if it will be yet another of those before-the-war British love story movies like The White Countess and The Painted Veil that had limited release but that I loved so much (though seeing it opened the Venice Festival, it will probably better known). Hey, after all, my second most favorite movie
ever is one of that category: The English Patient.
In other, unrelated news, I have to say, I really like Michael Repnin. I don’t want him to get the girl (he is too normal, what is the fun in that?) but he is certainly the best-adjusted of the lot, as Vladimir is far too busy being a Byronic hero to ever win that competition.
Yup, I am addicted to Bednaya Nastya. It’s like a guilty pleasure romance novel come to life. EEEE!
But anyway, back to Michael. Even though I am incredibly predictable and thus the messed-up, snarky, cold-acting Vladimir is my favorite (mmmm, fictional
bad boys), I think I’d be a Michael in any situation. I love how he is the only one trying to bring some common sense to the utterly insane situation of his best friend preparing to fight a duel with the Crown Prince. CP is being kinda an immature jerk here, IMO. Fine, Vladimir insulted him, but he apologized as soon as he found out who it was, and kept on apologizing, but apologies were not accepted. If CP was anyone normal, I’d say fine, go and shoot each other like a pair of idiots, but this is not just stupid on CP’s
part (like it or not, he is not a private person), that is a horribly uneven playing field. Poor Vladimir is stuck, stuck, stuck and dead, dead, dead no matter what happens, for private fun of Alexander ;) Either he is shot by Alexander (in which case, clearly dead), or if Alexander misses and he has a chance to shoot, he will be hanged even if he delopes because pointing a gun at the Heir? Ummm. Yeah. And his apologies haven’t been accepted, so the only other way to avoid death is to go and hide and not show up. Which is something sensible Michael points out to his majorly freaking-out friend, but our Vladimir being Alpha Male and moreover, Incredibly Byronic, just says that he can’t be a laughingstock of the city, and moreover, if he ran from a duel, his father would kill him himself, so hey, dead in any case.
Did I mention that even completely freaking out, he still has a yummily gallows sense of humor? And is a dead shot while practicing? Heh. It’s good to be a drama hero :P
The thing that I really like though, is that despite his high-faluting talk, he IS freaking out like mad. He’d need tranquilizers, actually. And despite the whole ‘I won’t run away from the fight,’ if he had an honorable pretext, he totally would. Btw, I decided, I do want to smack Korf Sr. for real (though what would a drama be without annoying parents?). GRRRRR. Fine, you are not noticing that your kid is resembling a high-strung ghost lately. But then when you tell him you are needed on business back in the village and he
totally jumps at the chance and offers to go with (because that would offer him an honorable excuse not to show) you are not even curious as to what is going on (and you wouldn’t have to be, if you just listened to him as opposed to just letting everything not Anna related fly from one ear and out the other) but instead order him to stay so he could take care of Anna. Argh. When he points out the house has plenty of servants for this purpose, jumping down his throat and yelling that he has to obey you while you are alive or
else you’ll disown him, doesn’t get you any parental brownie points either. You suck.
When your kid is telling his best friend (in response to his trying to talk him out of the duel by saying that his death would break Daddy’s heart) that Daddy will be fine, his death or not, as long as he has Anna, and he is not being snarky but he means it, you have gone severely parentally wrong. Ehhhh. But where would be the drama otherwise?
Oh, I also feel bad for Olga, Alexander’s mistress. She is clearly head over heels for him, but while he thinks he is, at the moment, clearly, he is very easy about this thing and if she wasn’t forbidden fruit, he’d get over her in two seconds flat.
And because I am incapable of posting without a drama ref, OMG, I am now watching ep 12 of Why Why Love and hyperventilating and loving it and
giggling and misty-eyeing and everything. So much love. Also, I am getting preliminarily obsessed with Capital Scandal but must not start anything
until I finish at least two dramas! Hmmm, must finish Lovers then…
