Double Dose of the Strike and Ellacott Files, Including Their Predictions Episode.

If you haven't been listening to the Strike and Ellacott Files (and you really should be), this week is  a great jumping-on point.  Not only do they have their regular podcast on Chapters 98-102 of the Ink Black Heart, but their "bookly" predictions episode.  There is something for everyone:  the first 80 minutes are predictions without the August 9th preview; then, following a spoiler warning, those who have read the preview can hear their thoughts on that.

See here for the Twitter link to the Ch. 98-102 episode. 

See here for the Twitter link to the Predictions episode.

See here for the podcast home page. 

I guarantee there wil be enough food for thought to satisfy even Strike after a date with the Madwoman. 

London Travelogue, Part Three: Highgate Cemetery

Given that I just started the Read-along of The Ink Black Heart in the lead-up to The Running Grave, I thought it was time to share my visit to Highgate Cemetery. It was just as impressive and magical in person as it was in the fictional cartoon. We didn't take a guided tour or have time (or frankly. energy, it was a very hot day) to visit the area pubs mentioned in the text, but the time we spent exploring was well worth it.  I saw most of the sights featured in the book, and a few other interesting ones. 

The famous "grave with the chair," onfeof the first pictures featured on Rowling's twitter header. 

"The grave Edie liked" with the sacrificial mother pelican. 

The Circle of Lebonon.

The "Paperwhite" sleeping angel. 

Starting The Ink Black Heart Read-Along (Ch. 1-12) and the Home Stretch to The Running Grave: What is a Bodhisattva? (Part 1 of 8)

 

Welcome to the opening chapters of The Ink Black Heart! It's hard to believe it's been barely a year since we opened this volume for the first time and entered the sinister world of Anomie and his online chats.  I'm going to highlight what I spotted on my re-read this time. If you want to know what my first impressions were, you can check out my old Hogwartsprofessor posts: here and here. 

Please note: I may do some speculation on The Running Grave in these posts, but I will not reveal any spoilers beyond those listed in the original cover blurb. If you want to discuss the previewed 53 pages that were released August 9th (then mysteriously withdrawn),  you can refer to my four-part series: 1, 2, 3 and 4. 

First: The Ritz! As I've said before, I am actually glad that the kissed was missed, given how intoxicated they were, and especially that 1) Robin was more impaired than Strike and that 2) he had continued to buy her drinks after she said she wanted to switch to water. (Yes, I know he'd never take advantage of her, but it's still a bit creepy...) 

I love this connection to CoE:

Before either of them could quite process what had just happened the mundane roar of a motorbike courier heralded the return of the world to its regular course 

Just as the motorbike courier delivery of the severed leg disrupted Strike and Robin's business for the majority of the book, their relationship will be disrupted for this one. 

New employees:  I was sorry to lose Andy, especially since he would have been a logical choice to accompany Robin to the cult in TRG, but Midge and Dev are fine additions and I hope they will stick around for TRG. 

A World of Riches: Finishing up the Troubled Blood read-along: Chapters 55-73, (Part 5 of 5)

 

As is typical of a Strike book, the pace picks up in the last quarter of the book, we are going to hit many wonderful moments as we finish up Troubled Blood. I am going to highlight what jumped out at me on the last re-read. 

Brother Al: His appearance was a nice turtle-back link to Book 2, his only other appearance in the series. but, like Polworth, he is a lot less appealing this time around. Case in point:

“and keep your fucking voice down, those are my employees you’re airing my private business in front of.”

“That’s your priority?”

Yes, it is, Mr. Never-Had-a-Job-in-Your-Life.

The news of the cancer is not come as too much a of surprise to me my first reading, given that Al had said there was more to the party than the anniversary and the new album. It is interesting that he is the second man in the book to have this, the first being Roy Phipps. Strike is right that, assuming it was caught early--- and it is caught early in the vast majority of cases--both Rokeby and Roy should be fine. While many are predicting Rokeby's death before the end of the series, perhaps even in the next book, I would be willing to bet it will not be of prostate cancer. 

Betty Fuller: I think this is the first time we have ever seen Robin overwhelmed or intimidated in a witness interview. It is clear she is thinking about the same thing Strike thought about on his birthday pub visit; what would her life be like when she's 80?  And, of course, we see the contrast between Betty's housing condition and Mucci Ricci's, whose expensive private nursing home turns up in the next chapter, makes it clear that the economic realities of "sex work is work" ---and particularly the gender disparities---are more complex and any middle-class social worker, or the Kyle and Courtney's of the world, can imagine. 

Wonderful laugh-out-loud moments. 

1. "What would it take to make you walk out on a blind date?” asked Morris.

"You turning up," thought Robin.

2.  "I want you to give me something to eat and a strong drink.”

“You’ve got it,” said Strike, glad to have a chance to make reparations. “Will a takeaway do?”

“No,” said Robin sarcastically, pointing at her rapidly blackening eyes, “I’d like to go to the Ritz, please.”

Food, Magical Food! Tune in to Potterversity.

Are you a Chocolate Frog or Butterbeer fan?  If so, tune in to these Potterversity Podcasts, where I was recently privileged to be a guest.  

Part One: Pondering Pumpkin Pasties. 

Part Two: Considering Cockroach Clusters.

From February to Easter, From albedo to rubedo. Troubled Blood Read-along, Ch 37-54 (Part 4 of 5).

We are getting to one of my favorite sections of this book, which I explored in-depth in a previous Hogwartsprofessor essay.  In particular, I love the albedo elements in this section. For those unfamiliar with literary alchemy (an important thematic construct in Harry Potter), albedo is the white, or purification stage. Common symbols indicating albedo include the color white, water, rain, light, silver metal, lilies, white roses, the moon, queens, doves (and other white birds) and swans (or other waterfowl). 

Both Robin and Strike were broken down to their low nigredo (black) point at Christmas, where Strike is reduced to vomiting in his bathroom and Robin to sobbing in her parents' backyard. Happily, things start looking up for both of them, and the albedo indicators start pouring in. Strike makes it to St. Mawes in time to be trapped there by torrential rains, and finds "all the gaudy summertime prettiness of St. Mawes wiped away" by the rain. He finds his aunt similarly changed into someone with whom he can communicate honestly:

Just as her storm-ravaged birthplace had revealed a different aspect in adversity, so an unfamiliar Joan was emerging, a Joan who asked open-ended questions that were not designed to elicit confirmation of her own biases, or thinly veiled requests for comforting lies.

The albedo elements continue after Strike returns to London.  

• Robin identifies Shifty’s “blonde friend,” Elinor (“light of God”) Dean.
• The initial refusal of the authorities to let Strike interview Creed leaves Robin feeling like they were, “pointlessly searching rockpools, while yards away the great white slid away, untouchable, into dark water.”
• Amanda White reconsiders her monetary demands for her story.
• Robin determines that the “white van” was not Creed’s
• Robin takes a bubble bath, then toasts Max’s new job with him with champagne on his creamy white sofas.
• Strike and Robin make a rainy-day visit to Hampton Court, to meet Cynthia (another name for Artemis, Goddess of the Moon, literally dressed as a Queen).
• Strike and Robin visit Broom House with rain beating on the surface of the koi ponds, with "vivid red, white and black shapes moving beneath the surface." 
• Roy Phipps is reduced to tears and confesses his long-ago cruelty to Margot ("pearl") which he thinks led to her death.

Picking up with Chapter 37, the albedo elements continue to abound. 

Fourth (and Final!) Look at The Running Grave Preview: Spoilers for August 9th release (Ch. 5 & 6).

As before, this is an analysis of the now-withdrawn Preview of The Running Grave, Spoilers are in BLUE TEXT.