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The Blind Assassin Meander, Week Nine

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Next up, we meander to the end. It’s a slightly longer read than most weeks, but I know you and what you’re capable of. Spoiler: you are capable of this.

Two things that struck me this last week out of ~a gazillion:

  • For me, the most chilling line so far, with all the vivid language, the impeccable craft, the cutting asides: “You knew it, because you already know what happened to Laura.”(Blue, 417)
  • I wondered how many other folks googled “The Moving Finger writes, and having writ,” (Blue, 420) knowing in your heart that why google? because of course (of course!) it would be Coleridge.

Like many of the thread-folks, I’m looking forward to this last section and the chance to through to the end (praise to such as KT, hanging in there with the week by week; but no shame to them who raced ahead).

Let metaphorical high-fives be exchanged as you swerve across the finish line to claim your magnet. And oh yes, the magnet — and the grand reveal of same — all coming next week.

And speaking of next week….

Once more unto the back cover of the book — whatever your edition, your next stop is “The Threshold” — or as Iris calls it, “the only place I will be.” This is the place to call out as you finish and share any final thoughts. For anyone reading the thread on this post, you know, Abandon hope (to avoid spoilers), all ye who enter here!

Say pally, how’s this work again? Finish on time, comment each week, and stay in the hunt for a free “I Survived The Blind Assassin Meander” magnet. Oh, and in case you were wondering: This is the post for comments on Chapters 12.2 (“The Blind Assassin: The Be rage Room”) through the end of TBA….

This is also one more chance to add a tune or two to TBAM playlist. I added a melancholy instrumental version of “Summertime” this week, the soundtrack in my headphones as I read about the sorrow and anger of Aimee with the dark hair… a song about comforting your child….

Comments

40 responses to “The Blind Assassin Meander, Week Nine”

  1. Dr. Vitz Avatar
    Dr. Vitz

    Barely started this week’s read and hit this
    “She knows herself to be at the mercy of events, and she knows by now that events have no mercy” – I wasn’t expecting much happiness at this point, but that’s quite the downer

    And I’ll add a suggestion for the playlist – Rainer Maria’s “Burn”

    Reply
  2. Soi Distant Bill Avatar
    Soi Distant Bill

    This seemed very resonant after several days of watching events unfold on the teevee:

    “The war takes place in black and white. For those who are actually in it there are too many colours, excessive colours, too bright, too red and orange, too liquid and incandescent, but for the others the war is like a newsreel – grainy, smeared, with bursts of staccato noise and large numbers of grey-skinned people rushing or plodding or falling down, everything elsewhere.”

    Magnetize me, Cecil!

    Reply
  3. Susannah Avatar
    Susannah

    This was a great book and I’m really glad I was able to join in my first meander.

    Reply
  4. Jennifer E Avatar
    Jennifer E

    Have to admit that I ended up reading ahead due to some episodes of insomnia and finished the book a bit early. As I mentioned in an earlier comment, I think Atwood does a good job of portraying female relationships, the good, the bad, the ugly particularly in relationship to hierarchical female relationships. There’s pain all around and yet the ones at the top with pain seem to have a hard time not paying it forward to those below them on the food chain.

    I’m glad to have had the meander to keep me on track with a book of fiction as these days I find myself spending too much time tracking the events of our current irrational world. Not sure I would have been able to stick to it without this process so for that I am grateful. I also appreciated having a chance to reacquaint myself with Atwood and so enjoyed her descriptions and characters.

    Thanks for organizing this!

    Reply
  5. Jim Compton Avatar
    Jim Compton

    Cecil, Are you sure about “the moving hand,” etc., being Coleridge? My Google said it was from “The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.”

    But let me second Jennifer E’s thanks for putting this meander together.

    I’m still collecting my thoughts about the book itself, but it was certainly worth the time invested.

    Favorite Reenie line: “Now that takes the gold-plated gingerbread.”

    Reply
  6. Cecil vortex Avatar
    Cecil vortex

    Gack! You are right! I just lost my English major. Will fix later. But: gack!

    Another reason I’m glad you were on the trail with us!
    Cecil

    Reply
  7. Computilo Avatar
    Computilo

    Cecil: Been on a few marches and meanders with you, and I’ve enjoyed every one of them. Being in the company of fellow marchers and meanderers has been truly edifying! However, I must confess, that finishing this book was most draining, especially during a week of such tumult and disorder. So, all I’ve got left in my comment bucket are some Playlist suggestions:

    1. It’s a Hard Rain A Gonna Fall–Bob Dylan (fits the book in so many ways and our times in so many ways)

    2. Orphan Girl: Gillian Welch (for all the orphan girls in this book.)

    3. Ghost in this House: Allison Kraus (So many ghosts)

    4. Who’s Gonna Miss Me When I’m Gone: Loretta Lynn (For Iris)

    Reply
  8. Dr. Vitz Avatar
    Dr. Vitz

    To a large extent, Iris’s failure to see what is happening around her destroys nearly everyone, making her a blind assassin.

    It’s interesting to note that when Laura tries to communicate with the written word, it is thwarted by Richard consistently. Laura communicates to her sister in photographic images carefully shaped & colored to reveal meanings.Iris communicates to the world with her novel and to Sabrina with the novel we read – utterly dependent on words, but also taking some of the roundabout paths to revelation that Laura was forced to use.

    My last song for the list – Stars “The Big Fight”

    Reply
  9. Kathy Avatar
    Kathy

    Finished my first MA read. Tragedy built upon tragedy. I was amazed at how MA takes the reader on the journey through time and space using a story within a story and outside observations via the newspapers. Then, at the end, leaving us stuck in the unknown future- our minds awaiting Sabrina’s reading of Iris’s message/memoirs, unable to anything else but imagine how it will be when she finally understands the truths hidden for so years.
    Great read-thanks for the meander.

    Reply
  10. Furiosa Avatar
    Furiosa

    “The Be rage Room.” As if that emotion could ever be contained. Thank you for the opportunity to reread this masterful book and meander along!

    Reply
  11. Itto Ogami Avatar
    Itto Ogami

    Iris writing to Sabrina
    “I’ll invite you in. You’ll enter…you may even be a little frightened of me. But you’ll also be a little reckless, like all the women in our family, and so you will come in anyway. Grandmother, you will say and through that one word I will no longer be disowned.”

    Hope. For all Sabrinas, and Iris’es, Lauras…

    https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/aug/09/blind-assassin-atwood-book-club
    Found MA’s examples of prior TBA attempts interesting.

    “I withdrew to the starting line once more. This time I gave Iris full rein, and let her speak for herself in the first person. I don’t know why that didn’t occur to me in the first place. Perhaps I was afraid of her. She does become somewhat fearsome as the book moves along. The hatbox and the suitcase morphed into a much larger container – a steamer trunk, a piece of luggage everyone in that generation would have – and that steamer trunk remained in the story, and proved useful as a container of surprises. The original of the trunk was my mother’s, and was fascinating to me as a child; it is now mine, although I have painted it to get rid of the rust.”

    A Meander Book Club with weekly+ interactions is a very enriching experience. More so than my prior book clubs that met after the book was completed. Thanks Cec and fellow Meanderers! Really enjoy reading others’ thoughts.

    And, more MA fun facts:

    -In the 1970s, she was an underground comics artist. Under the pseudonym Bart Gerrard, she drew a comic strip for This Magazine called “Kanadian Kulture Komics.”
    -In university, she had a job running the nature program at a Jewish summer camp named White Pine.
    -She once read aloud a recipe for eating a grapefruit:
    -She once tossed a haggis alongside CBC’s The Next Chapter host Shelagh Rogers.

    Reply
  12. Lydia_S Avatar
    Lydia_S

    I feel a little sorry that it is finished now. The book as well as this nice interaction meandering along together. So it is Sabrina, who is in reality the unknown, a fiction of hope and an idea of the healed world. At least for Iris. Her infinite loneliness touches me.
    Thank you to all of you meandering with me. And thank you, Cecil, for this opportunity to join this amazing group. I have enjoyed this book very much and I have enjoyed the thoughts of everyone around this book very much.

    Reply
  13. The Same Mike Avatar
    The Same Mike

    Finished. Thanks for the meander, meanderers and of course Cecil!

    Hope to have some coherent thoughts on the book tomorrow!

    Reply
  14. Peaseblossom Avatar
    Peaseblossom

    This was my second go-’round with TBA. My younger sister handed this book to me in 2005 and told me I HAD TO READ THIS! And she was right.

    I made it a point to read deliberately week by week, not to race ahead–because I wanted to savor MA’s construct and diction. So, thank you, fellow meanderers, for enriching my experience with your thoughts and insights.

    I had to laugh when I read Soi Distant Bill’s comment, “Magnetize me, Cecil!” That got me thinking… a book may pull us in, a book cover may attract us, or a subject may repel us… we often hear people say that an experience was electrifying, but rarely does one hear an event analogously described as being magnetizing even though the two phenomena are scientifically related–my random thought of the night.

    This week’s addition to the Playlist, an oldie (before my era) Connie Francis’ Who’s Sorry Now?

    Reply
  15. e Avatar
    e

    magnificent book–i missed it the minute i finished it.

    someone on the meander said that iris had broken the fourth wall. i was glad it turned out that she was speaking to sabrina–and that we left the book knowing sabrina would read it.

    when it was clear that iris was the author of laura’s book, i couldn’t shake the question–did she mind that the book she’d written inspired devotion for laura? i wondered if she’d done that as a form of penance. and then i realized, she didn’t give a damn! she would have hated the scrutiny and the sycophants. better for her to be anonymous, the ghost writer. does it speak to how atwood feels about being a celebrated author?

    and finally, the scene in which iris learns of alex’s death was so sad. and it became even heavier as the pivot in her final conversation with laura. atwood showed us all of that pain long before we knew what it was for, and that is wonderful writing.

    Reply
  16. Ute Avatar
    Ute

    Thanks Cecil for cutting me slack “…but no shame to them who raced ahead.”
    I must confess, though, that I found commenting a lot harder once I had finished and was no longer keeping pace with fellow meanderers – something to think about for the next meander (as you can see: I take it for a fact that a) this will continue and b) I’ll be allowed to be part of it again).
    Thanks for organizing, great choice of book (one I will definitely add to my “to be re-read” pile of books) and great meandering!

    Reply
  17. Alyssa Avatar
    Alyssa

    I really enjoyed this read, even though I haven’t feIt the need to add as much commentary as with our last read. But it was a comfort to having something so plot-driven to turn to during these weeks of real-life horror. Interestingly, I discovered that our favorite local river spot is downstream from the old button factory in our industrial town, and that buttons still wash up on the shore every day as a remnant of a long-ago flood.

    Thanks for leading this motley crew on another reading journey, Cecil!

    Reply
  18. Willem Avatar
    Willem

    I was thinking about that, also, if she’d know about Richard could it all have been different? If she’d never told Laura about her and Alex?

    Is the title also a play on love is blind?

    Thanks so much for this most excellent meander! It’s a great book and I enjoyed having it and everyone’s comments to look forward to and enjoy every week.

    Reply
  19. blue_f Avatar
    blue_f

    I’m on the final pages. Can’t read your comments yet nor can I comment myself. Must continue. This book…
    I shall return to this page soon.

    Reply
  20. Barbara B Avatar
    Barbara B

    I finished, am glad for the meander experience, and am very sad.

    Reply
  21. Realzorro Avatar
    Realzorro

    Just a note to say I’m a week or two behind but Still Here! And Magnet! Coveting! Got things to magnetically fasten and such! Finding the BA parts kind of slow and the main thread much more interesting so speed up and slowdown is my going. But I’ll push to the end this week!!!

    Reply
  22. Susan C Avatar
    Susan C

    I finished a little early this week. I had been wondering at the worship engendered by the internal Blind Assassin narrative–was it warranted? So I read it again sequentially, and just finished 10 minutes ago. It is coherent and magnetic and oh so sad. Reading it that way gave me a richer view of Iris–a portrait full of hunger and passion and pain given and received. My only cavil is that I doubt something so frankly sexual (including obscenities) could actually have been published in the post war period.
    This was a really rich experience, thanks to Cecil and all of the extremely erudite commentary from my fellow meanderers. Looking forward to the next one.

    Reply
  23. Cecil Vortex Avatar
    Cecil Vortex

    Just finished. Will wait a couple of days to let the last comments roll in before the final post.

    Thanks all!
    -Cecil

    Reply
  24. Cecil Vortex Avatar
    Cecil Vortex

    Ute: a) true. b) true! 🙂
    -Cecil

    Reply
  25. Neil Avatar
    Neil

    Sooo… Did Iris kill Richard? I like to think that she did. He was such a bastard. (Pardon the French.)

    Such good storytelling. Another reason to look to Booker prize winners (or short-listers or long-listers). They’re all about the storytelling. If you’re not familiar with the Booker prize (though I suspect many of you are), here’s a reading list that will keep you entertained until the day you die:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_winners_and_shortlisted_authors_of_the_Booker_Prize

    May that day be far in the future.

    Reply
  26. Neil Avatar
    Neil

    p.s. Look who won in 2019!!!!

    Reply
  27. KT Avatar
    KT

    Really enjoyed this meander. Loved how well brought to life the female characters were, complex warts and all. Left me feeling so melancholy yet wanting more. Sigh…..sigh.

    Reply
  28. Computilo Avatar
    Computilo

    Neil. I’ve also been a Booker Prize junkie. Another good prize list is the Pen America. https://pen.org/literary-awards
    A little more grass roots than the Pulitzer and Nobel. I think those two have become a tad political.

    Reply
  29. Amanda Avatar
    Amanda

    Screaming in at the 13th hour for my final comment. Echoing the thanks above for this shared literary experience. Last playlist recommendation: the White Stripes “The Hardest Button to Button” – sorry, had to!

    Reply
  30. Amanda Avatar
    Amanda

    Just had a conversation with the boyfriend wherein he confirmed my suspicion that the expression is “11th” not “13th” hour. That said, I leave my original comment unamended as it follows logically that if something is last minute at 11th hour, then it’s just plain late at the the 13th… 🙂

    Reply
  31. Clort Avatar
    Clort

    Oh – I think *this* is the 13th hour. I’m really impressed by everyone’s perceptive comments, seeing how this smart book ties together so… smartly. If I can steal a comment or two I’d say I like those above about Iris being the blind assassin and love being blind. Right on! My own thoughts are less literary than magnetic. Cecil can we please have a magnet with several magnets-within-magnets inside it, including a tragic fateful magnet, a very-guilty-conscience magnet, and a red-herring magnet from Zycron. That would be a magnet.

    Thanks for the meander, Cecil and everyone, it was fun and a nice semi-escape from these days we’re in. Cheers!

    Reply
  32. Jim Compton Avatar
    Jim Compton

    So this wasn’t my first Atwood but my second; I had just started Lady Oracle (1976) when Cecil announced this meander. TBA was certainly a richer book, both funnier and more tragic, but they have some similarities. Both parody a notion of literary culthood that may or may not actually exist, and both for a single slim volume whose author claims to have been “writing it down” more than “writing” (a description I’m sure MA would not give her own writing method). There’s also lots of concealed identities and self-effacement, but played almost entirely for comedy.
    As to Neil’s speculation about whether Iris killed Richard: well, maybe. I think she just drove him to suicide by ending his political career, and that he chose the Water Nixie because of its association with Laura, but that’s mainly because there was no suggestion of how Iris could have done it without leaving any evidence. Did I miss something?

    Reply
  33. blue_f Avatar
    blue_f

    I’m back. I had to finish the book in today’s lunch break. I just couldn’t wait.
    This book and this meander were wonderful. I’m really glad we chose TBA and I’m already pondering which MA book to read next. Suggestions welcome. I’m assuming The Handmaid’s Tale?

    Regarding TBA, and Iris’ story, most of my thoughts have already been mentioned by all of you and your clever comments. These have once more been a very special addition to the act of “just reading a good book”. Thanks for hosting these meanders, Cecil.

    Some last thoughts and confessions…
    Is it wrong to enjoy that Winnifred’s death is not more than a side note in Iris’ obituary?
    Is it weird that I hope Iris had some sway in Richard’s death, and at least got some feeling of retribution?
    And finally, if everyone’s dead except Myra, Walter and Sabrina, how can I still have a good feeling about the end of this book? Will Sabrina read it? I hope so.

    Reply
  34. blue_f Avatar
    blue_f

    And didn’t we say the magnet should be the shape of a button? Whose formidable idea was that?

    Reply
  35. Furiosa Avatar
    Furiosa

    I finished a few days ago. Even though I was a re-reader, TBA has haunted me more this time around. Iris’s blindness about what Richard was doing to Laura. Laura’s blind devotion to Alex. How Iris has to act dismissive about Alex the moment she finds out he died. And Sabrina, who is in for quite a surprise about her family if she does indeed read what’s in the steamer trunk. Speaking of family baggage (sorry, I couldn’t help myself). Very much looking forward to the next meander.

    Reply
  36. Computilo Avatar
    Computilo

    Where in the world is Cecil?

    Reply
  37. Cecil Vortex Avatar
    Cecil Vortex

    Hi! Post coming tonight. 🙂

    Reply
  38. Christian Crumlish Avatar
    Christian Crumlish

    she (almost) literally kills laura and richard, too

    Reply
  39. Christian Crumlish Avatar
    Christian Crumlish

    Winifred get an obit at the beginning of the book, too. Also, do we think Richard shot himself?

    Reply
  40. Christian Crumlish Avatar
    Christian Crumlish

    perfect!

    Reply

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