Written in the second person from Able, nobleman, to his lover Morgan (maybe wife, but like a sister in childhood), Banks has succeeded in his unique approach to yet another confounding topic - that of loyalty.
Able and Morgan are overrun in a time of war, forced to return to their castle by a group, presumable representing the new occupation, led by “the Lieutenant”, female leader of a disorderly band of soldiers.
Abe fights with his loyalties to so many things: these are the enemy, but he is unable to fight back; they slowly but systematically consume his wine and food and destroy the family art treasures, but he is powerless to stop them; the Lieutenant takes Morgan as her lover, but he cannot react for fear of what they will do to him. Inevitably, he is destroyed; as it happens as a result of a practical joke by the band of soldiers.
The total ambiguity of place or time (it could be anywhere in the western world over the last 70 years) adds power to the point. However much we may imagine that we would defend what is of value to us, the reality maybe somewhat different given the circumstance of war. The grandiose setting perhaps plays on that hackneyed phrase: “an Englishman’s home is his castle” This novel questions the loyalty and strength of all of us.
http://www.spikemagazine.com/1298banks.php
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Academy/6422/rev0342.html
I have been going to drawing workshops at Kettles Yard in cambridge on Saturday mornings (every fortnight during term). One of the tutors/leaders (Barry Phipps) got me going with Cubism . I had not appreciated what this was all about before. Picasso and others saw the emergence of photography and were looking for how art could transcend anything that photography could offer. In cubism you depict your subject from more that one point of view. This drawing is crayon on paper about A3 size. Another lesson: be bold and fill the paper!
I’m off to India again next week. Four different companies in three locations (Pune, Bangalore and Mysore). At each company we have an 8 hour meeting, although running under Indian time, it could well be more. These companies (Danaher GDCs) are the very best that India has to offer, so my expectations are high that we can find a low cost region contractor that will suit our needs.
In particular, I’m looking forward to the drive from Bangalore to Mysore and back, in rush hour and about 3-4 hours each way.
27-12-07: We have been working with our chosen supplier for 6 months now. We’ve sacked both the developers and only kept the test engineer. We have, once again, been very disappointed with the quality. The attraction of employing engineers at a quarter the cost in the UK is outweighed, I’m afraid, by the poor performance of these engineers. Sad, but this approach is not going to work for us