What's the Name of the Game Wednesday
Oct. 19th, 2016 09:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
evelyn_bArchived from Livejournal
I'm running way behind this week, so Wednesday reading will have to wait, but I did read The Count of Monte Cristo through Chapter 38. A few brief SPOILERS below the cut!
Suddenly, something new! We jump to a couple of rich young French tourists, Albert and Franz, who have decided to visit Rome for Carnival. On the way, Franz decides to swing by the allegedly uninhabited island of Monte Cristo to shoot goats, only to meet a mysterious man who lives in a cave full of expensive rugs and calls himself Sinbad the Sailor. It's our old friend Dantes, of course! who apparently sometimes invites unsuspecting goat-shooters into his secret treasure lair just because. "Sinbad" describes how he rescued a man condemned to have his tongue, hand, and head cut off, but only after his tongue was cut, because "I always had a desire to have a mute in my service." Dantes, that's cold! Has your cinnamon heart grown so stale? Then he peer-pressures Franz into taking hashish and sends him on his way.
Later, in Rome, Franz keeps running into Sinbad. When he and and Albert meet their neighbor, the mysterious "Count of Monte Cristo," Franz realizes that it's the same guy! But the Count pretends not to remember giving Franz hashish or meeting him at all; he's a different person on the mainland than he is on Monte Cristo. This section contains the extraordinary claim that "Italian cookery" is "the worst in the world." Franz and Albert hear the tale of a notorious local bandit who has some connection with the Count (or someone who looks exactly like him) - including a fairly grim story of rape and murder that may have played a little better in 1865 or whenever this book was written. They have a talk about vengeance -- the Count is in favor -- and are invited to watch a disturbing execution, with bonus disturbing speech about human nature by the Count. He does various services for the young tourists - I like that he takes care to choose Carnival costumes in colors that "do not show the flour" in case Franz and Albert want to eat a lot of sweets; that's considerate! Then Albert is kidnapped by bandits as a consequence of his quest to get laid, but luckily the Count has connections in the criminal underworld (just as Franz suspected) and all is well. . . or is it??? Franz still has his suspicions, and I for one don't blame him. Dantes, what are you up to?
I'm not sure I loved this section quite as much as some of the previous ones - though that isn't saying very much against it. I enjoyed Franz's quest for information about his mysterious neighbor, and I liked the French tourist perspective on Rome. It's not clear whether we're going to stick with Albert and Franz for a while longer, or jump to some other beneficiary (???????) of the Count's generous nature (???)
I'm running way behind this week, so Wednesday reading will have to wait, but I did read The Count of Monte Cristo through Chapter 38. A few brief SPOILERS below the cut!
Suddenly, something new! We jump to a couple of rich young French tourists, Albert and Franz, who have decided to visit Rome for Carnival. On the way, Franz decides to swing by the allegedly uninhabited island of Monte Cristo to shoot goats, only to meet a mysterious man who lives in a cave full of expensive rugs and calls himself Sinbad the Sailor. It's our old friend Dantes, of course! who apparently sometimes invites unsuspecting goat-shooters into his secret treasure lair just because. "Sinbad" describes how he rescued a man condemned to have his tongue, hand, and head cut off, but only after his tongue was cut, because "I always had a desire to have a mute in my service." Dantes, that's cold! Has your cinnamon heart grown so stale? Then he peer-pressures Franz into taking hashish and sends him on his way.
Later, in Rome, Franz keeps running into Sinbad. When he and and Albert meet their neighbor, the mysterious "Count of Monte Cristo," Franz realizes that it's the same guy! But the Count pretends not to remember giving Franz hashish or meeting him at all; he's a different person on the mainland than he is on Monte Cristo. This section contains the extraordinary claim that "Italian cookery" is "the worst in the world." Franz and Albert hear the tale of a notorious local bandit who has some connection with the Count (or someone who looks exactly like him) - including a fairly grim story of rape and murder that may have played a little better in 1865 or whenever this book was written. They have a talk about vengeance -- the Count is in favor -- and are invited to watch a disturbing execution, with bonus disturbing speech about human nature by the Count. He does various services for the young tourists - I like that he takes care to choose Carnival costumes in colors that "do not show the flour" in case Franz and Albert want to eat a lot of sweets; that's considerate! Then Albert is kidnapped by bandits as a consequence of his quest to get laid, but luckily the Count has connections in the criminal underworld (just as Franz suspected) and all is well. . . or is it??? Franz still has his suspicions, and I for one don't blame him. Dantes, what are you up to?
I'm not sure I loved this section quite as much as some of the previous ones - though that isn't saying very much against it. I enjoyed Franz's quest for information about his mysterious neighbor, and I liked the French tourist perspective on Rome. It's not clear whether we're going to stick with Albert and Franz for a while longer, or jump to some other beneficiary (???????) of the Count's generous nature (???)
