1.2.3-Acegrantaire

Noble and Plebeian in Concert
I….don’t really have much to say about this chapter?

The commander and second officer, who are very hard to tell apart, discuss people whose names fly over my head. The bird symbolism is a little bit interesting, because when La Vieuville says that they’ve got a crow, Boisberthelot says that he would prefer a vulture. Which is odd because vultures have such a negative association? Maybe because vultures are more solitary than crows, or because they’re bigger? Or it might be that vultures are so associated with carrion, and they’re working against something they think is rotten? I don’t really know, my grasp on the ideologies of the time is loose, to say the least.

The minimal dialogue tags make this conversation a bit hard to follow, but that might be intentional? idk. Hmm.

Beyond that, I guess I’m just hoping that there will be an explanation sometime soon? We keep ending chapters on cliffhanger notes!

Commentary
Pilferingapples Okay,given what I know about Western-European bird imagery, I’d guess that crows, to them, are cunning, talkative, mischievous scavengers; while vultures, who are of course ALSO scavengers, are seen as more aggressive (they AREN’T, but I’m talking symbolism), quiet, and sort of inexorable. They don’t want a clever big talker, they want a frightening symbol.

I THINK, I could be wrong, but whatever is intended I am SURE it is important. Everything is always Bird, after all.

Acegrantaire (reply to Pilferingapples) Oooh, that would explain things!