Articles of War, by Graham Swift

SUMMARY AND COMMENTS, by Dora Sarrion
 
Richard is the protagonist of this short story. Some day in September 1805, three weeks after his 25th birthday, he arrives in Plymouth when the night has fallen, after a long and exhausting coach trip.
He is a young officer destined to be in charge of the artillery on “The Temeraire”, a ship anchored in the port. He is the youngest of five siblings, and a single man because he is completely dedicated to the Navy.
Due to his arriving in town very late, he must stay overnight in a hotel near the harbour and wait a few hours until he can meet his crew. During this time, he can do nothing but wait and think.
He remembers one day in his life when his father seemed to suggest him that, although he considered him as one of the members of his family, he was not his son, so he should always be aware of his conduct: “know your place”, he said.  Although his father didn’t openly tell him he was his bastard son, he interpreted it from his gestures, but he kept it in secret for his own interest and for being grateful to his mother and sisters.
Despite having chosen the Navy as a profession and been already quite familiar with the sea when on board, he still often feels homesickness and several days’ seasickness, depending on the route and the weather.
He is aware that the nostalgia he feels would only be cured when he’ll get on the ship and join his crew on “The Temeraire”.
The story of this ship is very similar to his story in the Navy. Although he had practised a lot with guns, the ship, like him, had never gone into action, it had only experienced a mutiny on board. But this time, he has the feeling that they’re both going to fight against the French in a not-too-distant future.
He is convinced that he is ready for the battle and that he knows how to command his crew, firmly but without brutality. Only with words of encouragement, he will instil the energy to move them forward. And when the action starts, he mustn’t lose his voice, he must remain calm and give good example to his people.
“He trusted, simply, that he would do his duty. As he had done his careful, grateful, unmutinying duty to his father and (if such she was) his mother.”

QUESTIONS

What was the British situation in 1805?

Talk about the protagonist’s family.

He was the last in his family. Do you think your position among brothers or sisters (e.g., being the last, the first, the “unexpected addition” …) can influence your character?

He was possibly a bastard. Have you seen the film “Fences” or “Ôtez-moi d'un doute” or another one or a novel with an illegitimate? 

In your opinion, is it a good idea to give all the legacy to only one heir / heiress (elder son / daughter)?

What can “patient height” mean? (page 231, line 21)

Does everybody have a place, their place, in the world?

What can you say about the Temeraire?

“He preferred blue to red, and preferred either to the black and white absurdity of being a parson in a pulpit”. What did these colours represent? What do you know about “The Red and the Black”, by Stendhal?

What is the meaning of “men had dangled from its yardarms”?

What can you say about “Jonah going down to Joppa”? Have you read “Moby Dick”?

Why is that waiting for a horrible experience is sometimes worse than the experience in itself?

How do you think he is going to do on board? Is he going to be staunch? Will he be able to command over his sailors? Will he be the object of a mutiny, or will his ship enter into action? Will he survive?

Jane Austen novels are situated in the beginning of the 19^th century. Have you read them? Did she mention the Navy or the Napoleonic Wars in her novels?

Ships and the sea are good themes for a novel. What novels of this kind can you recommend us?

What do you think of the discipline on board or in the army?

 

VOCABULARY

drizzle, shrouding, stooks, sodden, bidding, pitching, unwillingly, skulking, mince, dire, conundrum, unmanning, shore-bound, rag-doll, rasp out, probe, nagging, milksop, fitz, disobliging, limbo, retching, innkeeper, Second Rate, yardarms, timbers, blockade, Fourth Rate, forebodings, spleen, heaving, cocked-hatted, articles of war, kinship, splinters, flinch

Some films about "Men of War"

Captain Horatio Hornblower
Hornblower
Master and Commander
The Bounty

The Enemy, by Tessa Hadley

SUMMARY, by Alícia Usart

This is a story about a girl named Caro, who met a boy named Keith in a meeting of the Revolutionary Socialist Student Federation, at her university.
She had bought a new trouser suit for the occasion; she was very proud because this dress made her feel sure of herself and attractive at the same time. In addition, she was approved by some of her companions.
When she met Keith for the first time, she found him very attractive and charismatic; furthermore, his Welsh accent made women melt.
Unfortunately for Caro, when he approached her, he reproached the way she was dressed (not appropriate in a Revolutionary meeting).
She felt humiliated; however, she remained calm, but she kept thinking how she could take revenge. Since then, he was her enemy.
After the meeting, all the visitors went to an old house where Caro and Keith had a long night arguing together.
When everybody went to sleep, Keith disappeared, and, the next morning, she was shocked to find him sleeping with her older sister Penny.
Later on, Penny and Keith had a relationship during twenty years in which Penny had struggled with him, bearing all his bad behaviours towards her and their children, changing his behaviour to a softer one, after she finished with him, and he started a new relationship. Caro had supported her sister in all difficult moments she lived with her husband, to the point of moving where they were living, in Cardiff, Wales. 
Finally, Penny ended this relationship after she had a third baby and moved near where she and Caro were born.
Keith met another girl, Lyne, and they lived between London and Dordogne. In the end, it was Caro who was left living in Wales.
And then, one day he had to come to Cardiff to talk to some people about a new film project, and she received him at her house.
She spent all day shopping and preparing a meal which was eaten in an hour or so, but she enjoyed all this work.
They talked about old times and old idealisms. After all, she realized that she was not the same person now at her age of fifty-five.

QUESTIONS

Keith was a revolutionary, but now he understands in wines. All the time there has been a debate: Can a revolutionary eat delicatessen, own luxury cars, wear expensive clothes? What do you think?

Why was Keith an enemy for Carol, according to Carol?
Are there clothes for activists, and clothes for posh people?
What do you know about lefty parties, as Trotskyists, Maoists…?
What was Caro wearing at the revolutionary meeting?
Did you stop seeing someone because of your different political views or religion beliefs? Have you read Fred Ullmann?
Are boys more revolutionary than girls?
Are science students less revolutionary than art and humanities students?
Is still there machismo in the revolutionary ranks?
What do you think of wolf whistles and catcalls?
Can students (they usually come from middle class or rich families) be truly revolutionary?
Being a revolutionary leader, was something like being an alpha macho?
Why do you think Keith choose Penny and not Caro?

They mention "the way that men chose women". What is that way?
Is marriage a fatal destiny for most of the women?
Can you remember the incident with the gun? What can this tell us about Keith character? What is the meaning of this incident in the story? Why does the authoress decide to tell us about it?
Personality versus artistic talent: Does the personality of a writer create a bias in his or her works or in the way we read his or her books?
What are your lost illusions?
What do you do in your hairstyle o dressing style to keep you young?

Are patriarchal systems linked more to human evolutionary biology than to cultural environment? Give your reasons.
She accommodated his enemy in her house, but she cooked him an elaborate meal. Why? Did she feel she was receding to the traditional female role?

VOCABULARY

yawn, faltered, restless, stir, upset, prowled, PA, thane, eke, grant, trendy, fug, wolf whistle, Agit Prop, currency, muddled, scalding, mock-, motley, politicos, hassle, sparring, Enoch Powell, overstating, squeamishness, countenance, obnoxious, teasing, sheer, auburn, cosy, council house, bleak, estate, raucous, predicament, feted, basking, stern, pithead, winding gear, leads, tenants, pottered, DIY, gnawed, maudlin, skittles, rag, dreary, infighting, welfare, Black Dwarf, brimming, spills, fug, jacknifed, rangy, quaked, tuiles, bara brith, thwarted

Seraglio, by Graham Swift

SERAGLIO, PLOT AND COMMENTARY, by Núria Lecina

This short story tells us about the relationship of a couple. We don’t know their names.  Maybe the storyteller, who is the husband, doesn’t think it is necessary. He explains the facts and his thoughts.  Neither, we never know his wife’s feelings in this experience.  They are on holidays in Istanbul, but they could be anywhere, their relationship would be the same.

They decided to travel to Istanbul, a place really beautiful and interesting, because they wanted something exotic, they needed holidays, but different. “A place where you can save your ordinary life”. They look for an escape. They feel that have suffered, and now they are in convalescence, so that’s why they want an exotic and special place. But this way they won’t solve their problems. Sooner or later, they’ll return.

Thanks to the husband’s narration, who has a tourist’s book, we know a lot of aspects about the exotic Istanbul. For instance, what is the Seraglio, the place where the Sultan had all his women or concubines.

He also defines what is his wife like, both physically and psychologically. And what is the couple’s life like.

It is a rich text in descriptions, full of adjectives that help the reader to understand and imagine the situation.

One day in these holidays, when the husband arrives to the hotel after he has done a photographic report, he finds his wife laying on the bed crying. She explains to him that a hotel’s worker has come to their room to repair the heater, and when he had finished, he approached her and touched her. The explanations aren’t much clearer, neither what they can do to clear up the incident. At this moment, the situation becomes tense. Is she the victim? Is he guilty because he wasn’t there? Is it necessary to inform against? What is the meaning of “touched her”?  Did she use this fact to blame him? Is he being insensitive? …

This fact makes the husband think about how they can have arrived to this way of living, and then he tells us about their past. Their wedding was seven years ago. They worked together. He immediately fell in love with her. Soon they got married.

He, practising an odd philosophy, tested his love. He had a lover to check that really the woman who loved was his wife. This adventure, like a secret Seraglio, finished when the wife was pregnant. But soon after, she had a miscarriage, and it all got ruined. Perhaps his cheating on her was also an addition to their crisis?

Between them, it was installed the silence, a common guilt, the incapacity to talk about the loss, the incapacity to talk about the causes of everything and about what they could do to get out of their mourning.  And so, the solution was the escape, covering up what hurt them, the loss.

From that moment, rewards are the most important thing: theatre, restaurants, concerts, exhibitions, and expensive holidays.

I think the last sentence sums it up well: “So, one doesn’t have to cross to the other continent, doesn’t have to know what really happened”.

Until when?

QUESTIONS

-What do you know about the history of Istanbul?

-A cruel custom is mentioned. Do you know about similar customs related to power?

-Beauty is sometimes terrible: that is what we call sublime. Do you know any examples of this?

-What do you think of the famous cliché “Men seem to have the power, but who really gives orders is his wife”?

-What do you know about Oman II?

-“On holiday, you want to be spared ordinary life”. What do you think of the tourists lying on the beach, while shipwrecked immigrant people that have come out of a small boat lay on the beach?

-Do you think clichés in the story about Turkey are close to reality? Have you seen “Midnight Express” or “The Turkish Lover”?

-What do you know about Florence Nightingale?

-Where is Surrey in England? Do you know anything about it?

-How fond of taking photos are you? How do you like taking them?

-Do you think something really happened between the porter and the wife? How do you know?

-According to your opinion, are police officers competent enough to attend assaulted women?

-“But I have wanted this too.” What does it mean? Page 4, line 11.

-Was he really in love with his wife? How do you know?

-What do you think of the saying “Out of sight, out of mind”?

-Can you comment the sentence “Men want power over women in order to be able to let women take this power from them”?

-Do you usually discuss a film / play after seeing it with your friends / partner?

-Who killed their baby? Did he have a reason to feel guilty, and thus cause the miscarriage? What reason could be?

-What is the best way to narrate an embarrassing / delicate situation?

-What do you think is the meaning of her holding “one hand, closed, to her throat”?

-Having in mind their circumstances (abroad, tourists, eastern country…), what would you have done in her situation, talk to the manager, go to the police, go to your embassy…?

-Why did the author mention that the radiator was “distinctly warmer”?

-Why in the plane “other people glanced at his wife”?

-Do you think their marriage will go on?

 

VOCABULARY

sherbet, rent, squalls, hailstorms, bloated, spattered, Elastoplast, cripples, chequers, bled, dig, flawless, complexion, fastidious, tends, interfered, elicit, bluffly, blowing up, sensible, cut out, consultant designer, crushed, make believe, conscripted, heater, siege, scornful, issue, scoff, linen, gauge, ledge, reprieve, stay of execution, plane trees