Cari’s answer to “Does anyone else but me think that the Classics professor was involved with the murders?” > Likes and Comments
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Insightful review 👍🏼
Very insightful. Thank you for the perspective.
Wow. Excellent close reading! Thank you!
Extremely astute! I realized that Julian may not be a good person but this certainly gives more food for thought.
Then during Bunny's funeral, Julian has that moment when his façade drops for a minute and joyfully tells Henry that it is all like a Dostoyevsky novel. For someone who rejects all modernity and only finds beauty and value in the classics (of antiquity), what an odd thing to say. Of all novelists, to invoke the one who wrote "Crime and Punishment," which is also quoted in that part of the story, is not a coincidence. In that novel, a gruesome murder is carefully planned and executed. Worst of all, when Julian says the funeral reminds him of Dostoyevsky, he is clearly happy about it. At that point, in my mind, there is no doubt he knows exactly what is going on.
i think you may have remembered this scene wrong. the scene takes place after one of the searches for bunny & before the funeral. it is henry (not julian) that references tolstoy (not dostoyevsky). henry & the others are standing together talking about bunny's disappearance & julian says how upset he is (that bunny is a sweet boy & he is fond of him; that he can't bear if something has happened to him). as julian speaks, henry notices julian taking in the scene of the search:
he was looking over the hills, at all that grand cinematic expanse of men and wilderness and snow that lay beneath us; and though his voice was anxious there was a strange dreamy look on his face. the business had upset him, that i knew, but i also knew that there was something about the operatic sweep of search which could not fail to appeal to him and that he was pleased, however obscurely, with the aesthetics of the thing.
henry saw it, too. "like something from tolstoy, isn't it?" he remarked.
julian looked over his shoulder, and i was startled to see that there was real delight in his face.
"yes," he said. "isn't it, though?"
THIS. You put it into words. There is NO way he was blind to a single detail of what happened. If Richard can gather as much while being held at an arms length by the entire group, Julian definitely knew even more than we'd ever get to know. There's good reason why he ran off as soon as the letter was discovered.
I fully agree. I've always believed that Julian was not only aware, but also got off on watching these events from the shadows.
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Apr 24, 2018 03:47AM
Insightful review 👍🏼
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Very insightful. Thank you for the perspective.
Wow. Excellent close reading! Thank you!
Extremely astute! I realized that Julian may not be a good person but this certainly gives more food for thought.
Then during Bunny's funeral, Julian has that moment when his façade drops for a minute and joyfully tells Henry that it is all like a Dostoyevsky novel. For someone who rejects all modernity and only finds beauty and value in the classics (of antiquity), what an odd thing to say. Of all novelists, to invoke the one who wrote "Crime and Punishment," which is also quoted in that part of the story, is not a coincidence. In that novel, a gruesome murder is carefully planned and executed. Worst of all, when Julian says the funeral reminds him of Dostoyevsky, he is clearly happy about it. At that point, in my mind, there is no doubt he knows exactly what is going on.i think you may have remembered this scene wrong. the scene takes place after one of the searches for bunny & before the funeral. it is henry (not julian) that references tolstoy (not dostoyevsky). henry & the others are standing together talking about bunny's disappearance & julian says how upset he is (that bunny is a sweet boy & he is fond of him; that he can't bear if something has happened to him). as julian speaks, henry notices julian taking in the scene of the search:
he was looking over the hills, at all that grand cinematic expanse of men and wilderness and snow that lay beneath us; and though his voice was anxious there was a strange dreamy look on his face. the business had upset him, that i knew, but i also knew that there was something about the operatic sweep of search which could not fail to appeal to him and that he was pleased, however obscurely, with the aesthetics of the thing.
henry saw it, too. "like something from tolstoy, isn't it?" he remarked.
julian looked over his shoulder, and i was startled to see that there was real delight in his face.
"yes," he said. "isn't it, though?"
THIS. You put it into words. There is NO way he was blind to a single detail of what happened. If Richard can gather as much while being held at an arms length by the entire group, Julian definitely knew even more than we'd ever get to know. There's good reason why he ran off as soon as the letter was discovered.
I fully agree. I've always believed that Julian was not only aware, but also got off on watching these events from the shadows.
