The Luminaries

by Eleanor Catton

Dick Mannering could not bear to let another man hold the stage for long,

The two men therefore did not speak about the business they were about to perform, for to do so would have been to invite the oarsmen into their confidence.

But Frost had spent his childhood in a place without other children, and he did not understand teasing. If another man made fun at his expense, he did not know how to respond.

when he was the New Zealander! (But the appellation sounded foolish; one did not say “Englander.

Not pronounced Appalachian

Frost wanted to say all of this—but instead he knelt down and held out his hands, palm upward, for the collie-dog to lick.

Played by Kip from Napoleon Dynamite

They go after that smoke like a hatter for a whore, and no exceptions. By this time on a Saturday, every yellow man this side of the Alps will be laid out limp with the dragon in his eye. You could walk into Chinatown and round up every one of them with one arm tied behind your back. All right? There’ll be no need for violence. There’ll be no need for any guns. They’re only for show. It’s all stacked to our advantage, Charlie. When a man’s full of opium it’s like he’s made of water. Remember that. He’s useless. He’s a child.”

what picture was emerging from this scant constellation of his life.

Whoever had hidden the gold there evidently had experience with a needle and thread—either a woman or a sailor, she thought.

Sailors can sew?

parceled evenly around the hem—an extra weight she had not noticed earlier, for she often carried lead pellets around the bottom of her crinoline, to prevent the garment from blowing upward in the wind.

It was very unlike her to burst out in such a way. Anna’s nature was watchful and receptive rather than declamatory, and she rarely spoke about herself. Her profession demanded modesty of the strictest sort, paradoxical though that sounded. She was obliged to behave sweetly, and with sympathy, even when sympathy was not owing, and sweetness was not deserved. The men with whom she plied her trade were rarely curious about her. If they spoke at all, they spoke about other women—the sweethearts they had lost, the wives they had abandoned, their mothers, their sisters, their daughters, their wards. They sought these women when they looked at Anna, but only partly, for they also sought themselves: she was a reflected darkness, just as she was a borrowed light. Her wretchedness was, she knew, extremely reassuring.

she would repeat her story until it ceased to be familiar, and she began to doubt herself.

The kettle began to whistle. Gascoigne stuck his cigarette in the corner of his mouth, wrapped his hand in a scrap of serge, and lifted it down from the range.

Anna rubbed her face—as a tired infant rubs its face: clumsily.

But like most extremely sensitive people, Gascoigne could not bear sensitivity in others: he required honesty and directness when he was asked a question—and he required it all the more desperately when he was vexed.

So true

“Strange how many guns go off while being cleaned,” he said. “Strange how many whores get it into their heads to clean their guns, when there’s gentlemen about. Strange how many times that’s happened, in my hotel.”

Carver—he’s the devil himself; he’s the one.”

Conradian reference - the villains in victory

although that fuel was costly, it burned hotter than coke;

The drug, for Quee Long, was a symbol, signifying the unforgivable depths of Western barbarism toward his civilization, and the contempt with which the Chinese life was held, in the face of the lifeless Western goals of profit and greed. Opium was China’s warning. It was the shadow-side of Western expansion—its dark complement, as a yin to a yang. Quee Long often said that a man with no memory was a man with no foresight—to which he added, humorously, that he had quoted this maxim many times before, and he was determined to keep quoting it, without alteration. Any Chinese man who took a pipe in his hands was, in Quee Long’s estimation, both a traitor and a fool.

(Tauwhare spoke slowly, and with much gesticulation; he was evidently well used to communicating with his hands and his expressions, and paused after every clause to make sure that he was accurately understood. Ah Sook found that he could understand his meaning very clearly, though English was neither man’s native tongue. He whispered the names to himself: Arahura Valley, Te Rau Tauwhare, Crosbie Wells.)

perjured himself

whore!

This book is all about the casual use of this word

But now that he knew that Lydia Wells was betrothed, Gascoigne was forced to relinquish his fantasy—and to relinquish his fantasy, he had to acknowledge it, and see it for the foolishness it was. At first he felt sorry for himself, but as soon as he turned his mind upon this sorrow, he found that its shallowness amused him.

Played by Vincent Cassell

What followed was a rather saccharine exchange of compliments, a game in which both the widow and the widower found themselves extremely well matched. Rather than transcribe this sentimental interchange, we will choose to talk above it, and instead describe in better detail what otherwise might be mistaken for a profound weakness in character on the Frenchman’s part.

Omg i love it I love "talk above it"

even more astonished to learn that the translation was available for public purchase at the stationer’s on George-street in Dunedin, at a very reasonable price. Turning the pages of the translated document, Devlin had wondered how the holy message had been simplified, and at what cost.

Tauwhare shook his head. “I don’t pray for Crosbie. I remember him.”

Clinch felt bewildered also. He decided to change the subject.

A big aspect of reading this book is slowly learning who is bad and who isnt smart. Sometimes it takes a while before it is revealed

There was something very sad about it, Moody thought. It was as if the ancient patterns had no meaning here.

It struck Moody that every man present, in his own way, was terribly envious of Staines, and terribly jealous of Anna. Staines’s luck as a prospector was shared by no one, and Anna, as a camp whore, was a common property, shared by them all.

It is now important to google the difference between these two words - i didnt know there was a difference

Moody recalled, all of a sudden, the apparition upon the barque Godspeed, and he gave an involuntary shiver.

What will the significance of this be?

Death would roll her dice against the lady Nightmare.

The thought of having a false name spoken at my funeral—

I feel like this is a huge clue

task that required him to read not only right-to-left, but also back-to-front,

“first to come, first to be served”;

and it flattered him to be begged for news.

this vanity accounts for most of his current feeling

a very provincial type, rather too accustomed to a loyal audience of three or four,

“In my experience people are rarely contented to end up where they started,”

This makes me think nofbus moving back here, and poor David

taken a lover,

shooing away Moody in the manner of an indulgent governess;

Love gascoigne

opium’s dragon. She had cured herself—when he had tried for over a decade to do the same, remaining, always, that shapeless creature’s slave.

“In his Bible,” said Nilssen, very sadly.

I think Catton writes the weak characters very well - Nilssen and Frost make me feel shame, especially Nilssen, because i recognise aspects of myself in him. The 12 men are all different strengths of good and bad

“However, it is the hour of my wife’s devotions, and I do not like to disturb her.”

Quick thinking!

like all men who will not admit fault to themselves, was loath to admit fault to any other man.

“Dear me. Another certainty that we do not share.”

ICE COLD haha Ya burned!

“donation” is distinct from an “investment” in that a donation does not create a relationship of the debtor-creditor variety; in plain language, a donation does not have to be repaid.

Gascoigne was lighting his cigarette, and took a moment to answer.

Convenikent time to think of reply

pretended to brood.

I like gscoigne but he is slippery and a bit dishonest

slippery

Thats the word I used about gascoigne!

born in Hong Kong to a British merchant trader, and raised at sea.

Raised at sea - brutal

The quality of the light seemed very strange to him; he felt that in China the light was thinner, whiter, cleaner. The Australian light was very yellow, and there was a thickened quality to its brightness, as though the sun were always on the point of setting, even in the morning, or at noon.

Amazing - I love hearing about the way people perceive light. Poor Ah Sook sounds bewildered.

He felt a sob rising in his throat.

So strong