Thunder on the Right -- Chapters 16 thru 20

[[deleted user]]

Discussion for chapters 16 thru 20. Please comment on anything from these chapters, but remember to hide spoilers within a spoiler tag. Please note which chapter a spoiler is from so other readers will know if it is safe to "peek" or not. You do not have to wait until reading all of the chapters to comment, but please restrict your posts to content from chapters 1 thru 20. Enjoy!

[[deleted user]]

End of chapter 16: (view spoiler)[Is Jillian mesmerized, drugged, amnesiac, or willfully meaning to escape her past life? (hide spoiler)] And what kind of hero confronts (view spoiler)[such a murderous brute without a weapon? (hide spoiler)]

[[deleted user]]

End of chapter 20: *serious spoiler* (view spoiler)[it appears to be amnesia (hide spoiler)]

[Diane Lynn]

End of chapter 16: Agree with your spoilers about chapter 16, Jeannette. Is (view spoiler)[Stephen naive confronting Bussac? I mean, seriously, Jennifer related to him the conversation she eavesdropped on. And murder was mentioned, as well as "money sticky with blood." So Stephen sounds like a bumbling hero, or just plain stupid. But he does want to protect Jennifer, so that is sweet.

Having just finished 16, I think Gillian must have amnesia from the accident and the trauma from this fight and her subsequent fainting will bring her out of it. (hide spoiler)]

[[deleted user]]

I think Stephen (view spoiler)[is in the wrong book! Even Jennifer realizes that storybook heroes are a fantasy, and Stephen is a man who abhors violence. I liked that little revelation that Jennifer has. (hide spoiler)]

[[deleted user]]

I keep forgetting, too, that it has been a few years since Jenny has seen Gillian.

[Diane Lynn]

Jeannette wrote: "I think Stephen [spoilers removed]"

Revelation? I must not be there yet, do you remember which chapter?

[[deleted user]]

Right after where we were discussing. Let me look.....

[Diane Lynn]

I stopped at the end of 16, I'll pick it back up at lunchtime.

[[deleted user]]

It's the very beginning of chapter 17 where she recalls that Stephen said earlier (view spoiler)[ Don't cast me as the hero of your story (hide spoiler)] Are you just at the beginning of chapter 16? If so, sorry, even though I don't think I spoiled anything. :(

I'm at the beginning of chapter 23.

[Diane Lynn]

You didn't spoil anything, all you said was revelation! That's right where I will pick up, start of 17, and now I really can't wait! :)

[[deleted user]]

Diane Lynn wrote: "I stopped at the end of 16, I'll pick it back up at lunchtime."

Oh, but you do know that Stephen (view spoiler)[got a good thumping! (hide spoiler)]

[Diane Lynn]

Yes he did indeed! (view spoiler)[Complete with blood, and him still sore from that boulder hitting him. And he had thought he could just walk up there and talk the situation through, didn't quite work out! (hide spoiler)]

[[deleted user]]

Very very British and proper. lol

[Karlyne]

Diane Lynn wrote: "Yes he did indeed! [spoilers removed]"

I think that he thought he had enough on Bussac that he might let Gillian go without too much fuss. What he hadn't counted on was her not coming willingly, although he was pretty sure that she was Bussac's "wife". Being a civilized man, as Jenny realizes, Stephen did think that they could talk it out. I don't think he went up there looking for a fight or for a chance to be a hero, but he doesn't side-step the opportunity. Even though he lost the battle, I think he takes the honors, because he unwillingly uses violence as a necessity. Now that I think about it, I do like Stephen!

[Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽, Moderator]

Chapter 16: (view spoiler)[Wow, I think that fight was every bit as graphic and bloody as the one at the end of My Brother Michael, except no one died at the end of it. (hide spoiler)]

Poor Stephen, waiting patiently for Jennifer to wake up and smell the coffee.

Chapter 17: Yay!(view spoiler)[Stephen finally gets a kiss! I'm not sure I've ever been so anxious in a MS book for that to happen. I'm sure it's because he's been loving her for so long and against the odds. (hide spoiler)]

Also in Chapter 17: More portentous weather!

MS is using weather as a symbol here much more than in any other book of hers that I can recall. To some extent I think the weather descriptions in TOTR have replaced her typical detailed landscape descriptions, thought there's still some of that.

[Diane Lynn]

Karlyne wrote: "I think that he thought he had enough on Bussac that he might let Gillian go without too much fuss. What he hadn't counted on was her not..."

I agree, and I think Stephen has a good head on his shoulders.

[Diane Lynn]

Tadiana wrote: "Also in Chapter 17: More portentous weather!

The weather really does stand out!

[[deleted user]]

Do any of you know where the saying "Thunder on the Right" comes from? A poem or a play perhaps?

[Karlyne]

I thought it was a stage direction from Shakespeare? I'll check! Or maybe Wagner, since this is a musically themed chapter book?

[Karlyne]

I tried to do a quick check, but I think I blew the Internet out. Or maybe it was the 800mph winds we're having today. Anyhow, all I got was a pro basketball team, a political agenda, and a few plain "thunder" references from Shakespeare and Wagner. I wish we could ask Mary Stewart!

[Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽, Moderator]

I tried searching for the title too, with no luck.

[[deleted user]]

Same for me...

[Karlyne]

Anybody know a good detective?

[[deleted user]]

I couldn't find it in Bartlett's, and they are a good source for quotes.

[Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽, Moderator]

Since Google and Bartlett's have failed us, clearly we need to supply our own quotes using the words "thunder on the right." I'll start us off with a haiku:

Thunder on the right:
Omen of a happy end.
Just don't fight Pierre.

[[deleted user]]

Thunder on the right
Dark and stormy clouds
Dona is no saint

[Karlyne]

There once was a girl named Jenny
Whose face was as bright as a penny
But when thunder on the right
Made her run to the fight
She found that of courage she hadn't any.

[[deleted user]]

Karlyne wrote: "There once was a girl named Jenny
Whose face was as bright as a penny
But when thunder on the right
Made her run to the fight
She found that of courage she hadn't any."

hahaha! Nice rhyming. :)

[Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽, Moderator]

"The time has come," the bursar said,
"To talk of many things:
Of gold ... and blackmail ... and smugglers,
Of a cousin and the trouble she brings ...
Of Celeste's crush on that stupid boy
And how that really stings ....
And why the thunder is on the right
And whether my black robe has wings."

[[deleted user]]

*nice* :)

[Karlyne]

Tadiana wrote: ""The time has come," the bursar said,
"To talk of many things:
Of gold ... and blackmail ... and smugglers,
Of a cousin and the trouble she brings ...
Of Celeste's crush on that stupid boy
And how ..."

Good one! That could be on the jacket of the book!

[Judith]

You guys are cracking me up!

Isn't it called synchronicity when you're reading about thunder and then there is a huge roll of thunder as you read? So awesome! First and only time that's happened to me.

Carpet fiasco stress is preventing me from enjoying this book as I always have even with the lesser MS novels. I may take a little break and come back to it in a couple of days.

Jeannette, I am in dire need of a stupendous RA picture!! I consumed a DQ Blizzard and that didn't do it for me...time for you to bring out the big guns.

[Judith]

Karlyne wrote: "Tadiana wrote: ""The time has come," the bursar said,
"To talk of many things:
Of gold ... and blackmail ... and smugglers,
Of a cousin and the trouble she brings ...
Of Celeste's crush on that stu..."


you are so funny!

[[deleted user]]

Here you are, Judith. This should help!

[Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽, Moderator]

Thanks, Jeannette! You just made my morning brighter.

Judith, I think you should add something to our TotR poetry collection. :) Maybe it will help take your mind off your carpets....

[Hannah]

Not reading TotR, but RA brought me out of lurking!

Thanks for the pic, QC. Judith is right - "big guns", indeed :D

[[deleted user]]

Hannah wrote: "Not reading TotR, but RA brought me out of lurking!

Thanks for the pic, QC. Judith is right - "big guns", indeed :D"

Glad you approve, Ms. Vixen!

[Karlyne]

I hate to plead ignorance, but who is RA?

[[deleted user]]

Richard Armitage. He is currently starring in The Hobbit. The clip is from North & South, a BBC mini series.

[Karlyne]

Ah, got it! I have The Hobbit on dvd and am just waiting for time to watch it. NOW, I'll make time!

[Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽, Moderator]

RA looks quite a bit different in his role as Thorin:



Still pretty hot for a dwarf, though! :D For some reason the filmmakers chose to make Thorin, Fili and Kili much better looking than the rest of the dwarves. I think the excuse was that the royalty amongst the dwarves has more human blood in their ancestry.

[[deleted user]]

Thorin Smokinshield! :D

[Willow]

Oh very cool, some RA posts! :DDD

[[deleted user]]

Willow wrote: "Oh very cool, some RA posts! :DDD"

Judith needed a bit of a boost! :)

Check your profile page in a couple of minutes, Willow.

[Janetje]

Jeannette wrote: "Do any of you know where the saying "Thunder on the Right" comes from? A poem or a play perhaps?"

All I could find was this:
"Many early cultures believed thunder was an omen. For example, the Greeks thought thunder on the right was a good omen; however, the Romans regarded thunder on the left as favourable. Both agreed that thunder in the east was more favourable than thunder in the west -- perhaps because, since weather generally moves from west to east, thunder to the east means the tempest has passed".
Stephen, although he is a musician, seems to be in the good MS hero tradition of quoting from the ancients.

[[deleted user]]

Very interesting, Janetje. I was thinking along the lines of some sort of war poetry (maybe WW1), but quoting the Ancients would by a typical trait of an MS hero. Thanks!

[Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽, Moderator]

Way to go, Janetje! I kept thinking the title had to come from some other source, but my searching didn't unearth anything. I'm sure you've hit on it.

[Karlyne]

Tadiana wrote: "RA looks quite a bit different in his role as Thorin:



Still pretty hot for a dwarf, though! :D For some reason the filmmakers chose to make Thorin, Fili and Kili much better looking than the re..."

I've always been partial to elves and dwarves, elfs and dwarfs. Has anyone seen the musical "Into the Woods"? It has a very funny song in it that mentions dwarfs, dwarves...

[Karlyne]

Janetje wrote: "Jeannette wrote: "Do any of you know where the saying "Thunder on the Right" comes from? A poem or a play perhaps?"

All I could find was this:
"Many early cultures believed thunder was an omen. F..."

I was sure it was a Shakespeare reference, but I'll take ancient Romans and/or Greeks! Definitely a Mary Stewart brilliant moment.