Jayson’s Reviews > The Buried Giant > Status Update

Notes:
(1) We finally get some meat on the bones in Chapter 15.
- Not that it's especially robust nor compelling, but it finally tackles the problem of the mist directly.
(2) In addition to being consequential, it's rife with symbolism.
- The titular "buried giant" represents war anger, put to sleep by the mist but set to awaken again.
- Mythic Britain is symbolically put to death, displaced by the historical record.

Notes:
(1) We have a few instances where resurfaced memories create enmity between Axl and Beatrice, whereas the subsequent relapse brings them closer again.
- Ergo, some things are better left forgotten.
(2) Axl and Beatrice meet three children living on their own who say their parents forgot about them and so never returned.
- Which is sort of the same reason why Axl and Beatrice took so long to seek out their son.

Notes:
(1) Three-quarters in and I still don't really understand Axl and Beatrice's journey.
- Ostensibly, they're off to see their son before they forget again that they have a son, but how do they know where the son is?
- Why encounter things on the way that seemingly have no bearing on the quest? In the end, these are just generic obstacles.
- This desperately needs more/higher stakes and a much clearer objective.

Notes:
(1) Chapter 8 is from Edwin's POV. He recalls happening upon an older girl tied up in a field by her male companions, but can't understand why.
- Seemingly, it's some sexual game his child's mind can't compute.
(2) Chapter 9 is from Gawain's POV. He's haunted by his failure to slay the dragon Querig.
- A once proud knight that hags now ridicule, he recalls days of yore when his word (and Arthur's) was trusted.

Notes:
(1) Mist aside, over halfway into this and it's the first time we see anything fantastical in this fantasy story.
- There's a large dog monster whose severed head keeps moving around after death.
(2) Though not marketed as such, this is far more of a romance than a fantasy.
- Axl and Beatrice have an almost childlike dependence and love for one another. It's the only guiding light in this world of uncertainty.

Notes:
(1) It's interesting how Saxons have kings while Britons have lords.
- It's yet unclear whether the difference is that of hierarchy, function or nomenclature.
(2) We arrive at a monastery where it's discovered that the monks engage in corporeal penance involving bodily exposure to wild birds.
- Wistan is totally disgusted. It's yet another instance here of Christianity seeming far less civilized than paganism.

Notes:
(1) Wistan goes full Simple Jack to bluff his way past unfriendly Britons.
- You never go full Simple Jack!
- It muh-muh-muh-makes me uncomfortable.
(2) We meet Sir Gawain of Arthurian legend.
- He's sort of a Don Quixote type, with his rusty armor and grand mission he's obviously too old to carry out.
(3) It's very "Game of Thrones" how dragons, and the possession of them, are an allegory for nuclear weapons.

Notes:
(1) This chapter from Edwin's point of view is a bit difficult to figure out. On top of all the jumping around with time and place, there's a long allegory about circling a dilapidated wagon.
- Best I can tell, the wagon symbolizes lost memory and circling it an effort to keep it in mind.
- We also see this in the old, now-crippled, warrior Steffa: another broken relic of the past who's glory no one remembers.

Notes:
(1) At least to me, the prose feels a bit off-center, like a translated ancient text or subtitles to a foreign film.
- It conveys a world both familiar and foreign.
(2) The narrator keeps a foot in the present while describing the past.
- The longhouse is described as not so different from a rustic canteen, and the view from the wall as not so different from the view out the window of an English country house.

Notes:
(1) We meet an old woman and a boatman at the ruins of a Roman villa.
- The boatman says he lived there as a child, suggesting he's Roman—or more specifically, Charon the ferryman of myth.
(2) Axl and Beatrice stop at a Saxon village.
- Interestingly, the Saxons, with their "modern" above-ground houses, are pagan. Conversely, the Britons, who live in more primitive hobbit-style hill-dug warrens, are Christian.