Kat’s Comments (group member since Jul 06, 2012)

Kat’s comments from the Reading Greer Gilman group.

Just from the chapter that I had read, it seems to remain in, or be and thus is constantly, autumn-like turning to winter, our All Hallows Eve.
"He walked in the Cloudwood that they were to fell, had felled long since; though where he walked was autumn still..." and "...though strange remembering green, since none were i't wood to keep..." and "he riddled at the wood, the tale the leaves told, falling: no end to their tale, no spring, however far he walked."
After describing traditions of harvest "so the sun would turn" and the farmers of a land where time passes, where people "danced the years and died" he describes that "in Cloudwood it was endless hallows. There no wren was slain, no seed scattered; though he cried the ravens from the turning wood, no winter ever came to green." And his always re-tattering coat makes me think Cloudwood is a place of eternal late autumn, or it *is* Hallows, of All Hallows Eve.

Gorgeous writing, but oh boy! is the writing oh so dense and I have no idea what a good portion of it means. Part of this difficulty is the beautiful yet strange and unusual syntax and word pairings Ms. Gilman uses, as if the world she were describing (or her perception of reality) held another sense or dimension only she can grasp/sense/experience.
It took me a little bit to realize that the male in "Hallows" (chapter 2) was speaking in dialect and that Ms. Gilman was not simply making up words and things... which would not exactly have surprised me. He appears to be timeless, or at least outside of time, though he can see the creatures and beings that are stuck in places where time flows and passes. Though difficult (I had to tell myself not to give up) it was a most amazing chapter to read and experience.
The silver ring is something this male character mentions, and it was mentioned right away in the following (3rd) chapters as being on Sylvie's finger as she's turning over the cards of their personal tarot deck. She lays down The Hallows Tree, which I am guessing is at least related to, if not actually, the character from the previous chapter and that he was somehow able to see one of them, or at least into this world of time.
I have just begun the third chapter.