The Great Gormenghast Read discussion

Chapters 61-70 discussion.

Steerpike kills people with his slingshot from time to time. Why? Steerpike is, if nothing else, intensely goal-focused. How does this killing move him toward his goal - any goal?

Bellgrove and Irma have a small scene, but to me, this perfunctory dialogue undercuts the literary value of their marriage. All the fun and humor of the party and courtship end up in this one summary scene - 'they grew apart, tried to reconcile, stayed together out of inertia.' Lost opportunity - as if Peake has had his fun, and tells us this ending only grudingly.

The Thing, always created just to play a symbolic part, has her meaningful moment here, and then 'boom!' is gone in a flash of lightning, leaving literally no physical trace. If there's one part of the book that I think could have been removed with no damage done, it's the Thing. She was a promising creation, but one that Peake did virtually nothing with. Meaningful as we're told she is to Titus, I found her a distraction and an extraneous element.

The flood, while difficult in practice - is Gormenghast in a deep valley, that it is somehow able to flood so thoroughly and profoundly - is a welcome return to the Peake of Titus Groan. The description of the methodical upward retreat is grand, and gives us a renewed sense of the castle's vastness. And it brings into play the Countess' submerged abilities, previously only hinted at. I liked this part a lot.

B. wrote: "...The flood, while difficult in practice - is Gormenghast in a deep valley, that it is somehow able to flood so thoroughly and profoundly - is a welcome return to the Peake of Titus Groan. ..."

Although I admire the descriptions of the flood, and the way it brings out different aspects of longstanding characters, the logistics of it have always bothered me to a distracting extent.