Cricket Term, chapters 10-12

[coughingbear]

The final section of the book - the Play, the Match, and the End. Just about in time, but my apologies that it's so late; long day at work and trouble with laptop.

Comments

Re: What did happen to Lois Sanger?

[sprog_63]

I agree, it is wrong structurally - but isn't playing with conventional structure a recurrent theme in these books? I wonder if that is why it has to be so oblique: having written Marie's death so powerfully, there was nowhere else to go with Lois'.

The conversation in the VIth form sitting-room is so typically Forest in its ear for dialogue and ability to conjure an emotional tone: the others are nostalgic and feeling warm towards each other, Lois is isolated, obsessively brooding, and melancholic. They try and bring her in, but unsuccessfully. I have a fantasy that, "But they were wrong" is one of those sentences which "wrote itself" as some writers describe, but once it was there, where it flows so naturally from the conversation, Forest couldn't not include it. No author would want to leave out Marie's death: it is so compelling, so the only possibility in literary terms is to slip Lois' death in as she does, and bother convention which says you can't have two deaths of unpleasant characters in one term. (Or drug-running pigeons, or amazing connections between the ancient ancestors and the disparate interests of both twins, or write children's books in made up dialects, or ...)

On the Watsonian side: I am not sure it would necessarily make it back to school: especially if it was suicide - families can be ashamed of that. There is no indication that I recall that Lois' parents attend anything at school (like Janice's) so they have no personal relationship with Miss Keith and staff, perhaps they just didn't say? As long as she was not in the same area as another Kingscote girl (who might have read it in the local press) how would anyone get to know? Lois is unlikely to have had friends to stay in the holidays, so her parent/s wouldn't know any of the girls to tell them individually.

And that makes it the perfect counterpoint (is that the word I want?) to Lawrie's comment, "We wouldn't have remembered anything about her if nobody had said." They did remember Lois at Old Girl's events, but only just.

Re: What did happen to Lois Sanger?

[jackmerlin]

Maybe she doesn't die straight away? Maybe she goes to her PE teacher training college, maybe even gets a job. But every time something goes wrong in her life she goes back to brooding obsessively about 'that game'. No-one picks up that the brooding is a symptom of a mental disorder until one day she takes an overdose.....
I'm very impressed by your textual reading by the way. It had never before occurred to me that she actually dies, but you're right, it does say so!

Re: What did happen to Lois Sanger?

[nnozomi]

Yes, that's how I read it also--that, while she doesn't go straight home from Kingscote and commit suicide, she may well end up doing so later on in life, as an extension of the way she thinks here. (I'm inclined to feel that "But they were wrong" is Forest quoting Lois' inner monologue, rather than a literal reference to life and death, but mileage varies.)

Re: What did happen to Lois Sanger?

[sprog_63]

I agree it doesn't have to be immediate - a gap even of a year means her parents much less likely to tell the school; though my head cannon puts it earlier rather than later. If I let it be a little later I could enjoy Ankaret's fic about her better without thinking, "but Lois is dead" every time I start it!

Re: What did happen to Lois Sanger?

[mainerobin]

I kind of pictured it could be something like this:
one of the Kingscote staff (Not sure if its Redmond, Craven, or Keith) gets a letter from a friend/relative, that contains a news clipping about something of interest to her--Perhaps Miss Carter returning from her world tour. On the back of the newsclipping is a short story headlined:

Girl Falls from Cliff Top

The body of a young woman was found at the bottom of the sea cliffs near Wilvercombe (might as well keep DLS in hand). A search of her person revealed no identity cards, but a search on the cliff above yielded a haversack containing the identification of Lois Sanger, 123 Skytop Road, Puddleford, Herts. A letter of dismissal from a Physical Training College was also in her bag.

Leaving open the question of whether it was suicide or accident

Re: What did happen to Lois Sanger?

[sprog_63]

I'm with you Sprog-63. The way the passage reads to me is:
They told her it wasn't a matter of life and death, but they were wrong and she was never seen again.
The Watsonian objection that people would know, which also came up when this was discussed in August 2007 (see Lois Sanger tag) is all very well, but there is so much in the AF universe that is pretty well impossible (such as Mrs Marlow's obstetric record) that it doesn't convince me.
Poor Lois just doesn't seem to have the knack of inventing plausible excuses that she can believe herself.
Thanks for all the work that has gone into these read throughs. I'm learning a lot
Mrs Kent