KIM XXI -- chapter 15: THE OLD EAT THE YOUNG DAILY

Today just a few thoughts as I finish out the book and muse over the past several weeks:

1. I've read most of Kipling's Just So Stories and quite a lot of his poetry.  While I enjoy the Stories, I can't say the same for Kim.  The stories, obviously, are short format, much like poetry, really, and the poems--if you doubt it just read the introductory verses to each chapter of Kim--are far superior to anything of the text that follows each, except possibly chapter 9.
2. Notice the use of present tense--inconsistent, though it is--in the beginning of this chapter.  If I remember correctly, this is the first  in the book.  Does it do anything, in your opinion, to benefit the story--er, the story's narration?
3. Considering the unilateral focus on finding the River of the Arrow here in the last chapter, I wonder if the entire middle of the book (because Kim's literal finding of the Red Bull on the Green Field seems to have nothing to do with anything, least of all his life--and this by fault of the narrative, not Kim or the soldiers of the Red Bull unit) is not dissimilar, other than its exceedingly length, from Shakespeare's induction stories, giving context to what's after (and before, in this case).  (Check James Smith's unmoderatedcaucus.blogspot.com for further discussion.)
4. Of course it makes sense that the Lama is dying as we approach the end of the book (almost makes me wish he had in the end--not because I don't like him, but so we could have something happen), and as death is an end, perhaps the book--or the story--too is dying, though if we follow that comparison the other way round, then the Lama would have died sometime shortly after the third chapter of so.
5. I'm going to ask this with deliberate obtuseness: do Kim and the Lama have to find the River to find the River?  How do you feel about the fact that they do, supposedly, find it in its tangible, physical iteration?
6. Has the story improved--even if insufficiently--in these final two chapters?
7. Further proof that Kipling likes to narrate what no one wants to read and bypass what might actually prove interesting: The Lama found the River of the Arrow, and we didn't even get to watch him do it!  I feel robbed!  Further, look at all that happens in this chapter.  We read and read and don't read anything and then hear that Kim is sick, sick, and he's got someone tending him, and there are momentous occurrences while he's out aside from his massage.  I've never read someone (save perhaps myself) who could say so little with so many words!
8. And the ending could have been just fantastic--even redemptive.  Look back at what Kim's journey was until he and the Lama came to the River.  The story--the STORY--is good; the narration is ABYSMAL.
9. And now that I'm done with this book, I am tired.  Tired.  Tired.

KIM XIX -- chapter 13: SWEARING LIKE A CAT

(MS Paint is fun.  Feel free to copy
and use this if you'd like; it's mine.)

I thought I might approach this chapter with a little positivity for a change.  Forget discussion questions and all their frustration.  I am, instead, going to list the literary moments—the little nuggets—of good, great, or excellent wit and sentence craft I encounter.  Indeed, there have been many such moments (as long as you don’t compare that number to the overall word count, of course).  Let's see what we get in chapter thirteen.

• "...drew a deep double-lungful of the diamond air...."
• "All day long they lay like molten silver under the sun, and at evening put on their jewels again."
• "...he mourned aloud that he could not have been in the place of the stubborn, inattentive coolies, who with grass mats over their heads and the raindrops puddling in their foot-prints, waited on the weather."
• "He discoursed of botany and ethnology with unimpeachable inaccuracy, and his store of local legends—he had been a trusted agent of the State for fifteen years, remember—was inexhaustible."
• "There are more ways of getting to a sweetheart than butting down a wall."
• "...Kim hurried upward through the gloom, swearing like a cat...."
• And that’s it.  The end.  Of the chapter.  Not the book.  Sorry if I got your hopes up there.

*

If there is someone out there, anywhere, through the vast reaches of the ether and who loves this book, Kim, please tell me where I'm going wrong!  I wonder if it's possible that some personal prejudice is getting in my way and if so what I might do to right it.  My problem is that I see nearly no narrative skill in this book—with the English language, sure, but that’s a different animal.  Here in chapter thirteen, for example, there's a spot of violence.  It lasts a paragraph.  And don’t get me wrong, this is not to say I crave or require violence from the stories I read, but the moment here in Kim got my hopes up that maybe, just maybe, something interesting was about to happen or was in the process of happening.  And I think it was.  And that’s my point!  Even when something cool is happening, we don’t get to read about it!  Some pages later it's even mentioned that the "war was breaking out afresh," but there's no narrative evidence save shoddy dialog.  Is it but a cultural thing?  Am I, a 21st century American to far distant—in geography and time—from the events to get them?  I think I’m actually a pretty good—even skilled—reader.  I am frustrated!  This book is defeating me.

Kim XVIII -- chapter 12: TO SEE ONESELF IN A CLEFT STICK

"The Wheel of Things"

1. Were somebody else writing this book, I'd be less inclined to think there's nothing to what I'm about mention, but, as it's digging me, here it is: what do you make of the use of a serial number, essentially, as designation for and in place of a name for the young spy Kim saves?  Does the lack of name alter our perspective of the character?  Why not have Kim--and this would not, I think, be out of his character--press the young man for his rightful name and thence use it?
2. "...by the curse of the Queen's stone ... and by an assortment of Gods with wholly new names."  (haha)
3. new word (as always, new, anyway, for me): ruck: n. a crease or wrinkle (as in fabric, cloth), or crowd of people; v. to compress into untidy folds.  Off-hand, I wonder if this word might apply to the waves and bowing of very old panes of glass.
4. Potential for a complication!  Will Kipling take advantage of the opportunity he's created for himself?  It seems to me that the misjudgment by the Lama on Kim early in the chapter could open up a conflict.  Will this have lasting effect on Kim or the relationship between him and [one of] his [many, though this the first] master[s]?
5. Kim, as Friend to all the World, lives in more than world.  In particular, of course, is his duel citizenship to that of the Sahibs and of the Lama.  What do you make then of the Lama's words, "No matter what thy wisdom learned among Sahibs, when we come to my River thou wilt be freed from all illusion," inasmuch as it may indicate a required choice, and therefor abandonment of one World for another, of Kim, especially as it was the Lama who essentially paid for Kim's tuition to the Sahib's world?
6. "Let us get to the yolk of the egg":  What is this chapter even about?
7. On racism (this time brought up by Kim's discussion with Huree Babu): I'm feeling the need to defend, at least for the moment, and maybe by some personal tendency toward devil's advocacy, against accusations of Kipling's racism.  Can it be racist to indicate, and often as dominant label, race and caste if this too is the manner by which individuals of the story--time and place--identify themselves?  Would it have been even possible for Kipling to avoid the potentially racist labels (and why would he, as there was little cultural reason for him to do so)?
8. On finger-snapping (an aside): There are, obviously, I think, two or three general applications of the finger-snap (aside from musical), that is [1] the "darn-it", [2] the "hurry-up" or otherwise indication of velocity, and [3] the less-common-to-US impatience, irritation, or disagreement (that of finger-snapping under another's nose, for example).  The first two, and their derivatives, I've seen and used most of my finger-snapping life.  The third, however, I've only observed in connection to British and other European cultures, until my son (6-years-old) mentioned an observation of his from a student in his kindergarten class: a girl, of apparently long-term family residency in the USA, snaps her fingers under the nose of anyone she disagrees with when she corrects that person.  Thoughts or other applicable experiences?
9. "There is no hurry for Hurree" (haha).
10. "He believed that the dung of a black horse, mixed with sulphur, and carried in a snake-skin, was a sound remedy for cholera; but the symbolism interested him far more than the science."
11. How often Kipling appears to fully narrate the unimportant or disinteresting while glossing over the stuff I think I'd actually enjoy reading!
12. What does the Lama require of Kim in return for the latter's paid tuition for his three-year sahib's education?

KIM XVI -- chapter 10: COTERIES and MEDIUMS (media?)

Ventriloquy and bellyspeak: "...he was careful not to step in Huneefa's blotched, squat shadow on the boards. Witches—when their time is on them—can lay hold of the heels of a man's soul if he does that."


So what is Kim now?

(I'm not sure what else to say or ask about this chapter.  Any other thoughts?)

KIM XV - chapter 9: PRESTO, CHANGE-O!

1. Best chapter yet!  Do you disagree?  And leaning on the newly designated (by me, who is so slow on the uptake) episodic nature of the book, this story, chapter 9, is grand.  As always, I checked the number of pages in the chapter, marked down an approximate halfway point, and began reading to it to determine a good stop-point for the day.  I read right past it.  Magic, right?  And why not?  Aside from the o-so-typical designation of, shall we say, "kinetic" writing to magically carry away the reader, this chapter's theme is Magic.  Aside from the obvious magic performed by Mr. Lurgan, what other such feats are there?
2. I'm intrigued, greatly, by Mr. Lurgan:  "'Was that more magic?' Kim asked suspiciously. The tingle had gone from his veins; he felt unusually wide awake. // 'No, that was not magic. It was only to see if there was—a flaw in a jewel. Sometimes very fine jewels will fly all to pieces if a man holds them in his hand, and knows the proper way. That is why one must be careful before one sets them. Tell me, did you see the shape of the pot?' // 'For a little time. It began to grow like a flower from the ground.' // 'And then what did you do? I mean, how did you think?' // 'Oah! I knew it was broken, and so, I think, that was what I thought—and it was broken.' // 'Hm! Has any one ever done that same sort of magic to you before?' // 'If it was,' said Kim, 'do you think I should let it again? I should run away.' // 'And now you are not afraid—eh?' // 'Not now.' // Lurgan Sahib looked at him more closely than ever. 'I shall ask Mahbub Ali—not now, but some day later,' he muttered. 'I am pleased with you—yes; and I am pleased with you—no. You are the first that ever saved himself. I wish I knew what it was that . . . But you are right. You should not tell that—not even to me.'"  What is going on in the final bolded statements here?
3. This chapter is freaking loaded with potential metaphors and parallels.  What about the memory game?  Take a look at just as it is: a memory recall challenge.  Extend that to the circumstances around the challenge and the motives (regarding the Hindu boy, as well as regarding Kim's potential for the future) of Mr. Lurgan to initiate it.
4. And what about this Hindu boy?  He attempts the killing of his master with "white arsenic," and the Sahib doesn't even bat an eye!
5. This chapter is confusing and fully intriguing and huge.  What overall impressions did you gain from it?
6. The Lama's dream that he will only find the River of the Arrow with the help of his chela, Kim combines perfectly with the Tale of the Fettered Elephant.  Thoughts?
7. I felt pretty sure the 81 beads of the Lama's rosary would come back.  What do you make of the convergence of its usages of prayer mnemonic and abacus?
8. "Colonel Sahib, only once in a thousand years is a horse born so well fitted for the game as this our colt. And we need men."