KIM VIII -- chapter 4.2: Bring Her Her Pipe

The Grand Trunk Road: http://www.jimwegryn.com

Start reading at: "The diamond-bright dawn woke men and crows and bullocks together. Kim sat up and yawned, shook himself, and thrilled with delight."

1. What does Kipling mean by, "he borrowed right- and left-handedly from all the customs of the country he knew and loved."
2. "If Kim had walked proudly the day before, disciple of a holy man, to-day he paced with tenfold pride in the train of a semi-royal procession, with a recognised place under the patronage of an old lady of charming manners and infinite resource."  Would Kim be satisfied remaining in such a position, despite his current pride and comfort, for a permanent of even extended duration?
3. The plot of Kim is not particularly "tight," you might say.  What are your thoughts at this point regarding the story's development?  Additionally, many excellent novels feature relatively loose plots.  How might such narration be indeed effective and under which circumstance?

Aside: I'm reading Kim in Microsoft Word after having copied and pasted it from a gutenburg.org etext.  The problem with this, of course, and without turning off the application under the software's innumerable options, is the absurdly consistent appearance (just imagine it, considering all the cultural references in the text if nothing else) of those little red and green spelling and grammar squiggles.  Two occasions, however, brought me to think a bit about how this particular MS Word convention--not to mention that of Google and various other software--affects my writing.  Aesthetically, I hate the squiggles.  They irritate me, and they, well, make me nervous and self-conscious.  Despite my understanding of their frequent inaccuracies, I can't help but feel their criticism when they appear below my words (I'm not so bothered when they appear under another's, like Kipling's, for example), and find myself rewriting/-wording my sentences, even when I know I'm not wrong so to write.  Two examples of one English grammar issue that I nearly always rewrite for reason of this personal insecurity appeared today: "bring her her pipe" and "what was going on on the road."  Interesting that English's construction permits the appearance of the same word repeated consecutively and yet be accurate.  I think I understand that MS Word is simply trying to draw the writer's attention to potentially accidentally repeated words, but come on, there's really no smooth way to rewrite either of these two phrases.

KIM VII -- chapter 4.1: A Second Son at Least!

"On the Road"

stop reading at: "He was nearly asleep when the lama suddenly quoted a proverb: 'The husbands of the talkative have a great reward hereafter.' Then Kim heard him snuff thrice, and dozed off, still laughing."

1. age-old question: The Lama's situation reminds me of a theme from the Agent Pendergast novel (Lincoln/Child) I just finished reading.  Sometimes ignorance truly is bliss, inasmuch as the truth--or the process of gaining it--is so potentially painful.  Is the Lama better off in the dark regarding, or ignorant of, the "real world" (he wonders whether Kim is a spirit or an evil imp) or to see it, experience it, and gain wisdom?  Is Kim better off as he is (he is, after all, an exceedingly happy and optimistic individual), or were he more like the Lama?  More broadly, I think about my children: is it better to protect them from the world that perhaps they may be happier for the lack of darkness thereof, or better off experiencing/observing as much of it as possible?
2. Along the same lines, Kim, particularly considering his so-terrene nickname, is worldly, while the Lama seeks apparently to avoid worldliness.  The word (and its derivations), "worldly," is pretty plastic in its application.  In its most obvious, Kim is in "the seventh heaven of happiness" as he passes along the Old Trunk Road, watching the world pass by below him, while the Lama keeps, essentially, his eyes and mind closed to all but his own meditations.  Any thoughts here?
3. The long descriptive paragraphs in the first few pages of this chapter are gorgeous--not necessarily in their prose, but in their subject and the details of which Kipling chooses to accent: a riot of color, life, creatures--animal and humans alike (and how appropriately so!) --sin and piety, caste and race.  What is your impression of life around the Old Trunk Road?
4. (Is it just me, or is there a taste of Dickens about this book: the orphan, the bustling city...?)
5. I'm interested in the tonal arc of this chapter and how the ambient activity and light/dark reflect in the mood of the day's inhabitants.