Oh god, I know. That part is really hard to read, just so casually cruel. D:
India is another character in the story and the detail fleshes her out.
Absolutely! I have such vivid mental images of the scenery and background detail, which I can't say for a lot of books. But it just works so well here. It also really gives you a sense of what a fish out of water Avery is, particularly in an age when you didn't have photography or modern media to give you an idea of what a faraway place is like.
Avery proves himself to be the kind of person I would dislike upon meeting them. I was irritated at his insistence that the natives should learn English when he couldn't be bothered to learn Hindoostanee. And his rudeness when entering Blake's home in his refusal to remove his shoes.
Oh, I know! He's such a jackass in these early chapters. And while I understand why that might be, I still feel like Frank has the better idea: trying to communicate and understand where you are is going to make being there much more tolerable, if not fun. But whatever impression Avery had initially formed of India before he went, the reality is clearly not it.
A part of me loved the notion of Avery being surprised that Blake knew his hero Mountstuart. I do not trust Buchanan.
I can just picture Avery's face: Wait, you mean my literary hero is friends with you!?! And Buchanan definitely seems like an operator. If Blake needs a minder, perhaps send someone else for the job? Alarm bells are definitely ringing.
I felt bad for Avery having lost his friend and having to leave so much that was ~familiar behind, but I rolled my eyes when he started drinking and agreed to gamble after having just paid off his debts. (Why wasn't there a place he could store those things?!! Seems there should have been.)
I know! On the one hand, it's clear he's very unhappy and adrift, but on the other hand, everything he's doing is just digging that hole deeper. Yeah, I also don't understand why he couldn't store the items, especially since he intends to go back and then deploy to wherever they decide to send him. You think the Company could store them for him. At the very least, one would hope he'd have had the sense to sell them and maybe set out a little less indebted than before, but oh well. Maybe it's just another symptom of his mental state at that point.
I would not want to travel this way, and yet I found Avery's complaining and expectation of servants to do everything, very irritating. Also, he is quite a trouble magnet.
Yeah, especially coming after all the griping he did in earlier chapters about having nothing to do but sit around. Again, Carter gives readers a really good sense of how Company men feel they're owed ease and status; that certainly seems to be Avery's starting assumption and main complaint here.
That said, there's a part of me that thinks Blake is making things a little more awful than they need to be, too. Travel light? Absolutely. But surely it's worth staying in a dak house or Company lodgings during the worst of the rain, non? If only to keep the party healthy enough to carry out its mission?
I also thought it was bad form for Avery to tell Mir Aziz how good they have it with the Company there. *eye roll*
Right there with you. It does a good job of showing how far Avery has yet to go... -.-;;
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Oh god, I know. That part is really hard to read, just so casually cruel. D:
India is another character in the story and the detail fleshes her out.
Absolutely! I have such vivid mental images of the scenery and background detail, which I can't say for a lot of books. But it just works so well here. It also really gives you a sense of what a fish out of water Avery is, particularly in an age when you didn't have photography or modern media to give you an idea of what a faraway place is like.
Avery proves himself to be the kind of person I would dislike upon meeting them. I was irritated at his insistence that the natives should learn English when he couldn't be bothered to learn Hindoostanee. And his rudeness when entering Blake's home in his refusal to remove his shoes.
Oh, I know! He's such a jackass in these early chapters. And while I understand why that might be, I still feel like Frank has the better idea: trying to communicate and understand where you are is going to make being there much more tolerable, if not fun. But whatever impression Avery had initially formed of India before he went, the reality is clearly not it.
A part of me loved the notion of Avery being surprised that Blake knew his hero Mountstuart. I do not trust Buchanan.
I can just picture Avery's face: Wait, you mean my literary hero is friends with you!?! And Buchanan definitely seems like an operator. If Blake needs a minder, perhaps send someone else for the job? Alarm bells are definitely ringing.
I felt bad for Avery having lost his friend and having to leave so much that was ~familiar behind, but I rolled my eyes when he started drinking and agreed to gamble after having just paid off his debts. (Why wasn't there a place he could store those things?!! Seems there should have been.)
I know! On the one hand, it's clear he's very unhappy and adrift, but on the other hand, everything he's doing is just digging that hole deeper. Yeah, I also don't understand why he couldn't store the items, especially since he intends to go back and then deploy to wherever they decide to send him. You think the Company could store them for him. At the very least, one would hope he'd have had the sense to sell them and maybe set out a little less indebted than before, but oh well. Maybe it's just another symptom of his mental state at that point.
I would not want to travel this way, and yet I found Avery's complaining and expectation of servants to do everything, very irritating. Also, he is quite a trouble magnet.
Yeah, especially coming after all the griping he did in earlier chapters about having nothing to do but sit around. Again, Carter gives readers a really good sense of how Company men feel they're owed ease and status; that certainly seems to be Avery's starting assumption and main complaint here.
That said, there's a part of me that thinks Blake is making things a little more awful than they need to be, too. Travel light? Absolutely. But surely it's worth staying in a dak house or Company lodgings during the worst of the rain, non? If only to keep the party healthy enough to carry out its mission?
I also thought it was bad form for Avery to tell Mir Aziz how good they have it with the Company there. *eye roll*
Right there with you. It does a good job of showing how far Avery has yet to go... -.-;;