Posted by andyb on September 21, 2007 at 15:55:00 from 194.80.183.1 user beardbiter.
In Reply to: Re: existentialism and luggage to RN Rank abbreviations posted by Peter H on September 18, 2007 at 17:38:22:
"These propositions might symbolise the transitoriness of Cdr Walker’s existence in the lives of the Swallows but I don’t see how they signify it".
I think a symbol is a bit more positive: Jim's empty breakfast setting on the Goblin,
whereas the little absences actlike patches of shade todefine the object.
John Law (Lancaster Uni ANT Rovers)talks about two kinds of absence: the big obvious gaps that shape a story (Jim's absence from the Goblin) and the little absences of all those necessary items (such as luggage)that get left out to prevent us from being dazzled by detai. It seems to me that Cdr Walker is a man very much defined by his distance from his luggage, whether it be actual cases absent when he grabs a chance and travels light,or his family, left behind in England.
BTW Doesn't Nancy say that whoever wins the was will be the 'commodore'?