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| 16th Century London |
Take 18 - The One Without Modern Sensibilities
Description: Since we are more than halfway through the chapters of A Discovery of Witches, it's time to start priming ourselves for the next volume in the trilogy, Shadow of Night. We explore the attitudes of our main characters after our collective time-walk, and discuss their actions (both good and bad). We examine Matthew Clairmont's secrets, habits, his friends back then, and his family. We look at Diana Bishop's methods of assimilation, her insecurities, and her eventual triumph. Join us as we peek at their futures, planted squarely in the past! As of late, a relatively short episode, clocking in at just over 48 minutes. 😝SPOILER ALERT! We (The Daemons) approach this podcast with an assumption that the listener has read The All Souls Trilogy, including A Discovery of Witches, Shadow of Night, and The Book of Life. If you haven't, and you don't mind, we certainly don't mind! 😊 Let's do this.
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.Mp3 File
1. Show notes:
For newcomers to the series:- We'll start with the basics: The books in discussion are A Discovery of Witches, Shadow of Night and The Book of Life. Together they make The All Souls Trilogy by Deborah Harkness.
- Our Daemon Guides to the All Souls Trilogy are available for download: ADOW, SON, TBOL
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| Deb's newsletter - The Blast; subscribe on her website |
- Deborah Harkness usually conducts a real-time reading on her Facebook Page (starting in September), and shares her posts across social media. Check out her website for all of her social media links, and of course all that she has to offer her readers! Be sure to sign up for her newsletter while you are there!
- To see what's available on the web as far as the All Souls universe fandom, check our links page.
In this episode:
* (01:07) – Thank you to our Discusser, Wendy!
* (02:07) – Tyger, Tyger burning bright (Hamish on Matthew in A Discovery of Witches) …
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| The Tyger by William Blake |
“‘Tiger, tiger, burning bright / In the forests of the night,’” Hamish said, quoting William Blake. “That poem has always reminded me of him.”➾ Here's where we think Diana may have been confused (also from A Discovery of Witches):
I rested my knife on the cutting board and faced him. “What’s on your mind, Hamish?”
“Are you certain of him, Diana?” he asked. Em wiped her hands on her apron and left the room, giving me a sad look.
“Yes.” I met his eyes, trying to make my confidence in Matthew clear.
Hamish nodded, unsurprised. “I did wonder if you would take him on, once you knew who he was—who he still is. It would seem you’re not afraid to have a tiger by the tail.”
Wordlessly I turned back to the counter and resumed my chopping.
“Be careful.” Hamish rested his hand on my forearm, forcing me to look at him. “Matthew won’t be the same man where you’re going.”
“If this house gets any more crowded, it’s going to burst.” Matthew buried his face in my neck, then drew back. “You still have your bandage. It means that when we go back in time, we don’t stop being who we are in the present or forget what happened to us here.” His cold hands crept under the hem of my turtleneck. “Given your rediscovered talents as a timewalker, how accurate are you at gauging the passing of time?”* (05:05) – Court life is ruthless, as Angela said. We go on to compare court life to modern day counterparts. High School is a great example! Angela highlights the movie The Breakfast Club as a microcosm of court life.
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| A painting of John Dee performing an experiment for Queen Elizabeth I and her court. |
* (06:50) – We question Diana’s experience with friend groups.
* (07:35) – Matthew’s preparedness…he felt that he had it all figured out, but so many wrenches in his plans (mainly Philippe) showed him he wasn’t in charge of his destiny.
* (08:30) – The times we were really pissed with Matthew when we went back in time:
- Matthew carousing with Kit after Diana's miscarriage
- The secrets – he’s a spy, and a member of the congregation, and Diana was blindsided by the revelations.
- Self-pity – we theorize that he has never had the tools to negate it because of his bloodrage (he’d go away for a long time, without dealing with the issue that caused the self-pity)
- Jean didn’t like how Matthew lashed out at Philippe. Angela pictures Matthew as a moody teen getting harassed to stay in touch with his family so they don't worry.
- We note that none of the “sexist” stuff really riled us up. We saw Matthew acting this way as him unconsciously assimilating, and consciously relying on his survival instincts.
- Angela said she imagined Diana picking up and leaving Matthew there!
* (18:20) – Diana did call Matthew out in private, we feel it’s because doing so in public would draw unnecessary attention to her and Matthew in the 16th Century.
* (19:31) – Diana in the 16th Century
- She navigates it the best she knows. She observes, she studies.
- She holds her own with prominent members of society.
- We identify the elements that she needed in order to make this a successful time walk: The coven, learning about herself, her time with Philippe.
- The quote from Philippe that Angela spoke of (in The Book of Life): From the first moment we met, I knew you were the one, Philippe said. His words were a strange echo of what Timothy Weston had told me at the Bodleian last year, and again at his house.
With a final grin, his ghost began to dissipate.
“Wait!” I cried. “The one what?”
The one who could bear my burdens and not break, Philippe’s voice whispered in my ear. I felt a subtle press of lips on my cheek. You will not carry them alone. Remember that, daughter. - Stephen was pivotal in her transformation.
* (24:17) – “In it to win it” from American Idol – Randy used to famously say it all of the time!
* (24:31) – A Discovery of Witches is about the mothers, Shadow of Night is about the fathers, and The Book of Life is about the family.
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| Mary Sidney Herbert |
* (25:12) – Overall impressions
- Shadow of Night is our collective favorite book in this series
- It’s a great example of the quote “those who don’t learn from the past are doomed to repeat it."
- We saw the evolution of people in the present time through the flash forwards in the books.
- The time walking, Elizabethan life, and Philippe were the elements that fascinated us the most in this book
- It’s nice to see Matthew with a true equal (Walter Raleigh) as a friend.
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| Walter Raleigh |
* (28:31) News – We talk about some confusion about information Amazon and Goodreads. Originally, The Serpent’s Mirror was due to come out in 2017, however that is not happening. The companion book to the trilogy is coming out in 2018. A book about Marcus will tentatively come out in 2018 as well. Plans to be further revealed at All Souls Con. Val goes on a technical soap-box rant saying that the person that puts the information out originally is responsible for removing the information through statements and corrections, and eventually it will right itself (somewhat). It's hard to get rid of information on the internet, but it's doable. On that note, see DeborahHarkness.com for all of the latest CORRECT news about what’s going on with the All Souls universe.
* (33:11) Housekeeping! – Awesome iTunes review, and a voice mail from Linda. Linda is a pioneer because she was the first one ever to send us a voice mail. She’s correcting us on wrong information we put out there, so as an example of the blurb above, we corrected it promptly!
* (34:59) – We are willing to bribe! The next person to send us a voicemail will receive something from us (Linda will too, because she DID call first!) 1 (360) 519-7836 or reach us on Speakpipe (go to the site, or use the widget embedded down below in these show notes)
* (35:47) Promo break – scroll down, or click here to get a hold of us and/or become a Discusser.
* (37:17) – Jean’s last thought was from Take 17, she wonders what Marthe and Ysabeau's original connection was. Valerie adds to the thought by bringing up the servant class in vampire life. Maybe it’s a family business (think Hubbard’s taxi company - Jean pictures Hubbard steeped in the London underworld like in Peeky Blinders or The Krays)? Angela wonders “who wants to be a servant for the rest of their lives, especially if it’s 2000 yrs long!”
* (41:11) – Angela's last thought: she cannot wait to discuss Shadow of Night chapters – listener alert! The episodes may wind up regularly over an hour long.
* (42:11) – Valerie's last thought: she mentions that we have a coupon code for All Souls Con. Coupon code is DISCUSSER. All Souls Con info:
- Visit AllSoulsCon.org — You can also see 2015 All Souls Con video there.
- Register for passes (virtual passes included - you must register to stream): AllSoulsCon.org/tickets
- Don’t forget to join the All Souls Con Attendees Facebook group!
- Use our coupon code: DISCUSSER for a 20% discount on passes until the 15th of July, 2017
* (43:06) – Valerie has something she cannot let go of. Regarding our giveaways, we had someone complaining that our method of holding giveaways was not optimal for them (that’s us putting it nicely). Valerie goes on to say, this is a book (plus other items) that we are giving away for free. Sarcastic version: “is it not free enough for you?!” Rafflecoptor by far is the fairest, the safest (they don't share the information collected with anyone but the person holding the giveaway), and the the most flexible method of aggregating entries (which for us, range from 200 + to 2000 +). It makes giving away items to our audience much simpler (there are only 3 of us! We have lives! Families! Occupations!)
* (47:18) Thank you Wendy, our reviewer, and Linda!
Previous Episode
Take 17, The One With the Fortress
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Credits/Copyright Information
* Intro music: "Ghost Dance" (edited down to second chorus) by Kevin Macleod, licensed for use by Creative Commons.
* News intro: by AwesomeMusicVideos21; provided for fair-use/royalty-free.
* Promotional music by Boxcat Games, "Epic", licensed for use by Creative Commons.
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* The Daemons Discuss! podcast is hosted and produced by the owners (Angela, Jean and Valerie) of Daemons Domain and can also be found by entering the url http://www.DaemonsDiscuss.com in your browser, (listed on the various podcast syndicates like iTunes, Stitcher, etc.) which will redirect you back to the parent site, Daemons Domain.
* This podcast is intended for personal download/consumption. Please see our Terms of Use; item 3.
* Our episode titles are a loving tribute to the show "Friends" just 'cause we love Friends and - let's face it - it's easier! Here's how one of the show creators explains their reasoning:
Jeff Greenstein: "When Marta & David & Jeff & I did 'Dream On', we used to spend a lot of time thinking about titles, because they were on-screen at the top of each episode. On "Friends", we decided that was a waste of time. We figured, why not name each episode after the thing that people will ostensibly be talking about around the water-cooler the next day?"
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