annotation: A Study in Drowning
Jun. 11th, 2025 05:36 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
matsushima posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
pineislandI'm on page 812 of 1167 (according to Libby, with the typeface set to OpenDyslexic and the size on the lowest of the "accessibility sizes," whatever that is), or chapter 13 of 17. So far, the A Study in Drowning is dancing around the question of "what do you do when you are disappointed by your favorite author?"
Effy loves this book, Angharad, by recently deceased author Emrys Myrddin. She goes to Myrddin's estate, etc., etc. - anyway, she's working with another university student who is trying to prove that Myrddin didn't actually write Angharad and they find some old diary entries, etc., that reveal Myrddin is kind of a creep and a misogynist and Effy is shattered because she loves this book so much.
… but I have a prediction: the other student is right and Myrddin didn't write Angharad but wrong about who he stole it from. It will turn out that the actual author is the younger woman that Myrddin creeped on and Effy will be able to go back to loving her favorite book as much as ever - or, perhaps, even more, because Angharad is like The Great Llyrian Novel, like… I don't know, The Great Gatsby of Llyr. Women aren't allowed to study literature in the university because they're too "frivolous." When Effy and Preson reveal proof that Angharad, the beloved national classic, was written by a woman, the university will be forced to change their admissions policy because 1) Angharad was written by a woman, and 2) the proof of it's true authorship was discovered by a woman.
That's a bummer because I want it to actually grapple with what happens when the author of the book you can quote from verbatim, the book that is imprinted on your heart and made you who you are, turns out to be a bad person, because, uh… you know. That's a real problem that readers are having right now! but I think this book is about to sidestep the actual question and give everyone (characters, readers, jilted true author of Angharad) an unrealistically happy ending.
I could be wrong but that's my guess.
Effy loves this book, Angharad, by recently deceased author Emrys Myrddin. She goes to Myrddin's estate, etc., etc. - anyway, she's working with another university student who is trying to prove that Myrddin didn't actually write Angharad and they find some old diary entries, etc., that reveal Myrddin is kind of a creep and a misogynist and Effy is shattered because she loves this book so much.
… but I have a prediction: the other student is right and Myrddin didn't write Angharad but wrong about who he stole it from. It will turn out that the actual author is the younger woman that Myrddin creeped on and Effy will be able to go back to loving her favorite book as much as ever - or, perhaps, even more, because Angharad is like The Great Llyrian Novel, like… I don't know, The Great Gatsby of Llyr. Women aren't allowed to study literature in the university because they're too "frivolous." When Effy and Preson reveal proof that Angharad, the beloved national classic, was written by a woman, the university will be forced to change their admissions policy because 1) Angharad was written by a woman, and 2) the proof of it's true authorship was discovered by a woman.
That's a bummer because I want it to actually grapple with what happens when the author of the book you can quote from verbatim, the book that is imprinted on your heart and made you who you are, turns out to be a bad person, because, uh… you know. That's a real problem that readers are having right now! but I think this book is about to sidestep the actual question and give everyone (characters, readers, jilted true author of Angharad) an unrealistically happy ending.
I could be wrong but that's my guess.
