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Dicey's Song (Voigt)
Nth reread. I have posts on Thick as Thieves, All the Birds in the Sky, and Carry On, Mr. Bowditch in the queue, but then ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
mildred_of_midgard found several interesting cross-references between The Runner and Seventeen Against the Dealer (thank you for telling me about these!) and one thing led to another and now I'm in the throes of a massive Tillerman reread. Maybe I'll even get through Homecoming this time, although so far it's not looking promising… I have a plan, though!
In my reading Dicey's Song this time around, the theme of holding on and letting go is even more explicitly prominent than I remembered — but, you know, now that I think about it, this theme echoes and re-echoes throughout the cycle. In Runner, in Come a Stranger, in Sons from Afar… all of the books, I think, really, are about letting go of the things you have to, and holding on to the things you love, and how those things are tangled up together and sometimes are the same thing.
And I noticed on my last reread that the cycle's overarching theme (or one of them) is family, and this book is about the family that figures itself out, how it figures itself out, and is the one most explicitly about what it means to be a family.
I think this book is in many ways the thesis statement for the entire cycle.
And oh my goodness the resonances… I think Voigt must have had all these characters fully realized in her head from the very beginning. Jeff cites his father quoting Tolstoy about how unhappy families are all unhappy in their own way… setting up that exploration of family. And the Chesapeake Bay, which is its own character who really comes into its own in Solitary Blue. And the farm, which emerges as a character (asmildred_of_midgard noted).
And boats and music, both as motifs and representative of… what is the boat representative of? Freedom? Independence? Connection? I think all those things at one time or another. Boats are… a really big deal in this cycle. I think every book has a boat playing a somewhat central role. Oh no, wait, not Come a Stranger, I think? Which may mean something as well... Anyway. This book begins with Dicey sinking a boat (…Bullet's old boat, right? So it's its own character too?), then the rest of the book involves her working on it, and what it means that she's able to or not able to work on it. Interestingly, where Dicey is concerned it seems to be the process that symbolizes to us what's going on, not the result (as it might be in the hands of another writer). Dicey doesn't finish the boat, and that means something because the reason she doesn't finish it is because she' busy holding on. (HM. Bullet finished his boat. He was letting go, and not holding on to anything. HMM. Runner is probably the key to this whole cycle.) And then there's the failure in Seventeen… I think it will be much more interesting to look at that, this time out.
I don't know what music means exactly in these books, except that it's a way throughout the cycle that people are drawn together, that people in these books strengthen families and create found families. Interestingly… I think (?) the only book devoid of music entirely is The Runner, and even that one has poetry as a way to (sort of) connect.
And other things… Gram gets a phone. The same phone she threw at the phone company in Runner, when she became for all intents and purposes alone, and liked it that way (well, I guess, at least after her husband died; I don't imagine it was very comfortable until then, but from what she says in this book, she might have found her own meaning in that as well). She gets it explicitly because she has children in the house. So the phone, itself a means of communication, becomes representative of Gram's willingness to communicate, her connection, her reaching out.
(Geez, I want more fic about Gram. She learned all these lessons, slowly and painfully, that she's telling to Dicey in this book. What was it like for her?)
And the scene in the wood shop never fails to break me down. I'm just always a crying mess after reading that one.
mildred_of_midgard found several interesting cross-references between The Runner and Seventeen Against the Dealer (thank you for telling me about these!) and one thing led to another and now I'm in the throes of a massive Tillerman reread. Maybe I'll even get through Homecoming this time, although so far it's not looking promising… I have a plan, though!In my reading Dicey's Song this time around, the theme of holding on and letting go is even more explicitly prominent than I remembered — but, you know, now that I think about it, this theme echoes and re-echoes throughout the cycle. In Runner, in Come a Stranger, in Sons from Afar… all of the books, I think, really, are about letting go of the things you have to, and holding on to the things you love, and how those things are tangled up together and sometimes are the same thing.
And I noticed on my last reread that the cycle's overarching theme (or one of them) is family, and this book is about the family that figures itself out, how it figures itself out, and is the one most explicitly about what it means to be a family.
I think this book is in many ways the thesis statement for the entire cycle.
And oh my goodness the resonances… I think Voigt must have had all these characters fully realized in her head from the very beginning. Jeff cites his father quoting Tolstoy about how unhappy families are all unhappy in their own way… setting up that exploration of family. And the Chesapeake Bay, which is its own character who really comes into its own in Solitary Blue. And the farm, which emerges as a character (as
mildred_of_midgard noted). And boats and music, both as motifs and representative of… what is the boat representative of? Freedom? Independence? Connection? I think all those things at one time or another. Boats are… a really big deal in this cycle. I think every book has a boat playing a somewhat central role. Oh no, wait, not Come a Stranger, I think? Which may mean something as well... Anyway. This book begins with Dicey sinking a boat (…Bullet's old boat, right? So it's its own character too?), then the rest of the book involves her working on it, and what it means that she's able to or not able to work on it. Interestingly, where Dicey is concerned it seems to be the process that symbolizes to us what's going on, not the result (as it might be in the hands of another writer). Dicey doesn't finish the boat, and that means something because the reason she doesn't finish it is because she' busy holding on. (HM. Bullet finished his boat. He was letting go, and not holding on to anything. HMM. Runner is probably the key to this whole cycle.) And then there's the failure in Seventeen… I think it will be much more interesting to look at that, this time out.
I don't know what music means exactly in these books, except that it's a way throughout the cycle that people are drawn together, that people in these books strengthen families and create found families. Interestingly… I think (?) the only book devoid of music entirely is The Runner, and even that one has poetry as a way to (sort of) connect.
And other things… Gram gets a phone. The same phone she threw at the phone company in Runner, when she became for all intents and purposes alone, and liked it that way (well, I guess, at least after her husband died; I don't imagine it was very comfortable until then, but from what she says in this book, she might have found her own meaning in that as well). She gets it explicitly because she has children in the house. So the phone, itself a means of communication, becomes representative of Gram's willingness to communicate, her connection, her reaching out.
(Geez, I want more fic about Gram. She learned all these lessons, slowly and painfully, that she's telling to Dicey in this book. What was it like for her?)
And the scene in the wood shop never fails to break me down. I'm just always a crying mess after reading that one.
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Oh, yeah, I thought about saying something about how I think it's more of a self-perception thing, an identity, than anything else. Also, obviously, being good with your hands does not equate to interpersonal ties! Bullet even says Johnny's a carbon copy of the old man. It's complex; there's no builder/breaker binary, in my mind. But it's a theme that I think is worth paying attention to, along with the letting go/holding on/reaching out.
YES! I think every book has its own themes, or at least some major questions it's exploring, and I can see how one of Runner's is what it means to build and break. (Which like all the other themes is something that shows up in the other books, but not to that degree.)
(Also, stepping for a moment out of thematic concerns and into real-world healthy behaviors, HELL YES leave that abusive family behind, Johnny! Don't look back!)
AHAHAHA YES. But on the other hand… I want all the fic about John too (I think someone wrote one, I'll have to go back and reread) (okay, I just really want fic about ALL THE PEOPLE, because fascinating) because I really, really want him to have figured out how not to turn into his father, how not to be broken, because there's no indication that he knows enough (emotionally speaking) to figure it out… except, maybe, that Bullet eventually figured it out. But Liza never was able to, Liza made the mistakes she made at least partially because of her family situation (and trying to get out of it).
I have a whole theory about why there's no boat in Stranger! My theory involves the boats being a locus for cutting ties with others.
Also interesting how the motor boat is a parting gift from Bullet: reaching out and cutting ties at the same time. It also gives her a way to be less dependent on her abusive husband.
So there's another boat in Solitary Blue, Dicey's sailboat, that doesn't indicate the cutting of ties at all (in fact sailing in that boat is how Dicey and Jeff renew their ties with each other after Jeff gets worried about Dicey lying). So that's not all boats mean… but I think boats might still mean a separation, a solitude, like it's the fact that Dicey and Jeff have a separate space for themselves that allows them to have that conversation, and like you point out the motor boat is Bullet reaching out, but also lets Ab have a separate space from her husband.
And note Gram getting the car because of the children, just like the phone! Oh, and I just remembered, she gets the boat from Bullet because her husband won't let her get a driver's license. The later books seem to put right a lot of things that are wrong in earlier books.
Holy cow, I never realized that! That is amazing. I think that's part of (the seven millino reasons) why I love these books so much, that there's so much generosity and healing and putting right, as you say. I am a sucker for that.
I'm still planning a wall of text to our other thread, but my 450,000-word series calls. ;)
Oh gosh, take your time! (I realize this is too late for the wall of text in the other thread ;) but, you know, just in general.) I also have way too much that I need to be doing right now :) Darn this only having 24 hours a day! At some point I will post something on Solitary Blue, which I've now reread and which is just freaking fascinating in terms of everything we've been talking about, but it will probably take me a little while because of real life (and because I read it while kid-wrangling so wasn't exactly taking notes, so now I have to remember the notes :) )