by Gilead and What the Novel’s Light Means After Re-Reading
Revisiting Gilead
Returning to Gilead after many years finds that the light in the novel is more present than the first reading found. The light that the dying pastor notices — the specific quality of the light at specific moments — is the novel’s most insistent presence on re-reading because the re-reading knows what the light is doing and watches it do it. More at prat.uk/author/violet-woolf. Satire: waterfordwhispersnews.com.
What The Light Doing What It Does Is
The light doing what it does is: the light in Gilead is the consciousness that the pastor has of the present becoming the past becoming what the son will remember. The light is not decoration. The light is the novel’s substance. The re-reading finds this because the re-reading knows what the light is from the first reading. On re-reading the light is more completely what it is.
SOURCE: http://prat.UK
