Sunset Song (Canons)

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Podría igualar (y de hecho lo hago) a otras historias "en las que no pasa nada" que me son muy queridas. Podría ponerla en el mismo pedestal que "Stoner" de John Williams. Pero si comparo este libro con algo es con la obra de Willa Cather. Es curioso, pero siento que "Canción del ocaso" está en una especie de diálogo con "Uno de los nuestros". "Canción del ocaso" está escrito por un hombre, tiene como protagonista a una mujer, se desarrolla en un ambiente rural (en Escocia) y en la trama la Primera Guerra Mundial y su propaganda trastoca la vida de esa gente que parecía tan alejada del conflicto. "Uno de los nuestros" está escrito por una mujer, tiene como protagonista a un hombre, se desarrolla en un ambiente rural (en EEUU) y en la trama la Primera Guerra Mundial y su propaganda trastoca la vida de esa gente que parecía tan alejada del conflicto. Es fascinante las similitudes y diferencias de ambas obras. El personaje de Chris es el verdadero eje central de la novela, su pequeño debate interno al comienzo abre las puertas a una protagonista luchadora y valiente que no se deja amedrentar. Pasaremos por varias etapas de su vida, en las que florecerá el auto descubrimiento, el hallazgo interno de la pasión y del amor, así como la superación y el poder emergente que nace desde lo más profundo de su ser. Su evolución, al igual que la formación de la protagonista son desarrolladas magistralmente.

The assertion was that ‘there will soon be no ‘normal’ culture to reinforce a distinctive ‘Scots psyche’ [over and against ‘other’ cultures in our society that could be (and are) deemed ‘non-Scottish’ in relation to that norm]. It would indeed be wonderful if plurality rather than identity became the new cultural norm. Mitchel was a socialist, a communist even. The garden city movement has complex origins but a good part of them are in the idealism of the cooperative and Arts and Crafts movements and the developing traditions of the trade Union movement. Welwyn Garden City had an active communist party branch and a relatively skilled and well organised work force drawn from working class communities right across the UK as well as strong non conformist and artistic communities.

Sunset Song by Lewis Grassic Gibbon

It was the old Scotland that perished then, and we may believe that never again will the old speech and the old songs, the old curses and the old benedictions, rise but with alien effort to our lips. In Chapter 2, Jean murdered the baby twins and committed suicide after finding out that she was pregnant once again. Chris left college and devoted herself to working on the farm. Chris’s older brother Will ran away with a local girl whom he married and took to South America. John was so angry that he suffered a health crisis which left him paralyzed. This is the book I would have voted for as I had fallen in love with it at university when studying it as a set text. The book’s language is mesmerising. Indeed ‘the speak’ of Kinraddie is unforgettable not just because it’s a novel literary device but because it echoes Scottish speech. Gibbon’s description of ‘the land’ is also memorable as is his portrayal of the devastating effects of war and mechanisation on a Scottish agricultural community.

It’s also now a politically dangerous concept. Part of the danger is that we interpret ‘other’ cultures from the point of view of the culture we regard as ‘normal’. Thus, we identify Gaelic or English as the common languages that reinforce ‘the Scots psyche’, even though many Scots nowadays have neither Gaelic nor English as their first language. Likewise, we identify the historical heritage that reinforces ‘the Scots psyche’ with that of Wallace, Knox, and Burns, even though many Scots nowadays don’t have any of that as their cultural inheritance. The danger is that Scots who don’t conform to the ‘normal’ psychological profile or archetype are excluded as ‘Scots’.

Another part of the danger lies in our reluctance to ‘give up’ our normal. Then we get into fights about ‘our’ national identity and its perceived dilution by ‘foreign incomers’, and ‘national movements’ of people sharing ‘national’ beliefs and aspirations. Above all, it was the conflict that brews in Chris, between tradition and modernity, learning and the land, moving away or staying put, that resonated with me. This is a book I have been wanting to read for a while because it is so revered in Scottish literary circles. It is something of a period piece, in that the lifestyles of ordinary Scots living in rural Kincardineshire were already largely lost by the time it was written in the 1930s, and plenty more has changed since. I have been an avid reader of fiction for as long as I can remember, probably longer. My childhood memories are full of the stories of Beatrix Potter, Enid Blyton, Roald Dahl, CS Lewis, Lewis Carroll, Laura Ingalls Wilder and many others. For me, nothing – not TV or playing games with friends – could beat the joy and exhilaration of being transported by a story to a place of the imagination. I still love and marvel at the power of story to lift us from our own reality. And so she marries young Ewan Tavendale and together they are content to farm their land, Chris' happiness enhanced when she bears her first son. But the world is changing and over in Europe war clouds are gathering. And during the four years of fighting, life for Chris and for this entire community will be changed forever.