Fannish 50: Post 3

[soricel]

"Gansey closed his eyes to calm his pulse. He saw a dimly gray image of a king in repose, hands folded on his chest, a sword by his right side, a cup by his left. This slumbering figure was dizzyingly important to Gansey in a way that he couldn’t begin to understand or shape. It was something more, something bigger, something that mattered. Something without a price tag. Something earned."

Narrative (what's going on when the quote appears?)
From chapter 9. Gansey gets woken up by a call from Malory, the old British academic guy who he somehow befriended when he was tromping around the UK. This whole thing with Malory always feels weird and implausible to me, and in general I sometimes find it hard to take Gansey and co. seriously as teenagers--especially Gansey. Yes, he's this cool handsome dude who knows how to move easily within Aglionby's social ecosystem, (even though he doesn't really feel like part of it)...but there's also something very Max-from-Rushmore (but...hunky?) about him. I don't know, I just have a hard time buying this very old crotchety scholar befriending a then-fifteen year old kid and continuing to stay in touch with him and talk about ley lines. But anyway, they talk about how the ley lines are deep underground, and yeah, need to be amplified and stuff to really be felt and worked with, but there's a ritual that can do it, etc. And here, Gansey is obviously lost in some reveries about Glendower and what it would mean to wake him.

Connections (what does this quote remind you of?)
The reason I chose this quote, despite some of its thematic similarities to the one I wrote about in my first post, is because of how the image reminds me of the Four of Swords in the tarot...except not quite. The way I usually interpret this card is as having something to do with meditation, reflection, trying to reassess one's priorities and find some focus, some stability. I think about the three swords hanging up on the wall as pursuits/ideas/goals/projects that the sleeping figure has put aside in the interest of focusing on one thing, the sword beneath them. But I also often think about the image in the stained glass window in the upper left hand corner. To me there's a big contrast between this golden chamber, this image of repose, this sense of pure focus and goal-setting and whatnot, and the image in the window, which seems to be of someone giving something to a child or a beggar. I guess on one level, the card relates to the books in the sense that Gansey can't achieve his goal alone: he needs help, he needs those three other swords (Adam, Ronan, Noah, at this point, and maybe Blue being the one sword beneath him). But the stained glass window image makes me think about how "The Real Treasure is the Friends We Made Along the Way," and how the way he offers and accepts love from the rest of the crew is really what this whole thing is all about. Because yeah, in the image in Gansey's mind, there's not just swords, there's a cup--tarot symbol of relationships and love.

Contemplation (how does the quote relate to your own life?)
I mean, yeah, I feel this--the desire for a purpose, to be part of something bigger, to know that my actions matter, to feel like my life amounts to more than just what I've been given and what I consume. I feel you, Gansey.

Invitation (what does the quote call you to do?)
I'm thinking, as I often do, about where I want to direct my energy, what I want to focus on, and how to make sure that doing so also helps me connect with other people and give something back.