This update isn't going to be especially interesting because this chapter isn't especially interesting. It's filler, plain and simple.
Here's what happens in Chapter Six: Emmeline comes home and hears her parents arguing. She is to be "paired" with George, a man they know who is more than twice her age. He had a wife before but she was taken away.
That's it. That's the whole thing.
I've been struggling to come up with something, some germ of insight to draw out of this so I wouldn't be cheating my readers. Something in the dialogue or the prose that might be worthy of commentary. But no - this is a complete nothing of a chapter. We learn nothing here that we couldn't find out in Chapter Eight when we actually meet George.
I believe that this chapter exists only to provide some continuity between the previous chapters at the Village and what's going to come next. I sympathize with this. But that doesn't excuse the fact that nothing of note happens here. There is no action, no character development, just a lot of exposition that specifically excludes the main POV character. Hell, she seems bored - she spends the whole chapter fidgeting around:
I picked the ladybug off the wall and watched it walk along my finger. I blew on it and watched it fly away. Then I put my finger in my mouth. It tasted bitter.
Scintillating.
Chapter Six is closely linked to Chapter Seven in time, place and theme. The only reason I can't think that the editor didn't combine them is because Chapter Seven is twice as long and is also purely expository. Any editor, upon seeing such a long block of static talking heads, would have sent it back for a rewrite. But why bother, really? It is a Glenn Beck project.
Stay tuned for Chapter Seven, which will seriously test my promise not to go into politics since that's all it is.
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| Totally irrelevant, but there should be something interesting in this post. |
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