#adowrtrch30

[vincentcatagainsttheworld]

#Repost from Deborah Harkness FB A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES REAL TIME READ, Chapter 28, 29, 30, & 31 “We descended toward something that looked like a crater set apart from the surrounding countryside by yawning ravines and overgrown forests. It proved to be the ruin of a medieval castle, with high walls and thick foundations that extended deep into the earth. Trees grew inside the husks of long-abandoned buildings huddled in the fortress’s shadow The castle didn’t have a single graceful line or pleasing feature. There was only one reason for its existence—to keep out anyone who wished to enter.” -A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES “It’s an oubliette.” The word rustled from ghost to ghost. A wispy woman, her face creased with age, began to weep. “Oubliettes are places of forgetting. Humans who are dropped into oubliettes go mad and then starve to death—if they survive the impact. It’s a very long way down. They can’t get out without help from above, and help never comes.” -A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES “As a historian and a writer, I try to stick as closely as I can to what is really possible. Why make up a ruin if there’s a perfectly good one that you can tweak, adapt, and modify? I knew nothing about medieval architecture of the Auvergne when I started writing A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES, but I’m so glad that my work has led me (and other people) to have a better appreciation of this history-steeped region. As for the tweaking, Château de Murol doesn’t have an oubliette–I added one!” THE WORLD OF ALL SOULS, p 202 Hands up if you, like me, learned about the actual, horrifying existence of oubliettes from this chapter. (There's no shame in not knowing about ALL of the terrible things humans have done to each other.) What does it mean for you as a reader to know that many places in A Discovery of Witches like the Bodleian, the Oxford covered market, Speke Hall, Hamish's hunting lodge, the countryside of the Auvergne, and medieval castles like Château de Murol (and oubliettes!!) exist? What else did you learn from TWOAS? There’s lots more going on in these chapters, so what else would you like to talk about? Cat #ADOWRTR2022 #ADOWRTR #adowrtrch28 #adowrtrch29 #adowrtrch30 #adowrtr https://www.instagram.com/p/CjnzYiIIE2e/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=