PInegrove Book Club - Ali Smith 'Spring'

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#122

Was I the only one who saw similarities in Florence and in Richard’s imaginary daughter?

As for Brit, I think she’s very self-aware, but feels that she has no choice in the matter, and so doesn’t let her job get to her, even though it absolutely should. That’s why she was so thrown when she didn’t say goodbye to the hedges, because that little tradition helps silo her job away from her ‘real’ life, but when she forgot to close the loop, she was in danger of bringing work, and her feelings about work, home with her.

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#123

i sort of saw that moment as her way of changing. she hadn’t texted him since the fight, when he pointed out how her job has made her insensitive. she literally asks him how to live in hope.

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#124

agree 100%

#125

Reeally really like this connection between Florence and Richard’s imaginary daughter. That is gooood :heart_eyes: :clap: :clap:

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#126

great observation. could be possible where we have the missing pieces click in florence & richard, the child w no parental figures & the man who’s missing a daughter.

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#127

i was thinking the same thing for florence and richard’s imaginary daughter! i thought at first that she actually was his daughter, and they were travelling to scotland to find him, which was why she was so vague about her parents.

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#128

I did too, but then I realized that the timeline would be off. But I think, like @esh said, they are each in need of the other to fill a hole in their lives.

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#129

re: hopelessness in the millennial generation

lindsey ellis recently dived into protest music from the 2000s forward, and the general sentiment she found was: “we can’t change any of this but luckily what we thought were the biggest problems (bush’s presidency) was only temporary.” protesting for us, in reality, was just waiting it out. believing that we can’t change any of this is brit’s hopelessness and waiting it out is her laziness. the harder work is challenging ourselves to dig deeper & define the underlying problems, and realizing that they are solvable (hope)

edit: that’s such an ugly thumbnail lol, sorry <3

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#130

Does anyone have any idea why the woman in the van knows about Florence?:slight_smile:

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#131

Love this & tbh was quite excited by the thumbnail, lol – can’t wait to watch in full!! Ty for sharing <3

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#132

i think she knows florence in the same way that brit knew her before meeting her! through stories from her coworkers that she wasn’t sure were rumors or not. she knew who she was just from seeing her in the same way brit did

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#133

the images are very much ‘of a time’ …i’ll be watching this too! thanks

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#134

cant wait to watch the rest of this. i think that a lot of the new music were seeing from artists now is reflective of this new hope (pinegrove being one of them)!

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#135

I kept getting the impression that Florence couldn’t possibly be real. What with her being virtually invisible, getting away with all kinds of shenanigans, and her ethereal way of thinking. She definitely gave me some ghost of christmas past vibes when she was interrogating Bernard Oates.

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#136

any thoughts on how the stories merged? how freaking exciting did that feel to read? it was for me, very gratifying to complexly understand all of a sudden what smith had been barreling towards the whole time. i’m thinking about the control smith displays in having this macro image set for us, but propelling us from sentence to sentence with micro interest

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#137

ya, definitely, it’s almost intoxicating how magically effective she is

getting a grown man in charge of an IRC to yell after her: Hey. HEY. When was I informative. HEY. 206 after she has decided the conversation was over chef kiss

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#138

Sooo super satisfying for the stories to come together like that. Especially liked thinking about how Florence/Richard (other characters as well) existing at the same time but not knowing each other (yet?) was parallel to the movie/book from part 1, Mansfield & Rilke and the whole unknowing co-existing vibe.

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#139

i cackled!!

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#140

trruuuuuuuee!!

edit:wow the message board wouldn’t let me publish an incomplete sentence? that’s weird

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#141

i found it interesting in conjunction with the conversation that was had last time we met. there was this sort of hope that there would be new life to come after paddy’s death in the first section. after all, we cant have rebirth without death first. i think florence is that new hope. as the older generation dies, the newer one is born. florence said it herself when brit says that by them being spring and winter, respectively, that florence would kill her off. florence’s response, “without you, i wouldn’t exist” is, what i think, especially ties the two stories together

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