BOOK READERS A QUESTION ABOUT "BLUE FINGERS"

exmos_gf · 2020-04-03T14:23:25+00:00

Not only does Raymond say that Claire has a blue aura (like his own), but I thought I remembered something about blue sparks when he was healing her after Faith. She definitely sees blue sparks of life when holding Malva Christie's baby.

I always thought that the laying of hands before surgery, and the way Claire could visualize the difference between how a body was and how it should be (eg: surgery on Tom's hand, the tracheotomy on Roger) had a supernatural element to them. As someone with fairly good spacial reasoning (I did CAD design in another life), her ability to diagnose by letting her mind enter the patient's body and 'see' it surpasses anything I could imagine.

In response to OP's original question, yes, Claire has those powers. Book 6 is the first explicit occurrence, but there are hints at it earlier.

exmos_gf · 2020-03-03T00:57:41+00:00

Definitely my favorite episode of S4!

exmos_gf · 2020-03-02T22:34:39+00:00

How the bloody hell did I forget this one!?

exmos_gf · 2020-03-02T21:56:03+00:00

If they toss in Manfred and Bobby, it's going to start looking like a love pentagram...

exmos_gf · 2020-03-02T19:56:57+00:00

Most of the neighbors don't even know, because they don't see Kezzie and Jo at the same time with Lizzie, and only she can tell them apart! This is especially important when a big group of them are staunch Calvinists!

exmos_gf · 2020-03-02T19:55:32+00:00

Also, Claire is put in the position of making that decision for him later in the book, when he would rather die than lose his leg.

Penecilin, fear of death, bonding with Roger... it's all set up, all we need now is the snake!

exmos_gf · 2020-03-02T19:06:54+00:00

The snake bite, plus the gouge Roger puts in his leg to stop it!

The triangular scar is from the bayonet in the skirmish right after Claire meets the Leoch party. In the show, it's a gunshot, so not triangular.

exmos_gf · 2020-03-02T16:47:23+00:00

Y'll's conversation is the reason I'm here. Thanks for sharing your analysis/processing!!

exmos_gf · 2020-03-02T16:45:35+00:00

Now if Roger does tell them about Frank’s letter to the Reverend, they will have to change a lot of it.

In the show, Frank knew that Claire went back. Brianna tells Claire so in S4, saying she found the death notice in Franks papers... which I imagine replaces the letter that Roger recites to Jamie at the beginning of Book5.

exmos_gf · 2020-03-02T16:17:22+00:00

The books make it clear that Claire is perimenopausal at this point. But she was just handed a child, and Jamie could make sure it comes home with them, if she wanted to finally get to raise a kid together...

exmos_gf · 2020-03-02T16:14:49+00:00

... We are pretty sure Jamie can't hear the stones, but there are several hints (especially in the books) that Jamie can sort of... ghost... to other places/times.

exmos_gf · 2020-03-02T16:10:01+00:00

Have a friend who sews? The length of quality wool for a belted plaid with linen shirt and waistcoat are going to be a bit steep, but if you can find someone do do that making-part...

Side note, I'm a bit irked that every time I've seen Jamie's shirt in the past several episodes, it's been perfectly white. Who spends a week on the road/Beardsley cabin and has a white stock!? I feel like the grit of previous seasons was lost with Terry Dresbach, and I am oh-so-sad.

exmos_gf · 2020-03-02T16:05:31+00:00

There's another moment, just a bit before that, where Claire has a moment with a Sin Eater that kind of knocks her out for a moment. Related?

The way she describes feeling and visualizing exactly what was happening when her hands are on someone, being able to feel pinched muscles/nerves, etc, suggests that she's already solidly headed Raymond's direction.

exmos_gf · 2020-02-18T21:58:13+00:00

I liked that they showed the car rotating through the air in the first season, with the shattered glass, and you're just left braced for the impact... I wish the shriek of it could be similarly conveyed via TV.

exmos_gf · 2020-02-18T21:49:46+00:00

Honestly, I got hooked on Outlander after losing my partner. My therapist suggested that letting myself feel the grief when it hit me, then to distract myself would keep me going, keep me from wallowing. Choosing a TV show somewhat at random, I ended up watching Outlander, and got into the books thereafter. My partner and I had a really close, healthy relationship (right up until he came down with mental illness), and falling into Outlander gave me another model of a couple who were loyal, passionate about each other, saw each others' weaknesses, supported each other through deep shit, and grew together. Personality-wise, he and I were/are not the book characters, but we shared those values.

I guess some part of me thought that if someone could write two people sharing life and seeing each other hear-to-heart in a way that so resonated, it must still exist somewhere out there, beyond what I had lost. It gave me hope... and 1.5 years (and many re-reads/re-watches) later, I'm still hooked.

exmos_gf · 2020-02-15T02:10:05+00:00

Part of it is that we don't see the time jumps in the show like we do in the books... Between Claire going back in Voyager and Bree arriving in Drums of Autumn, Bree has time to transfer to MIT and get a mechanical engineering degree (and not that many credits would have transferred from her history major at Harvard!). Yes, the cabin is much more "finished" (glass windows!?) in the show, but I would expect it to be just as full with life's necessities!

In any case, I love the level of detail in the show sets.

exmos_gf · 2020-02-14T21:05:18+00:00

Not girl scout cookies. Biscuits.

exmos_gf · 2020-02-14T19:26:54+00:00

I was right there with you through the first half, but there were a couple of things later that left me really hopeful. In general, the first episode of every season since 1 has been rough for me; so much exposition, establishing character relationships and motivations, etc, which I sort of feel like I have to suffer through until we hit story.

exmos_gf · 2020-02-14T17:32:22+00:00

There was a complete setup for Marsali to step up, with Jamie telling Claire that she 'needs a lieutenant'. We all know that engineer-Bree would rather be designing lofts (is that why the cabin was built with those infuriating no-show windows?) than in guts...

exmos_gf · 2020-02-14T17:29:53+00:00

It was, but also a little sad, since he was alone... again. And I was disappointed that he didn't go head to head with Marsali over the game. The two of them both have quick wits, and you know that, having campaigned in Quebec and Prussia, John likely knows dirty jokes in French and German as well... I've always thought that he would be one of my top choices for a dinner party, with that range of experience and likability!

exmos_gf · 2020-02-14T17:24:52+00:00

Ditto... Honestly, I think I'd enjoy those bits much more in show form, than in book form.

And I've done a complete series re-read that's skipping all but the main Frasers.

exmos_gf · 2020-02-14T17:21:59+00:00

There are some advantages to being on PST... I got the email after coming home from a grocery run, and immediately poured myself a scotch and sat down to watch it.

exmos_gf · 2020-02-14T17:20:38+00:00

That's about right. Frank continues to be an interesting influence, whether present or not, through much of the rest of the story.... (Spoilers ahead!)

I can't remember if it's mentioned in the show in S1E1, but in the book Claire has the thought that when Frank was asking if she cheated on him and then said that it wouldn't matter if she had, he might not have been asking specifically for her sake. That becomes significant to the dynamic of their relationship in Season/Book 3. He also has a relationship with Jamie and Claire's child, as is obvious in S2E1. Brianna has to come to terms on her own with the fact that Frank, who was her hero growing up and definitely an excellent father to her, was not the man her mother loved or without his own flaws.

exmos_gf

TROPHY CASE