The conversation at the gazebo creeped me out the first time I saw this, back in the late 90s on rented VHS. I thought it was a reference to Satan. Having re-watched it on youtube, I'm not sure what it means. If Karin was a mermaid or a goddess, she wouldn't really have many names. Any thoughts?
shareThere's a lot more of that kind of thing in Richard Adams' novel, if you enjoy such speculations. It's an exquisitely literary book - in the best, "not insufferably boring" type way! - even though the eventual denouement is of course distasteful.
shareI should read the book then,
shareThe first fifty pages are a bit of a slog - Alan is kind of a dry stick - but once he meets Kathe (her name in my early edition, later changed) it starts to click. But I kept waiting for him to say "Of course if I had known I would've taken her kid, too!" but he never says any such thing. What a prick. Which makes all of his pompous pronouncements about how, oh, mere mortals cannot hope to fathom the breadth of their love even more obnoxious.
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