Camp NaNoWriMo is going okay; I’m only doing 700 words a day, which isn’t very difficult, so I’m mostly getting over half of it done before work in the morning. I didn’t play AC: Mirage during the week, though I’m quite excited to get to it this weekend. And I’m almost finished with season one of Jurassic World: Chaos Theory.
I almost made this about Neil Gaiman, given that bit of news from last week, though I don’t know if that’ll make it into a Saturday Note or a Tumblr post or what. I have thoughts, though.
I’ll try to not get too bogged down in Plot for this one, given I’m pretty sure, like, none of you read Gunnerkrigg Court.
On Anthony Carver of Gunnerkrigg Court
Some days, I think about Anthony Carver. Alright, let me back up a bit.
I’ve written before on the Absent Love Interest–how there are book serieses and other long forms of fiction in which the main character has a love interest, but the character doesn’t appear on page for a while, and how that builds expectations. There are other kinds of characters that can be just as important and be physically absent from the story for a while too–like fathers. Look at Sherlock’s dad on Elementary.
My favorite example of this, though, has to be Anthony Carver on the webcomic Gunnerkrigg Court, which is a mysterious urban fantasy/science-fiction story about a very weird boarding school somewhere in the UK. I’ll try to not dig too deep into the nitty-gritty of the Plot, because it’s quite complex and winding and weird, but I have to give you something for this Note to make any sense.
At the beginning of the story, shortly after her mother’s death, Antimony “Annie” Carver enrolls at Gunnerkrigg Court. We find out fairly early on that several characters knew her parents, and that her best friend Kat’s parents, along with the gym teacher/court protector were all part of the same friend group. The fox spirit Reynardine also knew them, which is why he’s drawn to Annie, as he was especially fond of her mother (and it’s mentioned several times that Annie looks a lot like her mother).
When we begin, all we know about Anthony Carver is that he was Annie’s father, a doctor, married to his mother, and that he was very emotionally closed off. It’s also suggested that he’s incredibly intelligent.
People at the Court have very strong opinions of him, though. The court protector, Eglamore, makes it plain that he thinks Anthony Carver was a trash man on several occasions. Reynardine, who is magically bound and cannot lie, says Anthony was incapable of feeling love, only disdain. Jones, who is theoretically objective as she does not have emotions, says he was pretty terrible. The only thing close to positive is flashbacks as told by Donny, Kat’s father, who was Anthony’s best friend/roommate in school–showing that while he was very cold and closed off in public, alone with Donny he was much more emotionally open. Antimony’s fairly protective of her dad, though, even when everyone else seems willing to talk about how cold he was. It’s worth considering too, though, that he was married to Surma, Annie’s mom, who just about everyone talks fondly of as if she was an all-loving heroine.
Some things to note though: Eglamore used to date Annie’s mom, and apparently never got over her. They were also enough of a high profile relationship that many characters are surprised to learn Antimony isn’t Eglamore’s daughter. Reynardine was also in love with Antimony’s mom at one point, and never actually got to know Anthony Carver, so it’s not precisely like he’s an objectively good source here. And in the conversation with Jones where she trash talks Anthony, Antimony realizes (and Jones admits to it) that she’s only saying these things to see if she can get her to lose her temper.
There’s also a story arc where Antimony goes into some kind of magic coma, and it’s seemingly the fault of some device that Anthony built; another character quite rightfully psychically punches him in the face over it.
When Anthony finally arrives in the narrative, he appears to validate all the hate directed at him. Without warning to the characters or the reader, he arrives at the Court as a teacher in the new semester. He immediately humiliates Annie in front of the class, then afterward puts harsh restrictions on her non-school activities and puts her back two years in school because she’d been cheating on her homework.
Shortly afterward, Anthony’s school best friend/roommate Donny invites him over to talk one-on-one with him and a bottle of alcohol. A much more relaxed Carver explains everything–the machine he made wasn’t intended to put Annie in a coma, and he had no idea it happened until after the face-punching. The punishments he put on Annie were because the Court’s administration wanted it to happen, or threatened to expel her, as well as because he honestly believes that some of her adventures put her in danger (which… y’know, they do) and her father, he doesn’t want her hurt. The frigid way he acted was because he freaked out after not seeing her for so long, especially because she looks so much like her mother–who Anthony blames himself for not being able to save.
Donny secretly recorded this conversation and sent it to Antimony, along with a brief comment that he wanted her to fully understand what her father was like. But he doesn’t use it as an excuse–he does admit that none of it makes Anthony being a distant, emotionally-abusive father okay. That’s very much Not Okay. She should have the full picture, though.
There’s also a whole chapter flashback to show us how Anthony and Surma got together, because Antimony starts to think that maybe her father did something to her mother; at that point she’s fully convinced he’s a piece of poop. It turns out, though, that no, they were actually in love, and also that maybe Annie’s mother wasn’t the angelic heroine everyone thought she was, or that Eglamore was really that great of a guy to be with to begin with.
I really like Anthony Carver as a character.
Not, as in, I think he’s a great guy, or I’d want to hang out with him. I don’t. He’s kind of a garbage man and a garbage father, though I think he’s getting better as the story goes on. However, he’s a fantastic character, written in a complex manner that many authors really wish they could pull off. Look, we’re given plenty of clear indications on what we’re supposed to think, only for the author to give us more information that makes us question them.
And again, he’s pretty garbage a lot of the time. Arguably, the Worst (well, no, that’s Boxbot). I’m not saying any information we get about him makes up for the terrible way he treated his daughter. It certainly doesn’t! But it makes a complex, multi-faceted character. He’s an absolutely fascinating character to see unfold as the story goes, because you get this slow drip of character development that keeps making you question what you know about him.
I just can’t help but think about this character because he’s so… interesting. And Terrible.
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