I am going to make a few observations about Black and Blue before I move on to the poetry. The thing that stands out most to me is that I lose track of things when I'm reading it. I mean, I lose myself in the book. I told myself I would stop reading when I got to the next chapter, and then the next chapter seemed to go on a bit longer than I thought it should. So I went back and checked, and sure enough, I'd read right past it. Not that the other books we've been reading have been uninteresting, but I haven't had that experience with them as often. Also, Rankin's descriptions of crime scenes are detailed to the point of being downright grotesque. However, I love all of the band/music references. I've heard of most of them, and I actually like some of them. Rebus reminds me of James Bond: he smokes, he curses, and he's not ugly. Predictably, he's not oblivious to pretty women either.
"Return to Scalpay" has many asides to the reader--an interesting feature. It sounds like the speaker is revisiting the place where he/she grew up. I don't understand the part about jumping in a batwing jacket. It reminds me of batman, and I think it's pretty safe to say that MacCaig was not thinking of superheroes in capes when he was writing this. The Scalpay folk are not Spinozas...I had to look that one up for sure. Turns out Spinoza was a rationalist philosopher, which helps a little. I like the "easy glum, easy glow" remark, which sounds a little like "easy come, easy go" although it has a much different meaning. And last and perhaps best of all are the final lines, "knowing that I have been, and knowing why, diminished and enlarged. Are they the same?" This question deserves either a very good answer or no answer at all. I'm only capable of the latter.
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