a future arranged in terms of hills and light?

Lazarakis   Wed May 31, 2006 9:49 am GMT
Three questions from reading:

1.
"Like any child, she looked out and across rather than in. She was more familiar with the vistas, the promising valleys with their hidden hamlets, the scope of the future arranged in terms of hills and light."

What does it mean by "the scope of the future arranged in terms of hills and light"?

2.
"Once a small dragon had become trapped in the bird-snaring nets slung in the uccellare. Bianca watched as the cook's adolescent grandson tried to cut it down and release it."

What is a "uccellare"? I can't find it in my dictionary...

3.
"Some windows were fitted with glass, but in most windows, squares of linen had been nailed to the shutter moldings,..."

What are shutter moldings? My dictionary does have the two words. But when they are put together, I can't imagine what a thing it is.
Ant_222   Wed May 31, 2006 10:33 am GMT
1. Nothing special, read it word by word.
3. A Shutter is a shutter,

Molding:
An embellishment in strip form, made of wood or other structural material, that is used to decorate or finish a surface, such as the wall of a room or building or the surface of a door or piece of furniture.
(The Free Dictionary)
D6312SE   Wed May 31, 2006 12:18 pm GMT
I believe you will find that "uccellare" is an Italian word for an area or place laid out for catching birds.

uccello = bird
Baron de Bitche   Wed May 31, 2006 1:38 pm GMT
"the promising valleys with their hidden hamlets"

Oh, I love this sentence, though I would have left out "promising". Makes me think of those lush, steep, narrow valleys that you can find in both England and Italy; covered in verdant, green beech forest hiding the hamlets from your view.

Example: The valley of the river Teign, Devon, UK.
Guest   Thu Jun 01, 2006 4:29 am GMT
"1. Nothing special, read it word by word."

I don't know what my problem is. But it just doesn't make sense to me. The scope of the future ? Future of what? And...arranged in terms of hills and light? I am completely lost.

About sentence 3, is it simply saying they nailed linen to the windows?
George   Thu Jun 01, 2006 5:18 am GMT
1. It's simply a poetic way of saying that out yonder in the horizon, lined with hills and valleys and light (city lights? sunlight? metaphoric light?), lay her future.

3. Take a look at this picture:

http://www.diyshutters.com/images/shutters-exterior-bradway-l.jpg

See the wood trim around the shutters and the square inlays, and around the window frame? Those are moldings.
Lazarakis   Thu Jun 01, 2006 5:43 am GMT
Thanks a lot!
Baron de Bitche   Thu Jun 01, 2006 5:28 pm GMT
I have a feeling this is an author who delights in making complicated sentences full of nonsense.
Michellene   Sun Aug 19, 2007 7:52 pm GMT
Thank you for this excellent string of messages. I had a very difficult time getting many of the vocabulary words...I went to college and have to carry a damned dictionary to read this damned book. (mirror, mirror)
Uriel   Sun Aug 19, 2007 8:23 pm GMT
<<I have a feeling this is an author who delights in making complicated sentences full of nonsense. >>

He's a little wordy, but I think he has a really interesting way with words -- they're pretty evocative when you read his books as a whole. Maybe not sentence by sentence, but he works up to an interesting "feel" and style that's pretty unusual. I haven't read this one, but I did read "Wicked" and "Son of a Witch" and they're both like that.

His name, by the way, is Gregory Maguire.