Besides her storytelling craft and her stirring prose, fans of Diana Gabaldon also appreciate the Outlander series author for her candor. Perhaps it's the Claire Beauchamp Randall Fraser part of her that allows her to take such a straightforward approach even in some of life's more outlandish situations. So I couldn't resist going through my April 2021 interview with her and pulling some stray thoughts and observations from Gabaldon.
If you haven't already, check out my other pieces featuring quotes from the author following our conversation this spring, in which we discussed:
- Her thoughts on the Season 6 casting
- What could happen after Season 7 (and if it could be the final season of the show)
- A new character in Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone
- And what she's thinking for Book 10
And now, here are some outtakes from our interview that didn't necessarily make the cut... but that we had a lot of fun discussing. This one's for all the "eyeball-numbing nitpickers" out there.
On the show's adaption of medical procedures (and Laoghaire's gunshot)
"Laoghaire, presumably intending to shoot Claire, shoots Jamie instead. OK. She shoots him with birdshot shot from a pistol, which is unusual, but not impossible. The thing is, as I was saying to [the show creators], so you're going to go and shoot your husband's first wife, you load your pistol with birdshot rather than the usual, like, bullets? ... She's going to pepper her lightly? What's the point of this?"
"Anyway, she shoots Jamie, who is peppered with birdshot, and so forth. And so Claire then takes him inside. She puts him on a table. She gives him a dram of whisky, which promptly knocks him out cold. Makes him totally unconscious. This is a Scotsman, who would drink that for breakfast on his porridge. But no, he's out cold!"