Rugby (Union) and fannish thoughts

[nineveh_uk]

In the previously-mentioned universe in which Harriet Vane’s detective novels are made into a TV series (hopefully more faithfully than your average Christie adaptation), someone will have to be found to play her detective, Robert Templeton.

[Robert Templeton] was a gentleman of extraordinary scientific skill, combined with almost fabulous muscular development. He had arms like an orang-utan and an ugly but attractive face. She took conjured up his phantom before her in the suit of rather loud plus-fours with which she was accustomed to invest him, and took counsel with him in spirit.

I can now announce that that man is French rugby union player Sebastian Chabal. If this was Harriet’s vision of the archetypal great detective, no wonder it took her a while to reconcile herself to fancying Lord Peter Wimsey, who undoubtedly spent his first two terms at Eton having his head stamped into the mud every time he was forced, white knees trembling, out on to the field.

Still perfecting my Yuletide sign-up plans. Question, if twenty-one people have already volunteered to write Wimsey fanfic, why the hell aren’t they doing it the rest of the time?

Comments

[bronze_ribbons.insanejournal.com (from livejournal.com)]

Not that I'm one of those twenty-one, but I will hazard a guess: because someone daft enough to start a Wimsey fic may well find themselves irretrievably distracted in the course of researching the dimensions of Piccadilly flats, fabrics for late-Edwardian-era dressing gowns, passages one can't look up in the copy of Unnatural Death that has somehow beetled off to somewhere other than the bookshelf on which it's supposed to reside, types of brandy, the spelling of French battlefields, and other digressions that end up being utterly irrelevant to the fic at hand.

Never mind visitors popping by to suggest Juliet!Wimsey/Paris!Biggs. Be still my creaking brain.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

I can imagine that the sort of serious research into the finer types of brandy in particular might have an impact on ones ability to write.

I know what you mean. My capacity for side-tracking myself when I am supposed to be just doing a bit of research is endless.

[adina-atl.livejournal.com]

Some of us have.

(And others need deadlines. And/or a place to post the resulting story.)

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

Some of us have.
This is true. And for Yuletide as well (not that I ever intend to go near Wodehouse fic - I can't imagine where I'd start with the voice).

And one does sometimes forget that the rest of the world is not necessarily on LJ.

Incidentally, have you changed the photo of the image in your icon? Because it was ages before I could see that it was actually a picture, and now I always see it. Maybe it's like those fractal pictures.

[adina-atl.livejournal.com]

Anyone could post their Wimsey story to their own LJ, but if they don't have Wimsey fans on they friends list--or think they don't--it's rather discouraging. I've been thinking of creating a Wimsey fan fiction community. Think people would be interested?

I haven't changed the photo in my icon, though I probably should because the angle isn't very good and the colors are washed out. It's an actual stained glass/cement stepping stone I meade, currently residing in my front walk. But as with a lot of pattern recognition, once you know what it is it's impossible not to see.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

I think enough people could be interested in a fic community, either to post or link. There are writers out there, and people who mention ideas, but you're right that they are isolated. There's already a couple of comms where people could post - gaslight_fic, uktvmystery, neither of which is heavily trafficked, and of course rarelitslash (not an intuitive title) and vintagefic (slash again, limited traffic). talboys has sporadic activity, but does have it, but it is not primarily fic-posting oriented, and reading_sayers seems pretty moribund. (You can tell I've searched on this theme, can't you?). So there seems room for a go at a single-author fic comm.

I am very impressed that you made the mosaic - I really like the colour/design.

[ankaret.livejournal.com]

Heck, I volunteered to write Barbara Hambly, and it'd never occur to me to do that the rest of the time; I'd be far too intimidated. Where do you find the statistics on who's offered to write what?

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

Re. Hambly, I confess the potential attraction of Yuletide as an opportunity to try something new in a safe-ish space is not something I had really thought of as an attraction, but I can see why that would boost potential writers.

Details of requested and offered fandoms are here (http://www.yuletidetreasure.org/get_requested_fandoms.cgi). RPF What Not To Wear, anyone?

[ankaret.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

I am slightly stunned by the number of people willing to write A. A Milne. I'm also unimaginably impressed that anyone is willing to write Wheel of Time or A Song Of Ice And Fire - imagine poking fruitlessly through a canon that size when you've forgotten exactly what colour someone's eyes are or whether they get along with their mother-in-law. Though there are probably HP Lexicon-like resources out there on the web.

Having had a look at the RPF lists, I asked icprncs some time back if there was figure skating RPF and she said it wouldn't surprise her one bit, so I am quietly amused to see 4 people offering it. I have to admit my brain kind of stutters over RPF - Stuart Dynasty, but I suppose that could just as well be Charles I / Buckingham or Charles II / His Mistresses rather than brainpan-scouring incest involving callipers and gout. And people who like gout!fic deserve a happy Christmas as much as anyone else, anyway.

Thinking about it, I probably actually could turn my hand to 14th-century RPF, particularly if it involved Charles of Navarre, but I don't think I'm going to offer as it would just lead to boring heart-searchings about how far back I'm willing to go before my squick about RPF kicks in.

Have you noticed that there are four people offering The Slipper And The Rose?

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

I think I'd like A.A.Milne fanfic only if the hundred acre wood caught Dutch Elm disease. I'm not sure about ASOIAF and the like - presumably if you like the books well enough to write for them, you do at least start with an idea of where those necessary details will be found, rather than being someone like me who just skips to the good bits, and therefore misses entire characters, let alone eye colour.

I've never really sat down and worked out my RPF feelings. I'm sure that some of my aversion comes not from fanfic, but from the incredible smugness of the TV/film scriptwriters who perpetrate modern RPF in the commercial media.

Have you noticed that there are four people offering The Slipper And The Rose?
I have! The only question is whether my request should be for “Why Can’t I Be Two People” angst fic in which Prince Edward actually suffers from schizophrenia. Answer, definitely not.

I am now kicking myself for not thinking of nominating Calamity Jane, but am delighted that someone is offering Ngaio Marsh. I wonder which characters they've all volunteered for? Must sign up and find out.

[ankaret.livejournal.com]

I've never really sat down and worked out my RPF feelings. I'm sure that some of my aversion comes not from fanfic, but from the incredible smugness of the TV/film scriptwriters who perpetrate modern RPF in the commercial media.

Oh, those things that always have some dreadful impressionist playing the Prime Minister, whoever the Prime Minister happened to be at the time? Barf. I suspect the recent The Tudors comes into the same category considering that the scriptwriter was patting himself on the back in the Radio Times about conflating both Henry VIII's sisters into one princess, though I've recorded it anyway just so that I can see how bad it is.

I wish I'd had a look when I signed up to see exactly who they've got under 'RPF - Misc Actors'. The mind, it boggles.

There are probably people out there who'd be perfectly willing to write 'Why Can't I Be Two People' Edward / Edward, which would at least get round that faint grimace of distaste that Richard Chamberlain always seemed to produce when expected to do a het love scene, poor man.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

some dreadful impressionist playing the Prime Minister, whoever the Prime Minister happened to be at the time?

That's it exactly. I think part of the issue is that such shows rarely seem to be about a good story that the writer/director really wants to tell, and much more about “ooh, how clever/daring/satirical we are”. The Queen works because it has a story (and perhaps because in a sense the Queen is already a fictional character), and Cambridge Spies and that ilk can work because they can be about Big Themes, but dramatised political gossip is not the same as art.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

I am sure that somewhere on the internet I read an account of a film school assignment to re-edit a Richard Chamberlain film so that he didn't look faintly nauseated at the het love scenes. I am rather charmed to learn via Wikipedia that he has retired and lives with his partner for 30 years in Hawaii.

[bronze-ribbons.livejournal.com]

I think I'd like A.A.Milne fanfic only if the hundred acre wood caught Dutch Elm disease.

*inordinately amused at the thought*

[tree_and_leaf]

Personally, I think he'd be ideal for Hagrid, but I do see your point.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

It would certainly explain why the students claimed to find Hagrid scary.

[aella_irene]

I would if I could, but I'm (a) too young, (and is it me, or have they changed the age restriction from 17 to 18 recently? I could have sworn I'd be able to participate next year, but apparently I won't be able to until next year) and (b) too prone to being distracted by the pretty, pretty family trees. (I am unable to write anything without mapping out the generations three generations each way)

By the by, have you ever read Catriona McPherson's Dandy Gilver series? Its a series of mysteries set in 1920s Scotland, and starring an unromantic, married, detective who is in her late thirties. There are lots of lovely clothes, a handsome co-solver with whom she has a mild flirtation, and some thoroughly intriguing mysteries.

[ankaret.livejournal.com]

I am unable to write anything without mapping out the generations three generations each way

Are you me?

You should see the family trees for From The Ashes. I've got a database. ;)

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

I don't know about the age restriction - I haven't done it before, so not read the requirements - but I suppose that with recent kerfuffles they might have felt a bit paranoid and gone for safety in being patronising?

I haven't read Dandy Gilver, though I have seen their rather attractive jackets. I'd been cautious fearing another Maisie Dobbs (http://nineveh-uk.livejournal.com/17372.html), but it sounds worth a go (lovely 1920 clothes will hook me every time).

[aella_irene]

Dandy is pretty much the Anti-Dobbs. If they ever met, Dandy would probably start running, and not stop until Maisie was just a dim speck in the distance.

[gramarye1971]

I've signed up for Yuletide, but Wimsey-fic wasn't one of the ones I selected. Mainly because I don't have my books with me -- I don't quite trust myself to get the voices and settings right without them. ^^;; Perhaps next year I'll have more of my books with me and give it some thought.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

It's not that I have a Sekrit Campaign to get more Wimseyfic for me to read or anything... Nor can I really talk about offering stuff for Yuletide, which I am afraid I am decidedly not approaching in the "liberating opportunity to sign up for anything you fancy and just see what request you get" spirit, being far too scared of being asked for Peggy Blackett/Titty Walker slash.

[azdak.livejournal.com]

I think the perceived lack of a regular audience for Wimseyfic might be part of the problem - have you thought of putting the fics you've collected onto crack_van as a Featured Small Fandom when they go back up again in November? That would be one way of reaching a wider audience.

You have indeed found the perfect Robert Templeton, though I suspect Harriet herself rather looks down on her readers for liking that sort of thing (plus fours??) - but perhaps he is a Guilty Pleasure.

And I'm not sure about Peter as anti-rugger - if anything, I imagine him as the original little tyke who picked up the football and fled with it. After all, by the time he got to Eton, he'd already had his father's training in being whipped over jumps (what's the exact phrase? Something about learning to pretend you're not afraid and taking out the change in nightmares).

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

You may be right about the perceived lack of an audience. I've not come across crack_van, but it looks like a good idea. It will also spur me to finding some free wireless (rather than the Maths dept) to check adultfanfiction.net, which is a bit of a gap in the archive.

I'm not sure about Harriet looking down on her readers for liking RT - the clothes are because she doesn't know about them (I wonder if he gets a makeover once she has Bunter and Peter to ask), but she does seem to try to do what she does sincerely.

Ah, so fragile Peter is in fact quite good at rugger, and thus gets beaten up off the field for showing up the big kids who look as if they ought to be better than he is? But his finding his salvation in being good at cricket does not suggest to me much liking for muddy contact sports.

[azdak.livejournal.com]

crack_van is a multi-fandom reccing community. Any fandom that can muster up enough fans and writers to keep reccing stories month after month can become a regular, but they also have a Featured Small Fandom option, where very small fandoms can post lots of recs in the course of a single month. It has a very wide readership, so it should glean some attention.

Isn't it Harriet who's thinking of RT as being fabulously muscley and looking like an orang-utan, though? That suggests she has a sense of the absurd as far as her creation goes. Or perhaps she only starts thinking of him in critical terms once she's met the real thing.

I took the being good at cricket as shorthand for general athletic skills, and assumed it was his salvation because being really brainy and keen on art didn't go down too well at public school in those days. Whereas being good at sports made you a god, and cricket was the king of sports. But of course it could well be that Peter had a general preference for not getting his head stamped in the mud, and hence was considered absurdly fastidious.

[tree_and_leaf]

I could just about see Peter as an old fashioned fly half, the nippy, small, devious kind (those being the days where you could find a place for every body shape in the team, rather than just going for big (if fast) hulks, but I have trouble seeing him having much fun at rugby.

[azdak.livejournal.com]

Whereas Denver would have ADORED it.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

I bet Denver played the wall game, too.

Popping home at lunchtime enabled me to check a bit of transcribed Thones, Dominations MS and the news that Denver's prime use to his little brother was preventing his being molested in the showers (I paraphrase a bit). I see Peter as holding up his own on the sports front at prep school, bolstered by being good at cricket and otherwise happy to run about kicking things as much as your average 9 year old, but coming a cropper faced with a gang of hefty Eton adolescents who actually take the whole thing seriously, and before you know it he's been knocked down a couple of times, made some unpopular remarks, and is Flimsy Wimsey.

My sister is a very slight rugby player, so it can be done, but she is also tall, unconcerned about filth, and was pulling doors off their hinges aged four.

[azdak.livejournal.com]

Denver's prime use to his little brother was preventing his being molested in the showers (I paraphrase a bit).

Ho yuss, I definitely detect some paraphrasin' goin' on there.

Does Flim come from Flimsey? You learn something new every day. Makes perfect sense though. Okay, I'll buy it. As long as I am allowed to imagine that that Flimsey Wimsey took a Stalky-esque revenge on all molestery rugger buggers and face stampers.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

I'm not paraphrasin' that much; courtesy of Uncle Paul "I fancy, too, he had escaped the grubbier manifestations of schoolboy sexuality - there at least his brother's fists would have been willing and able to protect him". Though one notes that if we thereby rule out one side of fagging, there may be scope for voluntary interest, esp. if one takes a Bill Clinton-ish view.

I like the idea of Stalky-esque revenge - a thirst for justice beginning with the rescue of some unhappy first year, pursual of the culprits, and a clever payback...

[azdak.livejournal.com]

"I fancy, too, he had escaped the grubbier manifestations of schoolboy sexuality - there at least his brother's fists would have been willing and able to protect him"

Wow! Good old DL, telling it like it is. I'm impressed (or was that JPW?)

there may be scope for voluntary interest, esp. if one takes a Bill Clinton-ish view.

You mean "I didn't inhale, and she didn't swallow"?


I like the idea of Stalky-esque revenge

Preferably involving a dead cat.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

DLS - it's in one of the bits that JPW left out.

You mean "I didn't inhale, and she didn't swallow"
I can only say "unk". But 17 year old Peter seems pretty much untouched by human hands as far as anything significant goes (17 1/2 yr old Peter, of course, being up for grabs).

Dead cat request noted.

[antisoppist.livejournal.com]

Watching QI rather than rugby, I've been considering Bill Bailey, but he could do with Sebastian Chabal's hair.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

Bill Bailey would certainly be a more avuncular figure than Chabal, who wouldn't need brains because he could just threaten the suspects a bit.

[lyras.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I think Sebastian Chabal's gorgeous! *is weird like Harriet*

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

He's terrifying, but one can't deny there's a certain charisma and brute aesthetic there!