Oh for crying out loud!

[nineveh_uk]

“He had once owned the finest lyric soprano in Europe” does not refer to Peter Wimsey’s having been a particularly gifted boy treble. Not even as a pun.

Meanwhile, the WIP is still being recalcitrant. Fine, Troy, if you don’t want to be snogged senseless by Mr Scotland Yard 1938, back in the queue you go. I have therefore started proper work on the infamous Wimsey/Potterverse Mpreg, though don’t expect it any time soon. For one thing, it may take me a little while to recover from the horrors of the research.

Still a few of the prompt-based drabbles to go, but nearly there. This prompted me to think (via circuitous neural pathways) first how much Thrones, Dominations might be improved by zombies, and then how much Thrones, Dominations might be improved by almost anything.

For example, from p. 305:

‘All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well,’ said Peter, returning to her half-an-hour later. ‘You were quite right, Harriet; it is surprisingly easy to solve things by a little straight talking between intelligent adults if one can only throw off the shackles of tradition. Bunter has agreed not to get married and to stay, and I have agreed to the occasional threesome.’

Finally, George Galloway praised in traditional Bedouin verse (and remarkable Grauniad spelling):

George the intrepid, that symbol of pluck

Comments

[bronze-ribbons.livejournal.com]

Seconded! Zombie threesomes ahoy!

[missfoxie.livejournal.com]

*splutters at that new & improved quote*

Much improved.

[legionseagle.livejournal.com]

To be absolutely and totally fair about that DLS line I heard it on Radio 4 (probably Front Row though I can't swear to it) in around 1976 0r 1977 and then I did leap to the conclusion that Lord Peter must have been a stunning boy soprano. Mainly because no-one had told me at age 14 or thereabouts that any man could be vulgar enough even to think about claiming he "owned" a woman, and from my history lessons I knew slavery had been abolished in 1807.

Obviously I was being stupid, but I didn't think so at the time.

[azdak.livejournal.com]

Mainly because no-one had told me at age 14 or thereabouts that any man could be vulgar enough even to think about claiming he "owned" a woman

Agreed. Peter as choirboy would be a less gut-churningly awful use of "own".

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

For all his estimable qualities, Peter does occasionally show himself a man of his time (as does his creator).

[azdak.livejournal.com]

It's one of the things I love about the books - that there are things which would be a huge deal now, but which DLS is quite unselfconscious about. And some of those moments are merely wonderfully alien (like the casual mention of Mary Thoday's missing front teeth), and others make you go "Oof!" (like the Dowager Duchess's discussion of the Bunter Problem with Harriet, saying "These attached people can be rather difficult", as if he was a particularly possessive dog or something).

Anyway, I bet the soprano saw their relationship in a rather different light, with Peter as her pet English gentleman.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

I want to know which ex- kicked him out of bed when he had nightmares.

[marginaliana]

I have therefore started proper work on the infamous Wimsey/Potterverse Mpreg

*cheers*

Also, ought I to force myself through Thrones, Dominations just for hilarity purposes, or is it so bad that it can't even be so-bad-it's-good?

[bronze-ribbons.livejournal.com]

It's not bad enough to be hilarious. More just like drinking tepid cola.

I reread it once in a while for the scenes with the French painter.

Presumption of Death is outright bad.

[threerings.livejournal.com]

Presumption of Death is outright bad.

Urgh. That book is sitting on my shelf waiting for me to work up the courage to reading it. Just to be able to say how bad it is...

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

Don't. Really. All the good bits are recycled, and, oh, it's just naff.

[aunty_marion]

I read both of them as, essentially, fanfic. They're pretty good as pastiches of the original stuff. (It's rather like reading some of the Star Trek published schlock that's out there, and contrasting it with some of the good stuff by Diane Duane or John M Ford.)

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

I have tried the reading fanfic ploy, but can't pull it off - they have an official status that makes me get out the scalpel!

I do think that parts of T,D are well done - specifically the mystery plot. But I'd so much rather the Estate had chosen to release the manuscript than have a continuation done. Also, I disagree with a lot of the choices JPW made with the MS (of which I have read most, but not every page in detail). Why miss out Gerald sizing up Harriet at dinner (and confirmation that she is indeed a bit flat-chested), Harriet's grilling on Peter on why he didn't just apply himself to getting her into bed, a more interesting Lady Severn and Thames, and so on. And I just dont' think she really 'gets' Peter and Harriet. Presumption just magnifies these flaws, and reads rather too like a historical novel. Also, in both cases there is a problem with the murder, in that whilst I don't quite agree with whoever it was who said of Sayers that "the murder is anciliary to the purpose", all the books have much bigger themes than catching the murderer, and in neither continuation does this happen.

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

Why miss out Gerald sizing up Harriet at dinner (and confirmation that she is indeed a bit flat-chested)

*perks up*

Harriet's grilling on Peter on why he didn't just apply himself to getting her into bed

*twitches*

a more interesting Lady Severn and Thames

DAMMIT. *starts working out logistics of making a side-trip to Wheaton*

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

Wheaton itself was fascinating in an anthropological sort of way (and also indeed in a natural history way, given that I saw chipmunks and fireflies and American robins) and a bit scary, but the staff in the Wade Centre were lovely and helpful, and if you find yourself in the vicinity (work trip to Chicago...?) I'd definitely recommend it.

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

I have tried the reading fanfic ploy, but can't pull it off

Likewise. The official status wouldn't faze me, but I seem to recall finding Presumption!Harriet unforgivably insipid.

[tudorpot.livejournal.com]

Elbows Troy aside and puckers lips. Oh, and giggled at your T&D threesome.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Maybe the solution is to write in a scene in which Troy finds herself getting incredibly and (she thinks, inexplicably) jealous of the attractive Canadian woman flirting outrageously with Alleyn at a party?

[tree_and_leaf]

*boggles, and wonders what Harriet would say* Though I suppose it's not that much more implausible than T&D - though surely Peter wouldn't really be bad mannered enough to commit his wife to a threesome without asking first?

[bronze-ribbons.livejournal.com]

Does "I do so wish I could have married him" (or however that phrase goes in BUSM) not count as implicit consent? ;-)

[tree_and_leaf]

Hm; ambiguous. Polyandry by all means, but threesomes? I admit I'm not at all clear on the etiquette!

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

It's tricky. gives us a nice suggestion (and Harriet does indeed say that she loves Bunter about 15 chapters before she says the same about Peter), but given the history of the romance, is Peter ever going to risk implicit consent from Harriet? Some editing may be required.

[threerings.livejournal.com]

BWAHAHA.

I don't know which I like more, your opening line or the idea of improving Thrones, Dominations with threesomes.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

I thought that it might be improved with dragons as well, but couldn't quite see where to fit them in.

[azdak.livejournal.com]

George the intrepid, that symbol of pluck

Wow! I was halfway through that article before realising that it probably wasn't a joke. I suspect The Unknown Poet has been done a major disservice by his translator - given that Holes is capable of translating the strictly constrained forms of Bedouin poetry into the much more accessible "if Ah'm the ruttin stallion - they're the hairs on mah testicles!" (George W. of the Arab leaders), why on earth did he opt for such dreadful doggerel in Galloway's case? "Pluck", forsooth! It sounds like a parody Kipling/Enid Blyton crossover from line one.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

I do suspect "pluck" of being a bit of (rather supercilious) mischief on the part of the translator, who knows how his English audience will instinctively try to rhyme it. Though my general impression of that sort of Arab poetry is that it rhymes a lot, and even Tennyson could only manage a decent English language equivalent for about six lines.

(The whole of the Bush poem is here (http://www.ox.ac.uk/media/news_releases_for_journalists/080212.html).

To sum things up, Ah rule the roost, with power presidential!
Ah say! Ah do! And with mah shoe, Ah kick ass – that’s essential!”)

[azdak.livejournal.com]

my general impression of that sort of Arab poetry is that it rhymes a lot

Lots of poetry rhymes a lot, but that still doesn't mean you have to translate it as ghastly doggerel. Actually, the Galloway poem translation reminds me irresistibly of Shelley on Wordsworth:

Just for a handful of silver he left us,
Just for a riband to stick in his coat;
Found the one gift of which fortune bereft us,
Lost all the others she lets us devote.

Same beat and everything.

[beadattitude.livejournal.com]

I wandered (lonely as a cloud) over here from...somewhere. Was lookin' for some fic, don't you know.

I must say the threesome comment made me snort water right up the beak. Mother would be horrified. (And then we'd have to explain to her what it was.)

Smashing in a hilarious sort of a way, though. Somehow I can't imagine Bunter unclothed. I do believe he formed from the very ether, completely kitted out, bowler and all.

And everyone knows bowlers in the bedroom are just no go.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

Wanderin' the net for Wimseyfic can take you to some very strange places. I like to think of this as a positive island of sanity!

Bunter unclothed is rather difficult. I can really only imagine fully-clothed hapless longing, or mostly clothed dark corners with accommodating parlourmaids. Although in my fantasy casting he is played by Colin Firth, and seen on screen that would probably help.