nineveh_uk | Random DLS ponderings

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Random DLS ponderings

Leafing through some DLS for dialogue help in the course of drafting some fic, a couple of paragraphs struck me.

The first is from the short stories. I don't read them much - they're not particularly good short stories - but I ought to read them more, as they have some interesting little passages in them. Like this one from The Unprincipled Affair of the Practical Joker.

[Peter is staying in a grand hotel somewhere-or-other that liners dock from Africa (Southampton?), and Mrs Ruyslaender has spotted his name on the register and, desperate, come to his suite at 11 pm to try to get his help on a case. Bunter admits her to the sitting room.]

The man stepped noiselessly to the bedroom door and passed, shutting it behind him. The lock, however, failed to catch, and Mrs Ruyslaender caught the conversation.

"Pardon me, my lord, a lady has called. She mentioned no appointment, so I considered it better to acquaint your lordship."

"Excellent discretion," said a voice. It had a slow, sarcastic intonation, which brought a painful flush to Mrs Ruyslaender's cheek. "I never make appointments. Do I know the lady?"

"No, my lord. But - hem - I know her by sight, my lord. It is Mrs Ruyslaender."

"Oh, the diamond merchant's wife. Well, find out tactfully what it's all about, and, unless it's urgent, ask her to call tomorrow."

The valet's remark was inaudible, but the reply was:

"Don't be coarse, Bunter."

*

I assume that Peter is still being sarcastic here, and not actually ticking Bunter off in the final sentence - it would be a bit much if he were, given that he started it. There are other passages of what Peter and Bunter and Peter and Parker talking about women/sex within the books, but I think that this is the most obviously blokish one.

*

Second, Busman's Honeymoon.

[Chapter 4, Bunter and Peter the morning after, not quite a page after Bunter's "I trust your lordship found everything satisfactory?"]

"Then buzz off and get breakfast before I get like the Duke of Wellington, nearly reduced to a skellington.... I say, Bunter."

"My lord?"

"I'm damned sorry you're having all this trouble."

"Don't mention it, my lord. So long as your lordship is satisfied - "

"Yes. All right, Bunter. Thanks."

He dropped his hand lightly on the servant's shoulder in what might have been a gesture of affection or dismissal as you chose to take it, and stood looking thoughtfully into the fireplace till his wife rejoined him.

*

All things considered, perhaps it's a good thing that the body turned up in a cellar and gave them all something to talk about...

Just spell it out for a moment. There's Bunter coming in, asking in code if Peter had a good night's not-sleep, and Peter giving a "you cannot seriously think I'm going to answer that" response and changing the subject. Then they waffle on about business (a bit awkwardly? A little excessively normal?) before Peter appears to feel guilty, calls Bunter back, apologises, ostensibly for the trouble (this the man who in the past has booked a holiday cottage with no indoor plumbing at all without remorse), Bunter brings up - something - again, gets an answer, and the final ambiguous gesture of reassurance/don't need you anymore, and Peter stares at the fireplace Bunter has just relaid mulling over - something - the options being presumably (1) yes, that was a highly satisfactory night, or (2) Oh God, is this about to be a bit difficult?

All of which I've thought before, and tended to assume that Peter is intending to be sympathetic if abstracted. What I haven't thought about before is the implication of Bunter potentially taking it seriously as a dismissal. It certainly makes Peter's laughing about the morning's Humorous Soot/Sink Incident an awful lot harsher from Bunter's POV, and adds greater force to his being off-kilter over the next few days and the absolute triumph when he beats Harriet to be the one wanted once again. No wonder the Duchess wonders how things are going after talking to him.

***

And yet people still think that Bunter fantasises about racehorses. Well, I suppose they have big noses and are famously well-endowed. (Do you think I'd get away on the Yahoo list with "Bunter has a dirty night out in the Denver stables" on the grounds that it if you don't accept anything at all is going on re. Peter then something must be going on re. Equus caballus?)

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Wait, what? Bunter fantasizing about racehorses? Who got that from what? *boggles*

The scene in Busman's Honeymoon where Bunter is triumphant over Peter needing him rather than Harriet amuses me for another reason. Remember pre-wedding, the discussion between Harriet and Peter about "obey" and Peter saying he would never give his wife orders unless the house was on fire?

"Bunter--no, I shall want you." He saw Harriet and spoke to her as though she had been his footman. "Here, you, go and fasten the door at the top of the back stair. Don't let her hear you if you can help it. Here are the house-keys. Lock the doors, front and back. Make sure that Ruddle and Puffett and Crutchley are all inside. If anyone says anything, those are my orders. Then bring the keys back--do you understand? ... Bunter, take the steps and see if you can find anything in the way of a hook or nail in the wall or ceiling on that side of the chimney-place."

Bunter is twice addressed by name, Harriet only as "you." Harriet gets very explicit, step-by-step directions, Bunter gets a general instruction. Bunter definitely has every reason to feel that he's won here.

That was an interesting exegesis of some interesting lines (I especially like, "Oh God, is this about to be a bit difficult?")

if you don't accept anything at all is going on re. Peter

It's the naked-dousing-under-the-scullery-pump that makes me think that DLS intended us to see something "re. Peter". Well, that and the "savage libido" line. When you consider that Sir Impey Biggs's sub-text is established on the basis of a lot less, one wonders why she felt impelled to include those particular scenes, if not to make the young fangirl's fancy idly turn to thoughts of slash.

Remember pre-wedding, the discussion between Harriet and Peter about "obey" and Peter saying he would never give his wife orders unless the house was on fire?

LOL! I think we can definitely say that Harriet has made her bed. On the other hand, by this stage of the game she seems to rather like lying on it, so perhaps it's not quite as ironic as it seems.

Bunter definitely wins here, 'tis true.

there is most emphatically *something* re Peter... I give you:

He [Bunter] had (with what exertions!) brought his favourite up to the tape and must leave him now to make the running, but no respect for the proprieties could prevent his sympathetic imagination from following the cherished creature every step of the way. With a slight sigh he drew the candle towards him, took out a fountain-pen and a writing-pad, and began a letter to his mother. The performance of this filial duty might, he thought, serve to calm his mind.

I rest my case.

:D

Who got that from what? *boggles*

It's an entertainingly desperate take on the passage tinx_r quotes below, in which Bunter is described as thinking about a racehorse in order not to think about Peter (let us ignore the logic fail of why he needs to stop thinking about Peter if it's not on his mind in the first place, but there you go).

I'd not connected the giving orders and obey bit, but that's a good point. Harriet's reduced to a footsoldier, whilst Bunter is the comrade-in-arms. I do like that his victory is marked by the fact that he is able to hide it even more than usual even whilst mentally punching the air and shouting "Me! Me! Me!". Equilibrium restored.

I find myself really not knowing what Peter's thinking at this point.

the naked-dousing-under-the-scullery-pump

Thinking of which draws me back to Peter's line about revenge. What, precisely, is he being revenged for? The obvious conclusion, if we're assuming that all is tolerably right in the world, is the water being very cold and the scrubbing vigorous, in which case Crutchley and Ruddle are fair play and Bunter's stifled response is a humorous furious "You bastard". But if either P or B is not quite easy in mind here, then it's more complicated. Bunter has not, we trust, been scrubbed naked, but he has potentially been humilated - is that in play? Mrs Ruddle will be sexualised in a Bunterian context later (when Peter declines her for a double-date, but says Harriet have Bunter if she wants, with a hark back to her original "I wish I could have married him"). What does Bunter think Peter is thinking?

I'm sure there is more that could be dragged out about the pump, too. It's a putting-the-groom-to-bed thing, and a horseplay male-bonding thing, and, well, it's a pump. Why not just a decent sink and a scrubbing brush and leave him to it?

DLS is far too good an author - and no-where near naive enough a woman - for this not to be intentional.

well, it's a pump.

Exactly. Couldn't have put it better myself.

I suppose I shall have to go back and re-read the relevant bits if I'm to say anything intelligent about what either Peter or Bunter is thinking. The trouble is, I really don't like BH. However, combing through it looking for examples of "these attached people" being "rather difficult" shoud be an antidote to all that saccharine, at least.

Though I think your comclusions are emininently reasonable, I think you also have to look at the 'dismissal' factor from the job POV. I mean, I know that's obvious and that DLS deals with it explicitly in the text, but it's a complicating factor, if Bunter is worried about losing *everything* - not just LP, but also home, hearth, and salary, all at once. Obviously he'd have gotten a glowing reference but having to start all over in a new job while emotionally bereaved would be that much worse.

Mind if I PM you? There's a fic I want to write and I don't have my books here - if you've been going through yours, maybe you can offer a suggestion or two.

The case is indeed very well rested.

Good point about bringing the job into it. Bunter presumably knows that Peter is never going to sack him (and financially, given Bunter's canonically high salary I would except him to have sufficient savings not to have to find another job in service if he preferred to set up as something else), but he doesn't know that Harriet won't want to if she decides she doesn't want someone who knows Peter rather better than she does hanging around. And though he says pre-wedding that he's sure it'll be fine, he doesn't actually know how he's going to find what is undoubtedly an upheaval. Really, he copes pretty impressively with what's got to be a tough few months.

PM away! I am always delighted to consult on LPW fic.

I'm not entirely sure he does know that - apparently it was very common for a bachelor to change his staff upon marriage (I think Jeeves discusses it too) and while you'd think LPW would be above that, I've seen at lesat a few men apparently change personality upon marriage. (Or more likely, show a side none of their friends had seen before.)

Bunter offers to resign in Strong Poison the instant he realises Peter has fallen splat for Harriet because (I think, my copy has vanished) the lady may wish to have a say in the staff of the establishment. Peter tells him not to be daft, although this could be seen as Peter not wanting to count his chickens re. Harriet when she is still in prison with no hope of reprieve rather than Peter reassuring Bunter that this won't ever happen.

Do we assume this was enough for Bunter never to offer to resign again on Harriet grounds? Or did it come up in that pre-wedding Peter-Bunter conversation we don't get to see? It's a pity Bunter didn't get to see the Dowager Duchess and Harriet crying over him. It might have helped.

*joins the boggling party*

If he's thinking about a literal racehorse then I'm literally a Dutchman. WTF?

*boggles a bit more*

I am also re-reading BH for more insight into what on earth Bunter is thinking for nefarious purposes of my own (but haven't got very far). It's a pity the longest sustained bit of Bunter POV is to his mother and therefore unreliable evidence. I'd never noticed the end of that morning after scene until you pointed it out.

It makes Peter telling Harriet to ask Bunter about lunch and then congratulate him when it turns out he's already organised it all seem even more of an attempt at smoothing the way for all three of them. Though it is Harriet who brings up the question of Bunter in the first place. She's been worried about what Bunter would feel about it all since two days after the engagement. Has Peter only just thought about it?

As to "following the cherished creature every step of the way", apart from writing to his mother to take his mind off it, Bunter has also found and booked a chimney sweep, sourced the makings of breakfast (or did they bring their own eggs) and arranged for the delivery of the papers by a convoluted process all by eight o'clock in the morning. Did he go out for a long walk the instant he woke up and meet half the village? He's either trying desperately to prove he's indispensable or he's sublimating something. Or just trying to keep occupied until they bloody get out of bed.

Has Peter only just thought about it?

Harriet - at this point, as opposed to with the DD - is asking about procedures a bit here, I think. She's never lived with personal servants in the same way as Peter, even assuming that her childhood home involved a maid and a cook, Bunter is still different, being Peter's manservant-acting-as-general-factotum. So she's not wanting to tread on his toes here professionally as much as personally, in a rather odd situation. We know that Peter's thought about it in general, in that the DD recruits the London servants, but there doesn't really seem to be much of suggestion that he has thought about how Harriet and Peter will cope with each other personally until the Moment Arrives. Which is the benefit of his position, in that he hasn't had to whilst B and H both separately have.

Or just trying to keep occupied until they bloody get out of bed.

Re. the early morning, you forget finding the fire-dogs in the coal house, pumping up the cistern, and putting the oil stove in order. Given the ill-soundproofed ceiling, perhaps he was looking for outdoor jobs to do. He sources eggs and bacon from the visiting baker. (My God! Eight o'clock. Allowing for Peter arriving upstairs at c. 12:30am, and hoping that the "night's proceedings" - at each end of the night - involve a bit of foreplay, how much sleep have they not got?)

I look forward to the outcome of the nefarious purposes of your own. I think there's quite a bit of Bunter POV tucked away in the text, but it lurks in the middle of things and is easily missable. And it still often doesn't say exactly what he's thinking.

Edited 2010-04-20 14:36 (UTC)

I'd say that Harriet is reduced to a private, while Bunter is (and always shall be) Peter's sergeant. Bunter isn't an equal but he is an intelligent agent--he gets told what, but not how. (Old military joke: you're a captain and have a sergeant and ten privates. What is the correct way to guard the perimeter of your camp? Answer: Say "Sergeant, guard the perimeter.")

I never even thought of reading the racehorse passage as anything other than Bunter trying desperately not to imagine Peter and Harriet having sex.

If I wrote more DLS fan fiction I would be inclined, I think, to write the working out of the Harriet-Peter-Bunter triangle, eventually resulting in Peter keeping Bunter as the lover he can order around and Harriet as the wife he can't.

I think Harriet and Peter are going to have some conflicts in the future about this particular bed.

There's a short Bunter's POV version of the pump scene, full of double-entrendre, just begging to be written.

As you may have guessed, I do like BH, possibly because I am quite soppy at heart, and because I enjoy unpicking it. And the end. And though I know what you mean about "these attached people can be rather difficult", how, what else is the DD supposed to put it ;-)

My mother informs me that goosefeather beds are lovely and soft at the start of the night, but become hot and uncomfortable later...

Harriet is asking about procedures a bit here

But Peter could have said "Oh, Bunter just gets on with things, don't worry about it" rather than specifically telling her to compliment him on his organisational skills (I was going to say 'butter him up a bit' but there are too many filthy minds about). It does look as though he is trying to um... ease things along for the Harriet-Bunter side of the triangle that he's only just thought of.

And yes, now I look, conversations with the baker and the milkman account for most of the logistics so Bunter didn't have to go outside the house. But if the bacon isn't being fried until 8, how early is he talking to the baker or the earlier milkman? And how much earlier than that does Harriet wake up/is woken up by Bunter moving furniture about? You are quite right, it's not love or vicarage sherry, it's sleep deprivation.

And I am going to have to read the whole canon again, I can see.

Edited 2010-04-20 16:37 (UTC)

He's either trying desperately to prove he's indispensable or he's sublimating something.

I'm not so sure about that. I think working miracles comes naturally to Bunter, and no further explanation is needed than that miracles needed to be worked, so he did. After all, In Clouds of Witness he not only held Peter's weight in the mud for half the night, he also managed to get up early in the morning to clean and press his clothes afterwards, and to make sure there was breakfast.

I am also re-reading BH for more insight into what on earth Bunter is thinking for nefarious purposes of my own

Hooray!

It might have helped

Or it might have made things worse. To be pitied by one's rival would be truly dreadfu.

how, what else is the DD supposed to put it

It's one of those moments of Class Divide because, of course, from her point of view it's entirely reasonable. But it always makes me think of that poor old man who had looked after General Fentiman for years and cried when he died, but still didn't count in any way that mattered.

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Random DLS ponderings

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