actually, writing that makes me think that maybe there is something Sayersish about The Time Travellers's Wife after all, a claim I have always heatedly denied That Henry and Claire are rubbing their specialness in the face of the rest of the world? The Sayers annoyances really irritate me in that – it’s just so stuck-on. I’d like to see Harriet’s response to Peter reading Rilke to her whilst she was in labour… Actually, with reference to realism, TTW annoys me enormously because it isn’t internally consistent, and I think that often “realism” is used when what is meant is internally consistent. So it is unrealistic for Hogwarts to have US-style graduation, but it is more important that it is not internally consistent for Hogwarts to have US-style graduation. And if 6 pregnancies fail because the stressed foetus time-travels out of the womb, why the hell is there a lengthy birth scene and no sensible caesarean section? That’s pure ignoring a key strand of the story just in order to put in the particular emotional scene demanded (and could have been got round very easily by e.g. making the miscarriages due to Claire’s body rejecting what it perceived as a flawed organism).
I think I’m a bit harsh to the realism OP – her men/women example wasn’t a good one, given that her depiction of female friendships was the sort of thing that I’d read in e.g. Harry Potter fanfic and sigh at as unrealistic. But as your MfU example makes clear, her central point that realism is often very much not wanted stands. What I want as a reader is plausibility, and that’s a different thing.
even Helen couldn't have blamed a servant for the corpse Yes, she could, she'd have blamed Peter's agent for mismanaging the purchase. I shall have to think further about Bunter's letting himself go in front of Mrs Ruddle. I'm sure even thus distressed he wouldn't in front of Peter, and there is an aspect of this being a moment of his establishing himself as the Awful Figure who isn't to be crossed, but "there's a curse upon this house", however melodramatic, is actually his experience of it in the everything's falling apart aspect, including Peter as he's well aware, and the port incident is a genuine blow to his professional persona. He's supposed to create order out of chaos, not the other way round.
And it's also possible that I just spend too much time thinking about it all.
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That Henry and Claire are rubbing their specialness in the face of the rest of the world? The Sayers annoyances really irritate me in that – it’s just so stuck-on. I’d like to see Harriet’s response to Peter reading Rilke to her whilst she was in labour… Actually, with reference to realism, TTW annoys me enormously because it isn’t internally consistent, and I think that often “realism” is used when what is meant is internally consistent. So it is unrealistic for Hogwarts to have US-style graduation, but it is more important that it is not internally consistent for Hogwarts to have US-style graduation. And if 6 pregnancies fail because the stressed foetus time-travels out of the womb, why the hell is there a lengthy birth scene and no sensible caesarean section? That’s pure ignoring a key strand of the story just in order to put in the particular emotional scene demanded (and could have been got round very easily by e.g. making the miscarriages due to Claire’s body rejecting what it perceived as a flawed organism).
I think I’m a bit harsh to the realism OP – her men/women example wasn’t a good one, given that her depiction of female friendships was the sort of thing that I’d read in e.g. Harry Potter fanfic and sigh at as unrealistic. But as your MfU example makes clear, her central point that realism is often very much not wanted stands. What I want as a reader is plausibility, and that’s a different thing.
even Helen couldn't have blamed a servant for the corpse
Yes, she could, she'd have blamed Peter's agent for mismanaging the purchase. I shall have to think further about Bunter's letting himself go in front of Mrs Ruddle. I'm sure even thus distressed he wouldn't in front of Peter, and there is an aspect of this being a moment of his establishing himself as the Awful Figure who isn't to be crossed, but "there's a curse upon this house", however melodramatic, is actually his experience of it in the everything's falling apart aspect, including Peter as he's well aware, and the port incident is a genuine blow to his professional persona. He's supposed to create order out of chaos, not the other way round.
And it's also possible that I just spend too much time thinking about it all.