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fictionalItem: Lord Peter Wimsey.
Sadly Dorothy Sayers wrote Lord Peter mysteries of a finite number, and then moved onto religious plays, and Dante of all things...[and I say, wasn't one infernal poet enough??? I ask you. When the world could have been blessed with tales of Lady Peter (nee Miss Harriet Deborah Vane) and the Wimsey sproglets in WWII to say nothing of Bunter & Lord Peter's engrossing activities in Intelligence as well as those of Viscount St. George alias Jerry (it occurs to me that nickname couldn't have done him any favors in the RAF, now could it???) and his adventures in the Battle of Britain... from where I am sure he effected a daring escape of some kind, Miss Sayers' opinion to the contrary. And Winnifred. Perhaps we might actually meet her. And some more Dowager Duchess wouldn't come amiss. But I digress.]
So, okay, you read all the mysteries, then move on to the continuations by Jill Paton Walsh, then you want more. Naturally, being a person of sound taste and judgement, you proceed to the Wimsey fanfic on the web, all of it being of a surprising quality, but small in number. (Perhaps the explanation of the former lies in the latter.) You watch the filmed adaptations (Strong Poison and Have His Carcase excellent; Gaudy Night unforgivably awful).
And then? What then?
There are numerous directions to go: one can proceed to the incomparable Miss Heyer for the regency worldbuilding tinged with a gorgeous and delightful twenties/thirties aesthetic - (Incidentally Lord Peter's world, and Heyer's Regency are... surprisingly similar, now that I think of it. Including rhythms of phrase, etc.; says something about our tendency to merrily and muddily accept anything prewar and historical as "back then")... and know the path from there is straight towards comedies of manners, and probably on into fantasies of manners. Unexceptionable, what?
But suppose that's not desired... one can go and read inspirational texts... not the spiritual kind (not the chicken soup meaning anyway), but the ones that have their genesis in love. I've got Lois McMaster Bujold at my fingertips... and I remember my last reread of the Sayers oeuvre was in fact a sort of reverse application of this phenomenon -- I was desperate for more Miles Vorkosigan, and clearly the only thing to do was apply poultice of Lord Peter and hope for the best.
However! Ruthlessly back to the original quandary. One could go straight into P.G. Wodehouse say, and maybe after that wind up with a little Jerome K. Jerome's Three Men in A Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog)... and then... maybe a soupçon of Evelyn Waugh? Or backwards instead and choosing to indulge in a little, as Lord Peter might say, coming over all Galsworthy? I've always meant to give the Forsyte saga another wallop. And from thence backwards to Miss Austen? And then through to Emily Eden's "The Semi Attached Couple" and oh golly, back to la belle Georgette. A person could get dizzy with all this perambulating backwards and forwards in time.
[Incidentally, it occurs to me there is something quite Wimsey-esque to the Doctor and his TARDIS. Screwdriver/monocle, TARDIS/enviable Lagonda, post-(Time)war PTSD -- the arrogance, and the angst over condemning those that must be condemned... the list goes on and on. There's the fun of it all too.
Anyone up for a Tennant-Wimsey remake????
Incidentally, I wonder what pre-WWII era Torchwood would have made of Lord Peter....
...I but stir the pot.]
Thoughts? The important thing is to have a Plan.
Also, I really need a "reading books" icon.
Sadly Dorothy Sayers wrote Lord Peter mysteries of a finite number, and then moved onto religious plays, and Dante of all things...[and I say, wasn't one infernal poet enough??? I ask you. When the world could have been blessed with tales of Lady Peter (nee Miss Harriet Deborah Vane) and the Wimsey sproglets in WWII to say nothing of Bunter & Lord Peter's engrossing activities in Intelligence as well as those of Viscount St. George alias Jerry (it occurs to me that nickname couldn't have done him any favors in the RAF, now could it???) and his adventures in the Battle of Britain... from where I am sure he effected a daring escape of some kind, Miss Sayers' opinion to the contrary. And Winnifred. Perhaps we might actually meet her. And some more Dowager Duchess wouldn't come amiss. But I digress.]
So, okay, you read all the mysteries, then move on to the continuations by Jill Paton Walsh, then you want more. Naturally, being a person of sound taste and judgement, you proceed to the Wimsey fanfic on the web, all of it being of a surprising quality, but small in number. (Perhaps the explanation of the former lies in the latter.) You watch the filmed adaptations (Strong Poison and Have His Carcase excellent; Gaudy Night unforgivably awful).
And then? What then?
There are numerous directions to go: one can proceed to the incomparable Miss Heyer for the regency worldbuilding tinged with a gorgeous and delightful twenties/thirties aesthetic - (Incidentally Lord Peter's world, and Heyer's Regency are... surprisingly similar, now that I think of it. Including rhythms of phrase, etc.; says something about our tendency to merrily and muddily accept anything prewar and historical as "back then")... and know the path from there is straight towards comedies of manners, and probably on into fantasies of manners. Unexceptionable, what?
But suppose that's not desired... one can go and read inspirational texts... not the spiritual kind (not the chicken soup meaning anyway), but the ones that have their genesis in love. I've got Lois McMaster Bujold at my fingertips... and I remember my last reread of the Sayers oeuvre was in fact a sort of reverse application of this phenomenon -- I was desperate for more Miles Vorkosigan, and clearly the only thing to do was apply poultice of Lord Peter and hope for the best.
However! Ruthlessly back to the original quandary. One could go straight into P.G. Wodehouse say, and maybe after that wind up with a little Jerome K. Jerome's Three Men in A Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog)... and then... maybe a soupçon of Evelyn Waugh? Or backwards instead and choosing to indulge in a little, as Lord Peter might say, coming over all Galsworthy? I've always meant to give the Forsyte saga another wallop. And from thence backwards to Miss Austen? And then through to Emily Eden's "The Semi Attached Couple" and oh golly, back to la belle Georgette. A person could get dizzy with all this perambulating backwards and forwards in time.
[Incidentally, it occurs to me there is something quite Wimsey-esque to the Doctor and his TARDIS. Screwdriver/monocle, TARDIS/enviable Lagonda, post-(Time)war PTSD -- the arrogance, and the angst over condemning those that must be condemned... the list goes on and on. There's the fun of it all too.
Anyone up for a Tennant-Wimsey remake????
Incidentally, I wonder what pre-WWII era Torchwood would have made of Lord Peter....
...I but stir the pot.]
Thoughts? The important thing is to have a Plan.
Also, I really need a "reading books" icon.
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(no subject)
Date: 2009-02-21 04:32 am (UTC)I did love the original Ian Carmichael Wimseys on BBC, even if he was a little old for the part. Murder Must Advertise, in particular.
Of Sayers' near-contemporaries -- mystery-cum-comedy-of-manners writers -- the one I love next best is Josephine Tey, and by no means all her books equally. She's quite different from Sayers, far less engaged in class mechanics (as befits someone almost a generation younger), but with similar wit. "The Daughter of Time" and "Brat Ferrar" are my faves, with "Miss Pym Disposes" close behind (and how can you not love a book with a title like that).
And now, Sam, I'm deathly curious to know what you found from the Thrones, Dominations ms. There are about three scenes that ring very true to me in Paton's book (especially the state visit from Wimsey's godmother), and the rest I could dispense with, so I never read any of the later iterations.
*I'm really bad at deciphering handwriting. I took a paleography course once and had to quit in self-defense. Only after I had bled over a 15th c. manuscript, after stabbing myself with a pencil, of course.*
Having spent way too much of my professional life deciphering 15th-century mss., I can tell you that it does get easier, but that suicidal impulse never quite goes away.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-02-21 04:58 am (UTC)I'll have to dig up the Ian Carmichaels. I've only seen the Edward Petheridge ones. He's good for more sedate Peter; Tennant would be the more frenetic younger chap.
I've read "Daughter of Time" and adored it. But not the others. I'll have to dig her up.
Perhaps there might be more manuscripts in my future, but I'm not sure it's where my talents lie, and it wasn't as romantic as I thought it was going to be. Fortunately they don't make pencils out of lead anymore. ;-)
(no subject)
Date: 2009-02-21 05:22 am (UTC)WAVING? You'll stir up all the lees in the bottom!!
Bunter *blanches in horror and fury* "All his lordship's vintage port! Eighty shillings the dozen!"
(no subject)
Date: 2009-02-21 05:28 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-02-21 05:36 am (UTC)