HereAndGone2
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User ID: 4074
HereAndGone2
14m ago
Poirot is stereotypically what otherwise you'd call "a lifelong bachelor" (coughcough) and his one constant loyal friend is Hastings (who, bless him, is not overburdened with brains). There's no romantic relationship there, though you could certainly spin an angle of perhaps unrequited longing (on Poirot's part) or 'so far in the closet he has not the faintest inkling of any non-straight desires' (on Hastings' part) if you were writing fanfic.
So Poirot's fascination with and admiration of Countess Vera is something that will never be requited, but she is loud and colourful and flamboyant and all the things he is not, in his ordered, strict life. I don't think Christie is creating that as "gotta have something het here to keep the suspicions away", but rather that of course if he's going to be knocked head-over-heels for anyone, it's the likes of Vera (and not Miss Lemon, his very practical and orderly secretary).
HereAndGone2
3hr ago
I slogged on until the middle of volume eight or so, if I remember correctly, then gave up about half-way through that because "No. Dammit, come to some kind of conclusion. Your main characters don't talk to each other so you set up artificial problems that could be solved if they just told each other what was going on, and while YKINMKATO I am not interested in the umpteenth description of pseudo-lesbian BDSM, ta very much".
HereAndGone2
3hr ago
Yeah, I get the impression that is Martin's problem. He's worked it all out, he knows what the ending is, and it just needs to be written. But that's the boring part that he's already done in his head. So instead he sets off down rabbit-holes with new stories (like "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms") to occupy him, because mentally he's already finished with the Starks and the rest of them. He knows what comes next, there's no fun in writing it because there's nothing that will pop up along the way (which is why he gets distracted by side characters on their side missions with "ooh, what's this, what is going on here?" and meanders off for five hundred pages).
HereAndGone2
3hr ago
There are hints of this in the books, not about lack of toilet facilities as such, just the kind of difficult terrain they run into:
The ground now became damp, and in places boggy and here and there they came upon pools, and wide stretches of reeds and rushes filled with the warbling of little hidden birds. They had to pick their way carefully to keep both dry-footed and on their proper course. At first they made fair progress, but as they went on, their passage became slower and more dangerous. The marshes were bewildering and treacherous, and there was no permanent trail even for Rangers to find through their shifting quagmires. The flies began to torment them, and the air was full of clouds of tiny midges that crept up their sleeves and breeches and into their hair.
‘I am being eaten alive!’ cried Pippin. ‘Midgewater! There are more midges than water!’
‘What do they live on when they can’t get hobbit?’ asked Sam, scratching his neck.
They spent a miserable day in this lonely and unpleasant country. Their camping-place was damp, cold, and uncomfortable; and the biting insects would not let them sleep. There were also abominable creatures haunting the reeds and tussocks that from the sound of them were evil relatives of the cricket. There were thousands of them, and they squeaked all round, neek-breek, breek-neek, unceasingly all the night, until the hobbits were nearly frantic. The next day, the fourth, was little better, and the night almost as comfortless. Though the Neekerbreekers (as Sam called them) had been left behind, the midges still pursued them.
That's before they even get into Mordor:
Upon its outer marges under the westward mountains Mordor was a dying land, but it was not yet dead. And here things still grew, harsh, twisted, bitter, struggling for life. In the glens of the Morgai on the other side of the valley low scrubby trees lurked and clung, coarse grey grass-tussocks fought with the stones, and withered mosses crawled on them; and everywhere great writhing, tangled brambles sprawled. Some had long stabbing thorns, some hooked barbs that rent like knives. The sullen shrivelled leaves of a past year hung on them, grating and rattling in the sad airs, but their maggot-ridden buds were only just opening. Flies, dun or grey, or black, marked like orcs with a red eye-shaped blotch, buzzed and stung; and above the briar-thickets clouds of hungry midges danced and reeled.
‘Orc-gear’s no good,’ said Sam waving his arms. ‘I wish I’d got an orc’s hide!’
There is also mention of how it's easy to track the Orcs because of the trail of destruction they leave behind them:
Then they left Parth Galen. The afternoon was fading as they came back to the glade where Boromir had fallen. There they picked up the trail of the Orcs. It needed little skill to find.
‘No other folk make such a trampling,’ said Legolas. ‘It seems their delight to slash and beat down growing things that are not even in their way.’
‘But they go with a great speed for all that,’ said Aragorn, ‘and they do not tire. And later we may have to search for our path in hard bare lands.’
HereAndGone2
3hr ago
The more subtle example is Wilson, who is a pretty nice guy (at least on the surface) and considered almost saintly because he works in paediatric oncology, one of the toughest jobs there is. And he is a pretty decent guy - except in his personal life. Multiple marriages and divorces, mostly caused by his inability not to cheat. His most solid and long-lasting relationship is his friendship with House, and there are explorations during the series of how maybe this is kinda messed-up co-dependent that is not so good for either of them.
HereAndGone2
1d ago
I've come to the conclusion you don't watch a Cronenberg movie for plot or even story, you watch it to see how he's going to pull off the vision of worldbuilding. Dead Ringers probably suited his style down to the ground, as the book was weird enough on its own and gave him the excuse to go to town (I cannot begin to thnk about the gynaecological implements for mutant women without wincing). Jeremy Irons was fantastic as the twins. One of those movies where everything comes together perfectly. Highly stylised and that's what you want it to be.
HereAndGone2
1d ago
Oh sure tropes, but the contrast is really striking to me now: average male background character - has life; average female background character - is there to be pretty.
HereAndGone2
1d ago
This is Countess Vera Rossakoff erasure and I will not stand for it! 😁
HereAndGone2
1d ago
Yeah, Archie never marries, but he does have Lily Rowan as his long-term companion (conveniently there to go dancing with and off on trips, but never demanding 'put a ring on it' and rich enough to pay her own way and never be dependent on him) and plenty of casual female interest throughout the series of books. Archie is the one Wolfe sends out to seduce female characters for information and this is made quite explicit in one novel. I think some of that was the view (before Sexual Liberation) that being the gay bachelor playing the field was the male fantasy instead of being tied down from an early age with the ol' ball and chain and a couple of kids, and possibly Stout's own character traits as well.
Wolfe also likes beer and orchids, don't reduce him to just being a gourmet! (as well as a gourmand, there's even a cook book)!
HereAndGone2
1d ago
I do think there is the trope of the modern crime novel police detective who has given his all to the job and this has cost him his marriage, family, friendships, etc. (excessive drinking and smoking may or may not be part of the package). Modern female police in the same role often have the same costs. I am not sure if this is viewed the same way for both sexes in such works, I feel women may be judged in-universe a little more harshly for abandoning traditional roles of wife and mother in favour of career, but this is not necessarily the case (any more?)
I think, though, for the maverick loner male detective, casual girlfriends are a lot easier to come by (and discard/they leave him) than for his distaff equivalent. Spenser is one of the very few who has a stable, settled, long-term relationship and back in the 70s there were a couple of books where the late Robert Parker broke up Spenser and Susan (mostly due to Susan's insecurity) and that didn't go well so they got back together. Jonathan Kellermann tried it with the Alex Delaware character where both Dr. Delaware and his lover split up and got new partners, but they got back together (I think but don't know if that was partly due to readers not liking breaking up the band, and partly that Kellermann couldn't make the casual dating with new partner work for Delaware).
HereAndGone2
1d ago
Eh, I think men and women think about them differently. How much thinking about their knees do men do, before it gets to the 'creaky joints' stage of life? Certainly for young girls, they're as worried about "am I developing normally?" as young boys are about their penises. But once past that, breasts (or boobs) are just a body part. They can be inconvenient, they can be a health concern, but they're there and you deal with them like the rest of your body.
Women maximising their looks for money (e.g. OnlyFans) are going to think about their boobs in the male type of way, but for the same reason an athlete is going to be thinking about his knees: money making area of concern that needs to be looked after and maximised for earning potential.
I don't know if it's so much in modern fiction, but I've been reading a ton of Golden Age crime/detective fiction from the period roughly 1900-30s and boy howdy, the women in it are only there to be:
(1) Widowed elderly mother who is concerned about family scandal
(2) Striving society hostess spending her rich husband's money on throwing elaborate country house parties
(3) Young daughters of same husband-hunting and doing nothing else all day (I'll come back to this one)
(4) Young daughters of same going through a rebellious phase, which means being a flapper
(5) Scheming adventuresses whose entire point is to be the Femme Fatale whom the detective outwits
(6) Wholesome lasses the detective/hero may or may not consider a love interest/possible wife/help during the investigation who then doubles up as love interest
(7) Servants and persons of the lower classes who work in shops or tearooms, but they don't really count as women, they're just the background characters needed
Regarding (3), they literally do nothing all day. Some of this may be to do with the lack of education and career opportunities, but it's extremely noticeable when the son of the house is going to university or talking about his profession or business in regard to his life plans, and his sister is "oh I think I'll call on Dolly for tea tomorrow" as the equivalent.
It's really a lot better in modern fiction, though the "hot chick whom I wanna bang and indeed may do so on pages 16, 85, and 130 described in detail" is new (6) for a lot of books.
EDIT: This is why, when Dorothy Parker gave us Harriet Vane who did not immediately want to marry Lord Peter, it was rather novel. Though Agatha Christie was able to do the same with Miss Marple, and to be fair there were Victorian/Edwardian lady detectives as well. But the main female characters in books were either unmarried daughters waiting for a husband, or unmarried daughters/nieces doing the housekeeping for their father/uncle/brother. A male character who spent all his time in the same kind of idleness was a clear indicator that he was a Bad 'Un, but for women there was nothing else (if they were of a certain social class, and such novels were indeed all about ladies and not young persons).
HereAndGone2
1d ago
Can you imagine LotR with an aside about the logistics of Gandalf having to go Number 2 while fighting the Balrog?
Apparently GRRM made up for all the lack of Tolkien talking about going to the latrine where there is no latrine. Yet another reason I am heartily glad I gave up on reading the SOIAF with the first volume, back in the before days when it was first published.
HereAndGone2
1d ago
wiped poop out of a vagina so many times
Dear Sir, if you are wiping excrement out of your infant daughters' vaginas, I heartily and urgently recommend you take them to a doctor because that is not where excrement is supposed to exit - think possible fistulas!
If, on the other hand, you mean "small babies are very messy when evacuating their bowels and excrement gets into places you would not think possible", then yes. But that applies to boy babies as well.
HereAndGone2
2d ago
Congratulations and do not take any of our suggestions for baby names!
HereAndGone2
2d ago
my latest exploit is king of Ireland hunted a legendary stag, it looks nice hanging in my court
What's your next party trick, cutting down a hawthorn bush? Are the Tuatha dé Danann coming after you for this, because if they're not, it's not a realistic version of mediaeval Ireland 🤣
HereAndGone2
2d ago
That's our boy Dave for you. Absolutely king of body horror, disgusting yet masterly. eXistenZ was a terrible movie plot-wise but the effects were fantastic, disturbingly visceral. I do think his best movies were the more mainstream ones: Dead Ringers has a fantastic performance from Jeremy Irons and the movie is much better than the source novel (it also convinced me that Geneviève Bujold would be good as Janeway in Star Trek Voyager when her name came up for that, before she noped out of it) and M. Butterfly is also great. Hmm - maybe it's a coincidence Irons is in a starring role in both of those? But I also liked Rabid which is just plain horror (I can take or leave all the metaphors about AIDs, STIs, etc. that critics like to discuss about it).
Those of you who have seen the trailer for Greta Gerwig's "Narnia: The Magician's Nephew" (re-imagined and set in post-war Britain) may not be aware that Jadis went on to have a side-gig in the 70s as lead guitarist for Slade.
(Ah, Noddy and the boys, good times, good times!)
One (the only?) good thing about this version is that we old-timers will get all the 70s glam rock and prog rock hits revived. C'mon, you know you want to headbang along to "Stairway to Heaven" 🤣
The "Rings of Power" trailers, on the other hand, are depressing me. Sauron is not supposed to look this scruffy! Or indeed, scruffy at all. He still has his fair form here, he is no longer slumming it as Halbrand, why does he look like he managed to invent Ring magic but not the razor? Ar-Pharazon at least looks properly regal but once again, show, you are not supposed to make me cheer for the bad guy! And they just cannot keep themselves from ripping off paying homage to the original movies - take a gander at this featurette (sic) and the scene with Gandalf and the Dark Wizard. Remind you of any other face-off between Gandalf and a wizard, hmm? There are still die-hards maintaining this guy must be one of the Blue Wizards, but I'm sticking more and more to I Can't Believe It's Not Saruman.
HereAndGone2
2d ago
I agree there, I just wonder who the obvious (or maybe not obvious) lapdog would be? Anyone with a grain of sense will avoid the honour of being picked as her running mate, so who are the halt and the blind who might be desperate enough?
This is what Kamala wanted from Tim (after earlier in the book spouting off how Biden's White House staff couldn't see the value in her as VP doing well, they thought this would take away from Biden, and then later on she dumps Shapiro for the same reason: VP can't be co-president):
He said he had no ambition to be president, that his aim as vice president would be doing meaningful work to improve people’s lives. It’s no bad thing for a vice president to want to be president, unless that ambition plays a corrosive role in the relationship and causes disloyalty. That wouldn’t be an issue with Tim. He had no fixed ideas about what the role of vice president should be, saying he would do whatever I found was most useful for him to do.
I can't seriously see Harris getting another bite at the cherry but there are people talking up AOC and that's an even battier notion.
HereAndGone2
2d ago
Nah, she rejected Kelly first time round because she was afraid he'd be too popular (ex-astronaut!) and divert attention away from her on the campaign trail:
By the time I sat down with Kelly, Shapiro and Walz had both impressed me in completely different ways. There was very little weight on the scale favoring one over the other. The choice between them was tough enough. Now, an American hero had entered the room, a Navy baseball cap paired handsomely with his business suit.
...I admired Mark Kelly. He would be magnetic.
As I sat across from him, what I saw was our American ideal of selfless service. Untarnished. He also hadn’t yet had an “oh shit” moment in his relatively short political career. I wasn’t sure how he would cope with the kind of garbage Trump would throw at him. Could a captain, used to deference and respect, adapt to an opponent’s national campaign specifically designed to disrespect him, to cut a hero down to something small? John Kerry, a war hero, had been swiftboated—defamed in an untrue campaign about his military record that had unfairly damaged his reputation. The guy who led that effort, Chris LaCivita, was now one of Trump’s top campaign aides. I realized that I couldn’t afford to test Mark Kelly in that ugly grinder.
So instead she picked Timbo, who would be waaaaay tougher and able to stand up to the "ugly grinder" of Trump's campaigning 🤣 Yeah, sure, Kamala!
HereAndGone2
3d ago
Part of me is going "Oh please please please run, I so badly want a follow-up volume to 107 Days" but I guess that's kind of mean.
Who would be her VP, though? Nominations here as I value your informed opinions so much. A second Tim Walz to appeal to the male vote or someone who could actually do the job?
HereAndGone2
5d ago
I think my favourite "Catholic and proselytisers" anecdote is the one Tim Powers used in his story The Bible Repairman:
He had been doing Bible repair for twenty years now, but his reputation in that cottage industry had been made only a couple of years ago, by accident. Three Jehovah’s Witnesses had come to his door one summer day, wearing suits and ties, and he had stepped outside to debate scripture with them. “Let me see your Bible,” he had said, “and I’ll show you right in there why you’re wrong,” and when they handed him the book he had flipped to the first chapter of John’s gospel and started reading. This was after his vision had begun to go bad, though, and he’d had to read it with a magnifying glass, and it had been a sunny day—and he had inadvertently set their Bible on fire. They had left hurriedly, and apparently told everyone in the neighborhood that Torrez could burn a Bible just by touching it.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
I wrote this story after watching the movie Man on Fire, caught up with the idea of a kidnap negotiator who finds that he has somehow got to the point where he must sacrifice himself in order to free the victim. And I used my current San Bernardino neighborhood as a setting, which led inevitably to the peculiarly pragmatic Hispanic style of magic.
Like Torrez in the story, I was once visited by proselytizers for some variety of Christian faith, and when I told them that we were Catholic, they replied that Catholicism was a false religion. I offered to show them, in their own Bible, why they were mistaken, and they handed it over—but, again like Torrez, I need a magnifying glass to read, and it was a sunny day, and I did inadvertently set their Bible on fire. I’m told that they still go door to door, but they now avoid our whole street.
I think the co-dependence for both of them is that House has someone he can't drive away (Wilson always comes back, always sticks around) and he can feel superior in that he's the one trying to loosen up Saint Jimmy out of his staid, conformist lifestyle (and not that he needs someone, he doesn't need anyone, not him!) and Wilson can feel superior in that "well at least if I am pathetic with my failed marriages, I'm not as pathetic as House who is still pining over his ex-wife".
It's a great friendship, but it's not necessarily good for them. Both of them enable one another's worse impulses because they are so terrified (in different ways) of being alone, they can't drive away the one person who will tolerate them and stick with them even after seeing their ugly side.
I didn't watch much of the show and don't know what the ending was, but I think they do sort of do a Butch and Sundance ride off into the sunset ending?
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