rthstewart | Something rotten in the state of...

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Something rotten in the state of...

So, let’s see…

Big Bang is at 41,000 words (including a glossary and cast of characters so that you can keep track of how a Sten is different from a Bren). I’m guessing maybe 10,000 words left? Granted, that's a BIG bit to do in a week for a rough draft but I actually have a pretty coherent outline and as I’m following an order of battle, it’s not, as things go, a huge challenge. So I say now. Gawd. A war story. I'm such an idiot.

I’m assuming that the H&M update got hit by ff.net being down or something -- possibly something. Thanks so much to those who did persevere against the site problems and comment! In less chipper news, I have been called out in two separate things on ff.net for harassment and flaming. I responded to one and didn’t bother with the other. My thanks to those who have assisted/weighed in/provided moral support.

A burning question. Why is my world not full of the new Upstairs Downstairs and the promised relationship between Alex Kingston/Emilia Fox aka River Song/Morgause? Why? Why? Where is the fic? Where are the gifs? WHERE WHERE? Show me NOW. Cross over madness I tell you. This is the sort of thing that drives me to the sort of infringing conduct that is not age appropriate.

intrikate88 has been doing some terrific Once Upon A Time Fic exploring Belle and Rumpelstiltskin so do check that out.

Which brings me to the related issue that I have finally seen Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. It was a typical and very grown up sort of thing – a late matinee with Important People in the audience and no one under the age of 30. I dearly love Le Carre’s book and it and Conant’s The Irregulars inspired a lot of TQSiT and my TSG AU. I enjoyed the film and Oldman plays a very, very cold Smiley. It’s a good adaptation in a 2 hour film. The challenge is that so much of Smiley is internal and he reveals practically nothing to others. That can get dull in film. Le Carre is not great with his women characters and the film I thought provided a critique of that – we never see Lady Ann’s face. She could be anyone.

It seemed every respected British male actor working was in the film, except maybe Alan Rickman and Jim Broadbent. So the eye candy was excellent.

Some spoilers – if you don’t know who the mole is, you might not want to read.

When the UK folks starting seeing this film, there was a lot of discussion about the frank homosexuality – the Bill/Jim relationship, Bill’s comment about the boyfriend he has on the side, and Peter Gilliam’s relationship. Peter is a change – in the book he has an exotic live in girlfriend named Camilla. Bill, however, is quite true to the book in that regard. The book is very clear that, Bill Haydon is bisexual which I suppose is something of a surprise given that the book was written in 1974. Yet, Le Carre is telling of a sort, the story of the Cambridge 5 and Blunt and Burgess were both homosexual. Smiley is very non-judgmental about it. Other are aware of it with a “ahem, yes, well, Haydon always was a bit of an artist” and “I hadn’t realized he and Prideaux were that close.” In the book, it is never condemned. It is ignored, shrugged off, swept under the rug, “just one of those things” that young men do and some never grow out of.

Within the context of the book, I’ve always seen it more broadly, underscoring the depth of Haydon’s treachery – he betrays everything, everything, not just King and Country but everything that loves him and everything that claimed him as one of their own.

Something the book captures beautifully and the film wholly ignores is Connie Sachs’ line in the book “Poor loves. Trained to Empire, trained to rule the waves. .. All gone.” This was in the BBC adaptation but not the film and the whole idea of post-War England as a fallen Empire is absent in the film.

And that’s the lens through which I’ve always seen Haydon – trained to rule the waves, the later day Lawrence of Arabia, “set” as Lady Ann describes him, a distant cousin related to ministers, a product of class, breeding, education, and sex (including yes, at some point, sex with other boys or men in public school and/or university). Haydon is a traitor not just to England, but to everything that makes an Englishman the right sort of Englishman.

The Irregulars talked about this a little, how the SOE’s recruitment was based upon getting people “just like us.” Conant writes: "Desperately shorthanded, the BSC recruited brains and talent where it could find them, often making only a cursory background check. They brought in friends, family members, and personable colleagues like a club voting in new members, the only qualifications being evidence of a certain confidence and imagination and the assumption of shared values….” It then quotes from a chap named Bickham Sweet-Escott (I might have mixed up the order there)

It’s silly, I know, as an American, to try to get at those shared assumptions though this is how I’ve always seen the book since I read it some 20 years ago. Haydon betrays those shared assumptions Conant writes of and everyone knows it in their heart of hearts. This is what allows him to go on for so long. They cannot bear the enormity of it all. It’s better to just sweep it under the rug and look the other way than to acknowledge Haydon’s rejection for everything he is and all that they all hold dear.

I’ve been thinking about this as I worked on the NBB and read about some of the horrendous disasters of the SOE in France and the Netherlands and the destruction of the Prosper network of Francis Suttill. Suttill wasn’t a double agent but he was very much in the mold of Lawrence, described as a modern day Ivanhoe, very romantic and a terrible spy who was completely outplayed by the Gestapo and Abwehr who did not play by the same code of honor that a British gentleman did. I’m not really going there in the story, except by reference, but now have Asim/al-Masri, a true outsider on the inside, observe to Mrs. Caspian: “They are brilliant but they are also naive and they frequently operate, as much of the British intelligence community does, under the regrettable assumption that men of a certain breeding and education are, by virtue of that breeding and education, loyal and competent.”

Yes, it’s 20-20 hindsight, but the ideas in Tinker Tailor of Haydon as a traitor to the very fabric of the right sort of English gentleman is something I’ve enjoyed playing with, in all my American naiveté.

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I just downloaded the book, as I enjoyed the movie and 'eye candy' but feel the need to get into the details with the novel. Perhaps then some of what I was confused about will make more sense ... and since you enjoyed it so much, it's a good sign I will too!

I'm still lamenting the fact that my students don't read at all...don't know how to pronounce Jules Verne's name ("Jules Ver-nay" they say) much less who he is or what he wrote... and find books over 100 pages or not entertainmenty or sports related too much to handle and boring.

Which is why none of them have seen or will see TTSS or probably any other movie based on a classic. Unless its grossly 'modernized' and unrecognizable. Oh, and doesn't require them to THINK at all. Yeah, it's been a rough day. Sorry.

But still...the eye candy was wonderful in TTSS!

I hate you. *stares glumly at an NBB which is nowhere near 40K although it'd probably take that much to tell properly*

How, with a job and a husband and kid and sitting for other kids, do you manage to talk about churning out 10K in a WEEK with anything but sarcasm?

Errrr. Sorry? Seriously, it's because someone else has already written it! here I didn't mean to sound obnoxious? Did I sound obnoxious? Uhmmm....

Not obnoxious. But I am deeply envious of the rate at which you churn out text. Even for other things, that aren't already written, like TSG. 10K in a week... *shakes head, goes off to poke NBB again in hopes of getting 500 words of not-crap*

Ack, I have the first episode of the Season 2 "Upstairs Downstairs" waiting for me to give my full attention to it, so I was thankful there were no spoilers here. "Tinker Tailor" is on my to-view list; I had a whole discussion about it with an Irishman at my friend's dinner party and he advised me to watch the film first and then read the book. I'll never get around to catching it in the theater so I'll wait until the office library has archived the screener's copy that is likely sitting in an office somewhere on my floor.

...except maybe Alan Rickman and Jim Broadbent

My friend (the dinner party hostess) has seen Mr. Rickman several times within the last few months, and very up-close and in-person. He came into the shop where she works and was asking about the items for sale so she was there explaining it all to him. I'm still very envious. She says his voice sounds just as wonderful in person.

I'm so sorry to hear about the FF.net issues! I'll assume these are coming from people of a certain age group who just can't handle a mature and tactful conversation.

As for your NBB -- feel free to send it my way if you want it beta'ed. I'm still in award show hell at work (I just need to get past this weekend) but I will make room to read fic!

Oh I AM sorry about Upstairs Downstairs. I've not seen any of it. I just saw those Tweets and went "WEHEEEEEE!"

I'll go ahead and wait until the end of the weekend and then send where I am. Are you sure you still have time?

At least I knew that Alex Kingston is in Series 2, I don't think I knew Emilia Fox was in it though... or maybe I did and promptly forgot. I'm going to try to squeeze that in later this week along with some WWI miniseries from the BBC as well.

And yes, as I said, I will make time to read your NBB! I'll likely be working Sunday night (at home) for Oscars coverage but it should be fine. It's more like keeping an eye on things for an hour before the award show starts and then the first half-hour or so during.

Thanks for the shoutout, dear!

I actually, despite having heard about it in fandom for years, do not know what Big Bang is. However, it sounds long and terrifying and I only see people agonizing over it on Twitter, so... I think I'll just stick to my angsty little oneshots, shall I? :P

Big Bang = really long fic of somewhat arbitrary length but generally in the double-digit x 1,000. The Narnia one is 20,000.

And fine angsty one shots they are!!

People accused you of flaming or harassing?

I.

Think my brain just broke from being unable to compute inaccuracy.

Yep. One got taken down yesterday (the one with my response) so I'm good with that, though I did like my response. My teenager keeps telling me, "Mom, haters are gonna hate. Don't' engage. Walk away from it." He is very wise.

Huzzah for words! And you can definetly do it hun :D

... Flaming. And harassment. o_O. o_OOOOOOOOOOOO

and I loved your thoughts on Tinker Tailer Soldier Spy - I haven't read the book or seen the other adaptions, but I did love how they showed the sheer ... I say horror, but the shock that one of their own would do such a thing, which is why they think it's Tom Hardy's character, because he's not one of their own :)

And you updated H & M? EEEEEEEEEEE guess what I'll be reading after uni today :DD

OK, so it had not occurred to me at all to view the Ricky Tarr character Tom Hardy played in that light. In the book there is no question that it is not Tarr and he does have a very messed up history involving knocking around Asia with a Baptist preacher father who tried to beat the sin out of him and I think a Eurasian mother. There is a certain snobbery directed at Roy Bland, who is called the "Red Brick Don" which enraged Smiley because he recruited Bland out of Oxford. (I had to look up the reference).

and I hope you like H&M!

The usual Cambridge-graduate explanation for the Cambridge spy ring is that the Russians were only interested in recruiting the very best. The traditional Oxford-graduate reason why all the spies came from Cambridge? Oxford graduates don't get caught.

Brilliant. I hope you are well!

Yes thanks! Off to Oxford for the weekend - want a photo of anything?

Should you be in the vicinity of the cat window, I would love a picture of it!!

If you could message us with your address, we will send you the photos!

Oh. My. God. So much to say (have to be quick, though). Firstly, H&M is next on my to-be-read list. I WILL get to it soon, I promise.

But. But but but but. Tinker Tailor Solider Spy. Watched it on the flight to Heathrow last month. Tying that film in with British identity and the crumbling of the Empire (which I'm currently writing a paper on, fancy that) is so... good. Because really, there's that fundamental break, from the point when Britain ruled... well, a lot of everything to where she ruled really very little. And that happens over quite a short amount of time. Food for thought, I suppose.

Once more into the breach!

Wo hooo! We have seen further evidence that she lives! And thanks SO MUCH for the lovely AW reviews!!! In fact, I sent you a sneak peek of the Big Bang story. It should be in your box.

I had no idea about this whole Empire to Commonwealth, and well, and the... well all of it. I never took a decent history course in all my education and my last post graduate coursework ended in 1988. Everything I've learned has been since picking up TSG. But it is fascinating. I started thinking about it a lot when Obama won the US Presidency and seeing the multi-cultural picture the BBC presents us and I wondered how it went from white male to something else. And, errr, here we are.

One of my historian readers had pointed out that to the very end, Churchill was hoping to hold on to some of those colonies and that sentiment was a big part of the reason for the deep distrust a lot of Americans had for England. I think Eisenhower said something about Americans learning to distrust England from the moment they opened their little red school books.

I LIVE! Momentarily, at least. And I'm am so excited for the Big Bang story. Wish I could have participated, but this year I suppose I'll just have to sit back, relax, and reap the reward of all you lovely writer people's efforts. So. Excited! Peter and Susan go to War. Perfect.

I'm actually in the process (ugh) of writing a paper, as I said on the crumbling Empire, and particularly how the vestiges of Empire are reflected in the spat the UK currently has going on with Argentina over the Falkland Islands. Sheep and sovereignty and colonialism, oh my!

This is the sort of thing that drives me to the sort of infringing conduct that is not age appropriate.

We should have shirts made with this statement on them. Because I so know what you mean. ;)

Given what has been some of the F-lists posts lately, we ARE too old for this sort of thing. Except errrr, NOT. I've not even tried going to look for these things via the ::ahem cough:: since megavideo was shut down. Or ahem cough checked to see if any of my old bookmarks are still good.

Oh my stars, that is a truly epic number of words - wow!!! And you got a H&M out in the middle of it (and yes ff.net was being epically stupid about that, grrr). And I cannot possibly pay attention to TTSS, Upstairs Downstairs and Once Upon a Time, partly because they have aired here yet, but mostly because there's series 2 of BBC's Sherlock to be drooling over : )

(and this is me leaving an anon, because lj is also currently being stupid about eating my signon. Technology, blah... Min)

Of course, that should read "haven't aired here".... Sigh

I knew that! for some reason, I thought the NBB rough draft deadline was not Saturday. so, oops, I do have some writing to do. Barring a disaster, I should have some/a lot/most of it. I was thinking about something I decided to do with Edmund last minute and so tweaked that last night. And now I've got a scene in my head, from here, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C3%A2teau_de_B%C3%A9nouville and I've got an OC I might stick in there, plus Susan, but I am wondering how Susan feels about killing Germans on the top of a maternity hospital and have decided, hmmm, probably not. Errr, rambling. Stopping now.

I tend to agree with you about Susan shooting guns. But, would she have walked away? Or would she have arranged for a broken leg and a drugged German officer ? There are more ways to defeat an enemy combatent than death.

Doctor Dolly

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