Kidnapped: a fandom promo

[regshoe]

After watching from afar while deciding I didn't have time to do extra fandom stuff in January for a couple of years, I'm participating in snowflake_challenge this year. Challenge #2 is to write a fandom promo for your fave character, ship or fandom... Now, obviously my fave fandom is Flight of the Heron, but I've already said quite a lot about that fandom, including actually writing a promo for it during Yuletide, so I thought I'd do something different—therefore this post is about my current love and the other half of my big crossover WIP, Kidnapped.

Kidnapped is a novel by Robert Louis Stevenson, published in 1886 and one of the classic novels about the Jacobites. From one point of view it's a serious literary examination of the history and cultural identity of the nation of Scotland, dramatising the historically significant time after the upheaval of the 1745 Jacobite Rising with characters representing the respective sides of the great divides in Scottish culture; from another point of view it's an exciting swashbuckling adventure novel, fast-moving, full of drama and more than a little silly; from any point of view it's amazingly good fun, and what it's most memorable for are the vivid, lively and brilliantly loveable characters.

The book opens with our hero David Balfour, a seventeen-year-old lad from the Lowlands and a good Whig, recently orphaned and going to seek his destiny at the house of his uncle near Edinburgh. Unfortunately the uncle is an evil uncle and arranges to have David kidnapped and taken away on a ship, but the voyage is interrupted by the appearance of Alan Breck Stewart, Stevenson's fictionalisation of a historical Highland Jacobite. Alan and David team up to defeat the sailors and, after a brief interlude of shipwreck, meet up again in the Highlands, where they witness a political murder obviously committed by a Jacobite. Suspected of the murder, they flee across the Highlands together, and the rest of the book consists of the drama of both their journey and their developing friendship.

Much like The Flight of the Heron, there are many things to love about this book. It's a seriously good adventure novel, with plenty of swashbuckling excitement, twists and turns; the minor characters are all sparklingly memorable in their idiosyncrasies; the details of the setting—history, Jacobites, Highlands and Lowlands—are all interesting, and the immediate experience and physical hardship of adventure amongst the Highland heather are vividly portrayed. And much like The Flight of the Heron, the real heart of the book and the primary object of my fannish love is the relationship between the two main characters. Alan and David are a perfect literary odd couple: Alan is flamboyant and dramatic, a gambler and an excellent swordsman, with flexible and yet steadfast notions of morality and honour, and a staunch Jacobite; while David is a good Lowland Whig, stubborn and a little priggish, good-hearted, sincerely religious, and terribly out of his depth in the Highlands and in an adventure novel. They complement each other perfectly, and their relationship is adorable. They banter back and forth, argue about their politics, stick loyally to each other in their respective hardships, deliberately annoy each other with folk songs, take their gentlemanly honour extremely seriously, and ultimately care about each other very deeply.

Here is my favourite moment between them—their disagreements have risen to the level of an actual quarrel, and David offers to fight Alan in a duel:

“This is a pity,” he [Alan] said at last. “There are things said that cannot be passed over.”

“I never asked you to,” said I [David]. “I am as ready as yourself.”

“Ready?” said he.

“Ready,” I repeated. “I am no blower and boaster like some that I could name. Come on!” And drawing my sword, I fell on guard as Alan himself had taught me.

“David!” he cried. “Are ye daft? I cannae draw upon ye, David. It’s fair murder.”

“That was your look-out when you insulted me,” said I.

“It’s the truth!” cried Alan, and he stood for a moment, wringing his mouth in his hand like a man in sore perplexity. “It’s the bare truth,” he said, and drew his sword. But before I could touch his blade with mine, he had thrown it from him and fallen to the ground. “Na, na,” he kept saying, “na, na—I cannae, I cannae.”

It's pretty slashy, too! This is within a few hours of their first meeting:

He came up to me with open arms. “Come to my arms!” he cried, and embraced and kissed me hard upon both cheeks. “David,” said he, “I love you like a brother.”

And this not very long afterwards:

“[David speaking]...And here I offer ye my hand for the second time.”

Whereupon he gave me both of his, saying surely I had cast a spell upon him, for he could forgive me anything.

While on their adventures amongst the mountains they share a makeshift bed of heather, with Alan's coat to cover them both—so romantic... And there's some beautiful hurt/comfort at one point—the full context of this scene is amazing and best left to be discovered when you read the book:

“Can ye walk?” asked Alan.

“No,” said I, “not without help. This last hour my legs have been fainting under me; I’ve a stitch in my side like a red-hot iron; I cannae breathe right. If I die, ye’ll can forgive me, Alan? In my heart, I liked ye fine—even when I was the angriest.”

“Wheesht, wheesht!” cried Alan. “Dinna say that! David man, ye ken—” He shut his mouth upon a sob. “Let me get my arm about ye,” he continued; “that’s the way! Now lean upon me hard. Gude kens where there’s a house! We’re in Balwhidder, too; there should be no want of houses, no, nor friends’ houses here. Do ye gang easier so, Davie?”

“Ay,” said I, “I can be doing this way;” and I pressed his arm with my hand.

Kidnapped is in the public domain and there is a very nice illustrated edition available as a free ebook on Project Gutenberg; it's also available on Wikisource, while paper copies can be obtained from any good bookshop.

I'll close by reccing some fic—it's a tiny fandom, but a fortunate one in what fic exists!

• come down and kiss me fairly by muccamukk is a beautiful Alan/David fic which fills in the kisses in between the canon scenes; brilliant humour and character voices.
• here in your arms is cured by chiroptera_in_the_cupola expands on the Balquhidder hurt/comfort section and explores how Alan and David make up their quarrel; vivid descriptions and lovely, soft atmosphere.
• Fencing; or, A Lesson with Alan by soundsandsweetairs takes the slashy opportunities of the canon sword-fighting lessons; hilarious and very cute.
• And if I may mention one of my own, When I am sick and like to die is also set in Balquhidder, and here the hurt/comfort leads to a development in Alan and David's relationship.

Ooh, and some other good news—in a few months the National Theatre of Scotland are putting on a stage adaptation with canon Alan/David (!!). Lots to get excited about...

In conclusion, this book is amazing and you should all read it and write more fic :D

Comments

[luzula]

Aww, what a great promotion post! (And a lovely Flammulina velutipes. ETA: How strange, I went out for a walk after leaving the comment, and happened to see that very fungus species! : D But then, it's not uncommon on dead broadleaved trees in the winter.)

[regshoe]

Aww, how neat :D (and I'm impressed that you can identify it in that little picture all covered in frost!). And I'm glad you like the post :)

[luzula]

Well, the frost is part of what makes it easier to identify! It grows in mid-winter, unlike most mushrooms. : ) I mean, I suppose I could be wrong, but it looks very like that one.

[regshoe]

Oh, that's cool—it is especially appropriate for snowflake_challenge, then! :)