'The Ides of March, the Ides of March, remember' (and some vague thoughts on fannishness)

[regshoe]

'Do you see what day it is?' he added, tearing a leaflet from a Shakespearian calendar, as I drained my glass. 'March 15th. "The Ides of March, the Ides of March, remember." Eh, Bunny, my boy? You won’t forget them, will you?'

Fandom obsessions are a funny thing. I suppose I'm more or less multi-fannish, but I usually only have room in my brain for one main obsession at a time. For the last few years it was swinging back and forth between JSMN and Raffles, then a little over a year ago Flight of the Heron became an all-consuming obsession. I'm hoping it'll join the rotation from here on in! But the last couple of months I've spent definitely falling back in love with the Raffles stories, partly due to the excellent and highly thought-provoking discussions over on the Crime and Cricket Discord, who are currently doing a read-along of the stories. It's given me a new appreciation for just how much there is in these stories, and just how good a writer E. W. Hornung really is.

...All of which is to say, happy 130th anniversary of Raffles and Bunny's reunion, an excellent occasion to celebrate :D

(just in case, if anyone hasn't read the Raffles stories and is interested: They're a series of romantic adventure stories from the 1890s-1900s, about a couple of young London gentlemen who make their living as jewel thieves. The prose is masterfully crafted, the main characters and their relationship are subtly and beautifully portrayed, the takes on the subject matter are surprisingly complex and afford a lot of food for thematic thought, and the stories live somewhere on the spectrum between 'hmm, this is really slashy' and 'yeah, this author knew exactly what he was doing'. I love them very much. Here are books one, two, three and four, and here, on my favourite website after mainlynorfolk.info, are all the stories with occasionally spoilery but highly informative annotations.)

Also, I've just finished the first draft of my Italy WIP (10k so far, but it'll get longer, as I have a lot to expand on in the next draft), which is an achievement!

And now to go and spend the evening re-reading 'The Ides of March'...

Comments

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

HAPPY IDES!! May your day be a pluck-ful Raffles one and not, you know, a Caesar one.

[regshoe]

:D Thank you!

[theseatheseatheopensea]

I know what you mean about having room for only one main obsession at a time, and having fandoms in rotation. And falling in love with a fandom all over again is one of the best things ever! <3

Yay for your finished draft! \o/ What an impressive achievement!! *high fives*

[regshoe]

falling in love with a fandom all over again is one of the best things ever! <3

Aww, I know :) Thank you! *high fives back*

[starshipfox]

It's interesting, too, how one can often trace the same fascinations from one fandom to another. Like, based on these examples, yours tend to be historical and part of a similar milieu; mine are usually women-in-space themed, but sometimes I veer off in atypical directions!

Congrats on finishing your first draft!

[regshoe]

Heh, yes, those sorts of 18th-19th century British settings are definitely my thing. I'd say Raffles is more like FotH in that it's a fandom where I'm most interested in the characters/relationships, as opposed to strongly setting/atmosphere stuff like JSMN and perhaps the ballads—though there's some of everything in all of them, really.

Thank you :D