regshoe

Recently I decided to re-read The Wounded Name. Until maybe two-thirds of the way through I felt about it pretty much how I felt last time, except that it was nice to get to know the book better and appreciate the details a bit more, as one does on a re-read—it is really a pretty good and enjoyable book, and I like both Laurent and Aymar. (Summary for new FotH fans and anyone else who's curious: if you like Flight of the Heron but think it has too much plot getting in the way of the really important things like slashy hurt/comfort, you'll love The Wounded Name). And then, with these gradually warming feelings, somewhere around the trial sequence I had a bit of a change of heart, and decided that I actually like the book and the characters really quite a lot, I do in fact ship Aymar/Laurent, and really, the canon romance is pretty much an ignorable non-issue, isn't it, it's not worth worrying that much about.

The shippy details in the hurt/comfort section are really nice, of course, and—while Laurent's overwhelming adoration for Aymar is perhaps too obvious to be really interesting on first reading—this time I especially appreciated noticing how far Aymar returns his feelings (that postscript, oh my goodness). Sometimes amongst all these fraught enemy ships you just want some nice uncomplicated friends-to-lovers sweetness, y'know? And, well, I thought someone ought to write fic about them, and (as far as I can find) no one has yet, so I decided I would do it and now have 2,500 words of draft fic. I suspect this won't last, but it's nice in the meantime.

Have I mentioned before that Aymar and Laurent's relationship is really slashy? Possibly not, but in any case, I was kind of amused to think how differently I'd read this sort of thing if it was, say, Mary Renault instead of D. K. Broster writing:

They were nearer to each other that evening than they had ever been before. Afterwards, Laurent thought that had Aymar not been so spent in body and so quivering in soul he would probably have told him his secret. As it was, he lay silent on his bed and watched the sky through the window, and Laurent watched him, and had a kind of happiness from it.

...Even so, awww. <3

And I mean, really, look at this:

"...And if only you had the famous jartier back we could try the effects of that on the Prussians."

"But I have got it back," confessed Aymar, "and it is mended, and I am wearing it at this moment. It is at your service."

"Mended, eh?" said d'Andigné. "Magically, no doubt?"

Aymar suddenly wheeled round and put his hand on Laurent's shoulder. "Yes, magically," he said. "He mended it . . . like a good many other things."

His smile pretty well finished Laurent.

...really.

A few other random points:

I also love the scenes where they're reading together, especially the bit with Aymar sitting in a chair on the lawn and peacefully stroking Laurent's hair (have I mentioned, etc.) Perhaps I should read The Vicar of Wakefield? I should get more book recs from Broster; there are a few others in her books (Rasselas in "Mr Rowl", for instance) and I'm sure she has good taste.

As I think garonne, who made the ebook for this one, has mentioned—it is really noticeable how many... dramatic... ellipses... there are in this book. Way more than in FotH, very obviously. So I looked at the numbers and confirmed that TWN in fact has an average of 6.4 ellipses per 1,000 words, indeed much more than FotH at 3.5 per 1,000 words. So there you go! Perhaps the uninhibited use of dramatic punctuation goes along with the uninhibited iddiness of the content.

Reading chapter 13, I was mildly baffled at what seemed the strange choice of holding a military trial in a hotel—why would they do that? But then I learnt, from another book full of gratuitous French which I happened to be reading, that 'Hôtel de Ville' is French for 'town hall'. So that clears that one up. *facepalm*

I appreciate Broster making the point, through Mme de la Rocheterie, that conservative sexual mores in the early nineteenth century means being more permissive than typical modern young people. I wonder how she'd feel about Aymar/Laurent if she found out?

Oh yeah, there's also the bit where Aymar gets nicknamed Saint Sebastian. By the soldiers at the château where he's held prisoner, because he was tied to a tree and shot, not because he's an artistic homoerotic icon. But it's kind of funny anyway.