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girlofpreyI've already done all my reading for tomorrow, for once. It's slightly annoying this would happen the week after Life on Mars finished. Growl. Still have to finish The Great Gatsby for the book club on Wednesday though, so I'll have something to occupy myself with, I suppose.
The reading for tomorrow pretty much made my weekend, however. It was Jack Maggs by Peter Carey, a sort-of reworking of Great Expectations, about a convict called Jack Maggs (suprise!) who comes back to England looking for his 'son' Henry Phipps. However, Henry isn't home, so through some accidents and trickery, he gets a job as footman in the big house next door, mostly because he is the same height as their other footman. The other footman is called Edward Constable. HE IS AMAZING. He first appears red-eyed and grief-stricken, because the other footman was his good good friend and recently shot himself. He has to give Jack his friend's old clothes, but Jack has no idea how to be a footman so asks him to help. Constable is snarky and grief-stricken, and refuses. So Jack grabs him by the wrist, and crushes him up against the wall of his new bedroom with one hand, while bolting the door with the other. Constable laughs bitterly and angsts and cries over his friend, then does Jack's hair, in a bitter, snarky fashion. Did I grin stupidly? Did I slash them? Why yes, yes I did.
This is not unusual for me, of course. What was unusual (for me, at least), was that time went on, and Constable and Jack became friends, and Constable started calling Jack 'dear Mr Maggs', and Jack starting calling Constable 'Eddie' like the other servants. And then Constable suggests he can find Henry Phipps, which Maggs is quite pleased about. And then Constable starts ruminating on his 'deep, personal experience' with Henry Phipps, causing me to smirk once more - and then starts reminiscing about being led astray by Phipps, and taking his manhood deep inside himself, and "being reamed, rogered and ploughed, till he could barely walk straight to the table". Causing me to gape fishlike at the book for about five minutes. After we find out Henry Phipps is a wanker, Constable returns home to have violent emotions about Maggs, and not tell him that he found Henry Phipps because the bastard doesn't want to see Maggs, and then they quietly hang out in a hot, steamy laundry room together while Constable washes sheets and Maggs stares at him, trying to figure out how to make him tell the secrets he's obviously hiding. The secret Constable finally decides to give up is that he is 'fond' of Maggs. Rachael fell down.
It was deeply, deeply saddening that he and Jack did not run away to live by the sea together. And Jack ran away to live by the sea! In that he ran away, with another servant, a young Cockney maid who yes, had a bad life, and was pretty cool, but was just so annoying without the balance of Constable, and they ran off back to Australia which, to the best of my knowledge, is pretty much all by the sea. What of Constable? Does he not deserve the sea? Does he not deserve to get away from the rubbish household , where he too betrayed his master a bit for the love of Jack Maggs, and which he can't really leave because as he told us (in a trembling voice), there's a 'problem with his papers'? Does he not deserve Australian freedom???
Bah. I fantasise about rough kissing in dusty attic bedrooms, and laundry room sex, and visits to the 'happy couple' in Australia, where it's just too hot and he and Jack still need to sort out a few of the things that happened in London. Real life not nearly as good as fictional life. Or - real fictional life not nearly so good as - fictional fictional life.
Um. Yes.
In other news, I have crazy-flirty Raskolnikov icons :D And I'm suddenly addicted to sultana scones. Help?
The reading for tomorrow pretty much made my weekend, however. It was Jack Maggs by Peter Carey, a sort-of reworking of Great Expectations, about a convict called Jack Maggs (suprise!) who comes back to England looking for his 'son' Henry Phipps. However, Henry isn't home, so through some accidents and trickery, he gets a job as footman in the big house next door, mostly because he is the same height as their other footman. The other footman is called Edward Constable. HE IS AMAZING. He first appears red-eyed and grief-stricken, because the other footman was his good good friend and recently shot himself. He has to give Jack his friend's old clothes, but Jack has no idea how to be a footman so asks him to help. Constable is snarky and grief-stricken, and refuses. So Jack grabs him by the wrist, and crushes him up against the wall of his new bedroom with one hand, while bolting the door with the other. Constable laughs bitterly and angsts and cries over his friend, then does Jack's hair, in a bitter, snarky fashion. Did I grin stupidly? Did I slash them? Why yes, yes I did.
This is not unusual for me, of course. What was unusual (for me, at least), was that time went on, and Constable and Jack became friends, and Constable started calling Jack 'dear Mr Maggs', and Jack starting calling Constable 'Eddie' like the other servants. And then Constable suggests he can find Henry Phipps, which Maggs is quite pleased about. And then Constable starts ruminating on his 'deep, personal experience' with Henry Phipps, causing me to smirk once more - and then starts reminiscing about being led astray by Phipps, and taking his manhood deep inside himself, and "being reamed, rogered and ploughed, till he could barely walk straight to the table". Causing me to gape fishlike at the book for about five minutes. After we find out Henry Phipps is a wanker, Constable returns home to have violent emotions about Maggs, and not tell him that he found Henry Phipps because the bastard doesn't want to see Maggs, and then they quietly hang out in a hot, steamy laundry room together while Constable washes sheets and Maggs stares at him, trying to figure out how to make him tell the secrets he's obviously hiding. The secret Constable finally decides to give up is that he is 'fond' of Maggs. Rachael fell down.
It was deeply, deeply saddening that he and Jack did not run away to live by the sea together. And Jack ran away to live by the sea! In that he ran away, with another servant, a young Cockney maid who yes, had a bad life, and was pretty cool, but was just so annoying without the balance of Constable, and they ran off back to Australia which, to the best of my knowledge, is pretty much all by the sea. What of Constable? Does he not deserve the sea? Does he not deserve to get away from the rubbish household , where he too betrayed his master a bit for the love of Jack Maggs, and which he can't really leave because as he told us (in a trembling voice), there's a 'problem with his papers'? Does he not deserve Australian freedom???
Bah. I fantasise about rough kissing in dusty attic bedrooms, and laundry room sex, and visits to the 'happy couple' in Australia, where it's just too hot and he and Jack still need to sort out a few of the things that happened in London. Real life not nearly as good as fictional life. Or - real fictional life not nearly so good as - fictional fictional life.
Um. Yes.
In other news, I have crazy-flirty Raskolnikov icons :D And I'm suddenly addicted to sultana scones. Help?
