Reading Room Theme IV - Older Lads Fic - Fire Held High and Away by Miriam Heddy

[starlite876.livejournal.com]

Title: Fire Held High and Away
Author: Miriam Heddy
Link to story or zine/ProsLib info: at the Circuit Archive or at the Hatstand Archive or on the ProsLib CD or in The Bisto Kids zine
Pairing: Bodie/Doyle

The title of the story is explained in the first couple of paragraphs which describes how the person who holds the Olympic Torch must to strike a balance when running and holding the Olympic Torch - that the torch must be held high and away or else the torch bearer would be burnt by the fire.



The story is written entirely from Bodie's POV and begins right after Involvement when Ann has left Doyle. The story then skips forward a couple of years and now the lads are no longer part of the 'A' squad but still with CI5. Doyle is being groomed to be Cowley's successor, while Bodie is working in the training centre, having taking over Macklin's job.

Although the lads are no longer partners on the streets, there are still best friends and rely on each other both at work and off work. When Doyle is stressed and frustrated with dealing with the bureaucracy it is Bodie who tries and cheers him up. Most of the time off work they spend together in each other's company. Although Bodie is bisexual in this story, they are not lovers (at least not at the start of the story).

We see the day-to-day lives of the lads both at work and off work, and the sneakiness of Doyle to orchestrate them into sharing a flat together. The move from friendship into something more is well written and I love the fact that Bodie had absolutely no idea of what Doyle was up to.

But what works for me best in this story is the banter between the lads - sharp and witty, and seem so true to what we see of the lads on screen.

Did this story work for you?

Do you think it is possible that either one or both of the lads would/could be groomed to takeover from Cowley? This seems to be a common premise in many Older Lads stories - for example, the story in last week's review had Doyle second-in-charge of CI5. In other Older Lads stories both Bodie and Doyle are "co-controllers" of CI5. Do you think it would take both lads to do Cowley's job? Or would one lad be more successful than the other, and if so who would be more successful as controller of CI5?

I will most likely not be able to access my computer for the next 24 hours due to the time zone differences and work commitments (I'm on a training course to learn about the thrilling subject of Project Management Life Cycle *snooze* ) so please discuss amongst yourselves and I hope to be able to come back to the LJ and read everyone's comments soon.

Comments

[moonlightmead.livejournal.com]

Excellent introduction and interesting questions there, and you post it all as I am on my way out! I have to say, this story didn't grab me, and I think I know why, but the reasons will have to wait until I am back!

[callistosh65.livejournal.com]

See, this, story grabs me, hugs me, and doesn't let me go until I am in a blissful haze...*g*

One of the reasons is very probably that I have a domeistic kink a mile wide, and I love the fact that this whole story is basically these two alpha males locking antlers and taking twelve years of working and eventually living together to wake up and smell the coffee ( I'm cribbing from my own crack-van rec for this..:)

So yes, that's one reason. And the other is as you mentioned, the banter. It fairly crackles off the page at times and feels so very true to how I see and hear them.

Still one of my favourite rereads.

[lukadreaming.livejournal.com]

Thanks for your thoughtful introduction. I enjoyed the chance to re-read the story. I hadn't enjoyed it much the first time around, despite it seemingly pressing a lot of my buttons - older B & D still together and in CI5. It's still not a story I'd go back to often, mainly because I don't 'hear' my lads in the story - the fic could do with Brit-checking, and some Americanisms in Bodie's thoughts throw me out every time. The speech patterns don't quite ring true for me.

[firlefanzine.livejournal.com]

"Doyle is being groomed to be Cowley's successor, while Bodie is working in the training centre, having taking over Macklin's job."
I see it different! I think there are hints that both are equally supposed to take over - or not. That Bodie's job isn't a 'dead end'.
Especially because it wouldn't be something Bodie would be happy with on the long run.
"I hadn't responded, too caught up then in realising that I was jealous. I hadn't ever really thought about it much, but I had taken it a bit for granted that Cowley favoured me over the rest."
" A lot like sex, really. Our new positions, mine at least, felt like my sex life as well. A lot of constant low-level activity that no one but myself seemed to appreciate. "

But somehow Doyle is too selfish to notice that, sometimes it is insulting how he forgets about Bodie...("You? Well, mate, don't hold your breath.") – and Bodie is too much under Doyle's spell, to talk about it openly. In fact he doesn't even 'think' much about it.

And there is another strange thing about this story.
The advantage of first time stories should be that we learn more about the thoughts and feelings of the narrator. But strangely enough that isn't he case in this story. IMO there wouldn't have been a difference if it was a third person story.
Nearly ALL of Bodie's thoughts circle around Ray, everything is RAY centric... Caring about Ray. Playing with his moods. Soothing him when HE is afraid of the job to replace Cowley.
Ray..., Ray..., Ray...

Yes, yes, yes – I AM a BB. But I like them equal in the stories. Not a selfish Doyle and a Bodie who soft pedals in everything...
" Who needed a wife when I had him to cook for me, boss me around, and drive me round the twist?"

All in all I think the story is ok! It's true that there is enough banter to hold my attention, but it wouldn't have hurt to put some 'action' into it! I don't mean shootings or something like that, just that 'something' would have happened at all... Maybe it is a bit boring sometimes.

" Clearing the plates away and starting on them myself to forestall another lecture, it occurred to me again that we might well look like a pair of old fairies who'd got bored with the sex bit. I'd run into a few couples like that, too far gone to need to be discreet. "

Is this a so called 'curtain fic'?

Thank you for the rec! :-)

[merentha13.livejournal.com]

I did like this story, mainly for the banter and I'm a sucker for first time stories. It was well written and had some good ideas. But I did have one problem with it. I don't see why, characterized as they are here, Bodie loves Doyle. I don't find much very 'likeable' about the Doyle in this story. He's selfish, sarcastic, quick tempered and self absorbed. (I understand the reasons as discussed above by BSL.) But I don't think the author ever gives us a clue as to what Bodie sees in Ray that makes him love Doyle. Did I miss it?

[milomaus.livejournal.com]

Reading the comments before commenting makes it real hard to concentrate on the story....
But it´s just so much fun.

I do love this story to pieces, there´s so much love involved, and Bodie is like somebody who would like sth VERY much, but knows he´ll never get it, so when it´s finally presented to him, he goes like: "What? For me? Nah, can´t be true..."

And I sooooo love the way Doyle is contrite about the cherrychocolate episode, it hints, no waves like crazy, that he did sth like that before to Bodie, and that he knows exactly how he affects Bodie with that. He knows that Bodie loves him, or at least desires him, so he plays along and wants to take it further.

And I love the way Bodie get´s a bit mad at him, but can´t stay mad, cause Doyle needs him...
Ahh, I just so love the domestic bliss. And how the reader knows what Doyles up to, even though Bodie still can´t believe it.

I do agree with BSL about the introduction scene, that´s what I thought it explained, too.
Thanks for already pointing it out!

What a wonderful story to be recced, I do look forward to read it again already!

[potztausend.livejournal.com]

I re-read the story yesterday and I still like it very much. I like their banter and the way they act with one another, and I nearly always like first-time-stories with them ;-). It's believable for me and I enjoyed reading.

Miriam Heddy's Take On "Bodie's Bodies"

[taverymate.livejournal.com]

Posting this as a separate comment rather than an individual reply to several folks above since it seems like a lively discussion (yay!) and I hate it when comments collapse and links get lost.

Here's where fandom longevity, a good memory (at least for things fannish *g*), and a collector's enthusiasm come in handy.

Back in 1999, Miriam posted an essay at the Fanfic Symposium called "Bodie's Bodies". It was the second essay posted at the Symposium. (The Fanfic Symposium was/is a website that hosted essays by authors on various fanfiction topics. It was active 1999-2006 and the essays remain online and available; there are over 100 essays, IIRC, and many are classics. Still highly recommended for any fan in any fandom, particularly if you are interested in how fandoms change over time.)

I'd urge everyone to read Miriam's essay for themselves, as it's relevant not only to this particular story discussion but Pros discussion in general, and fanfiction in the larger sense.

Bodie's Bodies by Miriam Heddy:
hxxp://www.trickster.org/symposium/symp2.htm

REPLACE hxxp with http - LJ is screening the comment as spam when the full link is used due to CI5hq community default settings apparently. (I need to confirm that with the mods.)


Miriam critiques the tendency that many fanfiction writers, and fen more generally, have to rewrite (on paper or in discussion) male bodies in slash so that they are thinner and ignore the physical reality of the character/actor's actual body.

Miriam's essay is relatively short, and deserves to be read in its entirety (really, it's not that long - go read!). But extracting from an excellent essay, here are a few favorite quotes of mine:

SNIP
"A man who seems familiar to us, like Bodie, falls under the spell of a slash writer, and miraculously, magically, can gets an entirely new body."

SNIP - Emphasis mine, not Miriam's!
"Maybe only thin, strong men with hard toned abs and rippling muscles are sexy. Maybe there's a correlative between taut abdomens and potency. Maybe a Bodie with a belly is impossible.

Perhaps the eroticism would come crashing down under the sheer weight of reality.

In our rapture with the written word, we might forget, for a moment, that bodies are matter. That bodies do matter. Bodies are flesh and blood, skin and bone, tendons and muscles and fat. And ink and pixels, of course."

SNIP
"Sex is more than cookie cutter bodies inhabited by voices and minds. Slash is more than Tab A in Slot B. Bodies, like characters, like personalities, are distinctive, individual, sensual, sensuous, and unique.

As are our stories."

SNIP
"There is pleasure in bodies that are soft and lush and there is an eroticism that is still waiting to be written.

There is a Swiss roll in the middle of the room, and nobody is talking about it. Until now. We may think that we can just make it go away, if we stay silent.

But some of us are ravenous, consumptive, insatiable. Some of us are hungry.

Some of us know that pleasure cannot truly be set free until bodies are.

Until Bodie is.

Until we set ourselves free, remove our stays, and taste the forbidden fruit."


I'd add that over the years, Miriam has posted a number of other excellent critiques of weight, fat, feminism, body image, and fanfiction in various permutations in her livejournal and on other forums and discussion sites. That includes the ways in which female characters' weight/body is treated, which differ significantly from how a male character's weight/body is treated. But weight/body image is by no mean her raison d'etre - Miriam is far from being a one trick pony.

And least anyone think this phenomenon of magically fitter males is restricted to Pros, it's been hotly debated since Star Trek (the original series) over forty years ago.

I'd also add that a related issues is how aging bodies are treated in fan fiction. Particularly relevant to Pros is how Cowley, as an older character with an aging body - with a canon disability - is (mis)treated by writers. But that's perhaps a discussion best saved for another post. *wry grin*

[moth2fic.livejournal.com]

Meant to join in last night then got side-tracked offline... But that's given me the chance to read all the fascinating comments first! I wasn't keen on the story the first time I read it and wasn't sure why, but I dutifully re-read it this week. I still wouldn't re-read it other than for discussion purposes but it was interesting to think about the reasons!!

Like one or two others I am put off by the Americanisms. They really throw me out of the story because they prevent me from hearing our Brit lads talking so the banter and the thoughts don't work as well as they should.

Then, like others, I would prefer more 'action' or at least reference to case-work; I don't necessarily want a shoot-out every time but in a story that is quite long and refers to their roles within CI5 quite a lot I would like more 'show' and less 'tell'.

I am irritated by the amount of time devoted to Cowley's manipulations with no conclusion or follow-up. Why don't we get some hint of what he actually wants? Once the sexual relationship is established the rest of the story is abandoned.

There is some nice writing (phrases like 'secret pornographic fantasy' spring to mind and the paint job in the flat is a lovely touch) but things like the use of the torch metaphor and the food/body shape issue strike me as slightly pretentious and not properly followed through.

I have to say that on this second reading the final sex/love scene really appealed, but the story as a whole still leaves me unsatisfied.

Thanks for the rec and the discussion - it's great to mull over stories in this way and find out why they hit the right notes - or don't - with so many of us!