Reading Room - The Pillory by Kitty Fisher

[fiorenza-a.livejournal.com]

http://www.adbwilliams.co.uk/photo_topic.php?subject_id=3

Firstly, I ask your forgiveness if this fic has been offered for your consideration previously; I haven't had a chance to discuss it before and I therefore crave your indulgence to do so now.

I read this story before I ever realised there was a sequel and therefore I would like to discuss it as I experienced it, in isolation. Although I'm a sucker for a happy ending, it stayed with me. Not as wormwood on the tongue, but as a piquant exemplar of a lesson already learned; innocence is no protection against injustice.

Although there's no doubting the canonical bond between Cowley and Bodie, cut from the same cloth in so many respects, Cowley nevertheless repeatedly shows his concern for Doyle's wellbeing. From the unselfconscious intimacy of attempting to tie Doyle's bow tie for him, or the gruff affirmation that, despite getting up his nose, he wants both agents to stay alive, to cradling a wounded Doyle on the grimy floor of a multi-storey car park and, even occasionally, justly or unjustly, berating Bodie for being blind to Doyle's best interests because he's too preoccupied with his own.

So, to my mind, this Cowley is out of character, but he is not a Bad Fairy capriciously visiting catastrophe upon his blameless victims. He has a motive; he covets both Bodie's body and his affection for Doyle and wants them for himself and, although the desire to hurt Doyle might be out of character, the ruthless byzantine plotting by which he achieves his goal is not.

The story's summary introduces it as 'Dark, bleak and written a long time ago...', and it is bleak. Doyle is imprisoned for a crime he insists he didn't commit. Betrayed by the man who once told him he could have his body sold to science, while he was still alive. Doyle's actual fate is worse than that. He has loved Bodie, but Bodie's love has been poisoned, even the crumb of comfort that when Bodie demands 'By who?' he is actually voicing 'the question that had dogged him in every moment of doubt at Doyle's culpability' is withheld. And this Cowley is not magnanimous in victory, this Cowley gloats. Spitefully sending Bodie after Doyle to twist the knife that little bit deeper, in a gratuitously cruel demonstration of the utter completeness of his victory.

For me, the truth of the story is summed up at the beginning of this bitter little tale when Doyle returns to CI5, only to find 'the layout had altered and ridiculously, in a building in which he had worked for three years, he was lost'. For Doyle, the layout never becomes clear, he never stumbles upon the Ariadne thread by which he might escape the labyrinth of deceit.

In the end, all that is left to him is to concede the Carthaginian nature of his defeat and, in pursuit of oblivion, finally become that of which he is accused, a copper turned criminal. The lowest form of life Doyle knows.

Title: The Pillory Author: Kitty Fisher (kittyfisher)
(http://archiveofourown.org/users/kittyfisher/pseuds/Kitty%20Fisher)
Pairing: Either Doyle & Bodie or implied pre-story Doyle/Bodie; established Bodie/Cowley
Link: http://archiveofourown.org/works/356787
Other Notes: Sequel: Any Other World by Andromeda (up next week - Thursday 26th November 2015)
And if it moved you, why not let the author know?

Comments

[dawnebeth.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm first? Yikes--and I'm leaving for work in five minutes. I have to say this is not the sort of story I like--I didn't want to finish, but I did because it was too hard, too much sadness and anger. Then Bodie and Cowley together. I was verklempt after reading.

verklempt

[fiorenza-a.livejournal.com]

I had to look up 'verklempt', it's a very good word.

It is a bleak story and it stayed with me, I could feel Doyle's hopelessness.

I think that 'verklempt' feeling is why Andromeda wrote a sequel. I think some stories cry out to be 'fixed'.

[franciskerst.livejournal.com]

Bodie and Cowley together is fine with me but not that way!

This story is atrocious by whatever end you try to take it. I read it at a time when I had no interest in a B/C pairing (and was even repelled by the idea) and still was utterly shocked and disgusted. For me it was nothing less than a character assassination. Maybe it was then that I found my first feeling of warm sympathy for Cowley (which I didn't especially appreciate before).

[snailbones.livejournal.com]

Firstly, long day, and I'm way tired, and probably incapable of saying anything approaching sensible. Please make allowances *g*

My heart sank slightly when I saw this was the Reading Room choice; my recollections of it - read once ages ago - were of a dark, bleak story, with no heroes and no happy ending. I read it without knowing there was a fix for it - and if ever I needed a fix for a story, it was this one!

Now I've read it again, I'm oddly satisfied with it. Yes, it's bleak, and there's little to be said for Cowley's motives, other than he's a man determined to get what he wants. But if I divorce myself from the characters I love, and from wanting a happy ending for Doyle and Bodie, it's a well-written piece, full of angst and hopeless devotion on all sides, and it works wonderfully well from that perspective.

Thank you for suggesting something that was bound to make me uncomfortable, because I've enjoyed the rematch wrestling with it again, and found it nowhere near as painful the second time round.

[fiorenza-a.livejournal.com]

I have a sore throat, which is threatening to be tonsillitis, so I'm surprised I managed to post anything coherent at all!

But yes, the subject matter is unsympathetic, but not the story telling. It drew me in. I read it in my early days in Pros fandom (fandom in general, really) and, as I say, it stayed with me.

The way Doyle is trapped, all roads leading to a dead end. Even Bodie is lost to him, because the logic of Doyle's guilt is unassailable.

I think my only quibble is Cowley's motivation. I don't see him as that selfish. To my mind, Cowley's duplicity is always towards a greater good, never for self gain.

Having read the sequel, it's now hard not to see them as one story.

But they are separate stories and I experienced this one first. Just like this. With no hope of reprieve.

[shooting2kill.livejournal.com]

Thank you for your beautifully written introduction to the story. I have to admit that I read the story and (sort of) enjoyed it, or at least found it very readable, but I did so with the kind of morbid fascination you have when watching a car crash: you can't quite believe it's happening and can't look away and so I couldn't believe what I was reading and how awful Cowley and Bodie were being to Doyle, a wounded Doyle who has obviously taken a severe emotional battering already and yet I wanted to read on, perhaps in the hope of some kind of redemptive explanation, at least from Bodie. . A 'gloating' and 'spiteful' Cowley didn't sit easily with me at all. An angry, dismissive Bodie I could just about accept (at a pinch) if he was, say, very hurt, but I think it was the malignant representation of Cowley which had me reading in total disbelief and yet still reading.... Oh and the kiss between Bodie and Cowley.....I could just about accept Bodie living with Cowley as some kind of minder/companion but not like *that*. And, as I've said to you before, I can't quite work out *why* I find the image of Bodie and Cowley together, sexually, so unpalatable. Cowley's not that bad and Bodie with an older man is plausible, but.....I don't know. Perhaps it's the mix of sex and authority figure? Or father-figure? It's just not right. If there hadn't been a sequel (which I like) then the ending would have been very frustrating but the knowledge of the sequel seemed to make it OK. Poor Doyle, though, so misjudged.

So I thought this was an interesting choice of a strange story, but one which I found very readable and sort of fascinating! Thanks for your review.

[fiorenza-a.livejournal.com]

Throat getting the better of me, so about to crash, but yes! Cowley/Bodie - I meant to reply to that (and will properly), I'm not sure why, but it does squik (nice, expressive fanword).

I rarely get turned off, but 'car crash fascination' is how I often approach Bodie/Cowley.

Thank you for your kind words about the intro :0)

Even the author admits this story is bleak, and yet somehow it does satisfy. I think the reason it sticks with you is because you can 'see' it. This is how Involvement might have gone, or Fall Girl.

Bodie has obviously turned the facts over in his mind and yet can't see a way out. And I can see Bodie at first sticking by an 'injured' Cowley, when Doyle is found to be guilty, and then having that sentiment manipulated into something else. Bodie always has a soft spot for Cowley. Doyle is always talking to his boss, even when he's lying gassed in the road. Bodie is talking to someone else, I always think Bodie hero worships Cowley under all his irreverence.

And Cowley seems to have a soft spot for Bodie, they snap at each other as equals on many occasions.

Major Nairn implies it's Cowley's intervention that's kept Bodie in one piece, you have to wonder how damaged Bodie was when Cowley recruited him. Did he coax Bodie back from PTSD? Both Doyle and Cowley are fairly terrified of what Bodie might do at the end of Wild Justice. You have to wonder if they both know he's a loose cannon only CI5 can control. Maybe on some level Cowley knows Bodie's in trouble without him and vice versa.

I like a fic that raises all sorts of questions, doesn't leave great gaping holes, but gets you thinking.

I think it's a bitter tale, but a strong fic.

In that way it reminds me of Consequences.

[franciskerst.livejournal.com]

Perhaps it's the mix of sex and authority figure?

I perfectly understand this point of view, which was mine at the beginning. Then, having read stories where this specific aspect was stressed upon in a slash context, I surprised myself by founding it more and more appealing, precisely because of its dangerous, disturbing feel and its dramatic, even tragic potential.

Sequels

[kiwisue.livejournal.com]

Just a note that Andromeda's work, while apparently written as a sequel-with-author-permission, is not the only fan response to The Pillory. Kitty apparently gave open permission for sequels, years ago, and UKJess/JessinEngland, who writes as Georgina Kirrin, wrote "Seven New Endings to The Pillory" which Kitty hosted on her site along with the original story. This is available via Wayback:

http://web.archive.org/web/20080908044540/http://www.devinemadness.com/kittyfisher/pillory.htm (The Pillory)
http://web.archive.org/web/20081120011838/http://www.devinemadness.com/kittyfisher/seven.htm ("Seven New Endings to The Pillory")

RE: Sequels

[fiorenza-a.livejournal.com]

Ooo interesting...Thankyou. :0)

I get the feeling Kitty Fisher finds the fic as challenging as everyone else, but it's a great story, for all its bleakness.

I don't think it would have the same impact if it wasn't.

Andromeda's sequel is up next week, so I'll hold off looking at anything else until then, but it's no surprise there are other sequels.

I can't imagine anyone reading The Pillory and remaining unmoved. You live the ordeal with Doyle, lose hope with him.

The Pillory was one of the first things I saved as a favourite. And it would be, even if there were no sequels at all.

[mab-browne.livejournal.com]

I'm always in two minds about evil!Cowley characterisations, but the whole situation of CI5 stands on the integrity of our George. Assuming a Cowley who fails in his integrity for whatever reason, then yes, I like this story as a little piece of darkness. If he stitched somebody up, I have no doubt that he would do it competently, and Bodie is a person of strong personal loyalties. If he thought Doyle crooked, there'd be no forgiveness. So, yes, a good read, but I'm glad that it's short. :-)

[fiorenza-a.livejournal.com]

See Bad Fairy Cowley is my stumbling block with this story, Cowley is ruthless but not evil.

He has murdered in cold blood, arranged for prisoners to be returned to regimes with appalling human rights records, accepts radicalising a few innocents as the price for CI5's modus operandi, but he does none of it for personal gain.

Look how he behaves with Annie Irvine.

I suppose you could argue that he's learned that lesson and won't take 'no' for an answer again, but I just can't see it. If he couldn't win Bodie by fair means, I can't see him doing it by foul.

And the man had all but sublimated his personal life to the needs of CI5, it's his 'baby' in a very real sense. I can't see him killing the child of his endeavours, his legacy, for a life he's already chosen not to pursue.

We know he's interested, he's laddish enough and charming enough when he wants to be, to have courted a mate, or a mistress, but it's CI5 that has his devotion. I can't see him putting any goal before it.

[paris7am.livejournal.com]

...as he drove, gradually the brightness of the inner city tailed off into his rear-view mirror; his speed gathering despite the rain as the road widened and the pain in the centre of his being flowered.

This bit reminds me of the pain *I* feel when I read this story! It hurts, terribly. Knowing what it is about blunts the pain for me a little, but not much. I find myself going back over it, looking for clues, pieces, trying to figure it out... why?! For Bodie to be absolutely convinced, to turn so completely away? It must have been so terrible. To kiss Cowley like that? (and the shudderingly awful "I'm not a complete wreck, Andrew" - that is the lowest blow ever...) I have a difficult time believing that Cowley would do such things, but then again, why not? I completely believe Doyle's motivation for loving Bodie! I wish there were some clue of a further reason - a necessary reason for why it had to happen.

I have forgotten what this sequel holds, but it gives me some hope. Kitty Fisher is without doubt a very masterful writer - accomplishes vivid and brave things with so few words. Thank you for recommending it, and for the beautiful write-up.

[shooting2kill.livejournal.com]

I agree with you re the pain of Doyle's last moments.

"I'm not a complete wreck, Andrew" - that is the lowest blow ever...

Oh, good point! I think that line alone depicts him both as manipulator and 'victim' and shows how he's managed to win power and hold on to it. I think I *can* see Cowley as manipulator, because we've seen it in canon, but 'victim'? I can't think of any examples apart from the scene in Annie when he discovers she's moved on, romantically, but I don't think he's consciously seeking any kind of 'victimhood' in this scene, he's just sad that things aren't as they were, that his dream has died.

[fiorenza-a.livejournal.com]

Sorry for my tardy reply, and thank you for your kind words :0)

Why? Is the question I constantly ask with this story. I enjoy it because I put that question away in a little black box and don't bring it out again until I've finished reading.

The whole 'Andrew' thing really makes me squirm, it's seems such a possessive thing to do, to rename someone who famously goes by Bodie in every situation.

I know nicknames (and I've gone by many myself, I currently answer to two at work quite happily) and 'sweetheart' names are common, people often call those dearest to them by unofficial names, but then why (and there's that question again) Bodie's middle name? William can be Will, Bill, Willy (but not in the UK if you want to keep your teeth - but I can see it teasingly in bed) Billy, Liam...why pick Andrew? And why Andrew, Cowley's not the headmaster, Bodie's his lover, not some bright lad from the lower fourth, so why not Andy? Or, at a push, Drew? It's as if Cowley has made a Stepford wife of Bodie.

It seems so manipulative (as I'm sure the author intended it to).

[msmoat.livejournal.com]

Well, hmm. No one but me may understand what I'm about to say, but I'm finding it fascinating, so I'm going to say it. I was dreading this discussion because I remember the story very clearly, and I detested it. *g* It was the only story I ever seriously considered ripping out of a zine. (That's still shocking to me--I don't do that sort of thing!) I thought all three characters were out-of-character, and I didn't actually like any of them (even Doyle), and couldn't really imagine why anyone would want to read or write this. Yeah, complete non-comprehension.*g* But Kitty Fisher is a good enough writer that of course I was affected by it, even as I hated it. Which was really, really, really annoying. *g* Scroll forward many, many years and to this discussion. I have read the story a few times, although not in years until today. And now? Huh. The story didn't affect me as it did before. I'm really astonished by that. I have found, as I've aged, that I'm less fond of over-the-top angst (which KF really specializes in--to great effect!) But I still thought this story would be hard for me to read. I thought I'd get sucked into it, you know? But...I think...well, I've gone through real angst now, and heartbreak, even a form of betrayal, and it's not like this. People aren't like this. And, oddly, this sort of outrageous angst is just like...smoke compared with the fire of realistic angst. I can find the story interesting for its over-the-topness, and it remains well written, of course, but I can't take it seriously anymore. Huh! So, really, I don't suppose I'll be a good participant in the discussion. *g* But I wanted to say all this because I'm finding it immensely freeing. The story has lost its power over me because I cannot take it seriously anymore. Weird, isn't it? But rather nice, from my perspective.

[dawnebeth.livejournal.com]

Maybe I shall have to read it again in a couple years--I found it so upsetting I had to skip lines to get through it faster (didn't realize that Bodie and Cowley actually kiss until I read it here in the comments.)

complete non-comprehension

[fiorenza-a.livejournal.com]

Seems a reasonable response.

I think this definitely fits into the category of angst 'porn'. My life hasn't been angst free, but I do identify with Doyle, and to some extent Bodie.

I'm certainly capable of cutting away people I think have let me down (betrayed is probably too strong a word).

It's Cowley I can't see, he's too two dimensional. People are rarely all good or all bad.

But if any of this has been cathartic, then that's lovely. I'm glad this tale no longer has a hold on you :0)

[gilda-elise.livejournal.com]

I first read this story years ago. I hadn't been in the fandom but a few months, and running across a story like this was really upsetting. I hated it! I have to say, rereading it now, I still don't like it, probably even less since I've now a better fix on their characters. So, while I can see Cowley maybe being that manipulative, I think Bodie would have kept on digging, never wavering in his trust in Doyle. And I certainly don't see Doyle as the type to attempt suicide, not under those particular conditions.

[fiorenza-a.livejournal.com]

I've already said quite a bit about what I think about Bodie and Cowley's motivations, so I'll just stick with Doyle.

I'm wary of there being a 'type' who commits suicide. It's a dangerous myth. But I accept that isn't quite what you said :0)

Would Doyle be driven (no pun intended) to suicide by these circumstances? Who can know for certain? But I think it's worth remembering that;

a) this isn't the Doyle from canon, this is a Doyle who has spent a number of years in prison as an ex-copper. It's likely that much of that time was spent alone. I doubt Doyle made a model prisoner and he'd have stood up for himself when the have-a-crack-at-the-copper brigade showed up.

b) what probably got him through the 24/7 friendless hostility of the staff and inmates, and isolation as a punishment and for his own protection, was the hope that, if he could get to Bodie and explain, that Bodie would see the lies for what they were.

It's also worth remembering that Doyle doesn't commit (an oppressive term left over from when mental illness was treated as a crime) suicide as such, his solution is to get blind drunk. Which does seem much more in character.

He then thieves a powerful car, of a type he's not used to driving (and that much isn't so out of character, both he and Bodie took an elastic sided approach to the law in CI5, the difference is he's NOT in CI5 and he'd normally know better) and floors the accelerator.

I think what happens next, is that he simply stops caring what happens to him. It's not clear he wants to die, it's more that he has nothing invested in living.

[murphybabe]

Hello! I'm diving in here deliberately not having read anyone else's comments, because what has happened in previous weeks is that I have read all the comments and thought that I may as well not say anything because I have nothing to add to all the excellent points that have already been made. So please forgive me if I inadvertently repeat something you've already mentioned.

I'm really torn between loving this story and not believing it.

Reasons I love it: it's well written. There are phrases in there which sing to me, such as Doyle's rough voice was layered with honey, and before the weight of misery stilled his tongue. I like the way that we see how the various CI5 personnel have treated Doyle: Anson despises him, Betty has tried to visit him and Cowley has stitched him up thoroughly. I also like the way that Doyle is still trying desperately to make Bodie understand that he is almost as much a victim of Cowley's machinations as is Doyle.

However, where it doesn't quite hold up for me is the characterisation. I don't think Doyle would give in. I think he would fight and go down fighting. I do not believe that Bodie would hop into bed - or a relationship - with Cowley. How would that ever have happened? Bodie looks up to Cowley as his superior officer. Yes, they have a good relationship, but it is one that is firmly based on each knowing the other's place and limits. How often have we seen Cowley roaring at Bodie because he's exceeded those limits? Mostly Bodie is reined back in again, and the few times he refuses to be put back in his place it's because of Doyle. The Cowley characterisation doesn't work for me either - we never see Cowley as spiteful, which you mention - rightly so, I think. It's nasty, that bit, sending Bodie to check that Doyle has money. And... the Cowley/Bodie relationship makes me squirm - don't really know why, but I don't like it.

Having said all this, I do like this fic, and it's one I re-read. There are some stories where I can put aside the bits that jar, and this is one of them. I think it's partly because when I first read it I immediately read the sequel as well, so I can take this fic knowing what happens next. I tried to comment on this as a stand alone, but I don't think I can put aside the insider knowledge, even though I haven't referenced it here. But in trying to analyse why it's a keeper, I've realised that it wouldn't be on its own - I need the sequel, or this would have to go.

Thanks for the rec! I'm off to read everyone else's comments now :)

Hi :0)

[fiorenza-a.livejournal.com]

I think he would fight and go down fighting

I think Doyle does go down fighting, I think the car off the road is more a momentary lapse at a dangerous time. The story doesn't actually say he dies. He could end up paralysed or, as the sequel I'm posting on Thursday has it, comatose.

Doyle is a very impulsive personality, my feeling is that the crash is more impulse than decision. He is blind drunk and very emotional. Neither of which is un-Doyle-like.

I can see the other characterisations, how experience and circumstance would bring about the changes and motivations, but I just can't see what drives Cowley so far from his roots.

The sequel has an explanation (which I also don't buy) but this fic has none.

Having said that, it was a keeper for me before I realised there was a sequel. Maybe the Cowley grit is, for me, what makes the rest a pearl?

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

I keep thinking I'm too late to join in really, and shall give it a miss this week, but on the other hand I did re-read the story in readiness, so... here I am. *g* Shall comment, nip out for a few hours, and then come back and read the other comments, cos if I don't do it like that I'll've spent all day at my desk again... *headdesk*

I'm not desperately keen on The Pillory, though I'm a big fan of Kitty Fisher's writing in general. I was dreading re-reading it, to be honest, cos I remembered disliking it much more than it turns out I still do, but... still not keen. *g* I think it's because I see the lads as sort of in character, but only... at a sort of shelf-level. It's like there's a thing that I can't believe is in character, but then after that they're largely in character except that because everything's sitting on that shelf they're not really... I think the in-character bits are purely down to Fisher's writing ability, and the rest is based on the premise she chose for the story...

I can believe that Cowley would manipulate things like that - at a stretch - and I can believe that Bodie would fall for it - at an even bigger stretch, but he's loyal - but I can't quite believe that having spent two years in prison Doyle wouldn't be more angry about things and determined to fix them somehow, even if he was fobbed off by Bodie to start with. I can see it all up to the moment when it turns out he's been drinking and seems determined to kill himself - yeah he might go out and drink and do something stupid, but Doyle is so tenacious about things, and I don't think we've seen enough to believe that he's fought back as hard as he could against this... Maybe if Fisher had shown us more of that fighting back I could believe it - cos I do think Doyle could sink into that kind of despair, it's just.... I'm not convinced he would this time, and from what we've seen.

But then I'm also not convinced that after two years in prison for betraying someone in CI5 he'd be allowed back into hq as if he'd never left - surely he'd've been kept waiting by security for someone to come and fetch him, if he wanted to see Cowley... so I think we also start out having to suspend our disbelief over that - I was immediately not quite in a realistic situation. and then there was all the other stretching... *g*

[fiorenza-a.livejournal.com]

I won't comment on the other bits, because I plastered my thoughts on those all over the other comments. But the whole 'run of CI5 thing' struck me as a bit odd too.

I can see Doyle being allowed on the premises if Cowley wanted him there, but even if it suited our George's Machiavellian spite to have Doyle wander the corridors like a ghost, how would he explain it to the other agents?

The first person who saw him would detain him. Cowley's powerful, maybe in the old CI5 days a glower would silence any questions, but that power has been substantially curbed. It doesn't seem likely he would get away with that now. CI5 is no longer his personal fiefdom, so you'd either expect Cowley to be anticipating the sight of Doyle being hauled off the premises, or for Doyle to have an escort (not the four door or agreeable upmarket kinds) whilst on the premises.

[sc-fossil.livejournal.com]

I didn't bother reading it again. Sorry! I didn't like it or believe it the other times I've read it. Now I'm just ho hum about it. It's not my lads and not my Cowley. Kitty Fisher is such a good writer so it does suck you in the first time or two reading it. But now that I know what's coming I admit I don't feel that horror over it any more. I know Bodie and Doyle are together so... I have an incredibly hard time ever believing Cowley would shag Bodie or any other man anyway but that's just me.

I'm certainly glad writers have given us such fodder to discuss! Interesting thing to me is is how a writer who might like the characters could write two of them as such horrible people. That is a general question, btw. I have no clue of this writer's intent but for me, since I like my characters, I can't write them as this deceitful or dishonourable. It would make me hate them! :)

No need to be sorry! :0)

[fiorenza-a.livejournal.com]

And as for your general question, it exercised me so much that I posted discussion to the Safehouse when Bodie did something in Angola (http://the-safehouse.livejournal.com/1542556.html) he just couldn't, for me, come back from.

I like the fic (probably stating the obvious!). I've put the reasons I find Bodie and Doyle's behaviour rational within their characterisations (if not necessarily loveable, but then I don't necessarily find them loveable in canon) in other posts. But I can't find Cowley rational at any level.

I can't point to any part of canon and say 'yep, I can see that there'.

To be honest, I don't believe in one true partnership/pairing. It's a bit too star crossed for me, but then I'm a romantic luddite. Maybe they do exist. I've heard it said that some people could find their chosen one across half the world and raging seas and others could miss theirs at small suburban cocktail party. I'm probably in the second half and would be out plying Guess Who? with the kids instead of hearing heavenly choirs in the lounge!

It is interesting though, how much discussion it all provokes, one way and another :0)