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ci5hqOf course I am late. Not only because it's my nature (I am the queen of procrastination) but because for a few days I have been suffering from an eye inflammation (which is just now slowly receding). So I will content myself with posting a text I wrote long ago on ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
crack_van for one of my favourite stories. Knowing me you should guess it is a Bodie/Cowley story (actually the first one I happened to have read, totally by chance, more than ten years ago).
This is the fateful story who, in less than two hours and, to her own stark astonishment, turned upside down the fannish affections of an innocent reader who, until then, had been perfectly happy and satisfied with the regular and quite obvious one, the OTP Bodie/Doyle pairing (I simply wasn't very convinced by the physical charms of the green eyed golly but, as long as it came to fanfiction reading, it didn't matter much).
I think now I was hooked first by the style: clear and transparent like these calm, sky blue waters, through which the gaze gets at the bottom so easily you could believe the rocks and sands are almost at hand, and yet you know how this delusion is deceptive. The bottom is much much farther, beyond your reach.
So many examples come to mind. This is one:
Bodie was attractive. Very attractive. Very dangerous. Attractive because dangerous, and, for Cowley, dangerous because attractive.
It's difficult to say something so right with so few words. Another one:
It was a wonderful morning -- for Bodie, it could have been raining and it would still have been a wonderful morning. He felt good all over, keenly aware through his whole skin of the morning breeze and the summer's sky and the tactile memory of holding Cowley.
Is it just plain, as it may appear, or more significant than the simple meaning of the words?
And another passage I deem as one of the most moving I ever read:
Cowley remembered, afterwards, the dark hair crisp as feathers against his fingers; remembered tracing the line of one scar that curled around Bodie's ribs like a whiplash; remembered the sleepy, still-confident, smile on Bodie's face as he hooked an arm around the other man's waist and fell into a satisfied sleep. These things he could bear to remember, though they seared him; for the rest, it would have been better if he could have forgotten what must never happen again.
Wistful, bittersweet, heartbreaking. I am not very receptive to the pathetic, romantic stuff that I personally feel as counterproductive in regards to emotion but such matter of fact statements remain in my memory where they resound again and again with full gravity. And did I say how I loved the verses which are used to introduce the chapters? And how perfectly the whole poem fits the development of the characters' moves and feelings?
Perhaps I make a mistake by quoting some of the finest bits of the text, it could spoil the pleasure of discovery; but, on the other hand, as most people in this fandom are likely to be repelled by the basic idea of the pairing itself, I must entice them by something else...I'd like to know if other readers are as sensitive as I am to the suggestive power of understatement.
Before reading the story, you ought to cast a look on these complementary informations: Everything is canon here, except the relationship between Cowley and Bodie; outside this, all the events are taken from an episode. First “Wild Justice” where Cowley threatens to shoot at Bodie, in order to prevent him from killing a suspect who is a personal enemy, then “Involvement” where Doyle is dumped by the girl he wanted to marry and eventually “Need to Know”, where Cowley sets up a man trap for the success of which he has to cheat his own agents.
If you want to understand something to the outcome of “Lest these Dark Days”, it’s necessary you had watched the episode “Need to know” or read the script because the author doesn’t explain the background at all.
There is a very significant and striking scene where Cowley, using an oxygen mask, undertakes to help his men who are suffocating because of a stun grenade: he runs first to Bodie, gave him oxygen a rather long time while gently stroking his brow; then he gets toward Doyle, puts the mask on his nose, quickly and perfunctorily and then comes back to Bodie who is still lying on the ground, kneels near him, gave him more oxygen while stroking again his face, with a worried look before helping him to stand up by holding him with an arm around the waist and leading him to his car.
That was basically the germ of the story, which you can find on the author's site:
Lest These Dark Days
crack_van for one of my favourite stories. Knowing me you should guess it is a Bodie/Cowley story (actually the first one I happened to have read, totally by chance, more than ten years ago).This is the fateful story who, in less than two hours and, to her own stark astonishment, turned upside down the fannish affections of an innocent reader who, until then, had been perfectly happy and satisfied with the regular and quite obvious one, the OTP Bodie/Doyle pairing (I simply wasn't very convinced by the physical charms of the green eyed golly but, as long as it came to fanfiction reading, it didn't matter much).
I think now I was hooked first by the style: clear and transparent like these calm, sky blue waters, through which the gaze gets at the bottom so easily you could believe the rocks and sands are almost at hand, and yet you know how this delusion is deceptive. The bottom is much much farther, beyond your reach.
So many examples come to mind. This is one:
Bodie was attractive. Very attractive. Very dangerous. Attractive because dangerous, and, for Cowley, dangerous because attractive.
It's difficult to say something so right with so few words. Another one:
It was a wonderful morning -- for Bodie, it could have been raining and it would still have been a wonderful morning. He felt good all over, keenly aware through his whole skin of the morning breeze and the summer's sky and the tactile memory of holding Cowley.
Is it just plain, as it may appear, or more significant than the simple meaning of the words?
And another passage I deem as one of the most moving I ever read:
Cowley remembered, afterwards, the dark hair crisp as feathers against his fingers; remembered tracing the line of one scar that curled around Bodie's ribs like a whiplash; remembered the sleepy, still-confident, smile on Bodie's face as he hooked an arm around the other man's waist and fell into a satisfied sleep. These things he could bear to remember, though they seared him; for the rest, it would have been better if he could have forgotten what must never happen again.
Wistful, bittersweet, heartbreaking. I am not very receptive to the pathetic, romantic stuff that I personally feel as counterproductive in regards to emotion but such matter of fact statements remain in my memory where they resound again and again with full gravity. And did I say how I loved the verses which are used to introduce the chapters? And how perfectly the whole poem fits the development of the characters' moves and feelings?
Perhaps I make a mistake by quoting some of the finest bits of the text, it could spoil the pleasure of discovery; but, on the other hand, as most people in this fandom are likely to be repelled by the basic idea of the pairing itself, I must entice them by something else...I'd like to know if other readers are as sensitive as I am to the suggestive power of understatement.
Before reading the story, you ought to cast a look on these complementary informations: Everything is canon here, except the relationship between Cowley and Bodie; outside this, all the events are taken from an episode. First “Wild Justice” where Cowley threatens to shoot at Bodie, in order to prevent him from killing a suspect who is a personal enemy, then “Involvement” where Doyle is dumped by the girl he wanted to marry and eventually “Need to Know”, where Cowley sets up a man trap for the success of which he has to cheat his own agents.
If you want to understand something to the outcome of “Lest these Dark Days”, it’s necessary you had watched the episode “Need to know” or read the script because the author doesn’t explain the background at all.
There is a very significant and striking scene where Cowley, using an oxygen mask, undertakes to help his men who are suffocating because of a stun grenade: he runs first to Bodie, gave him oxygen a rather long time while gently stroking his brow; then he gets toward Doyle, puts the mask on his nose, quickly and perfunctorily and then comes back to Bodie who is still lying on the ground, kneels near him, gave him more oxygen while stroking again his face, with a worried look before helping him to stand up by holding him with an arm around the waist and leading him to his car.
That was basically the germ of the story, which you can find on the author's site:
Lest These Dark Days
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no subject
Date: 2015-12-20 09:03 pm (UTC)I completely agree. A certain kind of ‘romantic’ writing tends to leave me cold. I wish I could think of some examples of the kind of writing you describe but at the moment I can't!
There is a very significant and striking scene where Cowley, using an oxygen mask, undertakes to help his men who are suffocating because of a stun grenade: he runs first to Bodie, gave him oxygen a rather long time while gently stroking his brow; then he gets toward Doyle, puts the mask on his nose, quickly and perfunctorily and then comes back to Bodie who is still lying on the ground, kneels near him, gave him more oxygen while stroking again his face, with a worried look before helping him to stand up by holding him with an arm around the waist and leading him to his car.
Regardless of the preferred pairing I think this is an interesting scene if only for the demonstration of care and (even) affection shown by Cowley towards the lads, especially when he strokes Bodie’s cheek. The behaviour seems so untypical of the man but, as you say, would fit into any number of Bodie/Cowley slash stories as well as those stories which have them as father and son.
Jane Carnall's a fine writer and I wish she'd written more Bodie/Doyle stories! (I think she's Scots, too.)
no subject
Date: 2015-12-20 09:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-12-20 10:32 pm (UTC)Years ago when I loved almost everything I could get my hands on I'm sure I read at least a couple bu I can't remember them at all. I might download As Games Are Played onto my Kindle.
no subject
Date: 2015-12-20 10:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-12-20 10:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-12-20 10:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-12-20 11:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-12-20 10:39 pm (UTC)The other author who can make me believe in B/C is you. I'm not saying this because we're friends, but because I do feel like this about your point of view and the way you write about them.
To comment briefly about your choice of story, I do prefer, by the same Jane Carnal, "Look through my eyes", which is both very sad and very moving and very well-written. But Jane does write very well anyway. And the excerpts you quote are very relevant and show very well why this story is worth reading, even for a firm B/D believer.
So, thank you for reminding us of this wonderful series of stories! And for the very interesting excerpts.
no subject
Date: 2015-12-20 11:30 pm (UTC)Actually I intended to rec "Look Through My Eyes", in spite of its, almost unbearable, harshness and cruelty. But it's only to be found on Proslib and I wanted to make things easy for the readers bold enough to try a B/C story.
no subject
Date: 2015-12-20 10:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-12-20 11:21 pm (UTC)I respectfully disagree with your interpretation of the mentioned scene; have another look. Between Doyle and Bodie there is a big difference in the nature of Cowley's gesture: a brief pat to the former, a true caress for the latter. I noticed it the first time I watched the episode and I was not in the least interested in B/C at the time (I even suspected something queer from poor GJ!!!).
no subject
Date: 2015-12-23 12:14 am (UTC)I posted a bit about it here (http://byslantedlight.livejournal.com/134611.html), and a couple of pics:
But it'd be much less fun if we all saw things the same way... *g*
no subject
Date: 2015-12-21 12:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-12-23 12:05 am (UTC)