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This weekend's story is A Rainy Night in Soho by Kitty Fisher. I hope that ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif){kind=small}
cloudless_9193 doesn't mind that I used a piece of her art as a book cover for my printed version. I think it fits rather well. *g*I chose this story for Reading Room based purely on the fact that it was raining when I was looking for fics, and I wanted something that matched the season but wasn't yet Christmas-y. I will confess that I'm a fan of Kitty Fisher's Pros writing though, so when I saw the title of this one, and remembered what it was about (though not the details) I thought it would make a good choice for the end of November. Of course it turns out to be set at a much warmer time of year - Doyle turns his jacket collar up against the rain at once point, but there's nothing cold about the setting at all (especially considering what they get up to *g*). So - perhaps it doesn't really fit November after all, but hey-ho!
The story opens with the lads at the cinema, at what I think is The Man Who Fell to Earth from the bits of description (David Bowie, Artie Shaw's clarinet) - and it fits the time too, released in 1976 and the lads are described as having worked together for eight months by then.
I've got to admit that the second page of this fic has me questioning who these lads are to some extent. I mostly recognise Doyle - he's been affected by the film, "a melancholy distillation of all the pain in the world" and it's making him think of the problems that he and Bodie have started having. They used to be good mates, but suddenly Bodie "had turned ice cold", and Doyle has set up this night for them to try and find out why.
The thing is, Doyle is described with "He hated going to the movies anyway" - and straight away that clashes with his lines in an ep about going to see a Bunuel film. Why would he do that if he hates the cinema?
Bodie, on the other hand, loves the cinema - but in a being-entertained kind of way, which I can see. He's "absorbed" while he's watching, but when the lights go up he's basically forgotten it. Living in the moment - that's our Bodie, and I can imagine it as some kind of hold-over from when he was a kid, sneaking into the pictures and romanticising the world enough that he joins the merchant navy looking for adventure. *g*
They leave the cinema, and then we start to hear about Doyle only being near Bodie's height because he wears boots with heels and because his hair adds "inches" to his height, and how Bodie can wipe the floor with him when they're fighting. Again - who is this bloke?! Doyle's not that much shorter (and Bodie's not that tall). And then we start to find out more about what's going on. It's Bodie who is for some reason emphasising their differences - winning a fight by effectively cheating, and then walking away as if Doyle's beneath him. Doyle's confused by this - they both know that he can hold his own, and he can't think of a reason for Bodie's "hostility".
So Doyle drags him out to the cinema in Soho to try and work it out. Even though Bodie clearly doesn't want him around when the film's over, Doyle insists on following him - despite feeling the rejection that Bodie's clearly anxious to convey. Doyle being Doyle, he pushes it - and after a relatively excrutiating pint in a pub, he keeps pushing it, until Bodie does in fact break - and kisses him.
Which, it turns out, is also what Doyle wants, so when Bodie thinks that's put an end to Doyle's persistence and walks away, Doyle follows yet again, and they confront each other one more time - "alone in the wet night as the rain soaked through their clothing." And finally, finally at last, they end up down an alley, fucking in a doorway, "Decadent, abandoned, obscene... all the night and the rain and the dark danger of coupling", and then the heart of it all - "a gentle kiss", and the promise of a year, proof that Bodie wants it as much as Doyle does, and for as long.
There's almost a bit too much talking and angst before they get to this point, for me - would Doyle really say "I never dreamed..."? Would Bodie confess "You've been driving me crazy. I've been hating you, hating myself"? But then "Perhaps they wouldn't ever talk about this. Perhaps just the fact that it was happening was enough.", and I can think that maybe this night was an abberation for them - they had to talk, to confess, to prompt the action that would take them back to being themselves. The very end seems more like it to me - "...glancing occasionally at each other..." That's my lads.
So... I have niggles with this, which I think I never used to have - back to the way our tastes change over the years, I guess! - but at the end of the day I can still believe in this story. And I love so much of the description, which really gives it atmosphere, and saves so many things.
How about you? *g*
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Date: 2019-11-30 04:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-11-30 06:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-11-30 05:21 pm (UTC)So... the story...
Powerful words, building powerful pictures. The atmosphere is stunninng!
For example:
"For a long while they stood on the street corner, alone in the wet night as the rain soaked through their clothing;
it's warmth turning chill as it touched their skin; blurring vision as it caught on their lashes; the insistent patter of rain-drops on tarmac a shell for their silence.
Water was beginning to run in rivers down the gutter, the rain falling with increasing intensity."
*shivers inwardly*
But I think, it's great! I really like it!
But - do these words hit home?
No! Not really.
Not for me anyway.
(And I must say, that it was the same many years ago.)
I agree that these men are quite strange to me, for example the 'taller Bodie'. And most of all the strong and silent longing both feel for the other -
(it reminds me of some Victorian heroine...)
The only time I thought "Yes, that's my Bodie" is at the end:
""What are we going to do, come back here in a year's time and celebrate?"
Bodie chuckled, the sound releasing them both from the shadows. "Yeah, if you want."
...I really needed that 'chuckle' in this dark story! *g*
.............................
And again a perfect summary from you! It's always a pleasure for me to read them. And the cover from Cloudless fits perfectly.
Thank you so much! :-)
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Date: 2019-11-30 06:13 pm (UTC)Oh that's interesting - I can absolutely go with them being strong and silent about it, because it wouldn't have been considered the "done" thing to be anything else about it, back then. Well, maybe secretly gleeful and joyful and all of course, but out in the open, and perhaps when they were convinced that each other was straight, because that was the front they had to put up, and they were both convincing...
How do you think they could be less strong and silent in those times?
But I do think this particular story is all a bit angsty, and it was definitely good to feel the lightening of it all at the end - Doyle's joke about their yearly anniversary, Bodie's chuckle and agreement of it... *g* In a way perhaps it's the contrast that makes that so much more meaningful? They weren't really my lads at the start, because they were both so tense... sort of like Bodie's not my Bodie in Close Quarters, presumably because he's so tense and stressed without Doyle there to back him up... *vbg*
And thank you! What a lovely thing to say about my reviews - I always worry that they're either so obvious as to be dull, or an interpretation that no one else would recognise! *g*
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Date: 2019-11-30 05:38 pm (UTC)Learn more about LiveJournal Ratings in FAQ (https://www.dreamwidth.org/support/faqbrowse?faqid=303).
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Date: 2019-11-30 06:20 pm (UTC)"Bodie twisted his fingers through rain soaked hair"...finally i get my lads back.
And thankyou, i enjoyed the read.
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Date: 2019-11-30 08:52 pm (UTC)Yes! Good description - it really is rather gritty and dark. *g* I think perhaps that's what makes the ending more satisfying - everything's been so dark and fretful and unhappy, but it really is turning out alright, and everything is going to be okay. If they'd had this conversation in someone's house, or even just in the daylight, I don't think it would work.
I'm a bit torn by the idea of Doyle "weeping" in this fic. I'd normally be rolling my eyes at the idea that Doyle cries at the drop of a hat, but actually I think the context worked here. He was stressed, he was sure things weren't going to work out, and then he's presented with a film where things don't work out for ther hero, and Bodie's absolutely unaffected by it. I can see that getting Doyle near the stage where he is in Involvement with Benny, for instance. I wouldn't say he was weepy, but I think he might feel weepy (if that difference makes any sense. He doesn't cry at the drop of a hat, but he's also able to feel tihngs, and as long as that's not taken too far I can believe in it. If he had actually wept in this story I wouldn't have believed it, but that feeling... I can go there.
i gradually get more and more into the story and finally i find my lads again
Yes again! The more I think about it, the more I think that's the cleverness of the story, in fact. Our lads aren't recognisable at first, because they are so stressed and tense. It's only at the end, where they're relaxing into themselves again, that they become more recognisable... *g*
I'm glad you liked the story - and thank you for joining in (it's feeling a bit ghost town around here, I have to be honest, but I guess it's just a busy weekend for people!)
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Date: 2019-12-01 11:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-12-01 01:20 pm (UTC)Hope I'm not too late to comment!
Date: 2019-11-30 09:17 pm (UTC)I did like the 'scene setting' in this story. As somebody else has commented, powerful words. The description as they walk through Soho, brings it all alive, and there are numerous other instances as well. The only one that I struggled with slightly was 'There was no answer forthcoming from the birds twittering so disconcertingly in the night time trees'.
Birds twittering after dark, and trees come to that, are not common in Leicester Square or Soho to the best of my knowledge. But as a mechanism to set the atmosphere, it works. Obviously, later on, it says it's summer, and therefore it's likely still light, although the lack of trees in central London still leaves a slight question mark...*g*
The characterisations were interesting too. Bodie's withdrawal I found believable and I considered Doyle's internal melancholy as a new take on his character. I always felt Doyle was more feisty and when he was having an attack of the glums, they were usually related to guilt about something or other, and he didn't usually suffer in silence.
I certainly enjoyed the story.
RE: Hope I'm not too late to comment!
Date: 2019-11-30 10:31 pm (UTC)The description as they walk through Soho, brings it all alive
Yes - nice way of putting it, it really does, doesn't it!
And oh, the birds - yes, I've heard them! Okay, maybe I haven't heard them in London (so maybe that's different for some reason, but maybe that's just cos I don't live there *g*) but I've heard them in cities at night. They can be confused by the streetlights, it messes up their diurnal rhythms, and you quite often get birds singing away at night time in the city, if there are streetlights. They don't even need trees, they do it from rooftops. So that rang really true to me!
and he didn't usually suffer in silence
Yes, again! Even though he was melancholy, and despite the whole feeling-weepy moment, I liked that this was our tenacious Doyle, who wasn't going to give up, especially on Bodie! *g*
Re: Hope I'm not too late to comment!
Date: 2019-11-30 10:38 pm (UTC)Maybe there were a few more trees in the seventies *g*
As you say, in other towns and cities, you’ll get flocks of birds. I remember being fascinated by a flick of starlings who used to swoop and dive in amazing formations every night at dusk over our office building in Slough.
RE: Re: Hope I'm not too late to comment!
Date: 2019-11-30 10:56 pm (UTC)That's in London at night!
Re: Re: Hope I'm not too late to comment!
Date: 2019-12-01 02:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-11-30 10:02 pm (UTC)I think you're right. I used to think that Bodie was a lot taller but if you see them alongside each other in similar footwear (e.g. trainers/plimsolls, not sure what they were called then) Bodie looks just a couple of inches taller and I don't think he was 6ft, maybe 5' 10''? And in one interview he said he was tired of people saying when they met him
I thought you'd be taller...
Doyle's confused by this - they both know that he can hold his own, and he can't think of a reason for Bodie's "hostility".
They must be equal, they're partners, they're Bodie and Doyle! But having said I always think that while I can think of scenes where Bodie manhandles Doyle (e.g. at the end of Op Susie or pulling him off the floor in Mixed Doubles) I can't think of one where Doyle does the same. I'm sure it exists, just can't think of it.
I agree about not 'hearing' them say some of the things they're supposed to have said, I'm not sure I can think of them saying anything in that type of situation, to be honest, but overall I like this story, maybe not as much as I did (which is sad, maybe I shouldn't revisit them?) but overall. I love the scene setting, I love central London at night, the feeling of promise in the air in places like Soho and the daringness of having sex in an alley. I can totally believe them doing that! And yes, I can see Bodie staring at the film, transfixed as only the generation of Saturday morning cinema going children could be.
Thanks very much for the review!
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Date: 2019-11-30 10:49 pm (UTC)if you see them alongside each other in similar footwear (e.g. trainers/plimsolls, not sure what they were called then) Bodie looks just a couple of inches taller and I don't think he was 6ft, maybe 5' 10''? And in one interview he said he was tired of people saying when they met him I thought you'd be taller...
Yes! I've been trying to say that for years! *g* I've seen fics describe him as six foot tall, and he so never was! I think you're right about the 5'10", and people I've met who actually met him at fannish things said he wasn't tall. Broad yes, but not particularly tall. Not that 5'10" is short! And as you say - put Doyle beside him in the same footwear, and he's maybe an inch shorter, albeit alot slimmer around the waist and all. And as far as I know his official height back then was 5'10, though I think it was 5'9" when he was older. (I hate that shrinking thing - I used to be 5'10" too!!)
while I can think of scenes where Bodie manhandles Doyle (e.g. at the end of Op Susie or pulling him off the floor in Mixed Doubles) I can't think of one where Doyle does the same.
There's the one where Bodie's in the ambulance that's shot at, and Doyle leaps in roaring his name, and swings him around to make sure he's okay - I can never think which ep that's in, though I see it so clearly. And of course there's this pic...
(which is sad, maybe I shouldn't revisit them?)
Oh no - don't say that! Except yes, I know what you mean... :(
the air of promise in the air in places like Soho and the daringness of having sex in an alley. I can totally believe them doing that!
Yes! Actually one of my favourite stories is Kitty Fisher's Monopoly, which is sex in an alley in a slightly more definite way... *g*
And you're welome - thank you for commenting, especially as I so awfully neglected your comment last week... (and sorry, again).
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Date: 2019-11-30 11:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-12-01 12:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-12-01 12:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-12-01 01:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-12-01 01:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-12-01 01:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-12-01 01:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-12-01 01:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-12-01 01:41 pm (UTC)I could have sworn I remembered a pic by
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Date: 2019-12-01 01:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-12-01 12:37 pm (UTC)Oh, thanks very much for that! No worries and I'm just glad you saw it.
There's the one where Bodie's in the ambulance that's shot at, and Doyle leaps in roaring his name, and swings him around to make sure he's okay
Oh well remembered! I hadn't thought of that one at all. I think it might have been Blackout if the doctor who gets killed was the same doctor in the big church in the earlier scene.
And another thing..... I always watch with envy as Doyle effortlessly turns over the body of the gunman in the stoppage scene from Backtrack. Dead bodies are heavy and he showed no sign of strain whatsoever.
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Date: 2019-12-01 01:43 pm (UTC)I'm not going to ask how you know that... *vbg*
Yeah, but they are, it's true. Neither of the lads are weaklings, I'd say - they couldn't be in their job, or with what we see Macklin put them through. *g*
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Date: 2019-12-02 01:47 am (UTC)Also not going to ask ;)
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Date: 2019-12-02 01:46 am (UTC)Awesome comments, and oof I wish I had been here earlier to comment! On the strange disconnect over their sizes, heights, etc, I always think it might be an issue of them both changing sizes over the course of filming the show, plus the framing by photographers. If you think of Bodie in the first series, he looks so different from the last, and Doyle, too. They were both so slim in the beginning, imo! Then, the staged publicity photos with Bodie seeming to be dressed in the tight roll necks and sweaters, with his sides bulging out over his holster? There are times when Doyle looks similarly, (im thinking of his white t in hiding to nothing) but in the archtypical famous posed photos they seem to pose Doyle deliberately one way and Bodie another.
Off on a tangent, I wonder if hips had a lot to do with it. Have you ever gone looking for pics or caps of Bodie showing him with a belt on his waist? I did. And it wasn't easy! His waistband is covered up, better hidden than the dark side of the moon... (I could be wrong - i didnt spend weeks looking, just hours!) Doyle's slim hips and waist and his arse are obviously not hidden or disguised, which adds to the idea of his being slimmer, rather than thicker. It's as if our eyes are guided to the most accentuated feature of each - and in B, it's his shoulders/back/neck area and with D, it's his hips/groin/backside area? (I hope I'm not offending with this, just puzzling about why!)
All that said, I don't generally feel bothered too much by the descriptions of them being different size or height as long as they are equals. The feminization of Doyle gets under my skin much worse. >:( Wish I could add pics, but posting on phone it's too hard for me... Edited to add, I might be talking sh!7, because looking at the pics BSL posted above, there *are* ones accentuating D's shoulders, etc... Oh well.
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Date: 2019-12-02 05:25 pm (UTC)And yes, you're right, they did change sizes throughout the filming, particularly Bodie and Doyle a bit, too. Bodie seemed to put on weight a little and lose that snappy, cheeky image he had to begin with.
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Date: 2019-12-03 02:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-12-03 01:31 pm (UTC)These are the only belted pics I can't find which I'm sure you're familiar with:
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Date: 2019-12-03 07:03 pm (UTC)I thought that if anyone would know about a belt picture of Bodie, it would be you and Allison! Thanks for those. :) And look at how they are shot - that one making Doyle look significantly shorter and the other with LC's hips twisted to slim his waist and accentuate his shoulder width...
Fashion is such a mystery to me. I have never really understood it, just looked at it. I read that part of the reason for the 70s style was that polyester became popular... I remember having some wild printed polyester tops as a kid, for sure.
I wanted to point out this bit that you wrote, because I wish I'd written it:
I love the scene setting, I love central London at night, the feeling of promise in the air in places like Soho and the daringness of having sex in an alley. I can totally believe them doing that! And yes, I can see Bodie staring at the film, transfixed as only the generation of Saturday morning cinema going children could be.
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Date: 2019-12-03 07:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-11-30 10:03 pm (UTC)When I remember right Doyle and Bodie are only one inch different in heigth and even if Doyle is slimmer, he never seemed weaker to me. I'll never understand why it is so often that they write Bodie is much taller and bulkier than Doyle.
It is a well written story with some fine moments, for example the moment they kiss for the first time, but all in all they are not my lads. I can't see Doyle so weepy (I know he crys in Klansmen, but that's because Bodie is hurt), or Bodie so repelling.
Only at the end, when they talk about what to do, they are my lads again.
""What are we going to do, come back here in a year's time and celebrate?"
Bodie chuckled, the sound releasing them both from the shadows. "Yeah, if you want."
That sounds like Bodie and Doyle through and through.
Thanks to you for doing such a good job with all your reviews. And sorry for not joining nearly as often as I wanted to join.
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Date: 2019-11-30 11:01 pm (UTC)Exactly! Well, bulkier I get - he's definitely bulkier, but just because he's broad doesn't mean that Doyle is tiny! I've never ever looked at Doyle in comparison to other characters on the show (well, not counting King Billy, who's taller than everyone!) and thought he was short. And there are scenes when it's clear that both Bodie and Doyle are shorter than other men in the scene. People never look at a picture of Bodie and Murphy together and say gosh, isn't Bodie tiny! *g*
I can't see Doyle so weepy (I know he crys in Klansmen, but that's because Bodie is hurt)
Well, I can see Doyle feeling weepy (and he's tear-y in Involvement for Benny, too), and I think the set up here made sense, but there are stories where he bursts into tears which are just wrong, wrong wrong!
Only at the end, when they talk about what to do, they are my lads again.
Yes, they do seem more themselves at the end. I wonder if that's a cleverness of the story though - they are tense and stressed and upset at the start, both of them, and so they are acting unusually for them, what we'd say is out of character. But then when it's resolved they're back to being our lads... *g*
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Date: 2019-12-03 06:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-12-01 01:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-12-01 01:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-12-02 12:35 am (UTC)> BODIE: Fancy a game of squash?
>
> DOYLE: Yeah, maybe. Earlyish, though.
>
> BODIE: Why? You got something on?
>
> DOYLE: I'm not sure yet, there's a Bunuel movie on at the Academy.
>
It didn't show up in the text search because of the accent in the transcript version - surprised by that.
The season ticket torments me, though - I seem to remember he said it with a little smile, part shy, part smug. I suppose it will turn out to have been something quite different!
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Date: 2019-12-02 12:54 am (UTC)In the interests of being not lazy tonight, I wonder if we have this in our minds:
There was I swanking around, so proud of my NFT season ticket and my Penguin modern classics
From my very favourite Voice-over by Elizabeth Shea, so as good as canon in my head, anyway... *g*
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Date: 2019-12-02 02:40 am (UTC)I really enjoyed the introduction and all the discussion here - thank you! Sorry to be late - the holidays here kept me away...
I remember being very enthralled by Rainy Night, and was sad like some of you that something has changed for me, and it didn't hit quite the same chords. I was thinking that perhaps it's the "Bodie freezing Doyle out" and being cruel scenario that bothered me now whereas it hadn't so much in the past. I generally love the writing, the scenes, the power of it.
[Hmm. Do we have a curated collection of B/D alley/against a brick wall outside sex scenes? If not, we should get on that!]
In this story, i am so relieved that Doyle responds with this courage and maturity, that he doesnt try to hurt Bodie back or give him a cold shoulder. And that Bodie also takes that step to being honest, to showing the depth of his feelings.
One of my favorite bits and one that I always see in my mind when I think about this story:
In the fractured darkness, Ray Doyle dragged his gaze away from the huge screen and covertly glanced at Bodie's face. Touched by quicksilver, erratic light patterning the smooth features with reflected magic, he was beautiful, unapproachable.
All in all, a gorgeous piece.
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Date: 2019-12-02 03:47 pm (UTC)(Then I wrote a couple of them myself, though indoors. So I guess I see the draw now.)
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Date: 2019-12-02 05:11 pm (UTC)[Hmm. Do we have a curated collection of B/D alley/against a brick wall outside sex scenes? If not, we should get on that!]
Blimey, imagine doing all the research on *that*! What a hardship....
According to Istia/Pen's Pros Zine Master List there's actually an anthology called
Up Against the Wall
Sorry, I mistakenly cut it off (said the actress....) (http://hatstand.slashcity.net/zineinfo/fanzines.html)
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Date: 2019-12-02 05:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-12-03 02:50 am (UTC)Thanks for finding this!! You are a gem!
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Date: 2019-12-04 12:54 pm (UTC)