Unromantic recs - Technique
May. 24th, 2008 02:09 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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ci5hqTitle: Technique
Author: Helen Raven (Wild Horses)
Link to story: http://www.kelper.co.uk/helenraven/technique.htm
http://www.oblique-publications.net/archives/paeanvi/technique.pdf
Zine: Paean to Priapus VI
I was just about to ask what do we mean by 'romantic' anyway - one person's romantic is another person's slushy or sexy or erotic - when I decided that I liked the explanation of what 'unromantic' is - provided in an earlier post by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kiwisue: not at all soppy - they think and behave like blokes, but not emotionally crippled blokes, which is the opposite end of the spectrum. Like real people, even....
OK, you want a non-romantic rec? You got it. This is short, unsweet, borders on the brutal and at the end the sex is very needy, functional, routine, very matter of fact and yet..... just when you’re thinking the sex is no more than a necessary condition of their job, one of them has to go and spoil it:
They didn’t linger afterwards. They never did. Crazy they might be, but not stupid. But there was always time for a kiss by the door. When they drew apart, Bodie turned and reached for the first lock, but Doyle pulled him back, not yet willing to relinquish control.
“Each time, I find I’ve forgotten how good you are.” Bodie looked self-conscious, a sign that they were heading up to the surface, back to the ordinary world. “You make yourself so tight, as if it really had been months. Do your other men appreciate it, what you do to make them think they’re the only one?” Now Bodie was blushing, head turned again towards the wall. Doyle wouldn’t accept that as an answer, and the whisper in Bodie’s ear was fierce. “Do they, Bodie?”
Two rapid blinks, a swallow, and Bodie was recovered, and his smile all wicked charm. “Why’re you so sure you’re not, eh? Reckon I could do better?”
Author: Helen Raven (Wild Horses)
Link to story: http://www.kelper.co.uk/helenraven/technique.htm
http://www.oblique-publications.net/archives/paeanvi/technique.pdf
Zine: Paean to Priapus VI
I was just about to ask what do we mean by 'romantic' anyway - one person's romantic is another person's slushy or sexy or erotic - when I decided that I liked the explanation of what 'unromantic' is - provided in an earlier post by
kiwisue: not at all soppy - they think and behave like blokes, but not emotionally crippled blokes, which is the opposite end of the spectrum. Like real people, even.... OK, you want a non-romantic rec? You got it. This is short, unsweet, borders on the brutal and at the end the sex is very needy, functional, routine, very matter of fact and yet..... just when you’re thinking the sex is no more than a necessary condition of their job, one of them has to go and spoil it:
They didn’t linger afterwards. They never did. Crazy they might be, but not stupid. But there was always time for a kiss by the door. When they drew apart, Bodie turned and reached for the first lock, but Doyle pulled him back, not yet willing to relinquish control.
“Each time, I find I’ve forgotten how good you are.” Bodie looked self-conscious, a sign that they were heading up to the surface, back to the ordinary world. “You make yourself so tight, as if it really had been months. Do your other men appreciate it, what you do to make them think they’re the only one?” Now Bodie was blushing, head turned again towards the wall. Doyle wouldn’t accept that as an answer, and the whisper in Bodie’s ear was fierce. “Do they, Bodie?”
Two rapid blinks, a swallow, and Bodie was recovered, and his smile all wicked charm. “Why’re you so sure you’re not, eh? Reckon I could do better?”
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Date: 2008-05-24 03:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-05-24 03:46 pm (UTC)http://www.oblique-publications.net/archives/paeanvi/technique.pdf
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Date: 2008-05-24 03:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-05-24 07:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-05-24 03:59 pm (UTC)Where halotolerant's story touched me and let me see the lads inner world without ever reverting to banally bleating out anyone's 'true feelings', this one - from the blood play to the parting shots - leaves me feeling vaguely dirty. Readers who share her kinks will probably love this, I think it plain ugly.
But I have to admit to not 'getting' HR at all.
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Date: 2008-05-24 08:02 pm (UTC)Yeah...I know what you mean and I think that's the author's intention. But for me the whole baseness of their behaviour (for want of a better word) is redeemed by the final kiss which didn't have to happen and had little to do with the act of sex .... and then there's the vulernability of Bodie's blushes and the fact that this is *special* for him, he doesn't have sex with anyone, only Doyle...and this most telling line which to me says Bodie could only do the job he does if they help each other get through it, if he has Doyle to help him get through it:
a sign that they were heading up to the surface, back to the ordinary world.
I think that's a beautiful line and typical of Helen Raven - just when you think all is lost she lobs in something like that!
Readers who share her kinks will probably love this, I think it plain ugly.
Not too sure what you mean here. Do you think the story is 'plain ugly' or her kinks? (And I'd love to know what her kinks are! I've never really considered her in that light. Come to think I'm never too sure what people actually mean by the word 'kinks'). I think what they do with the suspect Wilson is pretty ugly but, as I said earlier, the final bit in the room after they've had sex, somehow, in my eyes, manages to redeem them (or their relationship). And their whole world is ugly, hard, 'nasty, brutish and short' and I think the mannner in which they have sex is appropriate to them and the type of men they are and to their lives in that world.
Thanks for commenting (for one awful minute I thought no one was going to bother!)
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Date: 2008-05-25 10:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-05-24 04:02 pm (UTC)(Btw, would you mind putting a header at the top of your poste? I've copied one to here and filled it in for you - all you'd have to do is Edit your post, cut and paste the thing in? Just makes it easier for people to see what's been recced where... Cheers!)
Title: Technique
Author: Helen Raven (Wild Horses)
Link to story: http://www.kelper.co.uk/helenraven/technique.htm
http://www.oblique-publications.net/archives/paeanvi/technique.pdf
Zine: Paean to Priapus VI
no subject
Date: 2008-05-24 07:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-05-24 07:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-05-24 08:05 pm (UTC)Technique by Helen Raven
Date: 2008-05-24 06:09 pm (UTC)Not this one, however, for all the intensity of their relationship - or is that what you see as 'romantic' - the sheer, focussed intensity of it?
Re: Technique by Helen Raven
Date: 2008-07-05 12:30 pm (UTC)Not this one, however, for all the intensity of their relationship - or is that what you see as 'romantic' - the sheer, focussed intensity of it?
I'm not sure..... maybe partly (I'm not even sure what I mean by 'romantic') but I think it's what I mentioned in my opening bit: that just when the story is winding up and the reader might not be blamed for thinking that all this is is a brutal, gratuitous piece of writing with sex occupying nothing more than a functional role....just when you're thinking that, they snatch a kiss by the door and things are said between them which makes you think their relatiosnhip/feelings are more than it first seems - they have an emotional attachment to each other, they're involved and they are exclusive. I *think* that's what I mean......
Again, apologies for the delay.
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Date: 2008-05-24 11:31 pm (UTC)It's also not erotic to me. Doyle using some criminal's blood as lubricant? Ick. I hate the sight of blood, and have been known to practically pass out just having blood drawn (lol!). Having their own fuck room at CI5 headquarters? uhm, nope, not buyiing that one. Also, IMO
Bodie comes across as unattractively submissive. Although I seriously love a good BDSM story when it's done right (for example, Manna's
The Administration Series ((http://www.mannazone.org/zone/admin/index.html)), which is an awesome original fic, and one of my favorite fictional series, on line or off. It's also indirectly how I found Pros fic, since one of the posters I met there posted her top ten Pros fics on her LJ), and occasionally it's done quite well by a Pros fic writer, in this story it's not convincing and just doesn't work for me.
And as a lawyer, I admit, I never can buy stories in which law enforcement agents inflict physical harm to induce "confessions," which here in the States would render any statement completely inadmissible in any court, for any reason.
So, basically, none of this works FOR ME, on any level. I don't buy the characters or the relationship, the sex is not erotic, and the storyline is not believable.
I actually don't like anything this author writes. IMO, she has her own agenda, and just plasters Bodie and Doyle's faces and names on whatever "thing" she's into at the time. Since I don't like or agree with her vision of the guys, and I generally don't like her storylines, I don't like her fic. This is just one more example.
Of course, YMMV.
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Date: 2008-05-25 12:24 pm (UTC)Thanks for your views!
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Date: 2008-05-25 08:23 am (UTC)I have also been trying keep a hold on the challenge definition - it just keeps confusing me, even though it seems so simple. I begin to think that we're reccing "unromantic romantic" stories! I think I read the challenge correctly - stories that are "unromantic"? or in other words prosaic, pragmatic, realistic, hard? In which case, your description of the story fits *prefectly*: short, unsweet, borders on the brutal and at the end the sex is very needy, functional, routine, very matter of fact.
This is such a bold choice, S2K! I've always gotten the impression that it's one of the more controversial stories in Pros - up there with "Consequences", even - and it certainly takes the foundation of "Shooting to Kill" and carries it on to another level.
I find it odd that the story as a whole leaves such a shockingly bleak and brutal (perfect word) feeling when there are actually quite a few parts which are anything but. For example, the banter at the beginning -
Bodie hadn’t needed to look at Doyle. They knew each other very, very well.
“Knew it. Best yet, if you ask me.” Doyle ambled towards the bound man.
A doubtful sound from Bodie, who had stayed back. “Can’t tell yet. Not that simple, is it?”
The smile that Doyle turned on his partner was warm, affectionate. “You know you haven’t got my experience. I can tell.”
“Yeah, hard man. Your little friend’s this close to wearing me down by pure boredom.”
Poor Wilson: prepared for anything except their uncomplicated laughter.
Their *uncomplicated laughter*! Their banter and obvious harmony is in such stark contrast to the action of the scene. The turn from "Relaxed, smiling, and in unison" to "their smiles now thoroughly complicated" - it's almost like HR writes the story in turns of a screw... It seems like the next turn, into sex, has them back to uncomplicated - routine, mechanical fucking - followed by the crux which is exceedingly complicated.
If you’re claiming I’m the only one, it’s time you learned what that means.” He saw Bodie’s body jerk, heard the roughened breathing—more reaction than he’d got during the fucking.
The bleakness preceding their words is so strong, which makes what happens so so poignant.
I understand the concerns about characterization - this is certainly pushing them into a more extreme range than is standard, but they are still there - different, but still recognizable (to me). Taking their roles to this extension, it's like ci5 on steroids. The one part which I have a hard time swallowing is the blood - specifically when Doyle puts his bloody fingers up to Bodie's mouth. I don't know, unless it's read as part of the 'show'... And there is certainly that frisson of unease - have they gone too far over the line? where do they stand, morally? - and I think it is really strong in this story, even though they actually do much *less* that could be considered 'immoral' than they do in other stories (Shooting to Kill, for example). Or do they? The thing is, that whatever you decide, they are equally in it, inseparable.
In any case, the link between them is really powerfully portrayed - and is not romantic in any way. Thanks for reccing this - a very thought provoking and challenging story.
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Date: 2008-05-25 12:29 pm (UTC)Wow! Can you imagine that?
As usual, brilliantly put, K. Thanks for your eloquence.