I LOVE Patrick O'Brian.
Just into "Clarissa Oakes" (or, as it is in my edition, "The Truelove") now and I'm LAUGHING.
Basically, Jack has just found Clarissa in the cable-tiers and he's generally being annoyed with EVERYTHING, so that of course annoys him more. He's having a conversation with Stephen about it, asking Stephen why he didn't tell him (because of course the whole crew including Stephen knew but nobody told Jack) and Stephen says he's not an informer. So Jack gets more angry and ...well.
'Dear Jack,' said Stephen, 'if I did not know that your liver was speaking rather than your head or God preserve us your heart this righteous indignation and solemnity would grieve me, to say nothing of your broadside of first stones, for shame. As you told me yourself long ago the service is a sounding-box in which tales echo for ever, and it is perfectly well known throughout the ship that when you were about Oakes' age you were disrated and turned ebfore the mast for hiding a girl in that very part of the ship. Surely you must see that this pope-holy sanctimonious attitude has a ludicrous as well as unamiable side?'
'You may say what you please, but I shall turn them both ashore on Norfolk Island.'
At which point me turns the page quite unassumingly...
Pray take off your breeches and bend over that locker,' -- WHAT??? -- said Stephen, sending a jet from his enema through the open stern window.
Oh, my, God. And get this transition, IMMEDIATELY after the latter...
A little later, and from this position of great moral advantage, he went on [...] 'You may have old followers on board who might say My Captain, right or wrong; but you have no Marines, and I do not think the followers would prevail, with the community as it now stands and with its overriding sense of what is fair and right.
Count to three... 1.. 2.. 3.
You may put your breeches on again.'
'Damn you, Stephen Maturin.'
'And damn you, Jack Aubrey. Swallow this draught half an hour before retiring: the pills you may take if you do not sleep, which I doubt.'
*takes this all in, breathes deeply* So. Jack having been sexually frustrated - strangely only beginning to at the point when he was also beginning to feel jealous of Martin for spending time with Stephen - when he never complained about frustration before... what in the WORLD did Stephen do to him between "enema" and "a little later" that calmed him down and enabled him to sleep??
I LOVE Patrick O'Brian.
Crossposted to stephen_m and perfect_duet
Basically, Jack has just found Clarissa in the cable-tiers and he's generally being annoyed with EVERYTHING, so that of course annoys him more. He's having a conversation with Stephen about it, asking Stephen why he didn't tell him (because of course the whole crew including Stephen knew but nobody told Jack) and Stephen says he's not an informer. So Jack gets more angry and ...well.
'Dear Jack,' said Stephen, 'if I did not know that your liver was speaking rather than your head or God preserve us your heart this righteous indignation and solemnity would grieve me, to say nothing of your broadside of first stones, for shame. As you told me yourself long ago the service is a sounding-box in which tales echo for ever, and it is perfectly well known throughout the ship that when you were about Oakes' age you were disrated and turned ebfore the mast for hiding a girl in that very part of the ship. Surely you must see that this pope-holy sanctimonious attitude has a ludicrous as well as unamiable side?'
'You may say what you please, but I shall turn them both ashore on Norfolk Island.'
At which point me turns the page quite unassumingly...
Pray take off your breeches and bend over that locker,' -- WHAT??? -- said Stephen, sending a jet from his enema through the open stern window.
Oh, my, God. And get this transition, IMMEDIATELY after the latter...
A little later, and from this position of great moral advantage, he went on [...] 'You may have old followers on board who might say My Captain, right or wrong; but you have no Marines, and I do not think the followers would prevail, with the community as it now stands and with its overriding sense of what is fair and right.
Count to three... 1.. 2.. 3.
You may put your breeches on again.'
'Damn you, Stephen Maturin.'
'And damn you, Jack Aubrey. Swallow this draught half an hour before retiring: the pills you may take if you do not sleep, which I doubt.'
*takes this all in, breathes deeply* So. Jack having been sexually frustrated - strangely only beginning to at the point when he was also beginning to feel jealous of Martin for spending time with Stephen - when he never complained about frustration before... what in the WORLD did Stephen do to him between "enema" and "a little later" that calmed him down and enabled him to sleep??
I LOVE Patrick O'Brian.
Crossposted to stephen_m and perfect_duet