Love there that's sleeping

[selenak]

Title: Love there that's sleeping

Pairings: Paul/George as dysfunctional brothers; George/Ringo friendship; John/Paul implied

Rating: PG 13

Warnings: Cursing; events not in linear, chronological order (but as George remembers them)

Summary: George and Paul through the years.

Disclaimer: Everything is fiction and unowned by yours truly. Title

Comments

[larainefan]

Wow, thank you so much for writing this, it's so excellent!!!

Such as how you contrast Paul remembering meeting John, whereas George and Paul don't quite remember their meeting.

Poor Georgie and school! These sentences especially summed that up:
and suddenly the prospect of yet another dreary day in school where he hates all the teachers and is convinced they hate him isn’t quite as bad anymore.

Maybe it’s because Paul doesn’t doubt for a moment he’ll be welcome whereever he goes, while George is not. George is convinced half of the world consists of phoneys who are just out to get you, and they’ll probably be in the cinema as well, so he tries telling himself he won’t miss anything. It doesn’t work too well, and he slinks a bit further into his seat, feeling utterly miserable.

George comes across as so paranoid, but that perfectly captures the tragi-comedy of school-age angst, especially for bright but shy and socially awkward kids.

I'd never thought about it but you write as plausible an explanation as any, as to why George flubbed his Taxman solo, because he was trying too hard and cared too much. That is brilliantly deducted. And then his feelings towards Paul and George Martin; I love the way he was trying to beg Paul with mental telepathy but Paul wasn't being aware and ended up being condescending again.

And George marrying Pattie, who wasn't even pregnant, and the poignancy of him telling Paul about Louise's brain tumour. I can well imagine the How Do You Sleep sessions followed quite along those lines...and George, being concerned when Paul was in jail in Japan. I liked his line about "from burning condoms in Hamburg to this..." in fact, I could actually hear George and Paul's lines, in their voices. Great job with the dialogue.

I haven't forgotten about the Chris O'Dell book discussion, I have a couple of appointments in the next two days, it may be tomorrow or the next day, but I'll get to it! :)

[selenak]

Thank you for the lovely feedback. You're such a great George expert that I am extra glad you like the story.

George and school: "tragi-comedy of school-age angst" is an excellent way to sum it up. (Also, I was thinking of the way Paul's brother Mike described him in a 1965 article about their childhood and teenage years (Mike, like Paul and George, was at the Liverpool Institute): One of his new (i.e. Paul's) friends was George Harrison, who at this time was a bit of a joke at school because he wore his hair so long. And the more the kids laughed and jeered, the longer George let his hair grow. I think in the end he'd have let it grow below his knees if they hadn't all got fed up and left off jeering at him.

Glad the Taxman solo flub explanation made sense; it was the most psychologically sound I could think of.

the poignancy of him telling Paul about Louise's brain tumour

Finding out that Louise was diagnosed while the Abbey Road sessions were still going on and that George did tell Paul first was what started this entire fic, and then I remembered a lot of other useful incidents, such as the wedding complete with bow and arrow adventure and George sending a supportive telegram during the Japan incident. And of course I always wondered what was going on inside George during the How Do You Sleep? sessions, and never found anything, when I thought this was a subject just begging to be explored...