RenaultX letter 2016
General thoughts
A few of my favorite things: dark comedy, witty banter, vivid imagery, subtlety, literary and cultural references, discussion of religious identity, retrospection and nostalgia and the sense of time having passed, context (social, economic, historical, geographic), local colour and period atmosphere, epigraphs, cross-cutting power dynamics in relationships, reading and research and intellectual characters, competence in specific spheres (medicine, theatre, farming, what you will), irony, comedies of manners, gentle mockery, stylish prose, amused reserve, appreciating the under-appreciated, bickering but devoted couples, codependence, ambiguity especially of the moral variety, social commentary, cultural differences, class differences, queerness with all its complexities in theory and practice (including bisexuality), domesticity if not too fluffy or sentimental, unreliable narrators, incurable romantics telling themselves they're sober rationalists, implied metacommentary, subversion of tropes, bittersweetness, imperfections, things unsaid, things understood, emotionally intense relationships that are not-quite-sexual or where the sexuality isn't acknowledged.
I have no triggers and in particular no issues with any level of medical detail or with descriptions of injury, illness or death. I prefer not to read explicit underage sex but have no problem with it being mentioned as a plot point. I am fine with depictions of sexism, homophobia, &c, as appropriate to the period and the storyline, and actually would prefer to see them acknowledged rather than ignored. (In short, I have a thing for realism.)
Vignettes of the "missing scene" or character study variety tend to interest me less than stories that present some shift in a character's attitudes or perceptions, though I know it can be hard to accomplish the latter in 1000 words. I'm equally happy to read lengthy surgical scenes or lengthy sex scenes - or anything in between - as long as they are firmly character-focused in a way that takes the character somewhere.
Sex scenes mainly interest me if they reveal the emotional dynamics of a relationship (and therefore I tend to prefer awkward and complicated to perfect and hot), but I could definitely be up for some sex-as-character-study, including kink as appropriate.
I will read all the Mary Renault moderns crossovers you can bring on, whether or not I've requested the novel(s) or character(s) concerned. For example, I would love to see Rollo and Christie acting with Julian, or Ralph somehow crossing paths with Leo Lane. (Love or hate? You decide.)
The Charioteer (Ralph Lanyon, Alec Deacon)
Two of my favourite characters here. I'd be happy to read about any of them either individually, together, or alongside other characters. When it comes to pairings I'm pretty catholic: Ralph/Alec, Ralph/Laurie, Alec/Sandy, Ralph/Andrew, Alec/Andrew... any and all, really, including Ralph's "two years of women." Gen would be equally welcome - though Alec might have other ideas!
I tend to prefer slightly darker takes on this fandom, but angst and suffering are not necessary if that's not your thing - more an avoidance of fluff and a recognition that things are shaded in tones of grey. I both like and respect Andrew, and do my best to like Sandy and Dave as well, so would prefer not to read wholly unsympathetic portrayals of them... or even of Bunny, simply because canon does that so well already.
• What if Laurie and Ralph's reunion had happened in a POW camp, or elsewhere in wartime?
• Alec getting up to a lot more at school than Ralph did. And perhaps telling Ralph the stories afterwards. But how much is he making up?
• Ralph at sea, whether his very early days, his exotic ports of call, his experiences on passenger liners, or what you will. Particularly if involving the queer scene at sea.
• Ralph really is an alcoholic. Maybe Laurie ends up addicted to painkillers as well.
• All the Ralph class-related angst, Plymouth Brethren forebears and all. How does his background affect his relationship with Bunny... or with Alec for that matter?
• I will never get tired of reading about Alec and Ralph's friendship; I have received lovely takes on this already but I'm asking for it again because I can always read more. In many ways I can see this as the most important relationship in both their lives. How does it develop in the years and decades following the book?
• Ralph goes back to the Merchant Marine after the war. How do his absences affect his relationship with Laurie? (Total relationship breakdown would be fascinating, as would winning through despite the odds.)
• Alec and Sandy's adventures in the Royal Army Medical Corps.
• Alec's future medical career. What specialty does he choose? The logical, prestigious path for someone as talented as Alec would be surgery, but I have a sneaking fondness for the idea that deep down he really wants to go into psychiatry. Alec as a psychiatrist in '50s London, at the height of the moral panic about gays? Yes, please.
Purposes of Love (Any)
Who wouldn't want to read more about Colonna, with her "precious public-school accent," her background in repertory theatre, her curling hair cut like a Greek's, her man's dressing gown with its brocade Chinese dragons, her inclination to "dress like Byron in the evenings and like a chorus boy during the day," and ability to "make love... tacitly, expertly, and with a finesse that made it the merest running commentary to the conversation"? I would be very happy to get fic about her set either before - her time at public school or on the stage - or after the novel. (I'm less interested in reading a missing scene, although I would make an exception for a more explicit illustration of her lovemaking skills!) Is Vivian right in thinking that she will go on to "dabble with Bloomsbury or the stage"? Or does she stay on as a nurse after all? And what happens to her during and after World War II?
The first few times I read the novel I completely missed the end of Colonna's relationship with Nurse Valentine. Knowing Mary Renault's penchant for poly relationships, I somehow imagine Valentine coming to Colonna the next day and saying "you didn't think a fling with a house physician would affect what's between you and me, did you?" But as you will with Valentine, as long as Colonna doesn't turn Tragic or Tormented. (And, in terms of Valentine backstory, there is always the Dreadful Baby episode.)
And what about Scot-Hallard? I'm probably the only reader of Purposes of Love who actually liked Scot-Hallard. Maybe liked is the wrong word entirely but I found him a compellingly vivid character. An arrogant seducer, yes, but an oddly ethical one. He doesn't put a great deal of effort into his affair with Vivian but he seems to view her as an equal participant in the game, and to be willing (more or less) to allow her to withdraw consent. "Your enjoyment is as essential as mine."
"Not to have understood a woman was a scientific defeat," the narrative continues. "Not to have been to bed with her was an inconvenience, easily repaired." It would be fascinating to see him encounter a more permanent scientific defeat, with a woman or otherwise; is there anything that could seriously challenge his outlook on life? Or it would be interesting to delve deeper into the dark side of Scot-Hallard - the sort of man for whom only war can provide an adequate outlet for his energies. Or Vivian's observation that "that he had pursued from woman to woman some expectation long grown weary, and was beginning to know in secret that its failure lay within himself."
With regard to Jan, Mic and Vivian I can't help but wish that the novel had been slightly different in its focus. I would gladly read more about Jan and Vivian's sibling relationship (slightly incestuous overtones optional), Vivian's relationship with the Rout, double-jointed excursions up the Rhine, as you will. A more triangular relationship between the three of them, with more exploration of Mic's transference of affections from Jan to Vivian? Jan and Mic at Cambridge? Mic's relationship with Colin Mansel (surely a distant cousin of the Shropshire Mansells)? Mic deciding to go out to India after all? His friendship with Rosenbaum or working relationship with Scot-Hallard?
And then there is Mary Hallows, who would be wonderful in conjunction with any of Renault's other theatrical characters. Or anyone else's theatrical characters, for that matter!
Return to Night (Hilary Mansell, Lisa Clare, Julian Fleming, Elaine Fleming, David)
In short I will read anything you want to write me about Return to Night. Anything. You can try me, I mean it.
If you are looking for more specific guidance, however, read on...
• All the Hilary/Lisa, always.
• Lisa and Rupert on the Continent, interwar. Diplomacy? Decadence in Berlin? Both? Neither?
• Rupert in the trenches: a crossover with any other WWI canon would be fascinating, particularly if it involved Rupert's satirical journalist's eye. Or does he run across Gareth Straike, or Richard Fleming, or Bertie Raynes? Or a farcical encounter with a horse would also be charming.
• David and Hilary: the rational pairing? Unfortunately I wrote myself into shipping this and now I want more. How did they get together? (All the details on the 'outstanding leaving do,' please, and naturally, whatever Renault tells us, they had sex that night.) How did it work when it did work? (Senses of humour and physical compatibility, yes.) What if they had stayed together? And/or if Hilary had got the surgical post instead of David? Or even an exploration of the 'French torso, English legs' comment. In short, more David, any David, for he is an epic jerk but a fascinating one.
• Hilary's lifelong love affair with nicotine.
• Julian as a boy. Ferret!fic? A crossover with the world of Cider with Rosie? (Rural Gloucestershire, similar period.)
• Hilary crosses paths with one or more of Renault's other doctor characters at a medical conference. (Very fond of Alec Deacon and Donald Scot-Hallard. Peter Bracknell has his points. Kit Anderson not so much but you can throw him in for good measure.) (Medical conference orgy v. much optional but I will keep mentioning it because the thought always amuses me.)
• Hilary's childhood and teen years: her relationship with her brother who was killed in the Great War, her schooldays, the mysterious "adolescent crisis." (Schoolgirl pashes please!) Or, a little later, the story of how she persuaded her parents to let her train as a doctor. Or what happened when she sprung Sam from school for the day.
• Instead of going to Gloucestershire, Hilary goes to the Barainpur Institute of Tropical Diseases, where she ends up working with Colin Mansel and Mic Freeborn.
• Anything about Hilary's career. Her training days, an exploration of her passion for surgery, her working relationship with Sanderson or with the staff at the Cottage Hospital, her feelings about her apparently extensive obstetrical practice, a specific complicated case or medical mystery...
• Comedy of manners about Hilary and Julian's engagement and wedding. All the local gossip and scandal. Or perhaps what Hilary's friends and family think of her sudden and unlikely marriage.
• Particulars of Julian's goddess worship or his attraction to older women (as relating to Hilary, obvs).
• Hilary and Julian still together years or decades later. (You could write them together in a nursing home, even, if the idea took your fancy.) How does their relationship, and Hilary's perspective on Julian, change as they both age?
• Crossover with a medical show: Hilary on Grey's Anatomy or Scrubs or Cardiac Arrest.
• We've already had a wonderful fic with a creepy and sinister Julian. Surely Hilary deserves the same treatment? Whether dubious medical ethics, her controlling side taking a turn for the worse, or simply the creepier implications of her thing for younger men... it's all good.
• Any outsider perspective on Hilary. From the disapproving eyes of Matron, Mrs Theobald or Mrs Fleming, to one of her medical mentors, to someone perhaps falling unexpectedly in love with her. I would adore any different viewpoint on Hilary, whether jaundiced, worshipful or anywhere in between. Lovingly detailed descriptions a must, whether they're loving or not!
• Elaine Fleming: make her deliciously horrible or make her misunderstood, both would be lovely. Give her a secret, torrid decade-old fling with Lisa Clare (it would explain a lot, no?). Send her, as
legionseagle once suggested, on a Mediterranean cruise where she can complain about her ungrateful son and his unspeakable bride. Show me in great detail how she manages to torment her daughter-in-law over years to come, or makes an unholy alliance with an eventual grandchild. Bring it on.
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