So I'm reading War and Peace right now, I can't help but think...
...that even though the characters are clearly straight with all that whiny, upper class romance (they resemble angsty teenagers if anything) that the tvtrope of 'hide your lesbian' somehow applies. Like for example there's this part of the story which I can't help but interpret as very very femmeslashy even though both the female characters are involved in a het love triangle...
Prince Andrew's last days had bound Princess Mary and Natasha together; this new sorrow brought them still closwer to one another. (Umm, okay so this is slowly playing out as one of those yuri hurt/comfort scenarios?) Princess Mary put off her departure, and for three weeks looked after Natasha as if she had been a sick child. The last weeks passed in her brother's bedroom had strained Natasha's physical strength.
One afternoon noticing Natasha shivering with fever, Princess Mary took her to her own room and made her lie down on the bed. Natasha lay down, but when Princess Mary had drawn the blinds and was going away she called her back.
"I don't want to sleep, Mary, sit by me a while" (Gao's personal interpreatation on this scene)
"You are tired-try to sleep"
"No, No. Why did you bring me away? She will be asking for me"
"She is much better. She spoke so well today," said Princess Mary.
Natasha lay on the bed in the semidarkness of the room scanned Princess Mary's face.
(Okay so this is fairly mundane so far and then we get to this. Which for the untrained mind it would seem like some sort of dialogue straight out of the L Word or something)
"Is she like him?" thought Natasha. "Yes, like and yet not like. But she is quite original, strange, new, and unkown. And she loves me. What is in her heart? All that is good. But how? What is her mind like? What does she think about me? Yes she is splendid!"
"Mary," she said timidly, drawing Princess Mary's hand to herself (Femmeslash Flag triggered), "Mary, you mustn't think me wicked. No? Mary darling, how I love you! Let us be quite, quite friends."
(Umm, kay. Yeaaaah just friends. The power of their 'friendship' if it really is stil that is clearly demonstrated in the next two paragraphs)
And Natasha, embracing her, began kissing her face and hands, making Princess Mary feel shy but happy by this demonstration of her feelings.
From that day a tender and passionate friendship such as exists only between woman was established between Princess Mary and Natasha. They were continually kissing and saying tender things to one another (*spits out coffee* Why does this chapter sound so damn homoerotic?) and spent most of their time together. When one went out the other became restless and hastened to rejoin her. Together they felt more in harmony with one another than either of them felt with herself when alone. a feeling stronger than friendship sprang up between them; an exclusive feeling of life being possible only in each other's presence.
Uh yeah. If you are thinking by now that the two of them are actually 'like that' I'm not surprised. Even I was thinking Tolstoy has heavily laced this with subtext that can be interpreted in the wrong way even knowing that the characters are straight (although admittedly I read it for the Napoleonic Wars and not the sappy romance). And then there was the part where Sonya comforted Natasha with a kiss by asking her to kiss. Wow. Did women really showed their affections as such to one another in 18th century Tsarist Russia? Because if they did...the Russians were even worse then the French.
Prince Andrew's last days had bound Princess Mary and Natasha together; this new sorrow brought them still closwer to one another. (Umm, okay so this is slowly playing out as one of those yuri hurt/comfort scenarios?) Princess Mary put off her departure, and for three weeks looked after Natasha as if she had been a sick child. The last weeks passed in her brother's bedroom had strained Natasha's physical strength.
One afternoon noticing Natasha shivering with fever, Princess Mary took her to her own room and made her lie down on the bed. Natasha lay down, but when Princess Mary had drawn the blinds and was going away she called her back.
"I don't want to sleep, Mary, sit by me a while" (Gao's personal interpreatation on this scene)
"You are tired-try to sleep"
"No, No. Why did you bring me away? She will be asking for me"
"She is much better. She spoke so well today," said Princess Mary.
Natasha lay on the bed in the semidarkness of the room scanned Princess Mary's face.
(Okay so this is fairly mundane so far and then we get to this. Which for the untrained mind it would seem like some sort of dialogue straight out of the L Word or something)
"Is she like him?" thought Natasha. "Yes, like and yet not like. But she is quite original, strange, new, and unkown. And she loves me. What is in her heart? All that is good. But how? What is her mind like? What does she think about me? Yes she is splendid!"
"Mary," she said timidly, drawing Princess Mary's hand to herself (Femmeslash Flag triggered), "Mary, you mustn't think me wicked. No? Mary darling, how I love you! Let us be quite, quite friends."
(Umm, kay. Yeaaaah just friends. The power of their 'friendship' if it really is stil that is clearly demonstrated in the next two paragraphs)
And Natasha, embracing her, began kissing her face and hands, making Princess Mary feel shy but happy by this demonstration of her feelings.
From that day a tender and passionate friendship such as exists only between woman was established between Princess Mary and Natasha. They were continually kissing and saying tender things to one another (*spits out coffee* Why does this chapter sound so damn homoerotic?) and spent most of their time together. When one went out the other became restless and hastened to rejoin her. Together they felt more in harmony with one another than either of them felt with herself when alone. a feeling stronger than friendship sprang up between them; an exclusive feeling of life being possible only in each other's presence.
Uh yeah. If you are thinking by now that the two of them are actually 'like that' I'm not surprised. Even I was thinking Tolstoy has heavily laced this with subtext that can be interpreted in the wrong way even knowing that the characters are straight (although admittedly I read it for the Napoleonic Wars and not the sappy romance). And then there was the part where Sonya comforted Natasha with a kiss by asking her to kiss. Wow. Did women really showed their affections as such to one another in 18th century Tsarist Russia? Because if they did...the Russians were even worse then the French.