Mary Russell series discussion post

[lady_songsmith]

Because Twitter is not the forum for prolonged or nuanced discussions, behold a forum for all of your Mary Russell related thinky thoughts.

In the interests of not influencing the direction of discussion, I'll take mine to comments too rather than putting them here. :)

Comments

[intrikate88]

I'm just going to go ahead and start a thread on how we like our shipping, or not shipping.

Or if we like our shipping like we like our black coffee: with no sugar but plenty of energy and warmth.

(BTW: I've had this icon for years, titled 'waiting for Mary'.)

[lady_songsmith]

I'm anti-ship. It doesn't exactly bother me, in the later books: I find their affection and concern for one another sweet and believable. The references to the pleasures of the marriage bed are pretty much the only thing that jars me. I think I'm one of those asexual-Holmes people deep down, though I never really thought deeply on it while reading Holmes.

Still and all, I'd have preferred they not marry, or marry only to keep everyone and sundry from gossiping about the way they live together, travel together, sleep together, etc; and perhaps for the legalities of next-of-kin given how often they get hurt/vanish.

I don't especially see either of them as the marrying sort, and as I said on Twitter I don't see the relationship as a romance but only as a partnership. And the fact that they do marry -- I think that's what opens the floodgates on the Mary Sue accusations leveled at Russell. On which I have Thoughts, because I disagree vehemently, and on that note I shall open a thread for it.

(Also I need more icons.)

[intrikate88]

This series is literally the one and only thing that does not inspire very strong HOLMES IS ASEXUAL ALWAYS feelings in me. And only by a little. Even in this series I still think he's making just part of an exception because it's Russell.

I can't believe it's been five years? since I first read these books. Or, wait, no, I know when it was-- andi_horton came down for my college graduation and she pointed out Beekeeper's Apprentice at the library and then I checked out the first three, we went on a cruise, and I devoured all three before we were back on land. So that would have been May 2009. Still, a long time for me to remember first reactions

[lady_songsmith]

I can't decide how I feel about Irene and Damien. I sort of like Holmes bumbling around trying to figure out this fatherhood thing, and I could accept Damien as the product of a one-off, what-the-hell-were-we-thinking (or drinking) encounter, but I got the impression it was supposed to be a somewhat longer relationship? Not a whole LOT longer, but still.

And yes, I vastly, vastly prefer the notion of Holmes and Russell coming together solely to legitimize their existing partnership under the social mores of 1921. I can even accept the physical relationship under that heading -- fuckbuddies, essentially. Stress relief. Scratching the itch. Whatever you want to call it.

Except that's not really how it gets written, which drives me up a wall occassionally. Fortunately it's usually like, 1-2 sentences and I can sort of just unfocus my eyes and go 'lalala' in my head.

[intrikate88]

Well, as time and books go on, there's more of it being written That Way, and there are other things getting written ways and I'm not quite as fond of it all as the early books, but that is a whole other topic.

[lady_songsmith]

How do you feel about the more recent books? I was not a great fan of God of the Hive; I felt the ending was rushed and patched. I also didn't much care for Pirate -- too slapstick, too contrived. But Garment of Shadows was a nice return to the original flavor of the books and I enjoyed it quite a bit.

[intrikate88]

I have not really kept enough interest in the more recent books; I feel like LRK is either phoning it in or losing it or just somehow becoming a slightly cracky fic author to her own series. It started with The Game- that fell back on uncomfortable orientalist tropes, and then in Empty Rooms with the switch to Holmes' perspective: oh lord, please, people, stay AWAY from Holmes POV. Language of Bees/God of the Hive both felt like they were rushed and patchy, yeah, but mostly they felt like another draft was necessary and the editor just didn't send it back for a revision. It seriously felt about half-done, as a novel. I can't even remember if I read Pirate, honestly, and I haven't read Garment of Shadows yet, but if it's closer to the original then I might enjoy it

[lady_songsmith]

Hmm. I didn't mind the Holmes in Locked Rooms (have you read Beekeeping for Beginners?). The Game, yes, trope-y. Locked Rooms I enjoyed.

Language/God - half done is a very good description. The plot threads didn't tie up tightly and there were whole pieces that made me wonder what King was thinking.

You'd remember if you'd read Pirate. G&S and multiple-personality poets are memorable to say the least.

Interesting list of head canon stickiness, by the way. Mine would drop Regiment, and bring in Justice Hall. That one isn't going to leave me any time soon (bawling through the journal entries didn't hurt).