Gaudy Night - Chapters 3--4

[antisoppist]

Brief synopsis

Chapter 3

Last day of the Gaudy. Miss Lydgate is drowning in typefaces and really really needs the invention of WYSIWYG word processing for which she will have to wait another 60 years. That said, she would be the sort to cover the final pdf with last-minute changes in electronic sticky notes and still have DTP departments everywhere

Comments

[nineveh_uk]

When I was doing my masters a Swiss German student (who looked like Rupert Everett, but younger, more golden and glowing, and straight) used to sunbathe naked on the accommodation block roof. It was quite a shock to the person who first discovered this. I think we can assume that the knickers were what M&S would now sell as full briefs. Maybe the first years only had school swimming costumes and thought bras and pants were preferable? Though I feel Sayers misses a trick in not having Peter walk upon the scene.

I find the non-flat-visiting reasonably convincing, as if Peter’s prepared to take advantage of Harriet's socialized politeness to get her to come out for dinner, but he isn’t prepared to do the same in order to get his foot through the door of her flat, which is both more personally intrusive and has rather more relationship implications*. Likewise inviting her to his flat might suggest an obligation to reciprocate in a way that gender conventions mean paying for dinner out doesn’t. In all her years of being grateful to Peter, Harriet never gets angsty over “And he’s spent hundreds of pounds on taking me out” - if she did, we would surely hear about it.

Re. the post-MMA wibble, either Bunter must invite H. in, as he explains about it being post-case-lurgy and doesn't do this in P's presence, or H. must ring up to see how Peter is. I tend to assume the former.

*Interesting that he goes to her lodgings and hotel routinely in HHC, but I suppose that is temporary and less personal (and supervised). She never goes to his room.

[antisoppist]

if she did, we would surely hear about it.
That is very true. But I wish she did. Why are meals OK but Christmas presents not?

I can see that Peter thinks he needs to "give her space", or whatever the 1930s equivalent was, and that flats have Connotations, but they get on well when they are scouring beaches, plotting alibis and cracking codes together in HHC and it's a pity that otherwise they are limited to these formal outings that don't seem all that successful. For years.

The fact that Harriet's rooms in HHC don't count also occurred to me in the middle of the night.

[lsellersfic]

Why are meals OK but Christmas presents not?

Off the top of my head it's because Peter gets Harriet's company out of a meal (which he wouldn't otherwise) while he gets nothing from a Christmas present. Harriet's attitudes to her meals with Peter, IIRC, are very complex but there's definitely a sense that she perceives them as something she does for him.

[nineveh_uk]

Meals seem to count as hospitality, requiring no reciprocation - presents otherwise. (And I think at the period giving a woman a present generally presumes a relationship - hence that Harriet doesn't just say no thanks politely, but writes a "stinging rebuke".)

[ibmiller]

I would also add that Harriet seems to really enjoy Peter's company in that "no-I'm-not-in-love-with-him-but-have-sex-dreams-of-him-what's-that-all-about" kind of way, but while you can tell yourself that meals are just polite, spending time in one's own place is much harder to justify to that river in Egypt.

Or maybe I'm just obsessed with Harriet being unconsciously in love with Peter.

[antisoppist]

as something she does for him.
Thank you off the top of your head. That does make sense and fits very well with "If you could put up with me occasionally, as you have done to-night, I should be very grateful to you".

[nineveh_uk]

it's a pity that otherwise they are limited to these formal outings that don't seem all that successful. For years.

Maybe one of the things that makes things easier in HHC is that they've actually got an excuse to be spending time together that isn't about "them". They can ring one another up and drop by Harriet's lodgings or go out for the day and even dance(repeatedly), and it's all justified by being about the case so they don't have to be thinking all the time "If I suggest/agree to this, what does it imply, what will s/he think?".

I love the bit in the adaptation of HHC with Mrs LeFranc saying she doesn't object to gentlemen friends as long as there's no trouble.

[antisoppist]

*nods*

Also curse the adaptation because I now think of the Row being at Mrs LeFranc's when in fact it's in Harriet's room at the Resplendent.

Harriet is in his hotel suite in HHC (ch 31) but so are two policemen, and there's Bunter in the bedroom next door so it isn't exactly unchaperoned.

[nineveh_uk]

I now think of the Row being at Mrs LeFranc's when in fact it's in Harriet's room at the Resplendent

Me too. It is very confusing. And it's Mrs L's that Peter races round to post the Weldon=Martin revelation, not the hotel bar.

I'd forgotten about Peter's hotel for the end, too. Greater love hath no man than he stays in the second-best hotel in town.

[nineveh_uk]

Completely belatedly, Harriet's room in Shrewsbury doesn't count, either. H. doesn't initially take Peter there for the sake of appearances, and he asks later if he can come up or if it is not approved by others, but they don't seem to have any personal qualms* and rapidly get over the social ones.

*Possibly because as H. points out to Miss Hillyard it is far too inconvenient to actually mean anything, and they both know that if Peter _is_ going to seduce H. he's not going to do it somewhere with a single bed and no men's lavatories.

[antisoppist]

with a single bed and no men's lavatories
And neighbouring students able to hear through the wall.

It must all be more about Harriet's territory and public v private space.