More Sharpe and Why Fandoms Hit
My Sharpe consumption is continuing unabated. I jumped out of order last night because I discovered all of Sharpe's Challenge, the final episode so far, online on YouTube and couldn't resist. I sat up quite late until I got to a part that was so satisfying to me I could bear to stop for a few hours, went to bed and then finished it off this morning.
Harper says to Sharpe, who he's calling by his first name now, "Listen. I'd follow you through the gates of hell if you gave me the word..." It's in the last 20 seconds of this clip if you've either already seen it and would like to revisit it, or if you're like me and are happy enough to cherry-pick the best bits without too much regard for continuity. I've probably watched it 20 times already.
Parts of this episode are over my gore threshold again, though, and I had to watch from the hallway with my hands over my face, peeking through my fingers. I can't really bear to see this kind of thing on a big screen (special_trille, please take note when you're determining my in-cinema viewing). I've never built up any kind of resistance to torture scenes, nor do I want to, so I'm just going to keep not seeing them.
This Sharpe's Challenge songvid, to Dashboard Confessional's Vindicated, is quite good, or at least it compelled me to watch the whole episode on YouTube and I like the song. I now have a slight dilemma because the notes to the vid say, "There's some...slashy undertones between Sharpe and Harper, very intentional. Those who have seen the commentary will understand." Of course it's now imperative that I hear the commentary. I can find exactly two copies of the special edition set with the commentary for sale online for 20 and 30 pounds respectively, which is crazy, right? No sane person would pay 20 pounds plus shipping for one episode plus some commentary. Or would they? I'm a very low-budget kind of fan and over the last few years have found our local slash group birthday and Christmas present system perfectly adequate for my DVD needs, but I've just had my birthday and Christmas is a long way off. Maybe I should lash out.
There's no way to contact a YouTube account holder other than by setting up an account yourself and posting a comment, is there? I wish to email this person and they don't seem to be on LJ!
At last weekend's slash gathering, blue_pax kindly dragged out of storage her box containing all the Sharpe books, and I skim-read about seven of them (totally out of order, looking for the best bits!) in a very anti-social fashion in the fading light (I thought it was somehow more polite not to turn on the light and make it even more obvious that I was READING, not socialising!). I borrowed only the first one, thinking that differences between the books and movies might bother me if I don't finish my watching first, but by Tuesday night I was at the city library near my mother's for one with Harper in it. Up late again skim-reading out of order, then I sat in a noisy car park reading it properly on Wednesday after an appointment, because it was more important to me to finish it right there and then than to either go to work (I had a very casual arrangement for work that day, so it's not as bad as it sounds) or even move to a more pleasant location.
I'm puzzling over what makes something suddenly hit with that full obsessive force, when you've known it was there for some time and treated it with indifference. I watched most of Sharpe in 2005 (thanks, LJ), before Sharpe's Challenge was made, really enjoyed most of it, but then got a bit derailed by a few things I didn't like, and never saw a few of the episodes or read the books I borrowed and which sat around the house for months. Then in 2006, there was a slash weekend away I couldn't attend due to a wedding, at which I know people watched Sharpe's Challenge, but I didn't follow it up and try to see it later, even though I'd loved the final two episodes when I saw them the year before. Whyever not? Why now?
I tried to get sarren to answer this question recently with regard to The Persuaders. I knew she'd watched and loved it long before getting as enamoured of it as she was recently, and I hunted back through three years of her LJ to try to figure out why it didn't take hold quite as strongly back then. That was fun - I kept sending comments on old entries, sure I was getting closer to finding where she'd mentioned Persuaders before, and she was sure I wouldn't find any such thing, but find it I did. She even described the sofa scene! But did I say, "Wow, I must see that? When can I come over?" No. Did she tie me up and force me to watch? No! And, perplexingly, at the time she was much more interested in Champions. It's very strange.
I can certainly understand why I'm enjoying Sharpe so much now, in any case. In both the books and in the movies, he keeps quite brusquely encapsulating my own feelings and philosophy of life, which is kind of narcissistically self-reinforcing. (From Sharpe's Battle, movie version: Harper says, "Not everything in this world has to make sense," to which Sharpe replies forcefully, "Yes it does, Pat! That's how you and me live! We're practical men, not bloody dreamers!") And I love Harper's unquestioned loyalty and service to Sharpe, which he seems to get a lot of enjoyment from himself. One of my favourite scenes is from Sharpe's Siege, where Sharpe finds Harper has set up his tent and made tea after playing a bit of a joke on Sharpe. He smiles into the darkness and says, "Thank you, Patrick." Harper appears and says quite sincerely, "No need to thank me, sir. It's an absolute pleasure." It is a pleasure to serve when you find someone worth serving, and that comes through in everything Harper does.
Harper says to Sharpe, who he's calling by his first name now, "Listen. I'd follow you through the gates of hell if you gave me the word..." It's in the last 20 seconds of this clip if you've either already seen it and would like to revisit it, or if you're like me and are happy enough to cherry-pick the best bits without too much regard for continuity. I've probably watched it 20 times already.
Parts of this episode are over my gore threshold again, though, and I had to watch from the hallway with my hands over my face, peeking through my fingers. I can't really bear to see this kind of thing on a big screen (special_trille, please take note when you're determining my in-cinema viewing). I've never built up any kind of resistance to torture scenes, nor do I want to, so I'm just going to keep not seeing them.
This Sharpe's Challenge songvid, to Dashboard Confessional's Vindicated, is quite good, or at least it compelled me to watch the whole episode on YouTube and I like the song. I now have a slight dilemma because the notes to the vid say, "There's some...slashy undertones between Sharpe and Harper, very intentional. Those who have seen the commentary will understand." Of course it's now imperative that I hear the commentary. I can find exactly two copies of the special edition set with the commentary for sale online for 20 and 30 pounds respectively, which is crazy, right? No sane person would pay 20 pounds plus shipping for one episode plus some commentary. Or would they? I'm a very low-budget kind of fan and over the last few years have found our local slash group birthday and Christmas present system perfectly adequate for my DVD needs, but I've just had my birthday and Christmas is a long way off. Maybe I should lash out.
There's no way to contact a YouTube account holder other than by setting up an account yourself and posting a comment, is there? I wish to email this person and they don't seem to be on LJ!
At last weekend's slash gathering, blue_pax kindly dragged out of storage her box containing all the Sharpe books, and I skim-read about seven of them (totally out of order, looking for the best bits!) in a very anti-social fashion in the fading light (I thought it was somehow more polite not to turn on the light and make it even more obvious that I was READING, not socialising!). I borrowed only the first one, thinking that differences between the books and movies might bother me if I don't finish my watching first, but by Tuesday night I was at the city library near my mother's for one with Harper in it. Up late again skim-reading out of order, then I sat in a noisy car park reading it properly on Wednesday after an appointment, because it was more important to me to finish it right there and then than to either go to work (I had a very casual arrangement for work that day, so it's not as bad as it sounds) or even move to a more pleasant location.
I'm puzzling over what makes something suddenly hit with that full obsessive force, when you've known it was there for some time and treated it with indifference. I watched most of Sharpe in 2005 (thanks, LJ), before Sharpe's Challenge was made, really enjoyed most of it, but then got a bit derailed by a few things I didn't like, and never saw a few of the episodes or read the books I borrowed and which sat around the house for months. Then in 2006, there was a slash weekend away I couldn't attend due to a wedding, at which I know people watched Sharpe's Challenge, but I didn't follow it up and try to see it later, even though I'd loved the final two episodes when I saw them the year before. Whyever not? Why now?
I tried to get sarren to answer this question recently with regard to The Persuaders. I knew she'd watched and loved it long before getting as enamoured of it as she was recently, and I hunted back through three years of her LJ to try to figure out why it didn't take hold quite as strongly back then. That was fun - I kept sending comments on old entries, sure I was getting closer to finding where she'd mentioned Persuaders before, and she was sure I wouldn't find any such thing, but find it I did. She even described the sofa scene! But did I say, "Wow, I must see that? When can I come over?" No. Did she tie me up and force me to watch? No! And, perplexingly, at the time she was much more interested in Champions. It's very strange.
I can certainly understand why I'm enjoying Sharpe so much now, in any case. In both the books and in the movies, he keeps quite brusquely encapsulating my own feelings and philosophy of life, which is kind of narcissistically self-reinforcing. (From Sharpe's Battle, movie version: Harper says, "Not everything in this world has to make sense," to which Sharpe replies forcefully, "Yes it does, Pat! That's how you and me live! We're practical men, not bloody dreamers!") And I love Harper's unquestioned loyalty and service to Sharpe, which he seems to get a lot of enjoyment from himself. One of my favourite scenes is from Sharpe's Siege, where Sharpe finds Harper has set up his tent and made tea after playing a bit of a joke on Sharpe. He smiles into the darkness and says, "Thank you, Patrick." Harper appears and says quite sincerely, "No need to thank me, sir. It's an absolute pleasure." It is a pleasure to serve when you find someone worth serving, and that comes through in everything Harper does.