[drabbles] for gileonnen

[angevin2]

This is in fact not, as the word count reveals, a drabble at all. Also, I think it is the purplest piece of prose I have ever written.

Title: Scarlet Indignation
Fandom: Shakespeare Richard II
Character(s)/Pairing(s): King Richard, solus
Rating: PG
Word Count: 458
Warnings: self-injury, theorizing about kingship, anachronistic heraldry, excessive

Comments

[lareinenoire]

Oh, I love this. I love how dark Richard's thought are, and how dark they've always been -- that he's always associated the crown with death in a way (which, of course, makes perfect sense in the context of coronation imagery).

Though my favourite bit was his realisation that even though he has been crowned, has been anointed, and is technically meant to be one with the land, the land itself has turned against him by standing by and letting Bolingbroke take the throne. Of course he'd see it as a betrayal.

[angevin2]

Indeed! I mean, that's kind of in the text and I just pulled it out a little bit more (actually the phrase "revolting land" is lifted right out of Shakespeare).

I have a tendency, when I write Richard, to make him really morbid: I'm not sure why, though he was very fascinated with reinterring people. I'm glad you think it works!

[gileonnen]

Ohgoodness, and I didn't even comment on the awesome crown/thorns/Christ imagery. O__O Thank you for pointing this out for its awesomeness. (Also, love the idea of the crown as in some way organic, in some way alive.)

[angevin2]

I always tell my students that the histories make a lot of sense if you assume the crown behaves a lot like Tolkien's One Ring, although that's not really what I'm doing here at all!

[gileonnen]

Well--I'm happy to have it. The thought processes here are fascinating to watch, the doubts and the magic of it all tied to a fundamental uncertainty over the ability to exert control--and of course you'd pick up on that, this is your play, but that's really what struck me about the myth and mysticism of Shakespeare's rendition. Everyone wants to control the mythical imaginary of the people, to be the ones to determine what the signs signify and to be the ones to water the earth with blood; they want that magic, that myth, that certainty because this is a time when all that is certain is being tipped upon its head and the mystical legitimacy of the king must be transferred or taken somehow before it vanishes utterly. That fear, that need for confirmation (even the pinch of the thorn that proves one isn't dreaming, the well of blood that proves one has body and blood) is an important element of the play, and I really love what you've done with it here

[angevin2]

I am so glad you like it -- I just absolutely adore the fics you've written for me. Which also, as you mention, set off the theme for this one in my head (and of course roses in medieval symbolism are so overdetermined -- nobility and transience and Christ-imagery, and they all fit here, as well as the foreshadowing of the Wars of the Roses, though I didn't want to lean on that, because I figured that anyone who'd read histories!fic would get it).

the well of blood that proves one has body and blood

I'm very interested in the physicality of the royal body as the play handles it -- I've always been really interested in Richard's line "no hand of blood and bone / Can gripe the sacred handle of our sceptre / Unless he do profane, steal, or usurp," because, okay, Richard, what are your hands made of exactly? And of course blood is also overdetermined and this is one of the major themes of the histories. (One of the lines I cut out had Richard placing his bleeding finger to his lips and wondering if the metaphorical value of his blood

[gileonnen]

Yeah--that was probably why I had to be pretty bloody vague. Because you're right, roses are overdetermined ... so actually the best way for me to use them is just to refuse to determine them at all and let 'em be roses for a bit. (Which people can then read into as they like.)

Oooh, I had forgotten that line--and I tried to articulate what it was that fascinated me, but you know, I was just reiterating what you said here. So, yay Lea's awesome analysis of her own metaphor and what to do with its overdetermined qualities!

XD Clearly theirs is a True and Destined Love! (I should totally write you that. Because, as we have previously mentioned, Sex and Epic.)

[angevin2]

I think, too, that the original medieval-flavored setting makes it easier to pull out the specifics of the symbolism -- it's at the forefront in that time period in a way it probably wouldn't be for a 20th-century individual. Or something like that.

Also: Shakespeare's Richard is clearly really bothered by the whole King's Two Bodies thing, because the body natural is inconvenient in a way, or it doesn't fit, or whatever. I mean, look at how his most famous speech ends:

I live with bread like you, feel want,
Taste grief, need friends -- subjected thus,
How can you say to me I am a king?

So when I write him he tends to be both frustrated and fascinated by corporeality.

Clearly theirs is a True and Destined Love! (I should totally write you that. Because, as we have previously mentioned, Sex and Epic.)

OMG YES. BECAUSE THAT = SO DAMN HOT.

(Also the POV thing works -- I was just telling lareinenoire -- because they are both doomed, and Hotspur is short-sighted and Richard overanalytical, and those are fairly opposite qualities but both

[highfantastical]

This is awesome (naturally, everything you do for RII is great!). I love its very definite Shakespeare-verse elements, they're so well-used. It's gorgeous.

Also I have a secret (well, until now) love for SI fic, which is way too rare. So yet another reason to love this. Which I do. ♥

[angevin2]

Richard-in-my-head has a bit of a morbid fascination for making himself bleed: hand him something pointy and he will fondle it. Actually I figured that out by writing this fic.

[highfantastical]

That's brilliant. I also love the way so many facets of your!Richard[s] can be traced back to real details, e.g. you mention the re-interments above.

Oh help, I cannot say even vaguely intelligent things tonight. Basically I just love this fic. Richard SO WOULD fondle pointy things.

HE SO WOULD.

[angevin2]

It sounds so filthy when you put it that way.

I APPROVE.

[angevin2]

Awwwww, thank you! I picked at it a lot, I have to admit. Richard POV wants difficult prose.

[speak_me_fair]

Oh GOD imagery. That is beautiful - for me it's the bay trees, because I've always had a thing for bay tree imagery, but all the Christ parallels and the different thorns are absolutely amazing.

This is the line that caught at me most:

his own voice in his ears, invoking the aid of a barren shore, a revolting land which chokes its own issue.

because for me that was the ultimate twisted mirror to Gaunt's speech, and I adore those 'other perspective' moments.

&hearts

[angevin2]

*blushes* Thank you! The bay trees and the "revolting land" are, of course, right out of the text, but most of the stuff in this fic is, so. I am glad it works for you.

The play is, actually, full of ripostes to Gaunt's speech, I think -- Carlisle has the most obvious one (with 'cursed earth' mirroring 'blessed plot'), but the gardeners as well, and of course even Gaunt's depiction of England is weird and slippery especially when you think of the play's context, where it's an England that is dying and simultaneously doesn't yet exist. OMG PLAY I LOVE YOU.

[speak_me_fair]

Yes, but it's the way you USE all that stuff!

AMAZING PLAY IS AMAZING.

[angevin2]

*grins* Well, thank you! This is one of the nice things about writing fic about one's dissertation texts. Perhaps next I shall write some Woodstock fic. (actually next I am going to write the Aumerle fic I told you I'd write, or some of the other ficlets I owe people from this meme.)

AND YES. YES IT IS. &hearts &hearts &hearts