Comments | bellatrys: Not a Trick Question

bellatrys

Not a Trick Question

Jan 28, 2009 20:57

Canonically, there is one individual whom John Silver trusts in the whole world, by his own attestation. Without looking this up, what is:
a) this person's race?

b) this person's gender?

c) this person's relation to Silver?

So why aren't there more fanfic stories about them?--That wasn't part of the quiz. Or was it ( Read more... )

robert louis stevenson, history, genre, fiction, intersectionality

Comments 18

dsgood January 29 2009, 03:37:27 UTC

a) Black
b) Female
c) Scandalous crossing of racial lines

way worse than that-- bellatrys January 30 2009, 01:00:00 UTC

shacking-up wouldn't have been so scandalous, back then, in either pirate or lawful world (which were not as cut-and-dried apart anyways), but Mrs. Silver, running her husband's hotel and financial affairs in England and elsewhere? *Realms* of subversion, there!

badgerbag January 29 2009, 05:34:32 UTC

his wife, who was black...

bellatrys January 30 2009, 01:10:27 UTC

Got it in one!

badgerbag January 30 2009, 07:10:14 UTC

I just re-read it last week in the middle of the night - insomnia. It's a very intense book.

I think Kidnapped is one of the best novels ever for subtle character, humor, & fast pacing.

I think Stevenson is one of the underappreciated Greats bellatrys January 31 2009, 01:10:41 UTC

He does so much with the meta of unreliable/uncertain narrators, conveying multiple levels of information very succinctly, and creating memorable imagery as well as powerfully-vivid characters without letting the plot bog down - and he gets dismissed as "just a kids' author" --! (And he appreciated the meta, too - there's a hilarious bit of Treasure Island metafic that he did, where Captain Smollett comes and scolds RLS for making Silver rock more than him.)

I suspect that a lot of my *pickiness* when it comes to straight action/adventure stories is because internally I'm holding them up against books like TI or Kidnapped, and they're not measuring...

fledgist January 29 2009, 12:21:40 UTC

Why isn't there more fanfic? That's a very good question.

There's a novel about Ahab's wife, and we "know" less of her bellatrys January 30 2009, 00:43:05 UTC

--not to mention the intrinsic potential for Drama of all sorts, given the amount of history to mine and the bare outlines of the drama: where and how did they meet? Was she *also* a pirate, or not? What kind of interesting observations would such a double life, respectable (yet very foreign) Bristol matron/secret-sharer to John Silver, result in?

Could go *so* many ways, from what hints Stevenson gave us - which includes that she was able to handle anything, from running a combined bar/restaurant/hotel catering to sailors on her own, to dealing with the white male financial establishment, managing her husband's property in his absence...and not impressed by British aristocrats, either, as the Squire's words reveal, not too subtly.

--Of course you just *know* that a story about a black female pirate in an egalitarian marriage would bring screeches of "PC-gone-mad! PC-gone-mad!" like the echo of a sternchaser near a forest full of parrots...

Re: There's a novel about Ahab's wife, and we "know" less of her fledgist January 30 2009, 00:54:26 UTC

In this age, perhaps not. The world has changed considerably in little more than the twinkling of an eye.

We can hope-- bellatrys January 30 2009, 01:06:51 UTC

though I fear that the squawkers will need more time to soothe their anxious nerves...

Thread 7

lyorn January 29 2009, 15:22:54 UTC

... not really in the fandom, i.e., my knowledge of canon is "This story exists and there are pirates in it. And probably a parrot." Reading abridged versions for kids will do that to you. :-(

Going by vague memories the only fanfic I ever read, it was a black woman who ran an inn in Madagascar (?), and who he finally married. I had thought she was an OC.

oh dear~ bellatrys January 30 2009, 00:55:14 UTC

Reading abridged versions for kids will do that to you. :-(I had managed to forget that there *are* such abominations - the book was written for Stevenson's twelve-year-old stepson! :-( indeeed! Though yes, there is indeed a parrot, who swears like a sailor ( ... )

nimbrethil January 31 2009, 20:01:28 UTC

Aw, damn. I read Treasure Island for the first time just about a year ago or so, and I was altogether unimpressed. It took considerable effort to read through the story, as sometimes books can do, and I finished the last page wondering "Why, exactly, is Silver called by so many sources as one of literature's most fascinating villains?"

Now, I think I shall have to read it again.