Hornblower and Bush--they even sound like the title of a porn film

[kindkit]

I've finished reading Lieutenant Hornblower, widely considered the slashiest of the Hornblower novels. This isn't surprising, since it's told from the POV of Hornblower's deeply enamored friend William Bush, he of the hand-caressing and stealth!snuggling.

Comments

[witling]

INORITE??!!

These books are insane. I cannot understand them. They're basically gay naval romances.

[kindkit]

And Forester doesn't even have the excuse of Victorian writers like Doyle, who might conceivably not have recognized the homoeroticism in their own works. It's hard to believe that Forester, writing in the 1930s-1950s, wouldn't have been aware of homosexuality and of how the Bush-Hornblower relationships might be read.

[vilakins]

I saw the Bush/Hornblower pairing come up on AO3 this week, and actually looked to see if the fic was yours. :-)

I have only read one Hornblower book, a collection of stories about him as midshipman. Going by the number of fans of the series, I should try more.

[kindkit]

I haven't really felt the urge to write in this fandom (not yet anyway). The amount of research required is a little daunting, for one thing. But I never dare to predict what I might write.

The books aren't the best things ever, by any means, but I do find Hornblower as a character interesting as well as the complicated Hornblower-Bush relationship. I'm reading them about 80% for the slash and 20% for character-love; since you're not really that interested in 'shippiness, I'm not sure they'd be your cup of tea. (Incidentally, at least judging by the amounts of fanfic, I think most Hornblower fans are fans of the TV series, which is a lot of fun but changes a lot from the books, especially Hornblower's personality.)

[vilakins]

Really? I did like him being introverted and unsure of himself; did they change that? I suppose it's hard to get internal stuff across on TV. That book was very scrappy with separate stories in each chapter; I should try another. I've also been recced the Master and Commander books which I must try, because I did like the film a lot.

[kindkit]

TV-verse Hornblower is a much less screwed-up person, much more in conventional heroic mold, although he still has some of the self-doubt and insecurity (and I think we see him become more and more damaged as the TV series goes on). But, as you said, it's hard to get those kind of emotional issues even visible on TV, much less workable. And bookverse Hornblower can be deeply unlikable at times; I can understand them not wanting to risk that when making an expensive TV show.

If you want to see Hornblower at his most messed up (and in some ways, IMO, his most interesting) read The Happy Return (aka Beat to Quarters). That was the first book Forester wrote in the series and the first one I read; it's part of a loose trilogy with its sequels A Ship of the Line and Flying Colours, and I enjoyed all three.

You also read according to internal chronology, in which case the next book is Lieutenant Hornblower, which is quite good in many ways. But it's narrated from Bush's POV rather than Hornblower's, as I mentioned, and in my opinion it's

[kindkit]

Cool, thanks for the links! Through more careful searching I've managed to start finding some good bookverse fic (I've been reading quigonejinn's stuff and loving it), but I'm very glad to find more.

I've been rewatching the TV series, which is now weird because my love for Bush makes me look with a colder eye on Kennedy, and yet of course it's impossible not to feel a bit awwwwww about Kennedy because he was specially designed to be the woobiest woobie EVER IN THE UNIVERSE.

Also: much love for your icon! Every once in a while on the show it's really obvious how little Paul McGann is compared to the other actors (I think when possible they stood him on a box, but they can't do that for long shots) and it makes me peculiarly squeeful.

[lullabee_lj]

I no longer can comprehend why so few people seem to be into short guys. It is so freaking cute how little McGann is. Just... awwwww. Every time I see a photo of him where they seem to have found a brand-new way to make him look like a little tiny person (there's a photo of him and three other guys who worked on the Eight audios, and he's near the center and posed kind of awkwardly like he's standing on tiptoe to put his arms around their shoulders, and I've been looking at metebelis3's picspam masterlist, where I know it is, to find it because it is crazy adorable but I am behaving like a person who has free time right now and I am not), I can't help grinning. Men are allowed to be cute too

[kindkit]

I like short guys!

The gender binary, I guess...

Yeah, I think so. It's all about masculinity = physical power, physical dominance, all that crap. And part of the reason I like short guys is that their masculinity is to some extent separated (freed?) from that simplistic equation, which makes it more interesting to me.

[caldosangue]

I have to confess I haven't read the Hornblower novels so far.

While looking for inspiration for a slash story set in the same era, I started to read some Hornblower slash stories.
And I have to confess -- this Archie already annoys me. Not as such -- but the combo.
Archie in itself is alright ^^ Heck, both are alright, but the pairing seems to enforces plots like
"Oh, seemingly we are stuck together in a prison cell / end up in the same bed / below deck / wherever -- hell, just let's make out."
or
"Oh, poor Horatio is a virgin, ... Archie can help." xD

I hope I will find time to read at least some of the books and write some slash of my own -- but it will NOT be fluffy, I promise.^^

[kindkit]

I'm okay with Archie in canon, although he's not my favorite, but I agree that there are a lot of fanfics that use him as the straightest route to the author's preferred romantic cliché.

[chrisisthelawr]

Hehe... this is better than Kirk/Spock.

[kindkit]

*grins* It's certainly even more "almost canonical" than Kirk/Spock, which is saying quite a bit.