fic: "A Profession of Lies" (Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy movieverse)

[kindkit]

Title: A Profession of Lies
Fandom: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (2011 film)
Characters: Peter Guillam, Jim Prideaux
Rating: Teen
Warnings: ( skip) Mention of suicidal thoughts, period-appropriate homophobic language.Word count: 2726

Comments

[mcicioni]

This is wonderful. Irrational response: it moved me deeply, to my guts, in ways that link to episodes of my life that cannot be told 'at this juncture'. Rational response: your Peter and Jim sound totally authentic. Will verify after seeing the film (in 12 hours' time).

Will print this one out and keep it. I wonder how much there is of yourself in your (I repeat, totally in-character) Peter. But probably, like my own resonances, that story can't be told.

[kindkit]

Thank you! I hope you enjoyed the film. I had mixed feelings about it, although I liked it better on second viewing, when I was more able to get past my "OMG IT WASN'T LIKE THAT IN THE BOOK" reactions.

[lathaina]

oh yes, I was wondering about the Jim Prdeaux/Bill Haydon relationship....

this was utterly depressing. congrats.

[kindkit]

Er . . . thanks? It's a bleak little film, I think (more so in some respects than the book), and I think it leaves Jim Prideaux in particular in a place of utter despair. I might try to write him out of it, but I also really wanted to write him at that point and to see what he and Peter (whose personal life was also ruined by Circus business) might have to say to each other.

[lathaina]

I think it's great that you're writing fic for this tiny tiny fandom. I read nearly all the fills that I could find on AO3 last night (till the early hours of this morning). Why aren't more people writing for this rather precious little fandom?! :(

It was beautifully shot, though. Is there any news of a sequel? I would be very interested in watching a sequel. It made twice the amount of money that was spent on making the film, so perhaps not.... :(

[kindkit]

I've heard nothing about a sequel. It's hard to imagine where they'd go. Le Carré did write some books featuring some of the same characters (Smiley, Guillam) but they focus on quite different issues and aren't really sequels as such, except for the whole Smiley vs. Karla thing.

[halotolerant]

As you know, I think this is wonderful story - plausible and heart-wrenchingly in-character, dealing with things Le Carre leaves us wondering about, and also opening that tiny piece of connection and possibility that I love so much. As always, you tell the story so - 'efficiently' sounds cold, which is wrong, but the way you set an emotional tone with sparse, understated words and give us so much with implication is brilliant. These are not men given to extended declarations, but you have placed them in a rare situation where they can and will open up that small amount, and that is so very interesting and perhaps a large part of what I find compelling in this pairing. As I said in beta, once the film made Guillam gay, this interaction was crying out to be considered (at least I thought so!) and you've done it so very *right*

[kindkit]

Thank you so much! I'm even more glad than usual that you liked this one, since it seems to have gone down like the proverbial lead balloon with almost everyone else.

you set an emotional tone with sparse, understated words

I'm always trying to do more with less, and in particular to let dialogue do more without trying to over-explain it. (Occasionally I feel like I ought to challenge myself in the other direction and try to do more with more, see if I can develop a really rich prose style like my idol China Miéville.) Jim Prideaux, in the book and even more in the film, is very silent and stoic, and Peter's got a bit of that same quality, in part because they're both closeted, they're both constantly having to not say things, not reveal things. And what Peter does express, he tends to express wordlessly. So it made sense for this story to be fairly spare, verbally.

[gaedhal]

Making him gay was a brilliant step -- and it works emotionally. This
kind of fic underlines WHY it works. The "ultimate secret" in those
days that really wouldn't have been a secret at all. The Cambridge
Spies were mostly "bent" and there was both a fear & acceptance
within intelligence communities, especially considering that they
did most of their recruiting from public schools and Oxford &
Cambridge!

[ss_ophelia]

Thank you so much for this! It's the fic I didn't know I wanted after seeing the film. I love how the ways both Peter and Jim's lives have been blown up by the Circus is lain against a backdrop of how it made them exactly the men they are. It's like, they're both so used to lying that neither needs to tell any kind of truth. That's not terribly coherent, sorry, but I adore this so much and can't wait to read anything else you write for TTSS.

[kindkit]

Thank you so much!

I've written a couple of TTSS bookverse fics which you can find here, but no other movieverse stories so far.

[ss_ophelia]

I'll certainly check those out; thanks!

[haveloved]

This is truly sad, but you handled it so wonderfully. I've been in such a Bill/Jim mood lately, and Peter crying over Michael leaving in the film made me ache, and it never really occurred to me that Jim and Peter would be able to relate to each other in some small way. I loved the little details you interspersed about Bill in the past, like the way he'd read to Jim and the comment he made about Peter's tie (I spent half the film staring at that tie, I loved it so much, but I'd never even considered the way it might have looked to the others during that era).

I loved the simplicity of this, too, the way speaking in the present tense makes so much difference. I'll be bookmarking it and returning to it often. Thank you.

[kindkit]

Thank you!

I spent half the film staring at that tie, I loved it so much, but I'd never even considered the way it might have looked to the others during that era

I'm not sure that in the real world people would have interpreted it as a sign of queerness. But in the film, I do think it's used to symbolize something. Peter wears that tie in almost every scene he's in, right up until the end when we see him at the Circus again, and he's in a brown suit and a brown striped tie where previously he'd been the only man in the film to wear color. I do feel like the filmmakers were underscoring what Peter's given up for the sake of his career.

[haveloved]

I think that at the very least, it would have looked odd at first in so staid an environment, so it makes sense that Haydon and others would comment on it, whether or not they interpreted it that way. And I hadn't even considered the change in his clothing at the end--that does seem telling, especially on the heels of his breakup with Michael. Your insights are really interesting; I appreciate them!

[kindkit]

Oh, I didn't mean that it definitely wouldn't have been noticed, just that I'm not sure. But it's plausible enough, I think. Thanks!