The Last Station, Murder in Samarkand and Shakespeare fanfic

[selenak]

This seems to be my week for watching or listening to biographical stories set in the former Soviet Union. Who don't cover entirely lives but brief excerpts. On Friday, it was The Last Station, set during the last year of Tolstoy's life, starring Helen Mirren and Christopher Plummer, and today, it was Murder in Samarkand, David Hare's radio play

Comments

[kalypso_v]

One thing I found extraordinary in Murder in Samarkand was the detail about the rape. Firstly, that the rapists did respect her pleas on that particular point, and secondly that Murray put it in the memoir. She must have agreed to that; maybe it was important to her to make it clear that she'd succeeded in avoiding what she most feared.

[selenak]

That was the kind of visceral detail that struck me, too, yes. With all the messed-up cultural implications.

[skywaterblue]

! That fic is amazing.

[selenak]

Isn't it just?

[skywaterblue]

I don't even know what to say about it except that I would read the shit out of this as a novel. The Portia/Shylock romance reminds me strangely of DH Lawrence, though maybe because I read it for the first time in the last year.

[selenak]

I would read this novel as well. Now that you mention it, I can see the D.H. Lawrence comparison (have read Women in Love and Lady Chatterley, but that's about it with my Lawrence knowledge). Though as I said my favourite thing about was the Shylock-Jessica interaction, and that the writer didn't go for the "ungrateful, shallow daughter" angle which is what I've seen in all Merchant follow-ups I know.