"The Private Patient" by P. D. James

[lizbee]

A few people asked about this: the new P. D. James is already out in England, and will have a November release in Australia and the US.  I got a reading copy from work, which I finished last night.  It was quite magnificent.  In some ways, I think James is wearing her Sayers-loving heart on her sleeve more than ever, but this isn't a bad thing.  Even if that was a terrible sentence.  Like Harriet, Emma's best friends are stout, practical lesbians.  I lolled.

Some random links, because I need to clear out my bookmarks:

Stitch: a free program for making cross stitch designs.  I haven't tried it out yet, but it's received good reviews.

cesario made this for me when I was feeling emo about the elitist thing.  I really don't know what she's trying to say...

It's Lovely!  I'll Take It!  I'm addicted to this blog, which features highly inappropriate photos from real estate listings.  piecesofalice and suburbannoir hate it, because I laugh really loudly whenever I browse it.

FlickFilosopher takes a closer look at Derek Jacobi's Hamlet.

Comments

[lizbee.livejournal.com]

It just came at a bad time, and mostly made me a bit self-conscious. Then cesario made that macro, and I laughed a lot and got over it.

[melengro.livejournal.com]

I've been there. Although in my case any macro made would probably be an embarrassing picture of me and my cat in one of my 'who's a kitty? Yes, you are!' modes. I think it'd have the same effect, though.

[lizbee.livejournal.com]

BTW, speaking of the hypothetical lesbianocity of Harriet Vane? You really, really, really must read the Mary Russell novels.

[melengro.livejournal.com]

A lot of things seem to be described or describeable as hyptothetical in Harrietworld. I still chuckle over her 'hypothetical telephone' comment in the beginning of Have His Carcase.

And that is the fourth time that I have been told to read Mary Russell!

[lizbee.livejournal.com]

I think you'd like the Russell series; it's a total Sue fantasy, but executed well, and there's a queer subtext that is as delightful as it was unintentional on the author's part.

[melengro.livejournal.com]

I went into Strong Poison expecting to come out reeling from Sueness. When I put it down, Harriet was my third-favourite fictional character ever after Romana and John Childermass.
Actually, there's a lot of debate about how much, if any, of the subtext in the Wimsey books was intended. I'm of the opinion that Peter's close male friendships were only intended to be seen as such, but that in cases such as for example Agatha and Clara (and Vera, obviously) in Unnatural Death (which even the quite Victorian Miss Climpson picked up on pretty quickly), or pretty much everybody who's ever even been in the S.C.R. other than Annie, Sayers knew what she was putting in.

[lizbee.livejournal.com]

I agree. Sayers was very far from being sheltered, and there was a moderately open lesbian community in London and Europe in the thirties.

[melengro.livejournal.com]

There was? I actually was not aware of that (which is strange since the history of gender relations interests me a lot, especially at that point in history).

[lizbee.livejournal.com]

I did a lot of research on the subject when I was writing Russell fic, and obviously it was still quite underground, decadent intelligentsia and all that, but there were a lot of quietly acknowledged gay couples etc in particular social circles. Especially in Paris.

[melengro.livejournal.com]

Huh.

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

Sayers was pretty damned homophobic; there's an entire mystery that is resolved by the murderess's being a Sekrit Lesbian.

[melengro.livejournal.com]

I read a book about that. The question of whether she was or wasn't is...interesting, to say the least. And really freaking complicated.

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

Sayers herself, or the character in her book?

[melengro.livejournal.com]

Whether Sayers was gay/bi, homophobic, and, in the latter case, in what way if she was. The usual answer is 'neither' but there are actually more scholars than one might think who say 'both.'

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I need to look up the book! Could I have an author/title? ("Both" would certainly explain a lot.)

[melengro.livejournal.com]

Biographies by James Brabazon, Carolyn Heilbrun, Barbara Reynolds, and others touch on it, but they don't focus on it. I read a monograph about it about a year ago but I don't remember who it's by. (something beginning with an M?)
My suspicion is that she was (at least a little) bisexual and more gay-friendly than most people of the time, but somewhat uncomfortable with this.

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

Ah. I've read at least three of the biographies and a volume of the letters, but I didn't remember details.