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CroatianAlzheimers posted:"You debauched my sloth!" This entire scene is hysterical, especially the part in French right before this where Maturin calls him a bitch with crapulous morals (iirc).
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Nov 14, 2017 23:02
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Commodore was a very temporary position in the Royal Navy of the time. Rowley, the real historical figure whose lunch Jack is eating in Mauritius Command, didn’t immediately get a whole lot out of it himself. He was sent back home with the admiral’s dispatches (as Jack is) and spent the rest of the war in charge of a third-rate in the Med (where Jack gets a particularly lovely fourth-rate to take to Australia). Rowley did eventually get real rank and a title out of his exploits in Mauritius, but he had to wait a couple years, till the war was wrapping up. So no longer than Jack, objectively speaking! There’s a funny little bit of discontinuity with Mauritius Command too. When they’re on the Java (before it gets blasted by Constitution) in Fortune of War, Jack is telling Stephen all about the Java’s captain, but neglects to mention that both of them should probably already know the guy, since the actual historical figure was Rowley’s second in command for the Mauritius campaign. Not quite on the level of Babbington’s mistress briefly forgetting his name but yeah.
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Jul 28, 2023 21:23
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Post Captain is slow and it’s not as regularly-scheduled-adventure as some of them, but it’s a good read. If you don’t find the country house stuff fun i am sorry, because it’s hilarious. The bear scene which might be the most bizarre thing in any of these books. Canning. Scriven. That last battle with the Polychrest. Great ending too
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Sep 9, 2023 13:19
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There were real 19th century naval adventure novels that you can read as a comparison—look up Frederick Marryat. Marryat was a retired captain writing in the 1830s, more or less for a generation of readers who didn’t really remember the wars themselves, and definitely formed the prototype for the modern Napoleonic naval fictions like Hornblower or Aubrey-Maturin. Pop-lit guys of the day like Fenimore Cooper were definitely writing about seamen too though I can’t tell you if they were any good at it. There’s plenty of moral anachronism in these books although not usually to a ridiculous extent. I think it is particularly unlikely that a character like Maturin would have been created by an English author of the day. An Irishman with revolutionary inclinations who wants to get with a proper(ish) lady? and hes a spy who does drugs? A lot of the character reads like someone very disappointed about the 60s (the 1960s I mean). e: also too many swears. O’Brien sometimes dashes them out (in the first few books especially) but the hero of a 19th century sea novel is not going to be fending off drunks with a mild “gently caress you too, mate” e2: I looked it up and since it’s public domain and all, Marryat’s “Mr Midshipman Easy” is available as a free ebook on Project Gutenberg. Strong recommend, it’s hilarious and in a way that’s quite reminiscent of POB, but will very quickly remind you of the difference in mindset. skasion fucked around with this message at 15:48 on Sep 12, 2023 |
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Sep 12, 2023 13:15
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Notahippie posted:One of the reasons I like O'Brian is that there's definitely the moral anachronism you talk about, but he does it in a more authentic way than a lot of modern authors - Maturin's commitment to equality and opposition to slavery is consistent with his overall revolutionary beliefs, for example. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s in there somewhere. Mr Midshipman Easy has this a whole embarrassingly heartfelt soapbox digression where the narrator goes on about how in Our Proud Service, The Wonder of The Civilized World, seniors shouldn’t insult junior officers because it starts a vicious cycle of abuse of power. It’s really kind of touching until you remember that all the childhood chapters were comic apologia for the idea of caning goodness into your kid. And the attempt at a well-developed black character is uh…fascinating (remember, this came out 50 years before Huckleberry Finn!) Basically it’s a lot like what you’d get if Admiral Aubrey chose to spend his retirement penning novels, right down to the terrible puns.
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Sep 12, 2023 20:19
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O’Brian says in one of these that his vision of early Australia (very early, the colony was like 20 years old when they showed up) is based on the nonfiction book The Fatal Shore. which is itself an interesting read, makes it seem pretty much unbearably bleak and oppressive existence at that stage, with a tiny population who almost all didn’t want to be there.
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Sep 18, 2023 04:34
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Captain Blood's a great movie tho it kind of has as much to do with Pirates of the Caribbean as with Aubrey-Maturin. Flynn + de Haviland + Rathbone as a lecherous Frenchie, what's not to like! Blood is hardly trying to portray the revolutionary-era Royal Navy captain packed tight into his ultra-cramped overmanned ship either though. He's a louche democratic gentleman pirate on a stolen 17th-century Spanish man-of-war. It's apparently based on a book by Rafael Sabatini, anyone know of him? skasion fucked around with this message at 19:25 on Oct 1, 2023 |
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Oct 1, 2023 19:23
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StrixNebulosa posted:I'll be honest, I've been struggling to find movies that are related to Aubrey-Maturin outside of the adaptation (haven't seen yet) and like, I want to see more boats! I want even faint glimpses of the sea! I thought the first season of The Terror did a good job at some of the kinds of naval practicalities and mindsets, although it’s fantastical, the period’s a bit later, and of course the ships completely fail to go anywhere. The real thing to watch though is The Bounty (the 80s one with Mel Gibson and Anthony Hopkins). Troubled production and not a perfect movie, but they really did recreate the Bounty and take it out to Tahiti: can’t fault the authenticity.
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Oct 2, 2023 15:29
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Drunkboxer posted:How much of idea that it’s rude to ask about someone’s life, even when it’s seemingly frivolous questions between friends, in social interactions taken from actual regency era society? I haven’t really been able to tell how much of this is based on historical ideas of propriety, how much of it is based on Stephen’s specific character as an intelligence agent, or how much is just coming from O’Brian’s own desire to hide his past. I’ve only read through The Wine Dark Sea so far for context. Idk about actual regency society but it’s what you’d expect from novels of the period. Like think of Pride & Prejudice where pretty much all the conflict is based on superficial misreadings of other peoples emotions that could be easily cleared up if anyone was straight with each other, which they can’t be because it would be unthinkably offensive . Like nobody dares to be so impolite as to ask Bingley why he’s hosed off leaving the sister in the lurch, or to ask Darcy what his problem is with Wickham. It would be rude to answer truthfully and rude to have to lie. So instead the question never gets asked and Darcy and Lizzie have a shouting match. which serendipitously helps fix everything but whatever. Or later on when Lady Catherine rocks up demanding to know what Lizzie’s intentions are with Darcy and even though she’s Lizzie’s social superior and has good reason to want to know, Lizzie basically says “my life is none of your business, gently caress off”. Maturin definitely keeps his past close to the chest as well. There’s a funny bit (forget which book) where Jack is banging on and on about what he was doing during the Revolution and then asks Stephen what he was up to back then. Stephen spends a couple paragraphs calling back the memories of youth and the heady utopian idealism of those days before Robespierre and Napoleon and then his eventual answer is like “uh. med school I guess” skasion fucked around with this message at 18:40 on Dec 5, 2023 |
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Dec 5, 2023 00:56
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Notahippie posted:I think that was the quote, anyway, and I have always wondered what was meant by "liberal" in that context. Before political liberalism becomes entrenched in the generation after the Napoleonic wars, “liberal” usually means generous or even free—(etymologically the word carries a connotation of “like a free man”). To continue my comparison from above, Austen uses the word to imply a kind of gentlemanly openhandedness—Darcy is very liberal to his people and tenants—but also to suggest openmindedness—Mrs Bennett is of “illiberal mind” (ie she’s an airhead full of fixed ideas). So I guess Maturin’s suggesting that Q&A is more like constrained interrogation (something he has been through for real) than polite conversation.
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Dec 6, 2023 17:25
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| # ¿ May 3, 2024 16:00 |
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This summer I made the raspberry shrub from “Lobscouse and Spotted Dog” and promptly forgot about it until my six month reminder came through tonight and the memories of squeezing juice through cheesecloth came rushing stickily back. Taste is a bit sickly but not disagreeable when iced. think I might add some lemon juice or something in future. Anyway it beats three-water grog. Very sedative.
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Jan 13, 2024 01:26
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