Wimsey

[dxmachina]

Varnished one of the bookcases tonight with satin polyurethane. Great stuff. It goes on quick, it washes out with warm water, and you can put the second coat on after two hours, so I should be able to get the other three done before the weekend. Woo! Then I just have to figure out the easiest way to get them into the backroom without damaging them. They aren't heavy, just big and awkward. With that in mind, I decided not to rely just on the brads to hold the back panels on, because the panels were popping off the brads as I was staining. So I going back and adding some staples to supplement the brads. The staple do a much better job of holding the panel in place. Should've used them in the first place. At least it was an easy fix.

I've put aside The Silmarillion again, and I'm starting Murder Must Advertise. This was prompted by a conversation today in Literary about Wimsey, and the fact that I just a couple of weeks ago found an amazingly inexpensive boxed set of the Petherbridge/Walter TV adaptations at Newbury's. Watched Strong Poison tonight. I'd seen it before when it was originally broadcast, but that was a while ago, and I read the book not long afterwards. Since then, I've seen Reversal of Fortune, and I couldn't help but think that Alan Dershowitz would have a field day defending the murderer. The tactics Lord Peter uses to unmask the criminal are reminiscent of what Sunny Von Bulow's kids used to try to prove that Claus put her in the coma, and Wimsey goes far beyond what they did. Burglary, trickery, impersonation, infiltration, outright lies, Wimsey will do anything to save his true love, who doesn't even love him back.

Comments

[orthoepy.livejournal.com]

Murder Must Advertise is one of my very very favorites. The other is Gaudy Night. Although GN isn't so good for the plot; it's just the relationship between Harriet and Peter. GN's plot is very dated.

[dxmachina.livejournal.com]

You're right about Gaudy Night. I had neither read the books, nor seen the adaptations in years, and of the three novels included the DVD set (Strong Poison, Have His Carcase, and Gaudy Night), the only thing I remembered about GN plotwise was that Harriet finally accepts Lord Peter. The one I have the strongest memories of is HHC, because I think that it's the best mystery, which is a good thing because otherwise my frustration with Harriet throughout the book would be overwhelming. The best man she will ever possibly meet is standing right there telling her that he loves her unreservedly, and she waffles. I just want to reach through the screen and cluestick her.

Okay, maybe I have some issues... :)

[orthoepy.livejournal.com]

My fanwank is that it's BECAUSE Harriet waffles that Lord Peter loves her so. Sure, she's beautiful in an offbeat way, intelligent, and fearless, but it's because she doesn't fall all over herself for his charm and his money that he really loves her. If she fell too easily he would have lost interest.

And also because she tells him that if she ever married him it would be for the pleasure of hearing him talk. That's the most romantic line, ever.

[jesseh.livejournal.com]

sigh

I just love them both so much.

[dxmachina.livejournal.com]

True enough, it is a wonderful line, but I think it applies to Wimsey equally as well. He was smitten from the first, and I don't think he would have ever lost interest. The attraction is to her personality and her intelligence. He's found a true equal. Is her stubborness part of that, sure, and it would have been too easy had she fallen into his arms immediately after he cleared her of the murder, but after awhile, you gotta wonder what the heck she's thinking about.

[orthoepy.livejournal.com]

and my fanwank for THAT is of course that she loves him so much that she thinks she's not worthy of him. Damaged goods and so forth. Actually, that might be canon.

I think Sayers herself felt that she didn't deserve Wimsey; the fame and money the books brought, and the pleasure of writing him. And Harriet, in some ways, is Sayers.

[dxmachina.livejournal.com]

and my fanwank for THAT is of course that she loves him so much that she thinks she's not worthy of him.

Thus the even greater need for the cluestick...