(no subject)

[sebastienne]

kitten!

I may work on a longer introduction at a later date, but I feel it is my duty to tell those of you with any Victoriana-obsession - especially the Holmesians - of the existence of Raffles. It is just - ah - perfection. Written by the brother-in-law of Conan Doyle, it is in places obvious homage, albeit lacking entirely in subtlety. Then it adds a certain amount of public-school charm, and makes its protagonists into criminals, instead of detectives.

Bunny (yes, Bunny), who writes in the first person, was fag to Raffles at school, and still adores him in a complete and hopeless manner. Raffles abuses this in way that I find utterly evil and compelling, manipulating his naïveté; and I thought Blake/Avon was a messed up hotbed of manipulation and emotional cruelty!

A scene I saw tonight, after Raffles had spent the whole episode lying to Bunny and setting up the most elaborate deceits, so that Bunny's wide-eyed innocence could convince the police of Raffles' alibi:

God it breaks my heart in its utter perfection. "Yes, I'm drunk, what follows from that?" It is gayer than that Ford/Avon Robin Hood. My god I love 70s TV drama and its joyous subtext!
And such good clothes! And Raffles lives at the Albany, and Bunny lives in Mount Street. It is just too, too perfect. And this is based on books which - although I have yet to read them - are apparently even more slashy. It's like Conan Doyle's brother-in-law looked at the Holmes/Watson interaction (right up to the faked-death-taking-in-the-best-friend) and thought, "ah, I see the concepts and tropes underlying that" - and, as a consequence, created Great and Epic Love, Pointless and Hopeless Devotion to an Undeserving Cock.

And Jesus Christ I love it.

Comments

[calliope85.livejournal.com]

Ahahahahaha :D *gleefully recruits for my tiny fandom of doomy love*

[sebastienne.livejournal.com]

You're just lucky I didn't title the post "things calliope85 has me watching this week"..

[sebastienne.livejournal.com]

Also, this:

[calliope85.livejournal.com]

ahahahaha YAY for Anthony Valentine knowing *exactly* what he was doing in this. And for the hand-clasping just a moment too long. I love this fandom.

[emily-shore.livejournal.com]

Oooh, I had never heard of Raffles but I am surely looking into it now!

[potatofiend.livejournal.com]

Great and Epic Love, Pointless and Hopeless Devotion to an Undeserving Cock.

...ohmigod, my very favourite trope! :) I ought to dabble in Raffles.

[sebastienne.livejournal.com]

The fic where Bunny is living upstairs from Biggles, Algy, & Ginger, during the same time-frame as your football fic?

The fic where Bunny is still madly in love with Raffles, even after twenty-thirty years, even after everything, manipulation, death, pain, ruin.

The fic where Bunny sees how Algy looks at Biggles, and recognises it for what it is, and says, "I knew a man who was as great as you think Biggles is, once"

Yeah, that fic. Needs writing.

[potatofiend.livejournal.com]

afdjkbdg. I assume that if I wrote this, you and calliope85 would both happily have my babies?

[sebastienne.livejournal.com]

I would donate my pelvic floor muscles to the cause. Bunny and Algy are worth it.

[calliope85.livejournal.com]

Generations of farming-stock child-bearing hips at your disposal. Oh, go on, do :D

I still have half a mind to tackle an iteration on this idea myself, but set in regular-continuity-verse rather than Giant Psychopathic Cock-verse (inasmuch as there must be *some* bits of continuity where Biggles doesn't act like a GPC, somewhere) - a compare and contrast might be entertaining...

[ayaron.livejournal.com]

Hey, how about a photographer credit!

About 2 months ago after texting to my boss that I'd locked myself out and might be a tad late I texted, once I had regained entry by means nefarious, 'Just call me Raffles'. When I got in to work turns out he had no idea what that meant.

:O)