Really, you do such a nice job with Bush's headspace in this. He's not the intellectual, not the analyst, not the creative one puzzling through the pros and cons of fifteen possibilities before settling on a brilliant eighteenth. "Shame" is a straightforward enough explanation for what he's looking at, so "shame" it is. And you treat his straightforwardness with such respect: his headspace isn't lesser than Hornblower's, it's just very different.
And likewise, the way you make Bush a faulty narrator! I'm used to Hornblower being the one who can't honestly evaluate the people around him to save his life, but Bush is so deeply "nice things don't happen in the Service, and when they do, they have to be paid for twice with interest," that he just... can't... bring himself to believe that Hornblower loves him. However much it may feel like it.
...eh, but maybe he's right to pull back from the possibility that this will all work out nicely for them both: after all, Hornblower is unlikely to propose that they uncomplicatedly enjoy themselves from here to England since they have to share a cot anyway, officers with benefits, what happens in the stateroom stays in the stateroom.
(OR WILL HE? I presume the next chapter is when we finally get to hear Hornblower's thoughts on all this. Which I am DYING to know -- cf Bush being a faulty narrator.)
No, I did not know who these heroes were -- I kept meaning to look them up, but I was always too busy READING. I did indeed read the works in question when I was in college -- my college prided itself on making a feint at a classical education -- but most of the details have long since faded. (Which is inconvenient, when writing characters with a classical education!) I should have guessed that the heroes in question were parts of m/m couples -- or were ambiguously so, depending on one's lenses. Very fitting for Hornblower's mental state, whether he admitted it or not!
DUTY. I'll never relinquish the headcanon that Bush is a devoted service sub at heart. Which he frames in the language of loyalty and duty.
And of course you may needlepoint FUCKING GODDAMN FUCK for your wall: I think it would work up very nicely in the style of tumblr's shitpostsampler. ;-)
And you're forgiven for the murder. I'll even forgive you for a second murder, should Chapter 3 take me that way. (Though I'm relieved to hear that it may not end on a note of such raw suffering!)
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branchandroot
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Date: 2019-07-27 06:32 pm (UTC)And likewise, the way you make Bush a faulty narrator! I'm used to Hornblower being the one who can't honestly evaluate the people around him to save his life, but Bush is so deeply "nice things don't happen in the Service, and when they do, they have to be paid for twice with interest," that he just... can't... bring himself to believe that Hornblower loves him. However much it may feel like it.
...eh, but maybe he's right to pull back from the possibility that this will all work out nicely for them both: after all, Hornblower is unlikely to propose that they uncomplicatedly enjoy themselves from here to England since they have to share a cot anyway, officers with benefits, what happens in the stateroom stays in the stateroom.
(OR WILL HE? I presume the next chapter is when we finally get to hear Hornblower's thoughts on all this. Which I am DYING to know -- cf Bush being a faulty narrator.)
No, I did not know who these heroes were -- I kept meaning to look them up, but I was always too busy READING. I did indeed read the works in question when I was in college -- my college prided itself on making a feint at a classical education -- but most of the details have long since faded. (Which is inconvenient, when writing characters with a classical education!) I should have guessed that the heroes in question were parts of m/m couples -- or were ambiguously so, depending on one's lenses. Very fitting for Hornblower's mental state, whether he admitted it or not!
DUTY. I'll never relinquish the headcanon that Bush is a devoted service sub at heart. Which he frames in the language of loyalty and duty.
And of course you may needlepoint FUCKING GODDAMN FUCK for your wall: I think it would work up very nicely in the style of tumblr's shitpostsampler. ;-)
And you're forgiven for the murder. I'll even forgive you for a second murder, should Chapter 3 take me that way. (Though I'm relieved to hear that it may not end on a note of such raw suffering!)