Reading Wednesday

[brigdh]

What did you just finish?
Liberty or Death: India's Journey to Independence and Division by Patrick French. Hmmm. I don't quite know how I feel about this book. On the one hand, I feel like it didn't go in-depth enough. On the other hand, that's a weird thing to think, because it was quite in-depth. I don't know. It must have been in some weird uncanny valley of details vs overview. Not a bad book, certainly! I just feel like I've read much better books about India's Freedom movement and Partition. I guess it had a very different perspective on Gandhi (French: not a fan), which was interesting!

Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before by Tony Horwitz. This was... kind of boring. Unfortunately. Maybe if I was a lot more interested in Captain Cook than I am, I would have liked it more. But I like travel! I like tall ships! I loved the other book by Horwitz I read! I should have liked this, and just... didn't. Alas. I am totally still interested in his new book about John Brown.

Ran Away by Barbara Hambly. UGH GOD THIS BOOK IS SO GOOD. Okay, the first time I read this, I didn't like it that much (I mean, I liked it, but it wasn't my favorite), but on the reread it was just unbelievably good. There is so much too love: basically every single thing that happens in the Paris flashback is amazing (Ayasha! Street urchins! Secret revolutionary meetings! Former aristocratic ballet mistresses! Gay Jewish entrepreneur spies! Creepy nuns! Flirtatious painters!) but also so is everything in New Orleans (Rose joking about being Hannibal's mistress, or killing Gabriel to use his bones in chemical experiments! The dramatic saga of "why Hannibal's hair looks weird"! Voodoo to protect the house*! The Underground Railroad! Crazy tent revival meetings complete with opposing preachers! The continuing minor character of sleazy journalist! Rose's smoke bomb! Ben's continual failure to be any good at picking locks!**). But my absolutely favorite part is conversation at the end between Ben and Rose, about dreams; it is sad and bitter and true and absolutely perfect. It just breaks my heart to read it, and yet I love it so much.

*Are Hannibal and Marie Laveau friends? Because they kind of seem like it, in their scene here. AND THAT WOULD BE SO AMAZING. What do they talk about? Where do they hang out? How and when did they meet? I WANT TO KNOW EVERYTHING.
**I definitely want the fic where Hannibal teaches Rose.

What are you currently reading?
Good Man Friday by Barbara Hambly. AHHH THE LAST BENJAMIN JANUARY BOOK. WHAT WILL I DO NEXT?!

Maphead: Charting the Wide, Weird World of Geography Wonks by Ken Jennings. This is pretty amusing! And it has lots of pictures of maps, which is nice.

Comments

[lavode.livejournal.com]

One thing I thought was strange about Ran Away was that... January's a bit of a proto-feminist in his way. He understands that most of the women he meets are incredibly dependent on men (that they don't necessarily get to choose), and he looks down on rapists and even seems to resent Henri Viellard a bit for keeping Dominique as his mistress - but he still likes and respects Hüseyin Pasha and almost acts as if the two concubines were wrong to run away from him. Of course, he also likes and respects at least two white dudes who won't eat with him in public.

And we finally get to meet Ayasha as a character and not just a sad memory, and she rocks! (And also I really want another really Rose-heavy book, especially after the way Ran Away ended.)

(I'm friending you since your profile encourages it, because just commenting out of the blue like this seems so random, and there are so few people who talk about this fandom. I hope you don't mind.)

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, that's an interesting point that I hadn't thought of. I wonder if it's because at the start of the mystery, all Ben knows is that the two women are dead and, since Hüseyin didn't do it (Ben assumes), they must have acted foolishly or trusted the wrong person or made a mistake. If they were still alive, he might have felt more torn between them and Hüseyin; he does keep Shamira's location secret until she gives him permission to tell, even after Hüseyin has helped him. Also early on, when the main reason for running away appears to be Noura's sexual attraction to a man she can barely speak to- I think it is consistent for Ben to find that a shallow reason, since he's repeatedly been a bit judgmental of prostitutes (though certainly less so than would be typical for the period).

Or maybe just his sympathy for someone suffering from religious (and racial) prejudice outweighs his sympathy for someone dealing with sexism? I do agree that Ben is a proto-feminist, but he seems to be most aware of issues that he's witnessed first-hand; he doesn't seem to have thought about the issue of education for girls before he meets Rose, for instance. And since he knows Hüseyin and not the two women, perhaps he just subconsciously empathizes with him more.

Of course, he also likes and respects at least two white dudes who won't eat with him in public.
Yeah. At least in the more recent books it's implied that Shaw does it for the sake of appearances rather than any sort of personal distaste for eating with a black man.... though I'm not sure that would make me feel better, if I was January. And even regarding Hannibal, one could argue that he's not taking any great stand by eating with Ben, since he doesn't have a reputation to lose.

And yes, Ayasha! I was so excited to start this book and realize she would be making an appearance. Though alas, I assume in the future she will be back to being only in memories and dreams, since the cast of characters who are still alive is huge enough by itself.

I want another Rose-centric book so much also! She was barely in both Good Man Friday and The Shirt on His Back, and hasn't really been a main character since Dead Water. I suppose it is legitimately hard to write her engaging in too many adventures with a newborn, but I do very much hope she plays a big part in the next book.

(And I'm glad you did! I'm so glad to have more people to talk about these books with!)

[lavode.livejournal.com]

Also early on, when the main reason for running away appears to be Noura's sexual attraction to a man she can barely speak to- I think it is consistent for Ben to find that a shallow reason, since he's repeatedly been a bit judgmental of prostitutes (though certainly less so than would be typical for the period).

He is a bit Victorian like that, isn't he. *g* Maybe it's got something to do with Livia's influence - he and Olympe both have some things in common with her, even if they'd probably deny it. Even Dominique in her less Cosmo-girl moments.

Or maybe just his sympathy for someone suffering from religious (and racial) prejudice outweighs his sympathy for someone dealing with sexism? I do agree that Ben is a proto-feminist, but he seems to be most aware of issues that he's witnessed first-hand; he doesn't seem to have thought about the issue of education for girls before he meets Rose, for instance. And since he knows Hüseyin and not the two women, perhaps he just subconsciously empathizes with him more.

They seem to have a lot in common, so that would make sense. And there are some scenes in Graveyard Dust where he thinks about Rose and the women in his family and Mamzelle Marie almost as if they're some kind of aliens ("They're all women, but they all have different personalities with multiple facets! Women are so enigmatic and mysterious!!") And Ayasha obviously understands why Shamira isn't happy with her situation, but... maybe it's just easier to identify with someone of your own gender even when you understand intellectually what they're going through. (I love Hambly's characterisation except for some minor characters, her characters have realistic flaws.)

At least in the more recent books it's implied that Shaw does it for the sake of appearances rather than any sort of personal distaste for eating with a black man.... though I'm not sure that would make me feel better, if I was January.

They shared a lot of meals in the previous book, and it seemed to be a non-issue, so it's probably that Shaw wants to keep his job. If anything I get the impression that he looks up to January, although January may not have realised it.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

"They're all women, but they all have different personalities with multiple facets! Women are so enigmatic and mysterious!!"

Ha ha, yes. I liked those bits as Ben being adorably dumb, but I am also glad he seems to have gotten over it.

If anything I get the impression that he looks up to January, although January may not have realised it.

Oh, that's interesting! I hadn't really thought about Shaw's attitude toward January much... Shaw's so taciturn that it's hard to know what he's thinking. He seems to be very isolated, though; he doesn't fit in with the French families, he has no connection to the black and colored communities, I suppose he could spend time with the other Americans, but he doesn't seem to, much. I don't get the sense that he has a lot of friends. Which is sad. He does very much seem to respect Ben, even if he's willing to fall into "expected behavior" while in public. And they do hug once!

[somebraveapollo.livejournal.com]

Hii, sorry to jump in - it's just, this is a fascinating question!

I agree with wordsofastory - Ben tends to focus his compassion on the people he knows and likes personally. He also has a tendency to side with people he considers admirable and be patronising toward people who he thinks are incompetent - e.g. he seemed to feel sorrier for Madame Lalaurie for having ~mediocre daughters than he did for the girls for having to live up to her name. (Until, you know, he changed his mind! His best quality is that he changes his mind when offered evidence.)

Also, you know, he was raised by an extremely judgmental placée, who had no patience for people who didn't abide by the rules of plaçage - and he certainly inherited her love of propriety!* So, maybe he semi-subconsciously judged them for being "bad" at being concubines. I do think this would have been different if they'd been alive.

* this is flippant phrasing - I think Ben and especially Livia have very good reasons to seek refuge in propriety / established custom

[lavode.livejournal.com]

It's as if Ben (like Livia and probably Olympe) has a strong sense of How Things Should Be, but he surrounds himself with several people who see no reason not to do it in other ways. I wonder why that is.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Ben seems to be strongly drawn to people who are isolated or alone, in one way or another. It is like an automatic way to win his sympathy and interest, to be like 'here is a person who doesn't have a lot of friends or family!'. And so he ends up collecting all these people around him who are outcasts. But the thing is, a lot of the time, they seem to have ended up that way because they made choices that put them outside the 'proper' sphere of things (Rose and Hannibal and Shaw and Olympe all chose to leave their families because of something else that was driving them, for instance). People who have something- justice or freedom or knowledge or whatever- that is more important to them than propriety. And so he ends up with all these people who don't care as much about How Things Should Be, despite his own feelings.

I think Ben is so attracted to outcasts because he's often felt like one himself, especially when he was growing up (though I'd argue that currently he is much less of one than most of the circle he's gathered), and so he really understands how it feels. And also, he seems to think of being alone as just about the worst possible thing that could happen to someone- look at how he thinks about slavery: it's never 'you could die! you could be whipped!'. It's always "OMG YOU COULD BE SEPARATED FROM YOUR FAMILY." So I think it's partly him building a circle of people to protect himself from being alone, and partly him trying to rescue others from that same fate.

[somebraveapollo.livejournal.com]

1. WHAT WILL YOU DO NEXT?!! Well, read Broken Homes, for one. It came out yesterday! I acquired it, but haven't been able to get around to it yet - but I can certainly share if you like!

2. Hannibal and Marie Laveau, yessss, what an excellent point. <3 Maybe they met via one of Hannibal's girlfriends? I don't remember - were all his girlfriends white? I'll have to think more about what they'd talk about, but I think they'd both be very well-informed about the other - and Hannibal is impressed by her influence and spymaster skills (I think he's skeptical about voodoo but has the good sense to keep it to himself?); Marie on her turn would be suspicious of a white man trying to 'blend in' among musicians of colour and would have had him under close scrutiny at first (and then become quite fond of him, because, you know, it's not often in her line of work as protector of the city to discover that a potential threat is 99% honest and 100% harmless)

3. Haaaah, Ben's tragic lack of lockpicking skills! It doesn't make sense, does it? Ben is both precise and adaptive. He has, I imagine, really clever fingers* - he's a surgeon and he plays the guitar and he'd probably re-threaded things for Ayasha a thousand times. Soooo, why can't he pick locks?!

I can only come up with a really pretentious meta explanation: his whole arc is about getting through locked doors the hard way.

Ben's name is door-symbolism. His first serious prayer was about doors - most of his prayers seem to be about doors. His whole state of being is constantly about him being denied entrance to society and getting in anyway. Most of the time, there's no simple shortcut for his problems, and he has to find windows / cut away bars / knock doors down to be able to get in.

Which is why he needs Hannibal to pick locks and Rose to blow doors up for him sometimes.

(Though, agreed that Rose should learn lockpicking too! But I think she'd prefer a dynamite approach to breaking and entering most of the time.)

* not, of course, that I spend suspiciously much time imagining his fingers... or anything... like that. Erm.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

1. Good point! Thank you, but I have also acquired a copy, which I am very much looking forward to. There is also, I suppose, non-January books by Barbara Hambly.

Maybe they met via one of Hannibal's girlfriends? I don't remember - were all his girlfriends white?

I can't remember any black girlfriends, but it's hard to tell, with him, who is actually a girlfriend. Like, he flirts with Minou constantly, but I don't think they're actually sleeping together. Maybe he met her through Olympe? Hannibal and Olympe have never actually talked to each other "on screen", but they must know each other, given the amount of time he spends with Ben's family. I suppose also New Orleans at the time is small enough that it's possible to end up meeting anyone, if you hang out in the right marketplace/coffee shop/backtown Mardi Gras party long enough. And they do both really love to gossip! (Though for Marie it's more serious, of course.) But Hannibal would probably be willing to tell her anything he knew in exchange for some good stories.

I think Hannibal is skeptical of all religions (at one point when Ben doesn't want to wake up early to go to Mass, he thinks Why couldn’t he be a heathen like Hannibal, and laugh God to scorn?), but as long as they don't involve people trying to cut out his heart, he is willing to go along with it for the sake of the people who do believe. But it's probably all of the same realism to him as Athena or Zeus.

3. The only in-world explanation I can come up with is that lock-picking requires a lot of practice (I have no idea if this is true or not, knowing nothing about locks) and Ben is too busy with all his other stuff to devote the necessary time to it.

BUT I really love your meta explanation! And I think it makes way more sense than anything in-world, really; I love the symbolism of it coming up again and again.

(Ben's fingers are a very good thing to think about.)