Golden age mysteries - am I wearing my slash goggles? I don't think so...

[charlie_cochrane]

I took a bag of books to my local Oxfam bookshop and inevitably emerged with another handful of reading matter, including Josephine Tey's first mystery, The Man in the Queue.

It's very much of its time (1929) so some of the language jars particularly in terms of both overt and covert racism, but that apart what struck me is that (like AA Milne's Red House Mystery) 80% of this book reads like a 2016 written m/m historical romantic mystery. The descriptions of young men and Inspector Grant's reactions to them are distinctly slashy; in fact, I'm reading Tey's book alongside Elin Gregory's Eleventh Hour, which is set in the same era, and I keep thinking, "which book was that bit in?"

Which shows how authentic Elin's sounds and how suspicious Tey's is.

Comments

[alexisjane.livejournal.com]

I'm sure this isn't the first time you've mentioned "unintended" m/m in a book written in that era. Wondering if there's already a list of these stories somewhere... I know I'd certainly be curious to try them x

[charliecochrane.livejournal.com]

Yep, I talked about Red House Mystery among others. If you find a list I'd love to see it!

Slash Goggles, or the Slippery Slope

[bauhiniakapok.livejournal.com]

I read (and loved) Red House Mystery last autumn, and saw no slash at all. Apparently it was before I'd run out of G-rated Sharpe fanfic, which I was trying to stick with to preserve my innocence, and got sucked into the slash stories because they were the only thing left. And then kinda started to like them. And THEN discovered Horatio and Archie, whom it's basically impossible not to slash, although my inner Mary Sue would like them to at least be bi, as Sharpe and Harper so clearly are. But I haven't yet gotten to the point where I slash EVERYONE. Maybe I have a slash monocle.

Re: Slash Goggles, or the Slippery Slope

[charliecochrane.livejournal.com]

LOL I thought the slash in Red House was unmistakable. Bill and wotshischeese (whose name I forget) are all over each other and telling each other how wonderful they are.

RE: Re: Slash Goggles, or the Slippery Slope

[bauhiniakapok.livejournal.com]

Oh, my poor lost innocence! At the same period I also read Jerome K Jerome's Three Men in a Boat, to Say Nothing of the Dog, without ever thinking of them all as anything but friends. Only now am I looking back and starting to wonder. I suppose next you'll be telling me that Holmes and Watson were an item.

Re: Re: Slash Goggles, or the Slippery Slope

[mylodon.livejournal.com]

LOL I think you're absolutely safe with JKJ. I've read that book a gazillion times and it sets off no slash alarms.

Holmes and Watson? That one intrigues me. I suspect H fancies the pants off Watson although he (H) is basically asexual so wouldn't do anything about it. Watson is another matter.

Re: Re: Slash Goggles, or the Slippery Slope

[bauhiniakapok.livejournal.com]

Watson does seem quite enthusiastic about certain females, as I recall. How about Wooster and Jeeves?

Re: Re: Slash Goggles, or the Slippery Slope

[mylodon.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Watson likes his women. Maybe he also likes Holmes in a similar way but can't work out what it means.

Wooster and Jeeves are also intriguing (not least because PGW's early school set stories are slashy in the extreme). Jeeves seems to go to great lengths to stop Bertie getting entangled with women, and the one Bertie most seems to like - Bobbie Wickham - is described as looking like someone's older brother. Hm.

Re: Re: Slash Goggles, or the Slippery Slope

[bauhiniakapok.livejournal.com]

You realize that now I shall have to go back and read these all again. Not that that's a bad thing. PG Wodehouse did seem awfully fond of prating little women with soft masses of hair, but there are quite a few domineering manly females in there too, and many of them seemed eager to take poor Bertie into their charge. It's no wonder that he needed Jeeves to protect him.

I confess I'm a little relieved about JKJ - so not every set of male friends is automatically slashy! We do need to leave some nice men for the females, you see. Where would Eliza and Jane Bennet have been if Darcy only had eyes for Bingley?

Re: Re: Slash Goggles, or the Slippery Slope

[charliecochrane.livejournal.com]

Oh yes. I get quite cross when people seem determined to slash every male pair of pals. I read an awful lot of stuff written late 19th/start of 20th century and - as in JKJ - rarely see any slash. That's why when my radar goes off, I take note!

Re: Re: Slash Goggles, or the Slippery Slope

[bauhiniakapok.livejournal.com]

I do think that people back then were far more comfortable being affectionate with same-sex "bosom companions," without anything further being meant by it. It seems very cultural. I come from a touchy-freely family, and I remember when I was a young teenager in Wisconsin, walking with a same-sex friend, when she suddenly stopped dead and said in horror, "Look, we're holding hands!" I didn't think it was a big deal, but she wasn't comfortable with it. When I moved to California in my late teens, I was happy to find that my friends there saw nothing strange about hugging each other. Here in China, same-sex friends, male or female, can walk holding hands or with their arms slung across the other's shoulders, or pat the other's leg when sitting, and it just means they are friends. My little son and his best friend walk hand-in-hand all the time. I think it is healthy. Humans are meant to touch.

Re: Re: Slash Goggles, or the Slippery Slope

[charliecochrane.livejournal.com]

Hear hear! And yes, males touching when walking has gone in and out of fashion, especially in less worldly days. Now I guess I see it most manifested in sport. Rugby players have no problem in contact.

Re: Re: Slash Goggles, or the Slippery Slope

[bauhiniakapok.livejournal.com]

Which would be why you like rugby? I must admit, I saw a rugby game on TV at a sports bar the other day and it was very...cozy. And their uniforms were quite...snug. And they all seemed rather tall and muscular, bigger than football/soccer players, but without the bulk you get in some American football players. It was rather...distracting. I haven't been much exposed to rugby. I'm not sporty at all. My husband went to uni in New Zealand but he didn't play. (He's more of a jogger.) For years now I have wanted to see an All Blacks game, because I want to see them do the hakka. Is that hake? Anyway...perhaps the game itself might hold some appeal, now, at least because I've been reading so much of your stuff!

Re: Slash Goggles, or the Slippery Slope

[charliecochrane.livejournal.com]

Haka. Which is a magnificent spectacle.

The game is also great - apart from all the things you mention - because of its level of inclusivity and sportsmanship. The best rugby referee in the world (Nigel Owens) is gay, out and nobody gives a fig.