Reblogged umamidjezhda
The worst part of reading Master and Commander is that I have to actually learn the boat parts to understand things. The best part of reading Master and Commander is that Stephen Maturin also has to learn the boat parts.
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I went to mad at you island with my pet straight twink (lithuanian) because I had been fed misinformation re: you having an affair with an italian woman. turns out you got caught up in spy business and were just mistaken for a spy again. I left mad at you island with you in a stretcher (because you got too high and fell down the stairs) and we're headed back home but before we get home I just want to say it's so crazy you keep getting mistaken for a spy. like, it's the third time now. I just wanted to say that if you WERE a spy well 1) don't tell me haha and 2) lock the fuck in, cheri
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"A dark form drifted from the sombre cliff-face on the starboard beam—an enormous pointed wingspan: as ominous as fate. Stephen gave a swinish grunt, snatched the telescope from under Jack's arm, elbowed him out of the way and squatted at the rail, resting the glass on it and focusing with great intensity. 'A bearded vulture! It is a bearded vulture!' he cried. 'A young bearded vulture.' 'Well,' said Jack instantly—not a second's hesitation 'I dare say he forgot to shave this morning.' His red face crinkled up, his eyes diminished to a bright blue slit and he slapped his thigh, bending in such a paroxysm of silent mirth, enjoyment and relish that for all the Sophie's strict discipline the man at the wheel could not withstand the infection and burst out in a strangled 'Hoo, hoo, hoo,' instantly suppressed by the quartermaster at the con."
Decided to spend my last vacation day (before starting to work on a new book) coloring these. Well-spent day. Jack finding his poor jokes so very funny is so sweet.
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‘That reminds me,’ said Jack, ‘have you anything that will keep my wig on? A most ridiculous thing happened as I was crossing the square: there was Dillon on the far side, with a woman on his arm – Governor Wall’s sister, I believe – so I returned his salute with particular attention, do you see. I lifted my hat right off my head and the damned wig came with it. You may laugh, and it is damned amusing, of course; but I would have given a fifty-pound note not to have looked ridiculous with him there.’ ‘Here is a piece of court plaster,’ said Stephen. ‘Let me double it over and stick it to your head. I am heartily sorry there should be this constraint, between Dillon and you.’
--Master and Commander
Reblogged al-norton
Academy Award Winners for Best Cinematography: 2004 — Russell Boyd, ACS, ASC Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003) Directed by Peter Weir Aspect Ratio: 2.39 : 1
“Master and Commander — gee, that was a hard film to make. There is no easy film, of course, but Master was very demanding physically — because of the water, even though a lot of it was shot in the tank in Mexico that had been built for Titanic. Peter Weir once said to me — and I’ll never forget it — he said, ‘Come on and do a film of mine, and I’ll take you on an adventure.’ And he does!” — Russell Boyd for The American Society of Cinematographers, February 2018
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He then looked at a Dromedary, distracted with toothache, decided that the tooth must come out, and sent for the drummer and two of the man's messmates to hold his head. 'Which we ain't got no drummer, sir,' said his loblolly boy. 'All the jollies was left at Malta.' 'Very true,' said Stephen. 'But a drum I must have.' He was not very good at drawing teeth and he liked his patient to be deafened, amazed, stupefied by a thundering in his ears. 'Has this ship never a drum for a fog?' 'No, sir,' said the Dromedary's messmates. 'We uses conchs and a musket.' 'Well,' said Stephen, 'that might answer too. Let it be so. My compliments to the gentleman in charge of the watch and may I have conchs and a musket. No. Stay. The galley must surely have cauldrons and kettles that could be beat.' But few messages are ever perfectly understood, few are delivered unimproved upon, and the tooth came out -came out at bloody last, piece by piece - to the howling of conchs, the fire of two muskets, and the metallic thunder of several copper pots.
--Treason's Harbour
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‘That reminds me,’ said Jack, ‘have you anything that will keep my wig on? A most ridiculous thing happened as I was crossing the square: there was Dillon on the far side, with a woman on his arm – Governor Wall’s sister, I believe – so I returned his salute with particular attention, do you see. I lifted my hat right off my head and the damned wig came with it. You may laugh, and it is damned amusing, of course; but I would have given a fifty-pound note not to have looked ridiculous with him there.’ ‘Here is a piece of court plaster,’ said Stephen. ‘Let me double it over and stick it to your head. I am heartily sorry there should be this constraint, between Dillon and you.’
--Master and Commander
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one thing about the aubrey maturin series is that while i wouldn't like. advertise it on the basis of having ~gay rep~ (it's generally not a central focus), patrick o'brian was so committed from day one in 1969 to writing a world — or rather a picture of history — in which gay people exist if that makes sense. which is like so. idk. I really appreciate that for him, painting a whole & complete sort of picture of this period needed to include the existence of gay people, even just in the background or a passing mention
Just found a passage in Seth Stein LeJacq's Sexual and Gender Difference in the British Navy, 1690-1900 which touches on this subject, and I like how he explained it:
By far the most significant fictionalized treatment of queer seafarers in this era is found in the work of the popular novelist Patrick O’Brian. O’Brian took a special interest in same-sex desire and relationships in his bestselling Master and Commander novel series (sometimes known as the Aubrey-Maturin books). He included many queer characters in the books, and he wrote with empathy of the suffering some endured. He presents human sexual and gender diversity as natural and good, and the books laud open-minded tolerance. In a memorable sequence, his two naval officer heroes work together to save a lieutenant from a buggery conviction. They rejoice when they are successful. It is clear from the novels that O’Brian himself studied the court martial records. The first novel in the series plagiarizes directly from the archive, borrowing a letter from a real buggery case and transplanting it into his adventure. This research and O’Brian’s great popularity both argue for considering his novels as part of the historiography of homosexuality in the navy. His fiction has strongly influenced both scholarly and popular views of naval history, and it is likely that his treatment of sexual and gender diversity has had an important role in shaping how many imagine the queer naval past. (p. 9)
Something something reflecting the archive (I am still incapable of explaining this sorry)
Reblogged tanoraqui
