Blood and Sand

[osprey_archer]

It is absolutely tragic that I didn't read Rosemary Sutcliff's Blood and Sand before sutcliff_swap, because it is the slashiest book ever. One could say this about a lot of Sutcliff's books, but Blood and Sand carries the prize because the subtext is so lightly buried in the sand that the slightest breeze flings its covering away.

Our hero is Thomas Kent, a Scottish soldier whose regiment gets blasted to smithereens in Egypt during the Napoleonic wars. A local Ottoman general buys him, various things happen, and then Thomas meets Tussun Bey, his future bestest best friend forever. Like this - and this is a direct quote -

The rest of his awareness was entirely taken up with the boy on the chestnut mare, who seemed to focus the sunlight in his own being.

For a long moment still, they remained unmoving, hot tawny gaze and cool grey meeting and locked, while the frown gathered between the princeling's amber brows. Then suddenly it was gone, and his face lit with a smile that could charm the heart out of any woman.

Or out of Thomas. Even when Tussun sends ten men to kill him, Thomas loves him so much that he has no trouble forgiving him.

At Tussun's wedding, Thomas sits around reminding himself "Don't behave like a jealous lover, don't behave like a jealous lover." (I am paraphrasing, but only very slightly.)

And then all of Tussun's friends are ribbing Tussun about the wedding night, and Tussun is all "I know how to have sex! Thomas, tell them that I'm GREAT AT SEX."

Ostensibly because they go to brothels together, but - as Thomas informs us - he's only interested in going to brothels when Tussun's around to go with him. I kind of envision them having threesomes with dancing girls, only to forget the dancing girl halfway through. (It would not surprise me if there were such scenes in the original draft. I think that Sutcliff wrote parts of this in the spirit of "Do you think I can sneak this innuendo past them? Yes, yes I CAN!")

And then Thomas gets married and Tussun does behave like a jealous lover. Thomas tells him, "Don't be ridiculous, Tussun, do you think I can love only one person at a time?" (This is also only a very slight paraphrase.)

And then they have a conversation in which Tussun is all "I know you like your wife Anoud but YOU STILL LOVE ME BEST, RIGHT????"

A surprising number of Sutcliff books involve a love - triangle isn't the right word for it; love triangle implies that people are wrangling to be the hero's one-and-only. A situation where the hero has his ambiguously well-beloved best friend and also his girlfriend. Esca & Marcus & Cottia in The Eagle of the Ninth, Prosper & Conn & Luned in The Shining Company (arguably; I'm not sure how much Prosper would be part of this love tripod if Conn and Luned weren't severed by a vast social gulf), and of course Tussun & Thomas & Anoud in Blood and Sand.

I guess three books is not an overwhelming number - she has plenty of books where this doesn't happen - but I've rarely run into this particular relationship configuration outside of Sutcliff. Maybe Singin' in the Rain - although you really have to read the subtext into that one.

(Also I need a Sutcliff icon. So many things to do, so little time.)

Comments

[girl-called-sun.livejournal.com]

I really want to read some of her books now...

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

DO IT. DO IT DO IT DO IT. Some of her books are epically tragic - like, "Rocks fall, everybody dies" tragic - but they're still wonderful and beautifully written, with a great sense of history and atmosphere.

The Eagle of the Ninth is probably the best known & easiest to get a hold of, because a movie version came out a couple of years back. (Also, because of the movie version there's PILES OF FIC.) And it's not one of the "Rocks fall, everybody dies" stories, so it's a good place to start.

[carmarthen.livejournal.com]

Yessssss yess do it.

Um. My idea of a "happy" Sutcliff usually involves the protagonist getting out alive, but possibly rocks fall and everyone else dies, so I'm going to go with EOT9 as a happier rec, too (although I do not think it is one of her best).

My other favorites are Frontier Wolf (4th century), The Lantern Bearers (5th century), The Shining Company (turn of the 6th century), and Blood Feud (10th century). The Shield Ring (Saxons, Vikings, etc.) is an early book and rough in places but fun and relatively happy.

Sutcliff was an amazingly evocative writer with a gift for characterization.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I thought The Lantern Bearers was one of the most depressing books ever, which is rather odd given that rocks don't fall and almost everyone lives. But even if the characters live, the world as they know it is in its death throes, and Aquila is wandering around going "I hate the whole world (boom de yada boom de yada)."

And Ness. And Flavian. And poor poor Flavia. :(

It's very good, but it might be a bad place to start.

On a completely different note, I just read Frontier Wolf (you may have guessed this) and OMG. I WANT ALL THE FIC. I have in fact read all the fic, and NOW I WANT MORE.

[carmarthen.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I also find TLB super depressing, more so than a bunch of the rocks fall ones. I wouldn't start with it unless my interest were in super-depressing books.

OH GOOD, ISN'T FRONTIER WOLF GREAT? Hopefully there will be more in sutcliff_swap. And I have more WIPs, but if you want Alexios/Cunorix, you're going to have to wait for someone else to write it, most likely.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I am perfectly fine with Alexios/Hilarion! I could kind of see Alexios having a crush on Cunorix, but I don't really think it went both ways. Even if "We went hunting together!" sometimes seems like a euphemism in Sutcliff.

[carmarthen.livejournal.com]

I do think he had a crush (possibly unconsciously)! I am prepared to be convinced as to other takes but I'm not sure how they would work. And TBH, I find Hilarion much more interesting as a character...

[carmarthen.livejournal.com]

I 100% agree with this (ALSO the part where they just met and go naked swimming and then Tussun is all touching Thomas's scars without permission). Sutcliff was a smart lady, and I am pretty sure she knew what she was doing.

Alas, my problem is that I kind of just want to smack Tussun a lot. I like poor Anoud. I think Tussun is kind of a dick who needs to grow up and I feel sorry for his wife. There's some really good Thomas/Tussun fic on AO3, btw.

Yeah, Sutcliff does rather like those love tripods (I think the difference in TSC is that Conn, not Prosper, is the center of the tripod--both Prosper and Luned have strong connections with Conn, but Prosper and Luned are more distant/familial). I'd argue that Artos & Guenhumara & Bedwyr also fit this pattern, although in their case not functionally.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Tussun is such a jackass. This is another reason I think Thomas must be in love with him: I just can't imagine he could put up with his shenanigans for years on end otherwise. (And YES, poor Tussun's nameless wife. ARGH.)

Anoud's death at the end drove me up the wall. It's not enough to have her die in childbirth - that would have been depressing, but I could have dealt with that - why does she have to somehow manage to break her neck when Thomas dies? I suppose it tidies up the ending, but...

(Also I had problems with the treatment of Nayli, but that's a whole different ballpark.)

[carmarthen.livejournal.com]

Heh, it is pretty much the only argument. It just bugs me that Tussun doesn't...actually grow up. Ever.

I feel like Sutcliff has a bit of a pattern of widows killing themselves, wasting away from grief, or conveniently dying, and it kind of bugs me. But I have deep ambivalence about Sutcliff's treatment of female characters in general (this seems to be largely shared by the younger half of fandom, and largely not shared by the older half, which I find interesting).

(I wrote a whole cranky post about the treatment of Nayli, ha. Most of Sutcliff fandom does not have a problem with it, and I've seen some arguments I can kind of buy if I squint, but...it still grosses me out. I also have issues with the Big Scary Black Assassin, because wow, racist stereotype much?)

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Have you read Sutcliff's autobiography? It's somewhat illuminating about her treatment of female characters: she had a pretty isolated childhood and (especially) adolescence, when her only close female relationship was with her mom, and that was a very ambivalent relationship.

It's also an interesting book in its own right: she grew up in the British Navy, which is nearly as foreign to me as the settings of her books. Plus - scenery porn.

The death of the widows doesn't bother me so much in the children's books, because it's so secondary and generally a way to make the hero an orphan (like Randal in Knight's Fee. But with Anoud - she's a character in her own right, not just a throwaway explanation "So this is how our hero ended up friendless and alone in the big cruel world," and why would she be so in love with Thomas that she would accidentally-on-purpose fall down and die because he was dead?

I mean, I'm sure she's fond of him, but they barely know each other.

I HAD FORGOTTEN BIG SCARY BLACK ASSASSIN. He was the guy with the rose musk, right? (Lots of Sutcliff's villains wear girly perfumes.) Usually she's much better about those things.

[carmarthen.livejournal.com]

I haven't yet, but I gathered as much. It still rather frustrates me.

Yeah, Sutcliff's generally pretty good about that stuff, which is why it's so "WTF WAS THAT" when she's not (e.g. Jewish characters O_o).