breakinglight11 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
breakinglight11) wrote2018-01-28 09:55 am
breakinglight11) wrote2018-01-28 09:55 am
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Brains got shot off in the war
Been rewatching the Jeeves and Wooster ITV series from the early nineties, which I enjoy very much. I love the works of P.G. Wodehouse (I wrote a short funny larp in his style) and I think these capture the spirit of them beautifully. They are very funny, and the production design is gorgeous, from the clothes to the homes to the country estates. Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie portray the two leads respectively, to such perfection that I can't imagine the characters any other way, even when I'm reading the stories. I recommend them for people who like British humor of manners. (Though fair warning: later in the series they use the occasional problematic scenario that is cringeworthy, and though they exist in the service of pointing out how utterly ridiculous and idiotic the people participating in the problematic thing are, they probably shouldn't have been depicted at all.)
I was thinking recently that Nathaniel would be a big fan of the books, even though they don't debut until he's pretty old. But maybe his daughter Beatrice would give him a copy of an early one for his birthday when he's sixty or sixty-five. And then he'd disappear after dinner and everybody would be like, "Where's Dad?" And they'd hear cackling coming from the parlor, where he'd be tearing through the book laughing his head off. "I knew fellows just like this!" And he'd have enormous sympathy for Bertie, because he means so well and tries so hard— and of course, Nathaniel knows better than anyone what it's like to be beset by horrible aunts. ;-) Still, Bertie's relationship with his Aunt Dahlia might make Nathaniel a little wistful, as it will remind him of a certain someone who will not be around at this point.
Though the very first story debuted in 1915, Wodehouse wrote Jeeves and Wooster stories for like fifty years, and they are mostly agreed to take place in a nebulous, idealized Interwar period, usually taken to mean the late 1920's. That's definitely the position the ITV series takes, often referencing historical figures of the period and occasionally evening mentioning years. Though though the horrors of World War I are supposed to have been in the recent past, they are not really referenced, instead focusing on the totally carefree lives of idol rich idiots who get themselves into ridiculous scrapes. Still it has one amusing effect on the proceedings. See, it's a little horrible of me, but I've always enjoyed the mild, unspoken implication that all the smart young men died in the war. ;-)
I was thinking recently that Nathaniel would be a big fan of the books, even though they don't debut until he's pretty old. But maybe his daughter Beatrice would give him a copy of an early one for his birthday when he's sixty or sixty-five. And then he'd disappear after dinner and everybody would be like, "Where's Dad?" And they'd hear cackling coming from the parlor, where he'd be tearing through the book laughing his head off. "I knew fellows just like this!" And he'd have enormous sympathy for Bertie, because he means so well and tries so hard— and of course, Nathaniel knows better than anyone what it's like to be beset by horrible aunts. ;-) Still, Bertie's relationship with his Aunt Dahlia might make Nathaniel a little wistful, as it will remind him of a certain someone who will not be around at this point.
Though the very first story debuted in 1915, Wodehouse wrote Jeeves and Wooster stories for like fifty years, and they are mostly agreed to take place in a nebulous, idealized Interwar period, usually taken to mean the late 1920's. That's definitely the position the ITV series takes, often referencing historical figures of the period and occasionally evening mentioning years. Though though the horrors of World War I are supposed to have been in the recent past, they are not really referenced, instead focusing on the totally carefree lives of idol rich idiots who get themselves into ridiculous scrapes. Still it has one amusing effect on the proceedings. See, it's a little horrible of me, but I've always enjoyed the mild, unspoken implication that all the smart young men died in the war. ;-)