[ SECRET POST #2794 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2794 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 022 secrets from Secret Submission Post #399.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 1 - broken links ], [ 1 2 - not!secrets (random phrases on pictures) ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ], [ 1 - posted twice ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Aww, c'mon, OP. Passages like this don't make you wonder?

"If I die, you'll forgive me?" I begged. "In my heart, I liked you well--even when I was the angriest."

"Do not speak of it!" he cried. "Do not--" And he shut his mouth up on a sob. "Let me get you a little water," he said, "and you'll go easier. It's only a little further. Can you walk at all?"

"No," I said, "not without help. This last hour my legs have been fainting under me, and the blood's running free again. Will you forgive me? I'll die easier with your friendship again."

"Oh, lad, say no more about it!" he said, and again he came near sobbing. "We're neither of us to mend the other--that's the truth! We must just bear and forbear, and if you cannot walk I'll carry you."

[dreemyweird]

Insert the obligatory "in no way is this paragraph more suggestive of a romantic relationship than it is of a platonic one" PSA.

Seriously. Just no.

eta: by which I don't mean "ew icky slash", I mean "the difference between a friendship and a romance is NOT a quantitative one, and this quotation has absolutely nothing to do with the nature of the relationship between the protagonists".

[gondremark]

I've got the "eww icky slash" reaction going on in this context due to the age gap between the characters. Alan is in his 30s, Davie is 17.
So I guess that's an "eww icky age gap" reaction, not an "eww icky slash" reaction.

[gondremark]

I think this is yet another case of Victorian male friendships looking gay to modern readers because modern men aren't allowed to have as many emotions as Victorian men were.
Knowing that this novel was published in the 1880s, I'm just going to say that it reads as very platonic to me (and yes, this is a novel I've ready many times over so I'm not talking out of my arse; it's even less gay in context).

Imagine if both characters were women. In that case, it wouldn't seem all that gay. Victorian men were allowed the same emotional friendships that modern women are allowed today.

[(Anonymous)]

And this isn't even one of the best examples. Some books do this to a much greater extent. Just take a look into the Hornblower books. There, you really start wondering. (The game "Fic or Forester" doesn't exist without reason haha.)

[gondremark]

I haven't read any Forester since I was like 12 and I don't remember it much at all, but from what I hear it seems it's one of the ones that verges into actual subtext at times.

[(Anonymous)]

It does have some real gems.

Drunk Bush:
“He knew his face was one big smile, and he put his head on one side and his shoulder on the table so that Hornblower should get the ful benefit of it.”

Hand porn:

"Bush watched as Hornblower’s capable fingers worked the parallel rulers across the chart; Hornblower had long bony hands with something of beauty about them, and it was actually fascinating to watch them doing work at which they were so supremely competent. The powerful fingers picked up the pencil and ruled a line."




Bonus:

Taken completely out of its context, this little piece sounds like taken directly from a smutty slashfic:
"“It’s pretty swollen here, too, sir,” whispered Bush. The glands in his groin were huge.
“Yes,” said Hornblower."

The context is much more unpleasant.

[dreemyweird]

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