newbie, here

[derien.livejournal.com]

To this community, not to slash, nor, exactly to Jeeves and Wooster.

I've been reading slash for years (and composing it in my head ever since I was a kid). I saw the Fry and Laurie series of Jeeves and Wooster and adored it unreservedly. I sought Wodehouse in the used bookstores, sporadically, and, since I read Steven Fry's essay on why everyone should read Wodehouse, I've sought it continuously, with no luck People don't give up their Wodehouse, apparently. A guy I work with keeps offering to loan me his book that has 3 novel-lenghth Jeeves stories, but he keeps forgetting to bring it in (maybe today). Yesterday I was able to tell him that I found Wodehouse on Gutenberg and have now read a few short stories, and it's way more slashable than I had even imagined! Yes, I did tell him that. And he said he'd been introduced to Wodehouse's work by a gay guy. (Where I work there is this odd interplay - some of the guys seem a little homophobic, this guy included, but at the same time will flirt with each other quite a lot, or make comments on themselves. And I like to reinforce that behavior by openly drooling at it. ;) For some reason they think I'm an attractive woman [I'm actually genetically female, but my attractiveness is questionable to me], and guys always like to do things that amuse an attractive woman.)

Er, and now that I've unearthed myself from my multiple parenthetical comments... nice to meet you all.:) Would you like some PWP Jeeves/Wooster smut? I think I might be able to do that, though I won't vouch for the quality. :)

Comments

[ilthit.livejournal.com]

Bring it on, Attractive Woman. :) And welcome!

I would've given you the Gutenberg hint if you hadn't already had it. I have two Jeeves books, both of which I found fairly easily in a used books store in Coventry.

[dryadwoman.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah. Gimme PWP smut I can read over breakfast!

[rosamundeb.livejournal.com]

*dies at icon* *G*

[dryadwoman.livejournal.com]

Yours is pretty cute itself!

[rosamundeb.livejournal.com]

smut = good

Glad you found some! Although... *cough*.... there is also - the library! *G*

[derien.livejournal.com]

And I even have a library card! Oddly, though, I have some sort of aversion to the library. I think it's the idea that I'll have to give this book back after a limited period of time, I can take forever reading something, and ... I do have an unfortunate tendancy to love books to death. I'm not really happy with borrowing from my co-worker - his is a very nice leather bound copy, and, when he gave it to me this morning, I put it straight into a plastic bag in hopes that I won't damage it.

I asked him, "Are you a bit trepidatious lending me this, knowing I'm probably going to write smut about it?"

He immediately replied, "No, not at all! Why don't you set it at one of those English country weekends where everyone's staying at the manor? Then it can be a real free-for-all!"

Ha! I don't think so.:) But it's nice to know he doesn't mind.;)

I'm trepidatious about writing smut - it's just NOT what I normally do. But it seems so damned right and possible with this pairing that I just might be able to. I'll try to get it done 'soon.'

[rosamundeb.livejournal.com]

*L*! Like the encouragement he gave you!

*awards you an armful of points for using "trepidatious" TWICE in sentences!*

[tootsiemuppet.livejournal.com]

"I say, Jeeves, it's a dashed funny thing about writers these days, you know."

"Sir?"

"These silly new abbrevs they use. One simply can't understand them at all. Words without thought never to heaven go, Jeeves, and neither do abbreviations without meaning."

He coughed one of his sheep-likes.

"What is it, Jeeves?"

"I believe the initialism to which the lady was alluding, is one used in the jargon of a group of young ladies who call themselves "slashers", sir. The 'PWP' here would refer to 'Plot? What Plot?': a subcategory of fanfiction, sir."

"Slashers? Fanfiction? 'Plot? What Plot?'? What is all this rot. Speak plainly, Jeeves."

"I am sorry, sir. The young ladies who refer to themselves as slashers are fervent readers of literature in which two male characters share an extraordinarily tight bond. They elevate this bond above the level of friendship and add a sexual aspect, to then proceed to write stories about these new views."

"A sexual aspect, Jeeves?"

"Yes, sir, ranging from romantic to what the young lady described as PWP."

"Meaning 'Plot? What Plot?' then."

"Yes, sir."

"Outright sex, you mean?"

Another sheep-like. "Yes, sir."

"Bally awful."

"I agree, sir. It is nevertheless my impression, sir, that there is a rather sizable group of readers who prefer this sort of story."

"You don't say. To each his own, what?"

"Precisely, sir."

"But she wrote 'Jeeves/Wooster PWP'."

"Yes, sir."

"Golly!"

"Precisely, sir."

___

That said, bring it on!!

[tootsiemuppet.livejournal.com]

Hah, also a hearty Hurrah and Huzzah and WELCOME!

I'm sorry, my mind just kept going 'PWP PWP PWP PWP PWP PWP' and blocked out all the rest there for a second.

I've got the same thing about libraries, though I still practically live there these days. I had a book a while ago that I just kept extending until they told me I really had to give it back. A sad day in the life of a tootsiemuppet, I can tell you. Bought it the next day. ^_^

[derien.livejournal.com]

"Golly!" Poor fellows! (Do I sense that they are now secretly glancing speculatively at each other?)

[tootsiemuppet.livejournal.com]

Of course they are. ;)

I just realised I made Jeeves pretty knowledgeable on the subject... hmm... Jeeves, a sekrit fangrrl? ... I didn't say that.

[derien.livejournal.com]

But Jeeves is knowledgeable on all subjects, so of course he'd be read up on the slash culture as well.

Hm. I just thought. Is his reading "bodice rippers" a cannon thing, something Bertie just dreamed up to tease him, or fannon? If it's cannon that he actually does read that type of book... well, fanfic is sort of the bodice ripper of today. Although often more intellectual. A Jeeves transported to the present might read fanfic, and encounter slash. But I don't see how a 'moderne' version of Jeeves and Wooster could work at all, because I don't think anyone has gentlemen's gentlemen anymore. Do they? Unless they're very very rich, I suppose.

[tootsiemuppet.livejournal.com]

I've never encountered bodice rippers in canon, and would actually think it a bit out of character for Jeeves to put down Spinoza's Ethica in favour of one of those paperbacks of the bodice ripping kind. ... Still, the man does read "lower" literature. He was quite knowledgeable on Rosie M. Banks! (Yes, Jeeves, romantic alliances between upper and lower class members DO happen! *L*)

The butlering/valetting business has (alas) become virtually extinct. Happened around the time of the world wars, when all of the sudden a large number of rich families became impoverished rich families and couldn't afford a huge staff anymore. I read 'Over Seventy' a couple of days ago in which Wodehouse was complaining that there weren't any real butlers anymore. ^_^

Hm, I was trying to think of a way to still make Bertie and Jeeves work in the present time but can't think of anything. Dash it.

[sor-bet.livejournal.com]

Hm, I was trying to think of a way to still make Bertie and Jeeves work in the present time but can't think of anything. Dash it.

I'm not sure how WELL it would work, but perhaps Jeeves would be Bertie's PR guy, his spokesman, administrative aide, personal assistant? There are still titled, monied Englishmen, aren't there? Maybe there aren't....but if there are, what do they do every day? And wouldn't they need some sort of Man Friday to keep their days organized? I could see Bertie as needing someone to keep him in line in the business/social world, even if he does fold his own socks now. :-)