Was Wodehouse aware of how this sounded? Did he intend it that way?

[kakareen.livejournal.com]

Listen to the blissful fanmix put together by

ironicbees

, I can't help but be struck rather forcefully, as if by a quite sizable sledgehammer, but thankfully without the bruising and what-have-you, by the song "What is This Thing Called Love". It is a canon song, which Bertie offers to perform for Jeeves after they have 'broken up' over the banjolele. I had raised an eyebrow over this, and that eyebrow went a whole eighth of an inch higher after reading the lyrics. Having now heard the song, my expression has now escalated to Wooster levels. It is not bright, or cheery. It has not a bouncey beat. It is....melancholy, even. It is just the sort of song Bertie would not care for.
Nevermind Bertie wanting to seranade Jeeves with a love song. The fact that it is not Bertram's usual style of music really drives the point home. Is ever-cheery Wooster so put out that this song fits his mood? Or is he deliberately choosing a song he thinks Jeeves might enjoy, trying to meet him halfway?

Either way, it's all getting a bit ridiculous. As Giles said to Buffy, "I think the subtext is rapidly becoming....text."
I don't even NEED my rainbow-tinted lenses on for this. It's all specially printed for my special viewing needs already.

This is not the only instance of this. There is the well-known ending to "The Tie That Binds". There is the throw-away comment from Bingo that "Jeeves is the brains in the family, isn't he?". And so many others. I invite you to post your favorites.

Anyway, the point I am meandering to is: Was dear old Plum doing this on purpose?

Comments

[juliacarmen.livejournal.com]

Well, he did say in a letter once that he wished he had written about "homosexualism"...

[antony-james-k.livejournal.com]

I fully believe so. I cannot say whether it was his intention from the beginning, but I feel that he was fully, *fully* aware of what they became.

[waqaychay.livejournal.com]

the tie that binds is just rife with things like that. if i didn't know better, i'd say wodehouse was, indeed, doing it on purpose. i've always said that if you read tttb sideways while squinting, it's just like reading gay porn. ;P

my favorite bit is when bertie is almost run over in the street and jeeves saves him. it's a very short line.

"Jeeves!" I ejaculated.

short, like i said. but he uses it quite often in that book, and i can't read it without dirty thoughts. ;)

[triedunture.livejournal.com]

*sporfle* I thought I was the only one with the mind of a 3rd grader when it came to that line. :D

[waqaychay.livejournal.com]

oh, no. you're definitely not alone on that one, love. ;D

[mxdp.livejournal.com]

But...but... he did! ;)

[hazeltea.livejournal.com]

This is so true! I've always been surprised that more people hadn't written about that angle.

[mxdp.livejournal.com]

I always fall for that line. XD

[kakareen.livejournal.com]

My favorite bit is:
Madeline: Bertie, have you gone straight?
I gave a laugh. One of my gay, debonair ones.

[furius.livejournal.com]

I read somewhere that Wodehouse modeled parts of the Bertie&Jeeves dynamic after him and his wife....He sees himself as the Jeeves character, apparently XD

[ironicbees.livejournal.com]

And then later Jeeves brings him a drink and he says

“Mingled with the ecstasy which the sight of him aroused in my bosom was a certain surprise that he should be acting as cup-bearer…‘Hullo, Jeeves!’ I ejaculated.”

A rather interesting choice of words. XD

[ironicbees.livejournal.com]

I can’t imagine how Wodehouse could have been entirely ignorant of all the subtext in his stories. He has to have seen it – maybe not at first, but eventually.

One of my favourites is in Joy in the Morning, when they have to part after the cottage burns down, and Bertie refers to Jeeves as a gazelle. Jeeves quotes part of the Thomas Moore poem it came from (Lalla Rookh), which sounds slashy enough, but when you read the rest of it it’s even more so (http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/lalla-rookh/). Then there’s the Shakespeare (http://www.online-literature.com/shakespeare/merchant/20/) passage (http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/merchant/section10.rhtml) Jeeves quotes later (“Look how the floor of heaven is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold…”).

Bertie compares Jeeves to a wife in “Jeeves and the Unbidden Guest”. And my new favourite, from the end of “Leave it to Jeeves” (http://wodehouse.ru/texts/pg/23_My_Man_Jeeves.txt) : “Of course, I know it’s as bad as being henpecked, but then Jeeves is always right.”

[wemblee.livejournal.com]

Apparently the super-slashy ending of "Tie That Binds" was different originally and was changed for the American edition? Even still, sometimes I really do wonder if Plum, after a while, did intend a lot of their gay gay gayness. I mean... just... come on.

oops, almost forgot

[wemblee.livejournal.com]

And Junior Ganymede? COME ON.

[ironicbees.livejournal.com]

Apparently the super-slashy ending of "Tie That Binds" was different originally and was changed for the American edition?

Wodehouse's editor didn't like the ending of the English edition & thought Jeeves wouldn't destroy the pages "without a rational explanation", so he drafted a longer ending and Wodehouse worked it into the American edition.

[chaoticchaos13.livejournal.com]

*Loves this*

[chaoticchaos13.livejournal.com]

Bless that editor. Bless him really hard.

[storyfan.livejournal.com]

Neither can I.

[affectedmangoo.livejournal.com]

I cannot stop staring at your icon, please send help.
step
step
step
step
...

Where is it going?

[die-heitere.livejournal.com]

I´m a bit hypnotised, too. O_O

[angieveep.livejournal.com]

I haven´t read yet about the banjolele incident (shame on me). In which novel can I find it?

[pipariperho.livejournal.com]

I KNEW IT! That's why I should read those books in English! I think it can't be translated that way in Finnish.

[random-nexus.livejournal.com]

OMG! I totally LOVE your icon!!!!

[random-nexus.livejournal.com]

Too, too many to count -- even if I had the memory to recall them all without assistance -- but I am firmly in the "yes, he bloody well DID know what he was doing and did it on purpose" camp. If he didn't know at the start, he HAD to know some way into the many stories he wrote, because... c'mon now. Really.

[random-nexus.livejournal.com]

Ditto, ditto, and DITTO!