Tally Ho! Introduction and Discussion.

[lollyphants.livejournal.com]

Hello there. My name is Lemony and I'm sixteen years old. I'm not new to this comm, but I have never posted before, so thought it best to introduce myself.

Right, so long story short my friend wouldn't believe that Bertie and Jeeves were more than friends so I wrote her a little essay, about six pages long on word, based on the short story 'Leave it to Jeeves' from the book, 'My Man Jeeves' and I've tarted it up a bit for this comm.  It's not particularly professional or deep and I've never written anything like this before apart from for school so I can't promise it'll be good, but I'd love to hear what you guys think.

I should also point out that all the quotes used in this post were written by P.G. Wodehouse. I've tagged and I've read the rules but I've still probably done something wrong so I apologize in advance.

'Leave it to Jeeves'- A slashy almost essay.

Comments

[princesshannah4.livejournal.com]

Thank you for posting! That was a nice read.

I do have a few things to say, though:

1) I'm not quite sure Leave It To Jeeves was the best choice of example, not because of the content (as you have shown, there is PLENTY of good slash in there), but because of what happened to the actual physical story. All the Jeeves stories in My Man Jeeves were later edited by Wodehouse and re-printed in Carry On, Jeeves where Leave It To Jeeves was retitled The Artistic Career of Corky and most of the passages you referenced (mainly that whole introduction with Bertie lavishing Jeeves with praise) were taken out.

2) You made a lot of great arguments, but I think you spent just a little too much time focusing on sentence structure and word definitions (remember, words and phrases change a lot over time, as Stephen Fry himself dedicated a podcast to) instead of on themes. It's my opinion that Jeeves and Bertie's relationship is best examined over the course of multiple stories, just because there's so much material that only looking at one story doesn't quite give you the best picture.

All in all, you being 16 and my being 18, I can hardly call myself your senior, so my words probably aren't the most valid.

Still, I think that this is a wonderful little introduction to the analysis of Jooster and I thank you very much for posting it!

[princesshannah4.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry, I hope I wasn't being too overly critical! ^^;

[lollyphants.livejournal.com]

No, don't apologize. All advice is very much appreciated. Thank you for taking the time to read and I'll keep in mind your suggestions if I ever do something like this again.

[storyfan.livejournal.com]

Thank you for posting this. You've made a number of good points. Here's what I would say, though: To make a case like this, use several examples from several different stories done over a period of time. That bolsters your argument. Now I admit most of us don't need many arguments to see slash in this relationship, but if you're trying to convince someone, the more sources you have, the better. When you write papers for college, you'll need to have as many sources as you can, but you probably already know that. Please excuse me if I sound condescending because I certainly don't mean to be.

I agree with princesshanna4 in that dwelling on word choices and definitions doesn't really bolster the argument. Take the word fond, for instance. I am fond of my cats, grape jelly and my computer. I don't think being fond of something necessarily means I love it or even have great affection for it. That might be the strict definition, but I think you can find shades of meaning in such a word.

You're 16? Well, you're on your way to becoming a good writer. Keep it up. It takes a lot of courage to post something like this on a comm, and I appreciate that you did it.

[lollyphants.livejournal.com]

"I don't think being fond of something necessarily means I love it or even have great affection for it. That might be the strict definition, but I think you can find shades of meaning in such a word."

Sorry, it's probably just me but I simply cannot divorce the word 'fond' from the word 'affection', but I probably shouldn't have assumed everyone else, including Bertie is the same.

Thank you very much for all the advice, especially the point above. :)

[storyfan.livejournal.com]

You're very welcome.

[random-nexus.livejournal.com]

I say 'ditto' to Storyfan & PrincessHannah4, in essence. Same advice. But, also, same kudos. Considering you're 16, this is quite a good essay/argument and to pony up in a new comm is brave and awesome! *grin*
Go, you!

[lollyphants.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much for taking the time to read and to comment.