A few things which didn't do it for me:

James Wilson: The Dark Clue. A decades old novel which got translated into German only now, hence my coming across is accidentally. I did like the premise; it's the execution that sucks. The idea: Marian Halcombe and Walter Hartright from The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins start investigating the life of late legendary painter J.W.M. Turner (as he's referred to in the English speaking world, I was recently reminded, in Germany we refer to him as William Turner) when Walter (himself a painter, lest we forget that detail from TWIW) gets tasked with writing Turner's biography in competition to the guy who in real life did so. I was intrigued and charmed by the idea and suspected Wilson might have started out wanting to write a regular old biographical novel about Turner, then found it tricky because it's hard to get a traditional story arc out of his life, and decided on this charmingly 19th century framing device of two interlocking stories. Now I am a fan of (several of) Wilkie Collins' books and was both fascinated and disturbed by Mike Leigh's 2014 movie about Turner, so I was definitely in the market as the target audience for this book. Alas. The Turner parts of the book are sort of okay - our heroes get contradictory testimony about him reflecting various sides of his character, and there's even the sense of him as essentially a Georgian (time of his youth, when his character was formed) in the Victorian era. But the Wilkie Collins fanfic part of it is just plain terrible. Researching Turner works as an emotional catalyst of sorts for both Walter and Marian. ( Beware of bad fanfic spoilers. ) In conclusion, a depressing waste of what could have been a clever and intriguing premise.


Domina (TV Series, Season 1): The Julio-Claudian one where Livia is the heroine. I definitely was in the market for this one, and it did provide a lot of things I liked and/or had missed in earlier takes. So we do get very young Livia's life on the run in the post Caesar's death/ pre her (first) husband making his peace with Octavian part of her life, and indeed lots and lots of emphasis on her Claudian background and the fact her father was Team Conspirators. (Speaking of Octavian/Augustus, the show decides to deal with the various changes his name goes through in rl during those years by letting everyone refer to and address him by his first name of Gaius. Fair enough, and makes life easier for tv watchers.) This is also the first tv take that uses Scribonia (aka Octavian's wife before Livia and the mother of his sole surviving cihild, Julia). And while we don't get all of the children Octavia was the mother or in charge of, we do get far more than usual (one of the two Marcellas, both Antonias, Marcellus, and Julus, Antony's surviving (well, surviving into adulthood) son by Fulvia. Still missing in this version: Cleopatra's three kids with Antony.) And just when I was about to complain that Livia's bff/slave/freedwoman is depicted only in relationship to her, even when traumatic stuff happens, the character got her own scenes and responses. I was also amused by the take on Octavian/Augustus rise and consilidation of power as essentially a Mafia story, which, yes, can see that. Though it severely undersells quite how bloody and chaotic things had been with the Republic for the entire century before young O made his moves, which leads into my complaints re: Livia's motivations, more in a second, but what I want to say here is that the appeal of Augustus and the Principate to contemporaries and thereafter wasn't just that he emerged on top after a few bloody years and thus put an end to (civil) war, but that he managed to stabilize a state which simply had not been working anymore and had gone from bloody crisis/war to bloody crisis ever since the Senate decided murdering Tiberius Gracchus was a good way to deal with his call for direly needed reforms.

Why is this important as to why I'm not a fan of the show? Because Domina is yet another case of a sympathetic main character's secret key motivation being the wish to reintroduce the Republic. Because, see, the whole reason why Livia Drusilla (in this version) masterminds the invention of the Principate - makes her second husband from a gangster into a ruler/tyrant, as one character puts it in the show - is that her plan is that one of her sons inherits this complete power from him, and then restores the Republic for real.

Head. Desk. Now, Livia, being the daughter of an actual Republican, is actually at least a more plausible candidate for this than, say, the centuries later Emperor Marcus Aurelius in a way, and she's just a teenager when Caesar dies, so wasn't old enough to have memories of the actual Republic pre-first Triumvirate and could believe it would have been fine if not for Caesar's rise for power. But if this show wants to have its cake and eat it by providing Livia with this noble motivation justifying her increasingly ruthless strategems, while simultanously insisting on her intelligence and refusing to let her to anything to actually set up a transition of power back to the Senate. (Which "restoring the Republic" would have to mean.) On the contrary. Whenever Senators show up, they're scheming to kill Augustus and/or Livia and her kids and mean and temporary obstacles to be defeated, except for Livia's father's old bff who is noble, but doesn't anything mundane like trying to assemble a faction. So how does the show's Livia imagine things would go if all her plans succeed and one of her boys upon being handed complete power nobly hands it back to the Senate? Would the Senate, after decades of being either evil schemers or sycophantic yes-men to Augustus, then suddenly reveal they're really all virtuous statesmen inside? You'd think she'd cultivate at least a few Senators with the potential of being future administrators, especially since if there's no more Princeps inter Pares, that means Rome has to be governed by two different Consuls each other again, and where are they supposed to come from? But no. Meaning: you have a series which on the one hand aims for a "gritty Mafia drama in togas" vibe, a morally ambigous heroine who starts out well intentioned but has to be not just smarter but more ruthless to remain on top once she's there, but on the other you give her this illogical central motivation that only works in a fairy tale world.

There's another structual problem. For Livia to have impressive struggles to achieve, she needs opponents who challenge her. Now, until she marries Gaius, this works well enough, especially since the show presents her first husband (hitherto described as a conservative nice guy in what few fictions he made it into) as an opportunistic, incompetent and increasingly evil louse. But once she's Mrs. Princeps, she's in theory on top of her world. The show gains some tension from the fact that Gaius-as-Augustus has of course no intention of giving up power and that he's smart enough to figure out one day why Livia really married him, but most of the outward menace/scheming Livia has to contend with is brought by either the aforementioned evil senators.... or Scribonia. As in, Livia's predecessor, Julia's mother, carrying an immortal grudge against Livia for being the cause of Gaius divorcing her. (Supporting Scribonia, though not with evil schemes, is Octavia, who in the first two eps actually comes across as the smarter of the two, but after the show goes through a time jump and change of cast so the kids can be nearly grown up teenagers is suddenly naive and gullible as opposed to scheming Scribonia) Scribonia, character wise, is something of a blank slate - I think basically the only things we know about her from the sources is who she was married to (like many a Roman aristocrat, she was so repeatedly, and indeed remarried after being divorced by Octavian), the scandalous way Octavian divorced her, and that when her daughter Julia eventually gets exiled by her father, Scribonia chooses to go with her. (According to Seneca, she outlived her daughter, but it's also possible she died with her at the start of Tiberius' reign.) So sure, you can write her as benevolent or malvolent as you like. But either way - she has zero political power. She is NOT married to the first man of Rome. So the series by shoving her into the female villain position hitherto occupied by Livia in I, Claudius on the one hand wants us to believe in Scribonia as Livia's Enemy No.1, but otoh doesn't justify why Livia doesn't simply get rid of her one way or the other. And then there's the fact the show's Scribonia is none too bright in her scheming. And it's not like Gaius was in love with her and thus would have a reason to keep her around in Rome. (He divorces her as cold-bloodedly on the show as he did in rl, i.e. basically the moment Julia is born and isn't a boy.) So why the show' s Scribonia is in Rome in a position to make trouble instead of being exiled or dead in the last half of the first season makes no sense.

Making this show yet another example of one that learned all the wrong lessons from I, Claudius. I.e. adopt the "but he/she really wants to restore the Republic and is just faking harmlessness" gimmick, but ignore the fact that I, Claudius lets its villains be formidable - Livia herself first and foremost, of course; in that show, she's ruthless and a non-stop schemer, but she's smart and brilliant about it. That's what makes her so chilling. I somehow suspect the original pitch for Domina must have been along the lines of " I, Claudius, but Livia is the heroine, and also, they curse as much as in Rome" and then too late they realized if Livia is the heroine, you need another villain or villains, and landed on Scribonia because someone has to be the evil woman, clearly. Without bothering to think things through.

And then there's the minor irritation of Livia except for the last three episodes wearing her hair open instead of bothering with a Roman hairstyle (though all the other female characters have one). Why? But that's really just one minor detail.

In conclusion: oh producers of historical drama set in the many centuries of Roman Imperial history: you can actually do dramas where the main character does NOT want to restore the Republic.

16. Can't believe more people haven't read.

Well, it’s not that it’s utterly unread, but Armadale by Wilkie Collins has become something of a forgotten classic. I mean, Collins in general with his „Dickens‘ trashier pal“ reputation is due for a renaissance, but The Woman in White never got out of fashion, Moonstone has the „first modern detective novel“ market cornered at least, and Armadale is my faaaaaaavourite, and thus I’m choosing it for this reply. My main reason for loving it is its redhaired, clever and snarky villainess/anti-heroine, Lydia Gwilt – not for nothing did Wilkie C. call the theatre version of his novel which he distilled from it „Miss Gwilt“ -, but it has other virtues as well. It’s the „sensation novel“, the Wilkie Collins genre per excellence, in fine form: dastardly, complicated intrigues, doppelgangers, complicated murders, hair-raising escapes, sarcastic dialogue, and ample text and subtext for unusual living arrangements. If you’re into m/m, well, two of the novel’s four Alan Armadales whose father were arch enemies swear themselves best friends instead – love across a family feud, only with a happy ending, no less – and are devoted above and beyond.
But, as mentioned, my main reason for adoring this book is Lydia. Who is introduced in classic Victorian villainess fashion in the first part of the novel – red hair, up to no good, the reader though not the blond and none too bright Alan Armadale deduces instantly she’s identical with someone he’s been warned about as she seduces him away from his love interest whose governess she is – but then we get Lydia’s journal excerpts and some of her letters, and her first person narration is so engaging in its sarcasm and vivacity that she takes over the book. It’s impossible not to root for her instead of Team Armadale. She also has those quintessentials for villaindom turned into anti-hero-ness, a horrible past from early childhood onwards, a drug habit (like her author and a great many 19th century types, Lydia is into various opiates) and true love for one of the virtuous characters (the dark haired and smarter of the Alan Armadales, going by the nome de plume of Ozias Midwinter). To the great indignation of some contemporary critics, she gets to keep her beauty, her red hair and gets an heroic if tragic ending. I requested her once for Yuletide and got not one but two stories about her, one of which has her having faked her death and having adventures elsewhere, which made me profoundly happy.

( The other days )

Choose ten characters. What fandoms would they participate in, and in what ways?

1.) I already did a post on clearly both movieverse Magneto and Xavier being Doctor Who fans, complete with highly scientific poll as to which Doctors and which Companions they like best. Expanding on that, I'd say Erik Lehnsherr to this day argues Genesis of the Daleks with Charles online and and has dispatched Mystique to Simbabe to investigate those rumours that there are copies of the lost Second Doctor episodes there. He could only sell her on this by telling her she might as well kill Mugabe while she was in the country, but by all means had to retrieve the tapes.

2.) Severus Snape, growing up with a Muggle father as he did, had off course access to 70s and early 80s tv. You know what this means, don't you? Young Severus was a Blake's 7 fan. Only Lily knew, of course, because he'd never have confessed it to his Slytherin friends; he just used Avon's one liners to great effect without them recognizing the origin. He used to write Avon/Cally fanfic under a pseudonym for fanzines and then broke it off. During his time as a Death Eater, he was severely tempted to go after Chris Boucher for Gauda Prime, but the thought of Voldemort figuring out the reason held him back. Later, at Hogwarts, he came around to regarding Blake as a great finale. At least Avon didn't have to teach kids as a punishment.

3.) Arvin Sloane's secret vice, as opposed to the more obvious ones, are Andrew Llyod Webber musicals, especially The Phantom of the Opera. He has all kinds of recordings, went to see it every time he was in London for an Alliance meeting and when really depressed finds reading Erik/Christine OTP fanfic complete with Raoul bashing cheers him up to no end. He'd never write it, though. On the other hand, he nearly got into a flame war on the subject why older manipulative mentor types with a killing record might not be the ideal partner for young talented ingenues. The other person just couldn't see Erik did it all for Christine's own good and that she'd never become such a stellar soprano without him; and why should the occasional posing as her father be a bad thing?

4.) Darla was really into Wilkie Collins novels back in the 19th century and had a bet running with Angelus as to what the nature of Sir Percy's secret was, though her favourite of his novels wasn't The Woman in White, it was Armadale. In the 20th century, she discovered the film Theatre of Blood and thought it was a marvellous idea, very inspirational. Only instead of killing off critics by staging Shakespearean deaths, she celebrated her ongoing Collins fannishness by killing off critics who insisted that he just wrote cheap potboilers by staging Collins murders. Also prevented murders which really should have been allowed to succeed for everyone's good, like the death of blond Alan in Armadale, oh yes. Wilkie Collins' reputation with literature professors improved; his critics literally died away. Clearly, fandom is not powerless.

5.) Alex Drake was a big Professionals fan as a girl, read Bodie/Doyle slashfic though she didn't write it, and made character and relationship soundmixes. She also catches Martin Shaw on stage when she can. Well, she did when she was living in the present, that is. Since her trip to the past, she found she couldn't stand watching The Professionals on screen anymore, for some reason, and instead distracts herself by watching Dallas, annoying her teammates by predicting plot twists and reconciling them by inventing drinking games.

6.) Toshiko Sato was a big Battlestar Galactica (new) fan, creating some of the best vids in fandom and writing lengthy, thoughtful meta. She was secretly a Kara/Leoben shipper (secretely because she knew how screwed up that was, and so used another handle when talking about that ship), but her vids were either Roslin-centric or ensemble. She was tempted to ask Jack about the Final Five and how it all ended but in the end didn't, and died not knowing.

7.) Abigail Brand is familiar enough with Star Wars to get Hank's references and respond accordingly, but she's really a fan of the Alien franchise. Ripley was and is her idol. She has all editions of all four movies on dvd and Sigourney Weaver's autograph, though she claimed her geeky boyfriend wanted it. In her non-existant spare time, she writes furious posts in online forums as to why there shouldn't be a fifth one.

8.) John Connor actually tries to stay away from sci fi, but one day caught a BSG episode, and, well, it all ended with him arguing in Television Without Pity why Cylons were completely implausible but Boomer was screwed over as a character anyway and should have gotten a redemption arc. He'd never tell his mother but has a feeling Cameron knows.

9.) Martha Jones stays away from medical shows except House; she and Tom regularly mock the medicine during episodes, but they never miss one, and though Hugh Laurie's American accent still occasionally weirds her out - after all, she watched Blackadder as a girl - she has a huge crush on him. Sometimes she checks the internet for Shakespeare fanfic and never knows whether she's dissapointed or relieved that there don't appear any Shakespeare/Dark Lady stories available.

10.) Vince Matsuka is a big Star Trek fan, which isn't a secret, and mods a Kira/Odo shipping community, which is, since he always tells everyone he's just in it for the chance to get naked photos of the female actors. He also gets into regular flame wars with Kira/Dukat shippers and with someone with a goverment computer IP who wants the discussion to get back to whether the Enterprise could beat the Death Star, with the online handle of LemonLymon.