[LMB] QOTD #7: Emotional genre, re: ACC dedication (Sat. Mar. 1st)

[sylvus tarn]

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Tora K. Smulders-Srinivasan wrote:

Heh, the # of unread messages in the LMB queue has been hovering around
2700 for the last month or so---really, I should just give up the idea
I'm ever gonna catch up...


> Would you view LMB's work as in the same genre (emotionally, not
> technically) as the four authors cited in the dedication of "A Civil
> Campaign"?
>

...but this is a question so dear to my heart that I had to reply:  I'm
extraordinarily fond of Austen, Heyer and Sayers, and have happily read
_Jane Eyre_ a number of times.

Certainly, as the subtitle implies, ACC echoes Austen and Heyer in that
it's a comedy of manners; in some ways Komarr actually is a tad closer
to Sayers,  esp to _Strong Poison_ in which Harriet Vane is feeling very
downtrodden from the beastly behavior of her lover, who rather reminds
me of Tien (plus of course it's a murder mystery).   _Strong Poison_
along with  _Gaudy Night_ comprise what is one of my very most fave
romances and Ekaterin's fury in ACC over the pseudo-job,  cuts very
close to the discussion about the necessity and importance of one's
craft and career (the discussion of the detective genre as literature is
a constant theme in Sayers).  (And for embarrassing yet romantic scenes,
cf the dinner table debacle with Wimsy's declarations to Vane with Miss
Cluck, Agatha? whatsername in _Busman's Honeymoon_).

The Bronte resonates the least (for me), in that it doesn't have the
dry, witty humor of the others.  Also, despite its feminist overtones,
the heroine doesn't seem as, um, proactive as the others.

And I think you could probably make a case for technical similarities as
well, not least of which is that all those authors wrote wonderful books.

sylvus tarn
http://rejiquar.com


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