(no subject)

[toujours_nigel]

Oh Lud there is a story about St.John Rivers in Calcutta, and it's a cross-over with Sutcliff's Eagle of the Ninth.

Well-researched, at any rate, though people speak 'Hindu' and St.John is sympathetic towards Dalits (taking issue more with the term than with his sympathies), and everything about military ranks is 'wibbly-wobbly'.

Oh god he just put raita in mulagtani. Though the author's notes say not to, so there's that.

Anyway, stashing a link here, in case:

Passion & Profession (127463 words) by demon_rum
Chapters: 24/24
Fandom: Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte, The Eagle | Eagle of the Ninth (2011), Eagle of the Ninth - Rosemary Sutcliff
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Marcus Aquila/St. John Rivers.
Characters: Marcus Flavius Aquila, St. John Rivers
Summary:

The continuing adventures of St. John Rivers in Calcutta.

Comments

[oonaseckar]

Blimey, what a pairing. Wouldn't Marcus crush him like a tiny annoying bug?

[toujours_nigel]

Right now Marcus seems to be treating him very well indeed. But yes, so tiny, so annoying.

I'm sincerely hoping Esca either doesn't show, or isn't class-whammied the usual way. Nice bit of Irish rough, or something. :\

[legionseagle]

Esca seems to have been written out (I got as far as chapter 12 and bailed). That is neither Marcus Aquila nor St John Rivers. It may well be a decently researched historical novel along the lines of Sarah Walters about homosexual attraction under the East India Company.

[toujours_nigel]

I managed till about Chapter 3 and ditto. But I agree with you on the whole. The changes seem more obvious for Marcus to me, though maybe because unchanged Marcus would have fit the milieu so well.

[legionseagle]

Class-whammied is one of those things, actually. I mean while intersectionality means I can't talk about it properly in the context of this fic, in terms of the source even though Esca wasn't really working class, he was upper class come down in the world through fortune of war, nevertheless he was closer (eg in terms - especially! - of the attitude of Placidus to him) to my personal experience than a lot of other characters in the fiction of my working-class childhood, in that he was a role-model rather than a servile thing who could only be raised by being helped up by his superiors (see eg The Family From One End Street and other patronising crap).

It's something I've been thinking about a lot, recently (as per my recent post on Sherlock - specifically why fanfic writers who - as per the example under discussion - take the trouble to be well-researched and apologetic while getting race wrong, are completely oblivious when being objectionably patronising on matters of class.)

[toujours_nigel]

Yes, I see what you mean. I was mostly afraid that he was going to be made into the second sort with no apologies and via a thorough transposition of modern chattel slavery onto the Roman model.

Though you could write Esca perfectly into early colonial India, no changes required. Proud, even peacocky, young princes were being forever taken and ransomed back or not depending upon relative importance, and often being dragged up into the Resident's household, etc. Could be done. Glad there's been no attempt, mind.

[fawatson]

Seconded!

BTW - if you two like Sutcliff, the latest Sutcliff-Swap stories are on A03 for reading. There are always a few Eagle of the Ninth offerings among them.

[toujours_nigel]

Oh, I saw! Looking forward to reading those and not writing my paper. *g*