dramaturgy: ([GA] Just a whiff...)
dramaturgy ([personal profile] dramaturgy) wrote2007-07-01 12:23 pm

More on The First Princess of Wales

Almost to page 400. Still no quivering manhood, that of the Black Prince or anyone else.

Although, there has been:
- Use of the phrase "his passion spent" to indicate the end of sexual intercourse.
- Repeated use of the word derriere in a complete serious manner with no indication of facetiousness.
- "Iron muscles."
- Use of the word 'orbs' for 'eyes.' Once in the case of Joan ("violent orbs") and her first husband, Thomas Holland ("amber orb" - apparently he's missing an eye, which is something I admittedly missed the first time).
- The "alabaster column of her throat."
- "Conical headresses" FTW.
- Repeated and annoying mentions of a horoscope cast for Joan that will probably never be solved.
- "By the rood" (as a I suppose more historically accurate "By god"? This phrase is used several times not only in internal monologue but in any given conversation. I have read this phrase so many times in the last 400 pages that it no longer holds any meaning for me).
- Edward III attempting to rape poor Joan. Boo, Edward III. Plantagenets = too much effing testosterone.
- There has been an "onslaught of [Edward's] wet, wild tongue." o_o
- Establishment of the Order of the Garter ftw! Joan's garter, to be more precise (which actually lead up to the event mentioned two bullet points above this one).
- Mentions of St. Catherine: too many. But the princess Isabella mentions her as "the virgin saint who died tortured on a wheel." I saw a lot of pictures of St. Catherine in Italy, and I thought she was supposed to be killed on the wheel but when the time came angels broke the wheel so they killed her another way or something? Perfectly possible I'm screwing that up, but.
- "Her nipples leapt erect."
- Poor Joan's brother Edmund and his wife Anne dying of plague. Boo on the black plague. (Although I DEFINITELY typed that as Edgar and Anne at first. Because I'm a nerd.)

I am more amused that I have a right to be. Never has twelve dollars given me so many giggles.

[identity profile] sweet-charade.livejournal.com 2007-07-01 05:55 pm (UTC)(link)
... I finally lost it at "Her nipples leapt erect." WHAT.

[identity profile] dramaturgy.livejournal.com 2007-07-01 06:21 pm (UTC)(link)
I KNOW.

[identity profile] angevin2.livejournal.com 2007-07-01 08:27 pm (UTC)(link)
*laughs and laughs and laughs*

OMG TONGUE ONSLAUGHTS. VIOLENT ORBS. DERRIERES. LEAPING NIPPLES -- which sounds really, really uncomfortable, actually. Ew.

Also, you are right about St. Catherine, and "the rood" = the cross, and it is in period but there is certainly such a thing as overkill. (Writing historical swearing is a no-win situation, at least if your characters are at all serious; it either sounds too modern, or silly.) Also also, the rapist!Edward III thing probably indicates that the author put stock in the French chronicles, while the English ones just have the Garter story (at any rate the identity of the Countess of Salisbury who figures in both of these probably fictive events is highly confused, to say the least).

(deleted comment)

[identity profile] dramaturgy.livejournal.com 2007-07-02 04:22 am (UTC)(link)
Easy. I don't. XD I actually reread it about four times to make sure that I had read it correctly, and then to make sure that the context was correct for it to be the word that I thought it was, and then. Well, there's no point in not laughing.

[identity profile] irinaauthor.livejournal.com 2007-07-03 05:53 pm (UTC)(link)
"onslaught of [Edward's] wet, wild tongue."

Ahahahahahahahhaha! It's like a Slip n' Slide!

[identity profile] dramaturgy.livejournal.com 2007-07-03 06:40 pm (UTC)(link)
Now I'm imagining a highly inappropriate, Plantagenet theme park.