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TheGreatEvilKing posted:I can already tell this is going to be unpleasant. Oh yeah. That night, Spring meets with the officers (including Flashman) to discuss how tightly they're going to pack the the slaves once they have them, in a chillingly matter-of-fact conversation: quote:“Six hundred,” says Spring. “More than I’d bargained for; it’ll mean fifteen inches for the bucks, and I want two bucks for every female, and no d - - - - d calves.” Comber finally speaks up nervously and tries to back Kinnie in giving more space for the women, but Spring shouts him down, accusing him of being too soft-hearted and perhaps even having abolitionist tendencies. Flashman knows better than to stick his oar in, and Spring eventually turns to planning the trip upriver to meet King Gezo. Now go back to the last page and look at the image sebmojo posted. That shows how slaves were packed with sixteen inches' width for both men and women. And Spring is insisting on shaving it down even further. The next morning, Spring and Flashman, along with Kinnie, Comber, and about a dozen sailors, take a Kru canoe up the river. Every man is heavily armed – Flashman is given a newfangled long-barrelled Colt revolver (probably the ”Walker” model, based on his description and the cover art), a cutlass, and a needle carbine. quote:(S)o I took my needle carbine and bandolier, buckled on the cutlass and stuck the Colt in my belt, and stood forth like Pirate Bill; as we took our places in the canoe, it looked like something from a pantomime, every man with his hankie knotted round his head, armed to the teeth, some of ’em with rings in their ears, and one even with a patch over his eye. It struck me—what would Arnold say if he could look down now from his place at the right hand of God? Why, there, he would say, is that worthy lad, Tom Brown, with his milk-and-water wife in the West Country, giving bread and blankets to needy villagers who knuckle their heads and call him “squire”: good for you, Brown. And there, too, that noble boy Scud East, lording it over the sepoys for the glory of God and the profit of John Company—how eminently satisfactory! And young Brooke, too, a fearless lieutenant aboard his uncle’s frigate Unspeakable—what a credit to his old school! Aye, as the twigs are bent so doth the trees grow. But who is this, consorting with pirates and preparing to ship hapless n(...)s into slavery, with oaths on his lips? I might have known—it is the degraded Flashman! Unhappy youth! But just what I might have expected! After Mrs. Spring makes sure Spring takes a scarf along, they set out up the river. They see the promised slave train arriving at Sanchez's stockade as they depart. quote:Once round the first bend, we were in another world. On either side and overhead the jungle penned us in like a huge green tent, muffling the cries and shrieks of the beasts and birds beyond it. The heat was stifling, and the oily brown water itself was so still that the plash of the sweeps and the dripping of moisture from the foliage sounded unnaturally loud. The men pulling were drenched in sweat; it was a labour to breathe the heavy damp air, and Kirk was panting under his breath as he accompanied the rowers with “Rock an’ roll, rock an’ roll, Shenandoah sail-or! hoist her high, hoist her dry, rock an’ roll me ov-er!” After a short trip upriver, they beach the canoe and follow a narrow track through the jungle to the Dahomean town of Apokoto, and you will not be surprised to find that Flashman doesn't think much of it. quote:The town itself was bigger than I had imagined, a huge stockaded place crammed with those round grass lodges which are beehive shaped with an onion topknot. All of it was filthy and ooze-ridden, except for the central square which had been stamped flat and hard; the whole population, thousands of ’em, were gathered round it, stinking fit to knock you flat. The worst of the reek came from a great building like a cottage at the far side, which puzzled me at first because it seemed to be built of shiny brown stones which seemed impossible in this swampy jungle country. Kirk put me wise about that: “Skulls,” says he, and that is what they were, thousands upon thousands of human skulls cemented together to make the death-house, the ghastly place where the human sacrifices—prisoners, slaves, criminals, and the like—were herded before execution. Even the ground directly before it was paved with skulls, and the evil of the place hung over that great square like an invisible mist. Flashman (and Fraser's) supercilious attitude aside, the Dahomeans did go in for mass human sacrifice, with hundreds of victims being sacrificed at the annual "Customs" festival to guarantee good luck for the king and the kingdom. Despite this, the people of Apokoto are friendly enough. Flashman and the others have to wait an hour before Gezo finally comes out. First his attendants come to set up the royal stool, and then Gezo's bodyguard arrives in the square. quote:They marched out either side of the square in two long lines, lithe, splendid figures, swaying as they marched, and it was something in the manner of that swaying that struck me as odd; I stared harder, and got the surprise of my life. The warriors were all women. And such women. They must have been close on a man’s height, fine strapping creatures, black as night and smart as guardsmen. I gaped at the leading one on the right as she approached; she came sashaying along, looking straight before her, a great ebony Juno naked to the little blue kilt at her waist, with a long stabbing spear in one hand and a huge cleaver in her belt. The only other things she wore were a broad collar of beadwork tight round her throat, and a white turban over her hair, and as she passed in front of us I noticed that at her girdle there hung two skulls and a collection of what looked like lion’s claws. The others who followed her were the same, save that instead of turbans they wore their hair coiled together and tied with ropes of beads, but each one carried a spear, some had bows and quivers of arrows, and one or two even had muskets. Not all were as tall as the leader, but I never saw anything on Horse Guards that looked as well-drilled and handsome—or as frighteningly dangerous. The Dahomey "Amazons" (called the Mino, or “our mothers," or Ahosi, "the king's wives," in the local language) were an elite, all-female military unit serving the king of Dahomey. Since at least the 17th century, the Dahomean king had traditionally had female bodyguards, but Gezo built them up from a ceremonial role into a real fighting force, 6,000 women strong. The Mino were technically married to the king, but remained celibate, and were accorded special privileges, such as being able to live in the king's palace and being allowed to have their own slaves. They were likely the inspiration for Christopher Priest to create the Dora Milaje for Black Panther. And yes, the image of them being hot young things walking around in nothing but skirts has more to do with the libido of certain white writers, as well as circus performances by fake "Dahomey Amazons," than reality. Here's a drawing by the English explorer Sir Richard Burton that shows an Amazon officer in more reasonable clothes. Burton was appointed honorary commander of an Amazon brigade by King Glele, Gezo's successor, in 1863. 
Selachian fucked around with this message at 12:51 on Jun 16, 2020 |
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Jun 16, 2020 01:57
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Selachian posted:The Dahomey "Amazons" (called the Mino, or “our mothers," or Ahosi, "the king's wives," in the local language) were an elite, all-female military unit serving the king of Dahomey. Since at least the 17th century, the Dahomean king had traditionally had female bodyguards, but Gezo built them up from a ceremonial role into a real fighting force, 6,000 women strong. The Mino were technically married to the king, but remained celibate, and were accorded special privileges, such as being able to live in the king's palace and being allowed to have their own slaves. They were likely the inspiration for Christopher Priest to create the Dora Milaje for Black Panther. There's a neat documentary with Lupita Nyong'o on them, but I think it's UK-only: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0TGKiMiZ68
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Jun 16, 2020 14:40
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Spring is deeply excited at the sight of the women, but not erotically – as he tells Flashman, he's convinced that these women are the real basis of the mythical Amazons, and is desperate to write a paper on them so he can prove it and rub it in the faces of those Balliol snobs. He says he's tried to buy some from Gezo before, but the king won't part with them. Spring is determined to get some on this trip, though, and intends that Flashy should use his gift of languages to help question them. Spring's fantasies of academic vindication, however, are interrupted by the arrival of the king. quote:King Gezo of Dahomey was bitter ugly, even by n(...)r standards. He must have weighed twenty stone, with a massive belly hanging over his kilt of animal tails, and huge shoulders inside his scarlet cape. He had a kind of wicker hat on his head, and under it was a face that would have shamed a gorilla—huge flat nose, pocked cheeks, little yellow eyes and big yellow teeth. He waddled to his stool, plumped down, and opened the palaver in a croaking voice that carried harshly all over the square.  Gezo, or Ghezo, doesn't seem to have looked anything like how Fraser paints him. I have a suspicion that Fraser didn't know what he looked like and fell back on the stereotypical image of the African tribal chief – big, fat, and loud. And that cheap, nasty little gorilla comparison doesn't help either. This whole sequence is disappointing, coming from a writer who's usually punctilious about getting the details right. In any case, Gezo ruled Dahomey from 1818 to 1858 after taking the throne via a coup. He was an aggressive militarist and feared and respected in West Africa for his wealth and the strength of his army. And he was also an eager participant in the slave trade who raided widely to capture slaves for sale. He resisted British attempts to stamp out slavery; although he was finally pressured to stop trading slaves in 1852, he resumed the custom just before his death. Gezo ignores the traders at first in favor of handling the other business of his court, including having one unfortunate who somehow offends him hacked to pieces by the Amazons. Finally, however, the king deigns to receive Spring and serves food (“I expected it would turn my stomach, but it was not bad – stew, and fruit, and native bread, and a beer that was powerful and not unlike a German lager.”). Flashy is distracted by one of the Amazons kneeling near him: quote:She had the flat face, broad nose, and thick lips usual on this part of the Coast, but with that splendid shape, and a fine black satin thigh thrust out and almost touching me as I sat, I thought, by gum, one could do worse. They had men only once a year, Spring had said, and I decided that being the man would be interesting work, if you survived it. I gave her a wink, and the sullen face never altered, but a moment later she raised the fly whisk that dangled from her wrist and brushed away an insect buzzing round my head. I could see she fancied me; black or white, savage or duchess, they’re all alike. Spring finally broaches the prospect of buying some of the Amazons, which sends Gezo into a spluttering rage. However, Spring has Flashy demonstrate his Colt pistol by blowing several holes in the side of the skull house (yes, shoot up the ceremonial building, that's sure to impress them). He then offers Gezo five more of the pistols. Gezo hesitates, and finally calls out six of the Amazons and gives them orders. The Amazons are clearly angry about this, and the crowd is muttering in protest, but Gezo shouts at them until they quiet down. Spring hands over the Colts and has his crew form up around the six women, marching them out of the town. Flashman notes that they're unhappy but too well disciplined to disobey their king. But the rest of the Amazons are furious, and the townsfolk are quickly building toward angry-mob status. As they leave Apokoto, Flashy realizes they left the cabin boy behind, drunk off his rear end on the local beer, but Spring brushes that off – Gezo had wanted a white slave, so he can have the boy. quote:I’m not shocked easy, but that took me flat aback—for about the tenth part of an instant. If Spring wanted to trade his cabin boy to a n(...)r king, it was all one to me; I was into the fringe of the jungle a yard ahead of him, and then we were running, with the others in front of us, the Amazons being driven along, one of ’em wailing already. Behind us the hubbub of the town was cut off by the dense foliage; we hustled down the path, but you don’t run far in that climate, and soon we had to slow down to a trot. Halfway to the river, Spring pauses to listen, but there's no sound of pursuit. quote:“For G - d’s sake!” I whispered to Spring. “Let’s get on!” Imagine anyone thinking they have to tell Harry Flashman to run. The sailors book it down the trail toward the river in a hail of arrows and spears, with enraged Amazons screaming behind them. They reach the canoe and start uncovering it. quote:Close by me was Spring, bawling like a madman; he had his pepper-pot revolver in one hand, firing back towards the path, and by G - d, with the other he was trying to drag along one of the Amazons he’d bought. The man’s dedication to scholarly research was incredible. Spring has lost hold on the Amazon he was trying to drag along with them as they push off into the river, with Spring, Comber, and a few other sailors left with Flashman in the canoe. The bank of the river is crowded with Amazons hurling spears and firing bows. And then Flashman sees Kirk, who just missed making it into the canoe, being dragged back onto the bank, screaming for help. quote:And then Holy Joe Comber was at it again: “Turn back, sir! We can’t leave Kirk behind!”
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Jun 17, 2020 04:42
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I think this chapter really shows the influence of pulp adventure novels on Fraser. It makes uncomfortable reading because of the racist depiction of the locals, and I think would have done at the time it was published. This is being written some time in the early 70s so the civil rights movement, which enjoyed widespread sympathy in the UK as a way to feel superior to Americans, is in recent memory. It’s also exciting in a very specifically pulpy way and, if you were to swap out the racist elements and put almost the exact same story in another setting - a drug deal gone wrong, for example - you would have a pretty solid adventure that would have sat comfortably in any penny dreadful or, say, Tarantino film. I think this is a factor in the longevity of these books: Fraser can really write an action scene, and so even though we as readers now find the racism disgusting and future readers probably even more so, I suspect it will still be a very long time before they go out of print. That said, it’s interesting that Fraser really doesn’t pull any punches in his depiction of how horrific the slave ship is, in that conversation of how tight to pack people in. I think it’s fairly clear from his writing that Fraser would have unquestioningly thought of the Africans as inferior to Europeans in the way most people of his class, race and time would (and he is definitely speaking for that world-view when he puts the “what about white factory slave labour” into Flashman’s mouth). At the same time, he’s also undermining that because his mouthpiece character is a massive piece of poo poo and you’re supposed to realise it. And even he thinks it’s hosed up. Not to spoil it, but for anyone who’s on the fence about reading on, this theme (of Flashman getting educated on the reality of slavery) gets explored a lot later on. Also many thanks to Selachian for picking up the torch on this thread! Incredibly apt timing in the light of recent events.
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Jun 17, 2020 07:22
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can't stop reading, wish i could
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Jun 17, 2020 10:47
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Selachian posted:Spring is deeply excited at the sight of the women, but not erotically – as he tells Flashman, he's convinced that these women are the real basis of the mythical Amazons, and is desperate to write a paper on them so he can prove it and rub it in the faces of those Balliol snobs. This is a clever motivation for Spring, a neat little way to show how Europeans failed to understand other cultures in their own terms. Makes the end of the chapter quite disappointing. By the way, Selachian - there was a discussion about the dashed out words earlier - is Flashman censoring the N word himself?
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Jun 17, 2020 16:36
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I don’t have a copy of this one in front of me but when I did the first book, it was uncensored throughout.
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Jun 17, 2020 18:25
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Safety Biscuits posted:This is a clever motivation for Spring, a neat little way to show how Europeans failed to understand other cultures in their own terms. Makes the end of the chapter quite disappointing. No, the N word flies thick and fast in this book, completely uncensored. I'm adding my own censoring because honestly I'd rather not see it half a dozen times in every post I make. I doubt anyone would even have considered censoring it either in the Victorian era, or 1971. Selachian fucked around with this message at 19:51 on Jun 17, 2020 |
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Jun 17, 2020 19:04
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Beefeater1980 posted:
I think his views were a little bit more complex. I've read most of his books (he did a great war memoir, some short stories about his (fictionalised) army experience post-war, and a couple other novels, some outright comic and some more serious. I'd say Fraser would be considered racist today. Not a white supremacist or with any really nasty attitudes, that description of Gezo of Dahomey notwithstanding. Just sort of a 'not racist, but . . . ' type. Would probably have claimed that he had absolutely nothing against any ethnicity, but at the same time viewed things markedly as 'people like us' and 'you people'. I suppose maybe the best word is colonialist? I'm sure that he was on the balance of pro-Empire despite being realistic about some of the more larcenous aspects of it. Like he'd have been perfectly aware that person A, an Indian, is equal to person B, a white Brit, in every way. But he'd still be dead certain that Britain was a better country than India and buy into the idea that the Raj spread civilization. I would not be surprised if in person he was the sort who says that they have no problem with foreigners, they just don't want them coming over here, etc etc
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Jun 17, 2020 21:20
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NOTE: Remember the talk about how unpleasant this book can be? This post, where Fraser describes the loading of a slave ship, is particularly unpleasant. You may want to skip over. The slavers have lost five men in the fight, including Kinnie and Kirk; only Flashman has escaped the encounter unhurt. Spring is in a rage over the betrayal and losing his opportunity to write his paper, but all they can do is return to the stockade. Comber has received a serious wound from the spear-stabbing he got, and the ship's doctor is just stitches him up and hopes for the best. The crew of the Balliol College gets to work loading the slaves as fast as possible, both for fear of a patrol ship finding them and the possibility that Gezo and/or the Amazons might decide to come after them. However, Sanchez goes to visit Gezo the next day and finds the king is just worried that Spring might decide not to trade with him anymore. He also says that Kirk and the other sailor who was caught on the path are still alive, but won't be for much longer. So much for Kirk's retirement savings. Gezo rejects the idea of trading any more Amazons, and Spring reluctantly accepts there's no point in pressing further. With the reduced crew, Flashman is forced to take a hand in loading the slaves into the ship. He notes that the slaves are miserable and passive, to the point where Spring and Sullivan can enter the slave pens unarmed and walk around to pick out the ones they want, without being harmed. But then, they might have been a bit more active if they'd known what was in store for them. The slaves are run through a system of narrow chutes “like a sheep pen,” first to be branded, with Spring hovering to make sure they aren't burned too severely -- because it would reduce their value, of course. They are then sorted by size and gender and sent up along one of three gangplanks into the Balliol College's slave deck. I think Fraser's description of the process is worth quoting at length here: quote:Once up the planks, though, the really hard work began. I didn’t know much about it, but I had to work with the hands who stowed the slaves, and I soon picked up the hang of it. As each slave was pushed down the hatch, he was seized by a waiting seaman and forced to lie down on the deck in his allotted place, head towards the side of the ship, feet towards the centre, until both sides of the deck were lined with them. Each man had to go in a space six feet by fifteen inches, and now I saw why there had been so much argument over that extra inch; if they were jammed up tight, or made to lie on their right sides, you could get ever so many more in.
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Jun 17, 2020 23:58
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Beefeater1980 posted:
I mean there's a difference between believing that and being ok with slavery. Most 19th century abolitionists including Lincoln also belIeved black people were inherently inferior, just not that they should be property.
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Jun 18, 2020 23:16
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NOTE: This post includes rape. Skip if that's a sensitive topic for you. The next morning, the Balliol College heads downriver and back out to sea, and runs straight into a Royal Navy sloop. Flashman spots it first a couple miles away, and it's moving slowly to intercept as the slave ship heads out to sea, but after an hour the wind picks up. The Balliol College maneuvers to catch the wind as the Navy ship starts falling behind, and Flashy proves he's no Patrick O'Brian: quote:If I were a nautical man, no doubt I could tell you, but I’m not, thank God; the mysteries of ship handling are as obscure to me today as they were fifty years ago. If I were Bosun McHearty I daresay I could describe how we jibed with our futtock gans’ls clewed up to the orlop bitts, and weathered her, d’ye see, with a lee helm and all plain sail in the bilges, burn me buttocks. As it was, I just stuck like a shadow to a big Portugal n(...)r of the deck watch, called Lord Peabody, and tailed on behind him with the pulley-hauley, while Spring and Sullivan bawled their jargon, the men aloft threw themselves about like acrobats, and the Balliol College began to surge forward at greater speed. With the pursuit left behind, Balliol College begins its trip across the ocean.The slaves are “danced” – brought up and made to walk around the deck in order to keep them fit – every day, and Spring makes sure they eat (porridge and lime juice, the latter against scurvy), out of concern for his profits rather than their health. As vivid as Fraser made the loading of Balliol College, he ignores the danger and suffering of the Middle Passage. Partly this is because Flashman doesn't really care about that sort of thing, although he does drop an occasional reference to the slaves being miserable, and partly it's because Fraser seems to want to get Flashman across the Atlantic quickly as possible. But he also describes the slaves smiling and even dancing as the Balliol College's crew plays music for them as they're "danced," and if you were using this book as your reference you might come away thinking the worst thing the slaves had to do was drink lime juice. Flashman does mention at one point that five out of every hundred slaves on this voyage died -- thirty people -- but that's the only mention he makes of it. I recommend reading Chapter 2 of The Narrative of Olaudah Equiano as a counterpoint. But unfortunately that's not the worst thing in this section. Once the ship is under way, the sailors are allowed – no, actually, expected – to rape the female slaves during the voyage. This, also, is an innovation of Spring's: slave dealers will pay more for women who are pregnant with half-white children. quote:“I want all these wenches pupped,” says he, “but you’ll do it decently, d’you hear, salvo pudore, in your quarters. I’ll not have Mrs Spring offended.” Flashman also tries to learn her language, but without success because she doesn't speak English. He calls her “stupid as a Berkshire hog." quote:(B)ut I did succeed in teaching her a few useful English words and phrases like: “Me Lady Caroline Lamb. Me best rattle in Balliol College.” (The real Lady Caroline Lamb was a literary type well-known for an affair with Byron, about 10 years before Flashman was born.) So, let's look at the ways this scene sucks, besides the obvious ("rope's end"? Really, Fraser?). Flashman gets laid a lot over the course of these books, which is part of their appeal. And Fraser is pretty good at making the women he meets and beds interesting individuals, from Lola to Duchess Irma to Betty Parker to Elspeth and even Baroness Pechmann and that nameless housemaid in Strackenz, plus the dozens we haven't met yet. But he won't, or can't, write "Lady Caroline" as an actual person. She's a mute thing with no discernible personality who "reek(s) of the jungle," and who seems to be only good for Flashy to teach some clever tricks, like she's a pet. A bit later, Flashy mentions that he has a dress made for Lady Caroline because Mrs. Spring doesn't like seeing the women walking around naked, and that Lady Caroline hates it and rips it off whenever she can. That's the only sign of liking, or disliking, anything she's allowed to show. Even Narreeman got to demonstrate, vividly, her hate for Flashy. Lady Caroline doesn't seem to have any response to being raped, and that renders her simply unreal. It's possible to write an antihero who's a complete monster and still have it be engaging (Tom Ripley comes to mind, for instance). But in order to remain appealing to the audience, lovable rogues like Flashy need to have at least some basic morality. It helps if their opponents are people even worse than they are -- Rudi von Starnberg, John Morrison, or John Charity Spring -- or dupes and stuffed shirts who it's fun to see punctured, like Elphinstone or Bismarck. But an antihero who punches down, rather than punching up, isn't fun to read about or root for. Fraser seems to know he's crossed the line here; by the end of the scene he's trying to turn it into a joke with Flashy teaching Lady Caroline funny catchphrases. And finally, he's reduced to: "Look, Flashy only raped one slave, and he didn't enjoy it!" Which, you'll remember, is the same trick he pulled with Narreeman: sure, Flashy did it, but he was kind of forced into it and it wasn't fun. This is the kind of sad, selfish excuse a Flashman might use to justify rape to what there is of his conscience, but as a justification from a writer to a reader, it falls short. So yeah. This is probably the worst thing Flashman does in the books, and I wouldn't blame anyone for throwing the book across the room and swearing off at this point. Selachian fucked around with this message at 02:23 on Jun 19, 2020 |
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Jun 19, 2020 02:18
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Never was the thread title more accurate then that chapter. On a completely unrelated note I have to wonder if Fraiser borrowed a bit of Andrew Carnegie for Flash’s father-in-law : both wealthy Scottish factory owners terrified of the poor.
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Jun 19, 2020 17:04
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It's probably the single worst chapter / moment in the whole book series, and it's become more clear to me over time how much straight white privilege you kind of need to have in order to enjoy these books in even a critical and thoughtful way. I still enjoy them, a lot even, but if somebody else thinks they're a manifestation of some of the worst of white privilege then I wouldn't try to convince them otherwise.
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Jun 19, 2020 17:12
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Selachian posted:
It might also be an oversight on Fraser's point, but Flashman specifically said that he never raped anyone unwilling except for Narreeman. That's bullshit on its face - he regularly uses power over people to force them to have sex with him - but it's particularly gross in this context because like you say here neither Flashman nor Fraser give this woman any humanity. She doesn't count.
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Jun 19, 2020 18:32
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It's a bit of the Milton/Satan problem. Frazier may be trying to satirize British colonialism, but when your villian is your protagonist you inevitably make them too sympathetic, and if you continue on too long, you end up sooner or later endorsing evil.
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Jun 19, 2020 18:53
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We sail onward, possibly with fewer readers. At least there's no need for a content warning in this section. A week after leaving Dahomey, the ship's doctor comes to Flashman and tells him that Comber is dying from his spear wound and wants to see him. Flashman can't imagine why but goes anyway, and can see right away that Comber, lying in bed, is indeed on his last legs. quote:He lay for a few moments, gazing blankly at the sunbeams from the open window, and then says, in a very weak voice: “Flashman, do you believe in God?” Flashman tells him that slaving isn't that bad a sin (uh huh), but Comber has another sin in mind: he's broken the seventh commandment. While Flashy is trying to remember which one that is (“I had a suspicion it was the one about oxen and other livestock, which seemed unlikely”), Comber confesses that when he saw the Amazons, he “lusted after them … in my mind.” Flashy scoffs at the idea of going to hell for that. Eventually, Comber seems reassured, and changes the subject: he wants to know why Flashman is aboard the ship. Flashy starts telling his story, but Comber just wants to know if he's there against his will. When Flashman honestly says yes, Comber goes on: quote:“Then you too…oh, in God’s name tell me truthfully…you detest this abomination of slavery?” Reading further, Flashman discovers that Comber has been sent by the Navy to work for the British government's Board of Trade in their efforts to investigate and shut down the slave trade – in essence, he's a spy. quote:The other paper, which was from the Board of Trade, was really no more than a sort of passport, requesting that all officials, officers, and other persons in H.M. service, and of foreign governments, should render to Lieutenant Comber all assistance of which he might stand in need, etc, etc., but in its way it was equally impressive, for it was signed not only by the President, Labouchere, but also countersigned by my old pal T. B. Macaulay, as Paymaster, and some Frog or other for the French merchant marine. Comber begs Flashman, as a gentleman and an army officer, to make sure his work isn't in vain. quote:He was in a desperate sweat, straining a hand out towards me, his eyes glittering. “You must…in honour…and, oh, for these poor lost black souls! If you’d seen what I’ve seen…aye, and had to help in, God forgive me…but I had to, you see, until I had done my work. You must help them, Flashman; they cannot help themselves. Their minds are not as ours…they are weak and foolish and an easy prey to scoundrels like Spring…but they have souls…and this slavery is an abomination in God’s sight!” He struggled to get farther up. “Say you will help…for pity’s sake!” Sigh. Ah, well, I suppose his heart's in the right place. Comber has started bleeding again through the blanket, but directs Flashman to take a packet of letters hidden in his sea chest, which he says are copies of Spring's accounts and other evidence against him. He wants Flashman to make sure they get to either the British or American Navy. Flashy tries to pump him for more information, but Comber is fading fast and eventually dies. After telling Spring about Comber's death, Flashman slips away to ponder the documents he's gotten and what to do with them. He decides to follow Comber's example and hide the orders and passport in his belt. He's not sure what to do with the letters, knowing how dangerous they are, but can't resist reading them. quote:It was prime stuff, no question: all Spring’s accounts for 1847 copied out in minute writing—how many n(...)s shipped, how many sold at Roatan and how many at the Bay of Pigs, the names of buyers and traders; a full description of deals and prices and orders on British and American banks. There was enough to hang old John Charity ten times over, but that wasn’t the best of it; Comber had been at his letters, too, and while some of them were in cypher, quite a few were in English. They included one from the London firm which had supplied the trade goods for our present voyage; another from New York lawyers who seemed to represent American investors (for Comber had annotated it with a list of names marked “U.S. interests, owners”) and—oh, b - - - - y rapture!—a document describing the transfer of the Balliol College from its American builders, Brown & Bell, to a concern in London among the names of whose directors was one J. Morrison. I almost whooped at the sight of it—what Spring was thinking of to keep such damaging evidence aboard his vessel I couldn’t fathom, but there it was. I found Morrison mentioned in one other letter, and a score of names besides; it might not be enough to hang him, or them, but I was certain sure he would sell his rotten little soul to keep these papers from the public gaze. Gleefully, Flashy sews the letters into his coat lining. Comber is buried at sea a couple of days later, wrapped up in sailcloth, and Spring insists on making a proper ritual of it, with Comber's body covered with a Union Jack and Mrs. Spring leading the crew in “Rock of Ages.”
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Jun 19, 2020 20:17
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The only comparison that springs to mind with the slave raping scene off the top of my head is Thomas Covenant, and, uh, that was the scene that put many people off of those books.
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Jun 20, 2020 06:28
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So it was this passage in this book that made me very conflicted about starting this thread in the first place. In the end I decided to kick it off because I convinced myself that the series works as a critique anyway, whatever might have been in Fraser’s head. Several people here have posted that it makes uncomfortable reading, and it does, and that’s good - it should. As I said earlier, Fraser isn’t sugarcoating this - it is horrific, and if we can see more ways it’s awful than Fraser did (including how he himself treats his POC characters) well, we have a lot more access to POC perspectives these days and hopefully a bit more empathy. An interesting point in this context: typical examples of the kind of book that Fraser is parodying are the Allan Quatermain stories of H Rider Haggard, and they have all of the problems raised here with an awful lot less reflectiveness: Haggard was firmly convinced of the superiority of the white Englishman to, well, everyone. You’d think that would limit the appeal outside the US and Europe, but until western literature was banned after the Chinese Civil War, they were by some margin the most popular English language books that had been translated into Chinese. My personal view is that people everywhere just like an adventure story and most people don’t get too caught up in the implications.
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Jun 20, 2020 12:13
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TheGreatEvilKing posted:The only comparison that springs to mind with the slave raping scene off the top of my head is Thomas Covenant, and, uh, that was the scene that put many people off of those books. That scene resonates through the entire series rather than being an offhand toss off, it's not really comparable imo
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Jun 20, 2020 12:23
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Beefeater1980 posted:Haggard was firmly convinced of the superiority of the white Englishman to, well, everyone. I don't think the "implications" would have meant much to the Chinese around that time, either -- from my understanding the Chinese had a pretty similar worldview, only substitute "superiority of the Chinese man" instead of "white Englishman". They probably wouldn't have found it very remarkable to read a story about a man traveling around the world and thinking himself above the foreigners that he meets.
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Jun 20, 2020 16:02
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The other interpretation is that Frasier wanted to hit the reader across the face with "this is the true face of Flashman", because many psychopaths can seem superficially charming until they bare their fangs. It's still a gross and disturbing scene.
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Jun 20, 2020 19:38
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sebmojo posted:That scene resonates through the entire series rather than being an offhand toss off, it's not really comparable imo Right. Donaldson pretty much premised the whole series on the question “if I willfully do a horrible deed in what I am convinced is an imaginary world does it have moral consequences”, and similar questions of ethics. As reprehensible as the character and that scene is, the rest of the series is about trying to come to terms with what was done and how to make amends if at all possible.
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Jun 20, 2020 20:49
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Velius posted:Right. Donaldson pretty much premised the whole series on the question “if I willfully do a horrible deed in what I am convinced is an imaginary world does it have moral consequences”, and similar questions of ethics. As reprehensible as the character and that scene is, the rest of the series is about trying to come to terms with what was done and how to make amends if at all possible. But it's rape, and no one is obligated to engage with the material deeply enough to get to the larger meaning of the act. Those that do, get some very interesting fantasy novels (and 5 great SF novels in The Gap cycle, which if anything is worse for CW, but vastly better for using the themes constructively). Those that don't got to spend their reading time on less problematic fiction. A win for everybody as I score it. I'm going to lean towards the Real Face interpretation, but not comment on how much was Fraser's intention. It plainly is ol' Flashy's real face and his real POV regarding the brutalized captives. He doesn't consider the slaves to be people, so the rape wouldn't have registered due to his general lack of concern for consent, and wouldn't have been counted if he had considered it an actual sexual assault because it wasn't against someone he considered an actual person. Note also that he isn't interested in turning the documents over to the authorities, but to use them in a venal little blackmail scheme for his own enrichment. He finds the atrocities personally offensive, but if he doesn't have to get his hands dirty he's happy to take more than his "fair" share of the profits.
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Jun 20, 2020 21:29
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Yeah, I like the true face interpretation, even though I'm far from convinced that was intended. The thread title just gets more and more appropriate.
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Jun 20, 2020 22:27
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The Balliol College sails on for about a month, passing across the Atlantic and into the Caribbean. Now the crew is put on high alert, with regular gun drills and Spring constantly watching for other sails. The slave trade is also illegal in United States waters – the U.S. followed Britain's example and banned it in 1808 – so the American navy is as much a danger to them as the Royal Navy was on the other side of the Atlantic. quote:As the weather grew even hotter, tempers got shorter; the stench from the slave-deck was choking in its foulness, and even the constant murmuring and moaning of the cargo seemed to me to have taken on a deeper, more sinister note. This was the time. I learned, when slave mutinies sometimes broke out, as more of them died—although only five perished all told in our ship—and the others became sullen and desperate. You’d been able to feel the misery and fear down on the slave-deck, but now you could feel the brooding hatred; it was in the way they shuffled sulkily round when they were danced, heads sunk and eyes shifting, while the hands stood guard with the needle-guns, and the light swivel pieces were kept armed and trained to sweep the decks if need be. I kept as well away from those glowering black brutes as I could; even the sharks which followed the ship didn’t look more dangerous—and there were always half a dozen of them, dark sinuous shapes gliding through the blue water a couple of fathoms down, hoping for another corpse to come overside. Spring had originally planned to land at Cuba to unload the slaves, but out of caution instead makes for Roatan, in Honduras. quote:We dropped anchor in that great clearing-house of the African slavers, where Ivory Coast brigs and schooners, the Baltimore dippers and Angola barques, the Gulf free-traders and Braziliano pirates all rode at their moorings in the broad bay, with the bumboats and shorecraft plying among them like water-beetles, and even the stench of our own slave-deck was beaten all to nothing by the immense reek of the huge barracoons and pens that lined the shore and even ran out into the sludgy green waters of the bay on great wooden piers. One never dreams that such places exist until one sees and hears and smells them, with their amazing variety of the scum of the earth—blacks and half-breeds of every description, Rio traders with curling mustachios and pistols in their belts and rings in their ears, like buccaneers from a story-book; Down Easter Yankees in stove-pipe hats with cigars sticking out of faces like flinty cliffs; sun-reddened English tars, some still wearing the wide straw hats of the Navy; packet rats in canvas shirts and frayed trousers; Scowegians with leathery faces and knives hanging on lanyards round their necks; Frog and Dago skippers in embroidered weskits with scarves round their heads, and n(...)s by the hundred, of every conceivable shape and shade—everyone babbling and arguing in half the tongues on earth, and all with one thing in common: they lived by and on the slave trade. Once they cast anchor in Roatan, slave brokers come aboard to inspect the cargo and negotiate with Spring. quote:In the end they divided the six hundred among them, at an average price of nine dollars a pound—which came to somewhere between seven and eight hundred thousand dollars for the cargo. No money changed hands; nothing was signed; no receipts were sought or given. Spring simply jotted details down in a note-book—and I daresay that after that the only transactions that took place would be the transfer of bills and orders in perfectly respectable banks in Charlestown, New York, Rio and London. One slave doesn't get sold: Lady Caroline Lamb. Spring has decided that if she can learn English, she'll be useful as an interpreter on future voyages. After scrubbing out the slave deck, the Balliol College leaves Roatan for Cuba, carrying a couple dozen mixed-race female slaves who Spring has agreed to drop off in Havana; they're destined for New Orleans brothels. With the slaves off the ship, Flashman feels he can relax a bit – it won't be that long until he's back in London, and Elspeth will have had the baby already. (“By jove, I would be a father by then! Somebody would be, anyway – but I'd get the credit, at least.”)
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Jun 21, 2020 01:22
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quote:I should have known better, of course. Whenever I’m feeling up to the mark and congratulating myself, some fearful fate trips me headlong, and I find myself haring for cover with my guts churning and Nemesis in full cry after me. In this case Nemesis was a dandy little sloop flying the American colours that came up out of the south-west when we were three days out of Roatan and had Cuba clear on our starboard bow. That was nothing in itself; Spring put on more sail and we held our own, scudding north-east. And then, out from behind Cape San Antonio, a bare two miles ahead, comes a brig with the Stars and Stripes fluttering at her peak, and there we were, caught between them, unable to fly and—in my case, anyway—most unwilling to fight. Spring tries to escape by turning the Balliol College west again, but the sloop catches up and fires a shot across her bow. As the rest of the crew starts running out the guns, Flashy immediately heads belowdecks to hide on the slave deck with the women. However, Sullivan finds him there and is unmoved by his argument that he's “preventing a slave mutiny,” and orders him above again. quote:I’m no judge of naval warfare, but by the way the hands were serving the port guns we were in the thick of a d - - - - d hot running fight. The twelve-pounders were crashing and being reloaded and run out again like something at Trafalgar, and although from time to time there was the shuddering crack of a shot striking us, we seemed to be taking no great harm; the deck watch were tailing onto a line while Sullivan was yelling orders to the men aloft. He bawled at me, so I scrambled out and tailed on to the line, and out of the corner of my eye I saw the sloop running across our bows, her broadside popping away like fury, and the scream and crash of shot just overhead sent me diving for the scuppers. I fetched up against the rail with a crash, wondering why the blazes I’d been fool enough to come out from cover just because Sullivan told me to—instinct, I suppose—and then there was a rending crackle from overhead, something hit the deck with an almighty crash, and somebody fell on top of me. I pushed him off, and my hand came away sticky with blood. Horrified, I watched as the body rolled into the scuppers; it had no head, and blood was pouring out of the neck stump like a fountain. Looking around, Flashman sees that the top of the mainmast has been shot off. Spring is at the wheel, and the sloop is limping away battered, but the brig is coming up fast and there's no way the Balliol College can take them in this condition. Flashy overhears Spring and Sullivan arguing, as Spring orders the women brought above and chained together: quote:Spring and Sullivan were by the wheel, the latter pointing to the brig, which was overhauling us fast. Flashman sees the hands are now weaving a heavy chain through the women's legs and dragging them to the rail, and realizes what's happening: Spring means to throw them overboard to destroy the evidence of his being a slaver. The “equipment law” Spring mentions is a result of various treaties Britain made as part of their effort to suppress the slave trade: a ship found to be carrying slaving equipment, such as chains and shackles, could be confiscated and turned over to the courts, even if there were no slaves aboard. However, the crew couldn't be prosecuted for slaving unless the Navy could show they had been actually carrying slaves. This had the unintended effect of causing some captains to toss the slaves overboard to drown as a last resort to avoid conviction. The prospect horrifies Flashy, and it's not out of any tender concern for the women: quote:But for all Spring’s confidence, I couldn’t believe it would wash; the Yankee brig must have half a dozen glasses trained on us; they could swear to murder done and seen to be done, and then it was the gallows for certain. Flashman has a vague idea of getting aft and finding Mrs. Spring in the hope that she might be able to get her husband to see reason. But as he passes below the aft companionway, he sees Spring at the wheel and can hear Sullivan still yelling at Spring – until Spring shoots him. Flashy pauses for a moment, wondering if he can shoot Spring in the back from his hiding place, but he's too much of a coward to take the risk of missing and Spring firing back, or being accused of murder if someone catches him. While he's trying to figure out what to do, Looney comes hurrying toward the companionway, carrying a cutlass and happily declaring he's going to “kill the b - - - - - ds.” And inspiration strikes for Flashy. Looney has resented Spring ever since the beating he caught, and Flashman thinks he can use that. quote:“You don’t want to kill them! It’s the captain that’s doing this! That d - - - l Spring, up there!” Flashman shoves a gun into Looney's hands and hustles him up the ladder, and hears screams and gunfire. When he finally sticks his head up, Spring is writhing in pain next to the wheel, Looney has been grabbed by some of the sailors and is screaming his head off, and the American brig is pulling closer and turning broadside. The remaining sailors aren't stupid; they quickly strike Balliol College's colors. Meanwhile, Flashy uses his “parade ground voice” to order the sailors holding the women's chain to bring them away from the side, and starts thinking about what he's going to tell the Americans.
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Jun 21, 2020 17:38
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Selachian posted:Flashman shoves a gun into Looney's hands and hustles him up the ladder, and hears screams and gunfire. When he finally sticks his head up, Spring is writhing in pain next to the wheel, Looney has been grabbed by some of the sailors and is screaming his head off, and the American brig is pulling closer and turning broadside. The remaining sailors aren't stupid; they quickly strike Balliol College's colors. Meanwhile, Flashy uses his “parade ground voice” to order the sailors holding the women's chain to bring them away from the side, and starts thinking about what he's going to tell the Americans. Going to guess that old Flashy is going to go in for a bit of identity theft.
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Jun 21, 2020 20:03
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Angrymog posted:Going to guess that old Flashy is going to go in for a bit of identity theft. Not a hard guess, was it? quote:By and large I’m partial to Americans. They make a great affectation of disliking the English and asserting their equality with us, but I’ve discovered that underneath they dearly love a lord, and if you’re civil and cool and don’t play it with too high a hand you can impose on them quite easily. I’m not a lord, of course, but I’ve got the airs when I want ’em, and know how to use them in moderation. That’s the secret, a nice blending of the plain, polite gentleman with just a hint of Norman blood, and they’ll eat out of your hand and boast to their friends in Philadelphia that they know a man who’s on terms with Queen Victoria and yet, by gosh, is as nice a fellow as they’ve ever struck. As the Americans are rounding up Balliol College's crew, Flashy approaches a lieutenant and quietly lets him know he's a naval officer. In short order, he's being introduced to the ship's captain, Abraham Fairbrother (a bit on the nose, no?), and produces Comber's orders and passport from his belt, introducing himself as Lieutenant Comber. Captain Fairbrother is awed and honored to meet such a bold hero in the fight against the slave trade. quote:He shook his fair young head in amazement, and vowed that it beat everything he had ever heard; he was full of venom against slavers, I discovered, and so naturally he was all admiration for me, and shook my hand as though it was a pump handle. Captain Fairbrother decides that he must take “Comber” to Washington himself, as fast as possible, to give his evidence, while a prize crew takes Balliol College to New Orleans. This is an idea Flashman isn't enthusiastic about. quote:I confess I may have given him the impression that the entire slave trade could expect its coup de grace when once I’d laid my report before the British and American governments, and he was itching to help oil the wheels. Fairbrother tells Flashman that Spring is in a coma after being shot, and will undoubtedly be hung if he revives. Mrs. Spring was caught throwing the ship's log and other records out the window, and the slave women, including Lady Caroline, have been brought aboard the brig. quote:“But I am inconsiderate, Mr Comber—here have I been keeping you in talk over these matters, when your most urgent desire has surely been for a moment’s privacy in which you might deliver up thanks to a merciful Heavenly Father for your delivery from all the dangers and tribulations you have undergone. Your pardon, sir.” There's a bit of not very funny comedy with Lady Caroline Lamb on the voyage that I think we can safely skip over, and then Fairbrother's ship reaches Baltimore, and Fairbrother and Flashy take a train for Washington. At this point, Flashy is getting nervous and looking for a way to slip off before he has to face the authorities, but Fairbrother is glommed tight on him. quote:Washington is an odd place. You could see the Jonathans had designed it with an eye to the future, when they envisaged it as the finest city in the world, and even then, in ’48, there were signs of building on every hand, with scaffolding about even in the middle of the city, and the outer roads all churned mud with the autumn rain, but fringed with fine houses half-completed. I got to know it well in the Civil War time, but I never liked it—sticky as Calcutta or Madras in summer, and yet its people dressed as though they’d been in New York or London. I could always smell fever in the air there, and why George Washington ever chose the site beats me. But that’s your rich colonial Englishman all over—never thinks twice about other people’s convenience. Flashman is first sent to the Department of the Navy, where he repeats his story (or, rather, Comber's story) to an amazed admiral, and then sent to another department to talk to some civilians, who are rather less impressed: so you can give evidence against the crew of one slave ship, big deal, where's that amazing, slave-trade-crushing evidence that Captain Fairbrother promised us? Flashy once again musters his powers of bullshit: quote:Since it didn’t exist, I had to invent it. I explained that I had gathered an immense amount of detail not only about the slave-traders, but about those in Britain and America who were behind them, supplying them with funds and ships, and organising their abominable activities under the cover of legitimate commerce. All this, I explained, I had committed to paper as opportunity arose, with such documents as I had been able to obtain, and I had earmarked useful witnesses along the way. I had consigned one report to a reliable agent at Whydah, and another to a second agent at Roatan—no, I dare not disclose their names except to my own chiefs in London. A third report I would certainly write out as soon as I could—-a rueful smile here, and a reminder that life for me had been fairly busy of late. Moultrie, the leader of the civilians he's talking to, demands that Flashy at least give up the names of the Americans he has evidence on. Time for some more tapdancing! quote:“Mr Moultrie,” says I, “I can’t tell you. Please, sir—let me explain.” I solemnly checked his outburst. “I have many names —both in my mind and in my reports. I don’t know much about American public affairs, sir, but even I recognise some of them as—well, not insignificant names. Now if I were to name them to you—now—what would they be but names? The mass of evidence that would—that will—lead to their proven involvement in the traffic in black souls, is already on its way to England, as I trust. Obviously it will be communicated to you, and these people can be proceeded against. But if I were to name names now, sir”—I stabbed a finger on the table—“you could do nothing; you would have to wait on the evidence which has been assembled.” And while I trust your discretion perfectly, gentlemen—it would be an impertinence to do otherwise—we all know how a word once spoken takes wings. Premature disclosure, and consequent warning, might enable some of these birds to escape the net. And believe me, gentlemen…” I gritted my teeth and forced moisture into my eyes “…believe me, I have not gone through the hell of those Dahomey raids, and watched the torture of those poor black creatures on the Middle Passage—I have not risked death and worse—in order to see those butchers escape!” Flashy goes on to suggest that some of the names he knows are high-ranking politicians in both the U.S. and England, and that if he lets them drop prematurely, there will be a terrible scandal. Moultrie and the others talk it over and accept this for now, and say they'll discuss it with the British ambassador, and in the meantime Flashy will need to head to New Orleans to testify against the crew of the Balliol College.
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Jun 22, 2020 12:04
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Remember kids, Flashman was always a self serving monster. It's just really obvious now.
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Jun 22, 2020 22:16
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Flashman has to tell his (Comber's) story yet again to the British ambassador, and gets invited to dinner at the ambassador's residence, where he recycles the story for the ambassador's guests. quote:And I’ll swear I didn’t put a foot wrong—but there was one man at that table with as keen a nose for a faker as I have myself. How or when he saw through me I shall never understand, but he did, and gave me one of the many nasty moments in my life. Lincoln drops a few wisecracks during Flashman's story, and at the end: quote:When I had finished my tale, and had heard much congratulation and expressions of flattering astonishment, it was Lincoln who remarked that it must have been a taxing business to act my part among the slavers for so long. Had I not found it a great burden? I said it had been, but fortunately I was a good dissembler. This is a famous quote associated with Lincoln, although as with so many famous quotes it appears he didn't actually say it. Lincoln also reveals that even though he's working on an anti-slavery bill, he doesn't really like African-Americans that much (which, yeah, we know). The party then turns to discussion of the California gold strike that Flashy heard about in Roatan, with thousands of people already heading west to hunt for it. They then rejoin the ladies for music and poetry. quote:(D)uring this Lincoln drew me aside into a window alcove, very pleasant, and began asking me various questions about my African voyage. He listened very attentively to my replies, and then suddenly said: The bit about tapping bread on the table comes from shipboard flour often being infested with weevils; allegedly, sailors would rap their biscuits on the edge of the table to knock the weevils out of them before biting in. Flashman starts to bluster, but Lincoln waves him off: he has no intention of exposing him, because he thinks it's not his business (“I guess the truth is I'm a bit of a humbug myself, and I feel a kind of duty to other humbugs.”). After the party ends, Flashman returns to his Navy quarters with Fairbrother, wondering again how he can get away before he gets to New Orleans for the trial of the Balliol College crew. Selachian fucked around with this message at 16:55 on Jun 23, 2020 |
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Jun 23, 2020 15:04
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I really enjoy Lincoln's portrayal here. It's always amusing when someone comes in that can see Flashman for the poo poo he is.
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Jun 23, 2020 15:59
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Across all the novels and the thousands of people Flashman meets, I think Lincoln is the only person who ever immediately pegged Flashman as a purestrain bullshit artist.
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Jun 23, 2020 16:19
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Side note, in the audiobook version, the narrator really does the slow drawl for Lincoln. For some reason, British people doing American accents gets a laugh out of me every time.
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Jun 23, 2020 21:30
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The Rat posted:I really enjoy Lincoln's portrayal here. It's always amusing when someone comes in that can see Flashman for the poo poo he is. It’s also done with great artistry. Fraser is introducing us to Lincoln a bit at a time. He wants us to know that Lincoln is clever and amoral, so first he has Flashman introduce him as a fellow scoundrel, then he shows that even Flashman respects him, then he has this marvellous passage where Lincoln asks Flashy a couple of technical questions and doesn’t resolve them immediately, until he’s got enough evidence to show, very forensically, that he knows for a fact Flashy is bullshitting about being a naval officer, and then he doesn’t do anything with it, because he wants to have it hanging over Flashman in case he can use it later. It’s a masterful character sketch.
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Jun 24, 2020 04:06
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Flashman has no chance of escaping in Washington or Baltimore – once the Navy is done with him, he's sent straight back to Fairbrother's brig and they sail south for New Orleans. When they arrive, Flashman carefully packs a valise with clothes and prepares to take his last chance at escape. quote:We were rowed to the Algiers side by four bluejackets, Fairbrother sweating in full fig, and as we neared the bank my spirits rose. The levee and wharves were positively teeming with people, there was a forest of shipping along the bank, with small craft scudding about everywhere, half-naked negroes toiling at the derricks as cargo was swung ashore, folk bustling about every which way on the jettys, n(...)r children playing and squealing among the piles, ship’s officers and cargo bosses bawling above the hubbub—a tremendous confusion of thousands of busy people, which was just what I wanted. Flashman considers and rejects the idea of getting aboard a departing ship – that's the first place the Navy will look when they start hunting for him. Instead, he'll find someplace in the city to hide out until the pursuit dies down. quote:There is no city quite like New Orleans (“Awlins” as its inhabitants called it then; outsiders called it “Nawlins”). I loved it at first sight, and I believe that setting aside London, which is my home, and Calcutta, which has a magic that I cannot hope to explain, I still think more kindly of it than of any other place on earth. It was busy and gay and bawdy and full of music and drink and pleasure; nowhere else did eyes sparkle so bright, voices sound so happy, colours look so vivid, food taste so rich, or the very air throb with so much excitement. In the unlikely event that there is a heaven for scoundrels like me, it will be built on the model of the Vieux Carré, with its smiling women, brilliant clothes, and atmosphere of easy indulgence. The architecture is also very fine, spires and gracious buildings and what not, with plenty of shade and places to lounge and sit about while you watch the ivory girls sauntering by in their gorgeous dresses. Indeed, it was sometimes not unlike a kind of tropical Paris, but without those bloody Frogs. New Orleans, of course, is where they civilised the French. Flashman already has a good-quality coat and trousers in his bag, buys a silver cane, a stovepipe hat, and a frilly shirt to go with them, and has his beard shaved to make him less recognizable. Then he visits a printer and has a set of visiting cards printed, with the name Count Rudi von Starnberg on them. (“It warmed me to think of how Rudi would have delighted in this, evil throat-cutting b - - - - - d that he was.”) All this leaves him a bit short of cash, but he has a plan. quote:What I did, in my quest for quarters for the night, was to test a theory suggested to me years before by old Avitabile, the Italian soldier of fortune who had been governor of Peshawar. “When you’re like-a light in the pocket, boy, in a strange town, you got to find a whore-house, see, an’ wheedle-wheedle your way roun’ the madame, you know? Do I got to tell you? No, sir. Your shoulders an’ moustaches—jus’ like-a mine—it’s like-a fall under a log. You charm, you talk, you tell any goddam lies—but you get that madame into bed, boom-boom-boom—why, she’s glad to lodge you for a week, ne’ mind for a night! Didn’t Avitabile travel clear from Lisbon to Paris, an’ I didn’t pay one night’s lodging, not-a one, you bet. Goddam it, does a gentleman got to stay in hotels?” As Flashy notes, whorehouses are not in short supply in New Orleans. As “Count Rudi,” he visits several madams, telling a bullshit story about looking for a runaway sister that's just an excuse for him to get a foot in the door and be charming. He strikes out four times before hitting paydirt: quote:She was nearing fifty, a stately buxom piece who must have been a rare beauty and was still handsome, running to fat but well laced up in a green velvet gown which looked as though it must burst asunder at any moment. She was painted and powdered and jewelled like a May Day cuddy, with an ostrich plume in her red-dyed hair, and a big peacock fan which she used to disclose her fine bust and shoulders; it was this, and the quizzy gleam in her eye as she sized me up and down, that convinced me I need look no farther. Here was one who fancied Flashy, no error. The fact that she appeared to have been at the bottle already that evening may have helped; she swayed a mite too much as she walked, even for a retired strumpet. She was all affability—and to my astonishment, when she invited me to take a seat and state my requirements, her voice was purest Bow Bells. “Honnered to ’ave a gentleman of the nobility calling at hower little hestablish’nt,” says she, simpering and pressing my hand warmly. “’Ow may we be of service, pray?” Well, thinks I, if I can’t charm this one flat on her back, I’ve lost my way with women. Yep, Susie is a gen-yoo-wine twenty-four-karat Hooker with a Heart of Gold straight out of the book of hoary cliches. quote:I soon recognised that it wasn’t just that she was unusually partial to Adam’s arsenal; she was one of these large-hearted females who can’t go to bed with a man without conceiving an affection for him, and wanting to cherish and own him, even.
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Jun 24, 2020 07:43
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<scribbles notes>
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Jun 24, 2020 07:57
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Susie knows full well that Flashy is just using her for free lodging, and he admits that he likes her despite himself. But he can't stay in New Orleans. Drawing on Susie's connections, he gets a berth on a ship heading for England, and she even “loans” him the money for his fare.quote:She would advance me the cash—not, she said, that she expected it back. I protested at this, and she laughed and chucked me under the chin. After a last farewell to Susie, Flashman sneaks out of the house at night, with a porter to carry his valise. quote:We set off down the dark lane together, and just as we reached its end a dark shadow loomed up before us and I was aware of others suddenly coming in at my back. I stopped dead, and the figure in front of me, a tall man in a broad-brimmed hat, said: Trying to keep up his “Count Rudi” disguise, Flashman responds angrily in German, but his abductor addresses him as “Mr. Comber,” and Flashy realizes these must be Navy men and he's done for. The abductor dismisses the porter and, taking Flashman's bag, leads him through New Orleans's alleys. At one point, they put a bag over his head, and lead him a further distance and into a house. quote:I was pushed forward, the bag was whipped from my head, and as the door closed behind me I found myself blinking in the light of a great, well-furnished library. Behind a big oak desk a little bald-headed man was standing eyeing me benevolently over his spectacles, and waving a hand to an empty chair. The little man offers brandy, which Flashman accepts, and apologizes for the kidnapping. He explains that “we” have been watching “Mr. Comber” since his arrival in Washington, although they lost track of him when he slipped away from Fairbrother. He also says “we” understand why Comber would want to go straight back to England with his evidence, but there's no way he would be able to leave New Orleans by ship – the Navy is still watching the levees for him. Flashy demands to know who “we” are: quote:He looked at me steadily. “You have heard, I am sure, of the underground railroad.”
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Jun 25, 2020 01:46
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The Underground Railroad man congratulates “Comber” for his heroic work in bringing down the Balliol College, and then gets down to explaining what they want from him: quote:“Now, all slaves are important to us, however lowly, but some are more important than others. Such a one is George Randolph. Have you heard of him? No, well you shall. You have heard of Nat Turner, the slave who led a great rebellion in Virginia, and was barbarously executed by his tormentors? Well, Randolph is such another—but a greater man, better educated, more intelligent, with a greater vision. Twice he has tried to organise insurrection, twice he has failed; three times he has escaped; twice he has been recaptured. He is a fugitive at this moment—but we have him safe, and God willing they shall never take him again.” The Underground Railroad, it appears, is aiming to get Randolph to Canada, where he'll be able to whip up further support for the anti-slavery cause through writing and public speaking. However, right now, Randolph is still stuck in New Orleans, and the Underground Railroad needs a white agent to travel with him posing as a slave owner or dealer to ensure his safe passage north. They are short of white men right now, and guess who they have in mind for the role? quote:I understood all right, but rear end that I was, I didn’t see what it had to do with me. I suggested sending him by sea. Flashy is quite ready to tell him where to shove the idea, but he has to keep up the pretense of being Comber. He tries to plead duty to his country, but the man says that all he needs to do is travel upriver to Cincinnati, pass Randolph to an agent there, and then go on to New York, and he'll be able to get to England faster than he would sailing from New Orleans – plus there's the issue of the Navy watching for him. And when Flashman tries to press further, the man drops a not very subtle threat that if he doesn't play along, they'll just turn him over to the Navy. Flashman has no choice but to accept: if he's forced by the Navy to go to court and testify against the Balliol College crew, that'll be the end of his pretense to being Comber, and he'll join the other slavers in prison. The man, who gives his name as Crixus, is thrilled, and takes Flashman to introduce him to Randolph. quote:
Randolph wants to know if “Comber” is ready to play his part in the plan (“Your task should not be hard – merely to ride on a steamboat, in rather greater comfort than I shall be.”) quote:I could have kicked the black bastard off his chair. But caught as I was, in the trap Crixus had sprung on me, what was there to do but cram down my resentment on top of my fears—I was an overloaded man, believe me—and say: What could possibly go wrong here? Leaving Randolph, Crixus admits to Flashy that Randolph can be “difficult” but asks him to make allowances: quote:“Please, Mr Comber—well, I know what you may be thinking. George can be…difficult, I guess, but—well, we have not endured what he has endured. You saw his sensitivity, the delicacy of his nature. Oh, he is a genius, sir—he is three parts white, you know. Think what slavery must do to such a spirit! I know he is very different from the negroes with whom you are used to dealing. Dear me, I sometimes myself find it…but there. I remember what he means to our cause—and to all those poor, black people.” He blinked at me. “Compassionate him, sir, as you compassionate them. I know, in your own loving heart, you will do so.” You won't be surprised to know that privately, Flashy has already resolved to dump Randolph at the first sign of any trouble. (“(I)f things went adrift, well, Master Randolph could shift for himself while Flashy took to the timber. He would be all right; he was a genius.”)
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Jun 25, 2020 23:40
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quote:he is three parts white, you know. Think what slavery must do to such a spirit! Yee. loving. Ikes.
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Jun 26, 2020 19:13
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