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aphid_licker posted:Man that scene of him loving over his lancer sidekick still bums me out. Girls are more valuable because they can give you kids, and to survive in rural Afghanistan, you need a lot of kids. If you gently caress a boy, you're not risking his chances of safely delivering the next generation of farmers and warriors (plus a few children extra because the child mortality rate is stupid-high).
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Aug 22, 2019 13:58
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aphid_licker posted:Still not sure why from there we get to the dancing boys rather than hypothetical dancing girls though Because men protect the 'honour' of their daughters, whose virginity is a valuable asset for them to sell, but boys are expected to fend for themselves and if they're weak enough to be raped then that's their problem.
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Aug 22, 2019 14:49
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The_White_Crane posted:Because men protect the 'honour' of their daughters, whose virginity is a valuable asset for them to sell, but boys are expected to fend for themselves and if they're weak enough to be raped then that's their problem. Darth Walrus posted:Girls are more valuable because they can give you kids, and to survive in rural Afghanistan, you need a lot of kids. If you gently caress a boy, you're not risking his chances of safely delivering the next generation of farmers and warriors (plus a few children extra because the child mortality rate is stupid-high). Okay these seem to make sense to my stupid mind but man that's pretty grim.
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Aug 22, 2019 16:11
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Afghanistan is a pretty grim place. The Rat fucked around with this message at 16:51 on Aug 22, 2019 |
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Aug 22, 2019 16:39
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StashAugustine posted:The whole retreat sequence is just way too depressing to be funny I think the writing is incredible - it so clearly depicts the chaos and confusion and the way that the attacks weren't some kind of strategic planned offensive but instead a bunch of escalating events as the Afghanis worked themselves up into more and more violence. It emphasizes how utterly banal the whole thing was and doesn't really try to tell some overarching story. It's to me one of the best illustrations about one of the best things about this series - the juxtaposition of colonial-era heroic tropes with deadpan journalistic coverage of history.
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Aug 22, 2019 18:53
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For the past several updates, Fraser has been quietly ratcheting up the suspense. We know, as his audience in the 60s and 70s would have done, that what’s about to happen is one of Britain’s worst military defeats in around 400 years of screwing around with other peoples’ countries. But what Fraser brings to the telling – and what makes the Flashman stories good historical novels in their own right, quite aside from the unusual choice of a villain for a protagonist – is his journalist’s flair for evocative detail. As The Rat mentioned above, Afghanistan is a grim place. In the next update, we’ll see exactly how grim. First, though, time for more important things – Flashman’s ego. quote:Any excitement that the affair at Mogala might have caused in Kabul when we got back and told our tale was overshadowed by the arrival on the same day of the new army commander, General Elphinstone, my chief and sponsor. I was piqued at the time, for I thought I had done pretty well, and was annoyed to find that no one thought my skirmish with the Gilzais and securing of hostages worth more than a cocked eyebrow and an “Oh, really?” Lest we should doubt his credentials on this topic, Flashman quickly reassures us. He’s so entertaining when he’s putting the boot in. quote:Let me say that when I talk of disaster, I speak with authority. I have served at Balaclava, Cawnpore and Little Big Horn. Name the biggest born fools who wore uniform in the nineteenth century – Cardigan, Sale, Custer, Raglan, Lucan – I knew them all. Think of all the conceivable misfortunes that can arise from combinations of folly, cowardice and sheer bad luck, and I’ll give you chapter and verse. But I still state unhesitatingly, that for pure, vacillating stupidity, for superb ignorance to command, for ignorance combined with bad judgment – in short, for the true talent for catastrophe – Elphy Bey stood alone. Others abide our question, but Elphy outshines them all as the greatest military idiot of our own or any other day. Celebrations are held throughout Kabul to welcome the new commander, who is broadly popular within the British community, although Burnes shares some of his reservations with Flashman – who is mildly offended by the slight on his patron, but comes around when he observes how frail the General is, thinking sardonically that “being about Elphy was like being an orderly in a medical ward.” For the time being, normal life continues for the British – McNaghten is sniffy about the mission Flashman carried out and continues to feud with Burnes. What worries Flashman, though, is the fact that the British cantonment, where the troops were garrisoned with their families, was hard to defend. The actual defensible position, the giant fortress of Bala Hissar, is reserved for shah Sujah and his own household troops, so the cantonment is located on the outskirts of Kabul. Unfortunately, the key officers are spread out all over the city – Burnes himself is in a building two miles away in the centre of Kabul - and the food stores are outside the base. So with these concerns in mind, Flashman is receptive when Burnes decides to utilise him again for political work, and spends several weeks traveling the back country carrying diplomatic messages back and forth, meeting the local power-brokers and generally getting to know the country and language. Sensibly, he travels with Ilderim and the Gilzais where possible. His clear-sightedness is also on display – whereas other soldiers “sneered at ‘young pups gadding about the hills playing at natives’, he develops a much better sense of what’s really going on - and what he sees worries him, a lot. quote:There was mischief brewing in the hills, among the wild tribes who didn’t want Shah Sujah for their king, and hated the British bayonets that protected him in his isolation in the Bala Hissar fortress. Rumours grew that Akbar Khan, son of old Dost Mohammed whom we had deposed, had come down out of the Hindu Kush at last and was gathering support among the chiefs; he was the darling of the warrior clans, they said, and presently he would sweep down on Kabul with his hordes, fling Sujah from his throne, and either drive the feringhees back to India or slaughter them all in their cantonment. Still, so long as the money is flowing to the hill tribes, the peace holds, and Flashman can continue his happy life having nice dinners and going whoring in the bazaar with Burnes. After all, nobody would be stupid enough to put a few pounds of cash ahead of the security of the most dangerous place in the British Empire, right? Oh. Oh! quote:One bright day McNaghten got a letter from Calcutta complaining at the cost of keeping our army in Kabul, and looked about for economies to make…he recalled the idea which had appalled General Nott, and decided to cut the Gilzais’ subsidy. gently caress. As the Gilzai chiefs are told that their subsidy is being slashed nearly in half, Ilderim warns Flashman that no good will come of it. quote:“There will be trouble, Flashman huzoor. He would have been better offering pork to a Ghazi than cheat the Gilzais of their money.” This annoys McNaghten but he’s not smart enough to be worried, and makes another genius-brain decision: he’ll send two of the battalions from the Army of the Indus back to India under General “Fighting Bob” Sale and have them punish the Gilzais en route. This doesn’t go quite as planned. quote:It was a shocking experience the first time. I set off thinking it was something of a joy-ride, which it was until the last half-mile into Sale’s rearguard, which was George Broadfoot’s camp beyond Jugdulluk. Everything had been peaceful as you please, and I was just thinking how greatly exaggerated had been the reports arriving in Kabul from Sale, when out of a side-nullah came a mounted party of Ghazis, howling like wolves and brandishing their knives. The British are discovering that the Gilzais are not just an undisciplined horde, but are excellent shots – worse, significantly better than the trained British and Indian soldiers are. Sale’s force is holding its own on the way back to India, but is in no condition to go on an offensive. Irony strikes, as giving an honest report of the situation causes Burnes and the rest of the British leadership to start to view Flashman as a coward, something his genuine cravenness had so far failed to do. A couple of weeks later, Burnes sends him off with another letter to Sale. Flashman sets off with his own honour guard of Gilzais and Ilderim in tow, and quickly realises that there is no way through to Sale – the hills are full of angry Afghans who are now talking about a Jihad, and it’s looking like Sale’s force will be butchered. Pragmatically, he hands the letter on to Ilderim – who as a Gilzai himself and someone with a local Gilzai patron, is far more likely to survive if captured – to deliver to Sale. Flashman rides back to a very different Kabul. He arrives just as night is falling. quote:I never saw the place so quiet. Bala Hissar loomed over the deserted streets; the few folk who were about were grouped in little knots in doorways and at street corners; there was an air of doom over the whole place. No British soldiers were to be seen in the city itself, and I was glad to get to the Residency, where Burnes lived in the heart of the town, and hear the courtyard gates grind to behind me. The armed men of Burnes’s personal guard were standing to in the yard, while others were posted on the Residency walls; the torches shone on belt-plates and bayonets, and the place looked as though it was getting ready to withstand a siege. Just a quick note on geography here, as it will be relevant soon enough. The strongest defensive position in Kabul is the fortress of Bala Hissar. Shah Sujah is there with his own troops. The British army, together with Elphinstone and most of the British community (including wives and children) lives in the Cantonment, a couple of miles outside Kabul. Burnes, together with his younger brother Charlie, is based in the Residency. I can’t find any maps or pictures of the Residency as it was at this time – there is a nice photograph online of the later residency that was built into the sides of Bala Hissar if you search a bit, but imagine a large townhouse with a low curtain wall and a second storey. Burnes seems calm despite all the forbidding omens, but is not at all pleased to see Flashman, and is horrified to learn that he entrusted the letter to Sale to a – gasp - native! He proceeds to unload on Flashman: this is dereliction of duty, shameful, not what’s expected of a British officer, and so on. He avoids using the word ‘cowardice’, incidentally, because that was a Really Big Deal among British officers in the 19th century (and probably slanderous for him to have said without proof). I think we have a couple of military types reading along, and I’d be fascinated to know whether it’s still a career-ending accusation now, but as we saw when Flashman was in England, to be accused of cowardice and not fight a duel wouldn’t just end your career prospects, but potentially have you hauled up before a court-martial – which is exactly what Burnes begins to threaten him with. Burnes also lets slip that he’s had death threats, and that Akbar Khan himself is in Kabul, and means no harm to the British. quote:I went, in a rare rage at the self-sufficient folly of the man, and heartily hoping that he would trip over his own conceit. Always so clever, always so sure – that was Burnes. I would have given a pension to see him at a loss for once. I really want to quote the rest of this chapter in full, because it is an amazing piece of action writing. Instead, I’ll just recommend that you buy and read it for yourself, because it’s just that good. Note for the below; Burnes is often called ‘Sekundar’, as that’s the Afghan version of ‘Alexander quote:It came suddenly, just before breakfast-time, when I was rubbing my eyes after a pretty sleepless night which had dragged itself away very slowly, and very silently for Kabul. It was a grey morning, and the cocks were crowing; suddenly I became aware of a distant murmur, growing to a rumble, and hurried to the window. The town lay still, with a little haze over the houses; the guards were still on the wall of the residency compound, and in the distance, coming closer, the noise was identifiable as the tramping of feet and the growing clamour of a mob. In case it’s not obvious, Flashman has been wearing Afghan tribal dress while he has been doing his political work, not a big red British Army uniform. quote:
For all of my lifetime (1980-date), the West has had a general sympathy for crowds and protestors that is historically unusual; for most of recorded history, countries have had rules preventing large groups from assembling. Our assumption that it is a basic human right to take part in protests, and the fact that peaceful protests are a normal part of life in most western countries (people often bring their children to them), can obscure how terrifying it can be to be facing down an angry crowd. I currently live in China, lately in Hong Kong, where we’re about two months into a series of protests. What has struck me in our recent civil disturbances is that any protest, even a peaceful one, rests on an implied threat: “do what we want, or violence happens, and there’s more of us than there are of you”. In most cases, if pushed far enough, the threat is shown to be empty: push a state far enough and it will enforce its monopoly on violence. But what happens when it’s not clear if the state actually can enforce that monopoly? Something like what’s happening in Kabul in this section. Burnes, bless him, tries to talk the crowd down in Pushtu. He gets some way, but then starts patronising them and being too impressed with his own cleverness, and only makes things worse. Someone in the crowd fires off a jezzail, and the crowd is spurred to try again to storm the walls – and succeeds, overrunning the walls and taking the fight to the courtyard. As Burnes, Flashman and the other VIPs retreat towards the central building, slamming the doors in the face of their pursuers and barring them from the inside, Flashman hears a couple of disciplined volleys in the courtyard and works out that the guards from the wall have survived to get into the building. quote:Little bloody odds it would make, I thought; they had us cornered, and it was a case of having our throats cut now or later. Burnes is unfazed, calmly noting that they have around twenty fighting men (a group from which he may be excluding Flashman), and orders the guard up to the balconies to shoot down. This has some initial success, and Burnes reassures everyone that Elphy will send a battalion down soon enough, as he will have heard the sounds of battle. No troops come. An hour passes, more, and Burnes’s composure (“shoot the thin ones, Flashy; that chap couldn’t have got in the front door anyway”) begins to crack. As the ammunition runs out, Burnes decides to run for it; the few of them not in native clothes get changed, and then they bolt out a passage to the kitchen. Once they’re outside, Burnes thinks quickly, telling Flashman to shut the door behind them. quote:“Now, try to batter the damned thing down!” And he jumped at the closed door, hammering with his fists. “Open, unbelieving swine!” he bawled. “Feringhee pigs, your hour has come! This way, brothers! Death to the bastard Sekundar!” This works, and they are able to slip into the crowd, Burnes shouting occasional insults to himself in good Pushtu as they go. Further away from the residency, the crowds start to thin out behind them, and are less noisy; the cantonment is not far away. Salvation, finally, is at hand. The next bit deserves quoting in full. quote:
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Aug 22, 2019 19:12
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Notahippie posted:I think the writing is incredible - it so clearly depicts the chaos and confusion and the way that the attacks weren't some kind of strategic planned offensive but instead a bunch of escalating events as the Afghanis worked themselves up into more and more violence. It emphasizes how utterly banal the whole thing was and doesn't really try to tell some overarching story. Oh yeah it's very good, and there's even some bleakly funny bits in there, but overall its just pretty miserable
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Aug 22, 2019 21:42
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I do enjoy Flashman's little gazpacho soup moment here a great deal; it shows how Fraser's research and insight didn't just extend to historical events.quote:and even as I thought; oh, sweet Jesus, this is death, I had one fleeting memory of being trampled in the scrimmage in the School-house match. This is an only very slightly indirect reference back to the first time Flashman appears in Tom Brown's Schooldays. It's also a fantastic piece of writing from a book that blows hot and cold, so I'm going to indulge myself and post a wall of text. Our hero Brown finds himself, on his first afternoon at Rugby School, playing in the critically important School-house football match, in which the sixty boys who board in the School-house (including Brown, Flashman, and the captain Brooke and his younger brother) take on the 120 boys of the rest of the school. quote:But now look! there is a slight move forward of the School-house wings, a shout of “Are you ready?” and loud affirmative reply. Old Brooke takes half a dozen quick steps, and away goes the ball spinning towards the School goal, seventy yards before it touches ground, and at no point above twelve or fifteen feet high, a model kick-off; and the School-house cheer and rush on. The ball is returned, and they meet it and drive it back amongst the masses of the School already in motion. Then the two sides close, and you can see nothing for minutes but a swaying crowd of boys, at one point violently agitated. That is where the ball is, and there are the keen players to be met, and the glory and the hard knocks to be got. You hear the dull thud, thud of the ball, and the shouts of “Off your side,” “Down with him,” “Put him over,” “Bravo.” This is what we call “a scrummage,” gentlemen, and the first scrummage in a School-house match was no joke in the consulship of Plancus. Rugby football at this point is nothing like the organised sport that would begin to emerge a generation later in the 1870s; you kick the ball downfield very hard and then have a gigantic mass pushing match around it, kicking as hard as possible at anything within reach until the ball squirts loose again, someone picks it up and kicks it downfield again, another mob forms around it, and so on. When Scud East introduces the game, he points out "Why, there's been two collar-bones broken this half, and a dozen fellows lamed. And last year a fellow had his leg broken." quote:The ball has just fallen again where the two sides are thickest, and they close rapidly around it in a scrummage. It must be driven through now by force or skill, till it flies out on one side or the other. Look how differently the boys face it! Here come two of the bulldogs, bursting through the outsiders; in they go, straight to the heart of the scrummage, bent on driving that ball out on the opposite side. That is what they mean to do. My sons, my sons! you are too hot; you have gone past the ball, and must struggle now right through the scrummage, and get round and back again to your own side, before you can be of any further use. Here comes young Brooke; he goes in as straight as you, but keeps his head, and backs and bends, holding himself still behind the ball, and driving it furiously when he gets the chance. Take a leaf out of his book, you young chargers. Yes yes, very heroic and manly, but where does Flashman fit into the picture? quote:Here comes Speedicut, and Flashman the School-house bully, with shouts and great action. Won't you two come up to young Brooke, after locking-up, by the School-house fire, with “Old fellow, wasn't that just a splendid scrummage by the three trees?” But he knows you, and so do we. You don't really want to drive that ball through that scrummage, chancing all hurt for the glory of the School-house, but to make us think that's what you want—a vastly different thing; and fellows of your kidney will never go through more than the skirts of a scrummage, where it's all push and no kicking. We respect boys who keep out of it, and don't sham going in; but you—we had rather not say what we think of you. "With shouts and great action" is such a perfectly-chosen phrase. I love it to bits and use it whenever possible. Words cannot do justice to how perfectly it describes the kind of behaviour that Speedicut and Flashman are displaying. It's so great I love it even though trying to visualise that kind of behaviour in any way immediately sets my teeth on edge. So, er, the point being that, based on this one paragraph from Tom Brown, it makes such complete and total total sense for Flashman to have had a critically formative experience, trampled after falling in the midst of a scrummage in the most important football match of the year (I like to think it was in his first match when he was at his youngest). Whether by uncharacteristic courage or uncharacteristic bad luck at a critical moment, he ended up right in the heart of the action just once, discovered exactly where courage gets you, and swore an immediate and lifelong vow of cowardice. Chapeau.
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Aug 22, 2019 22:43
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Beefeater1980 posted:But what happens when it’s not clear if the state actually can enforce that monopoly? Something like what’s happening in Kabul in this section. Of course, the State isn't interested in enforcing its monopoly in this case. That's the Afghan government. These instead are foreign occupiers of Kabul. Re-reading this passage reminds me quite a lot of how Vilerat died, incidentally, for those of you who've read the details. 
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Aug 23, 2019 12:26
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A great write up of one of the most exciting bits of the books. An interesting contrast is with a similar event at the British Embassy in Afghanistan during the 2nd Afghan War, as shown in The Far Pavilions.Ceiling fan posted:There was a surprisingly good screen adaptation of Royal Flash. I am not a fan of it. They chose one of the more comedic books and leant heavily into slapstick comedy. Fine, but not much to my taste and it fails to touch any of the meatier, more dramatic historical strengths of the series. (Such as the 1st Afghan War sequences above and soon to come). I personally though McDowell was badly miscast as Flashman, who is a big scary looking bloke who can fake being hard. Again, and this is directorial rather than his acting range, he was more buffoon than villain. I’m sure the film is strong of its type and agree the closing speech is a nice touch. Just interesting how different perspectives can be.
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Aug 24, 2019 09:06
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after watching the boys I can say that Altered Carbon Guy would play a really good flashman
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Aug 25, 2019 13:23
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How does the rest of the series stack up to the first one? I just finished book 1 and enjoyed it but it's a little bit exhausting to read because he is just such a bastard. I don't see how it can not get repetitive.
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Sep 1, 2019 02:43
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They're pretty consistent-- I've heard some of the later volumes are worse, but I haven't gotten to them yet. I've read four, but I spaced them out over a few years, and I think that was for the best. If it affects your decision, the second book is more of a lighthearted farce, and Flash just survives it, instead of being hugely rewarded.
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Sep 1, 2019 02:49
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OctaviusBeaver posted:How does the rest of the series stack up to the first one? I just finished book 1 and enjoyed it but it's a little bit exhausting to read because he is just such a bastard. I don't see how it can not get repetitive. I thought they stack up pretty well. I actually found the first two to be the ones I enjoyed the least. While there are definitely certain plot beats that you come to expect, the different historical scenarios and the skill with which Fraser weaves Flashman's antics in to the real events kept me hooked.
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Sep 1, 2019 02:49
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OctaviusBeaver posted:How does the rest of the series stack up to the first one? I just finished book 1 and enjoyed it but it's a little bit exhausting to read because he is just such a bastard. I don't see how it can not get repetitive. He's generally a lot less of a bastard (as opposed to a coward) in the later books, except to people who had it coming. What aspect of repetition worries you?
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Sep 1, 2019 12:53
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What carries the series is the action scenes, which Fraser writes very well, the amusing character sketches, and watching Flashman duck and weave his way out of all the trouble his vices get him into. If it was a constant parade of shittiness with no let-up then it would probably be unreadable, I agree. The fact that Flashman gets a lot of personal come-uppance as well helps too. I’m moving countries this week so may be a bit slower with updates for a while. Next episode will have some of that come-uppance I was talking about...
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Sep 1, 2019 13:27
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I've been tremendously enjoying this thread and I'm looking forward to the next instalment
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Sep 1, 2019 14:19
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Beefeater1980 posted:What carries the series is the action scenes, which Fraser writes very well, the amusing character sketches, and watching Flashman duck and weave his way out of all the trouble his vices get him into. If it was a constant parade of shittiness with no let-up then it would probably be unreadable, I agree. The fact that Flashman gets a lot of personal come-uppance as well helps too. what i've always loved is the way gmf manages to squeeze flashman into the background and seedy backroom of history. the period is one of grand adventure and geo politics and his adventures are often stolen from real people.
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Sep 2, 2019 00:49
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I've not seen it mentioned on this thread, but my apologies if I have missed it. George Macdonald Fraser wrote a memoir of his time in Burma fighting the Japanese in WWII called 'Quartered safe out here'. The title is a quote from the first stanza of the Rudyard Kipling poem 'Gunga Din', which is quoted at the start of the book: 'You may talk o’ gin and beer When you’re quartered safe out ’ere, An’ you’re sent to penny-fights an’ Aldershot it; But when it comes to slaughter You will do your work on water, An’ you’ll lick the bloomin’ boots of ’im that’s got it.' It's an excellent memoir, and Fraser paints a great picture of what the jungle was like.
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Sep 6, 2019 17:05
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Dog Pipes posted:I've not seen it mentioned on this thread, but my apologies if I have missed it. Yeah, Quartered Safe Out Here is a good read. Besides the vivid jungle descriptions, what I most remember is Fraser acknowledging that his war experiences left him with a lifelong hatred of the Japanese, to the point where he still felt angry and sick if he so much as saw a Japanese person on TV. I can also recommend Black Ajax, his novel based on the life of an ex-slave boxer in the early eighteen-hundreds. (Flashman's dad shows up briefly!) His The Pyrates is a lot of fun too.
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Sep 6, 2019 18:01
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Selachian posted:Yeah, Quartered Safe Out Here is a good read. Besides the vivid jungle descriptions, what I most remember is Fraser acknowledging that his war experiences left him with a lifelong hatred of the Japanese, to the point where he still felt angry and sick if he so much as saw a Japanese person on TV. It's quite visceral in places. When he's a stupid newbie out in Burma, one of the more experienced soldiers stops him from going down into a dried out river bed after hearing a noise. The soldier tells him that he'll be killed by a trap (an IED, or a covered hole with human poo poo-smeared spikes made from bamboo at the bottom) and he should die his own death, in his own way, and not to be tricked into dying the way the Japanese wanted him to die. As the OP alludes to, imagine being taught that lesson at nineteen years old. I just went to look for my copy of it, and realised I'd taken it to the charity shop in a recent clear out. Dammit.
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Sep 6, 2019 19:24
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Don't leave us hanging, Beefeater! 
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Sep 17, 2019 14:28
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The Rat posted:Don't leave us hanging, Beefeater! the British lose
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Sep 17, 2019 14:46
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Yes I know, I was just enjoying the discussion generated  On a semi-related note, just watched this trailer and actually knew what it was about due to one of the Flashman books: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HwFGCQwbqs
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Sep 19, 2019 13:28
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I kinda thought I knew the mid-victorian era but the Flashman novels are great at hammering home just how strange and alien the world of the (relatively recent) past is through their careful use of Frazer's meticulous historical research.
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Sep 20, 2019 06:46
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I’ve just settled in to a new job in São Paulo, and haven’t had a chance to sit down and get on with it yet, sorry guys! Regular posting should resume in the next couple of days.
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Sep 20, 2019 11:31
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Yay!
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Sep 20, 2019 16:37
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Where we left our – let’s just call him our protagonist – his day had just started off very badly. It is about to get a lot worse. quote:When I came to my senses I was lying on a wooden floor, my cheek against the boards. My head seemed to be opening and shutting with pain, and when I tried to raise it I found that my face was stuck to the boards with my own dried blood, so that I cried out with pain as it pulled free. Who could possibly have captured him? Well, who do we know who really, really hates Flashman, and isn’t a family member, ex-colleague or in England? quote:The first thing I noticed was a pair of boots, of fine yellow leather, on the floor about two yards away; above them were pyjamy trousers and the skirt of a black coat, and then a green sash and two lean hands hooked into it by the thumbs, and above all, a dark, grinning face with pale grey eyes under a spiked helmet. I knew the face, from my visit to Mogala, and even in my confused state I thought: this is bad news. It was my old enemy, Gul Shah. Flashman decides it will do him no good at all to look into why exactly he was saved from the massacre, and makes a manful attempt at brazening it out, thanking them for saving him and promising lavish rewards. This does not go down well; Gul Shah has a different kind of compensation in mind. quote:Any paying the British do will be in blood.” says Gul Shah. “Yours first of all.” In addition to being a natty dresser, Gul Shah, it turns out, has a very nice line in frenzied monologues. quote:“Why do you suppose I stopped the Ghazis from quartering you?” says he. “To preserve your precious skin, perhaps? To hand you as a peace offering to your people?” He stuck his face into mine. “Have you forgotten a dancing girl called Narreeman, you pig’s bastard? Just another slut, to the likes of you, to be defiled as you chose, and then forgotten. You are all the same, you feringhee swine; you think you can take our women, our country, and our honour and trample them all under foot. We do not matter, do we? And when all is done, when our women are raped and our treasure stolen, you can laugh and shrug your shoulders, you misbegotten pariah curs!” He was screaming at me, with froth on his lips. This is, of course, a perfectly accurate description of the British presence in Afghanistan! Fortunately for Harry, Nareeman isn’t there to cut up what remains. He does claim to have meant her no harm – which earns him a well deserved beating – and then gets a good grovel in. Grovelling when he’s in danger, as we’ll see later in the series, is one of Flashman’s signature moves and he really does come across as utterly pathetic. quote:“Look,” says I. “Whatever I’ve done, I beg your pardon for it. I didn’t know you cared for the wench, I swear. I’ll make amends, any way you like. I’m a rich man, a really rich man.” I went on to offer him whatever he wanted in ransom and in compensation for the girl, and it seemed to quiet him for a minute. Flashman is an experienced enough bully to know when he’s being mocked, and quickly shuts up. After some more insults, Gul Shah orders him dragged into the next room. What follows is another scene that shows Fraser’s excellence in conceiving and executing action sequences. The room Flashman finds himself in is about twenty feet long, and in the middle there is a trench that runs the full width of the room. Gul Shah asks Flashman if he is strong, and has a servant menace him with a knife until Flashman claims he’s strong enough – at which point, Gul Shah explains how Flashman’s execution will work. quote:“It was inspired by the unusual shape of this chamber, with its great trench in the middle, and partly by a foolish game which your British soldiers play. Doubtless you have played it yourself, which will add interest for you, and us. Yah Mansur, come here.” Yes, like all good monologuing villains Gul Shah has a freakishly strong, physically repulsive henchman (he's athletic too, and shows off a bit). A sack of lethally poisonous snakes is upended into the trench and the two men are then bound together with rope in the world’s worst game of tug-of-war. After a few more rounds of Flashman raging and yelling for help and the Afghans laughing merrily at him, the real execution begins. quote:
Fraser ended up writing Octopussy not long after Flashman was released (the movie went out in 1983 versus 1978 for the first print run of Flashman), and I think it’s interesting how very much this sequence resembles scene from one of Bond films of the 60s or 70s. All the elements are there: a grotesque henchman, certain death, and an impressive villain to watch it all with sadistic glee. Mansur toys with him for a while, except for a slight stumble when Flashman is unable to muster enough strength to push back with the force the dwarf expects, and moved in for the kill. quote:This, I suppose, was the final hideous refinement; I struggled like a fish on a line, but there was no resisting that steady, dreadful pull. I was perhaps ten feet from the lip when he turned away from me, as a tug-of-war team will when it has its opponents on the run, and I realised that if I was to make any last desperate bid it must be now, while I had a little space to play with. I had almost unbalanced him by an accidental yielding; could I do it deliberately? With the last of my strength I dug my heels in and heaved tremendously; it checked him and he glanced over his shoulder, surprise on the hideous face. Then he grinned and exerted his strength, lunging away on the rope. My feet slipped. Flashman’s miserable begging here is significant. As before, we know how this story goes – the hero is either defiant or coolly indifferent to the prospect of imminent death. Possibly he gets in a couple of cheery quips. Flashman, realistically, does nothing of the sort and bawls like a baby. I’m actually wondering whether Flashman really is a coward at all, or just a perfectly sane and rational person who happens to have found himself the protagonist of a series of adventure stories. quote:My hands were over the edge now, and then by elbows; suddenly there was nothing beneath my face, and through my streaming tears I saw the bottom of the culvert with the filthy worms gliding across it. My chest and shoulders were clear, in an instant I should overbalance; I tried to twist my hand up to appeal to the dwarf, and saw him standing on the far edge, grinning evilly and coiling the slack rope round his right hand and elbow like a washer-woman with a clothes line. He glanced at Gul Shah, preparing to give the final pull that would launch me over, and then above my own frantic babbling and the roaring in my ears I heard the crash of a door flung open behind me, and a stir among the watchers, and a voice upraised in Pushtu. You tell me that couldn’t have come straight out of something directed by Cubby R. Broccoli. In a fury, Gul Shah orders Bond – sorry, Flashman – thrown in with the victim, but there is a sudden intervention. quote:A man stood in the doorwary. He was slightly under middle height, with the chest and shoulders of a wrestler, and a small, neat head that he turned from side to side, taking in the scene. He was simply dressed in a grey coat, clasped about with a belt of chain mail, and his head was bare. He wa plainly an Afghan, with something of the pretty look that was so repulsive in Gul Shah, but here the features were stronger and plumper; he carried an air of command, but very easily, without any of the strutting arrogance that so many of his race affected. The arrival of the stranger is enough to see Flashman pulled back from the brink. Next week: Things get weird.
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Sep 24, 2019 03:14
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As often happens in a life or death struggle it's the last mistake that decides the issue. On the strength of this scene I'm going to say that Flashy is no coward. He has his wits about him to the very end and is able to recognize and exploit an opportunity even while literally halfway over the brink of death itself. No coward retains that much presence of mind. He may justly accuse himself of cowardice, after all he knows exactly how terrified he was. But the measure of a coward isn't in units of fear, it's in increments of action. And Flashy could still act.
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Sep 24, 2019 03:45
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I think he just doesn’t let cowardice get in the way of self preservation.
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Sep 24, 2019 03:55
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mllaneza posted:As often happens in a life or death struggle it's the last mistake that decides the issue. Flashman is legitimately physically heroic all through the books, he's just a wanker
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Sep 24, 2019 04:49
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I've been reading about the retreat from Kabal and holy poo poo, Flashman wasn't wrong when he says that Elphinstone was the absolute worst choice of a commander for the Afghan expeditionary force.
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Sep 24, 2019 07:42
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Now I’m kind of bummed Flashman didn’t die, lol. Oh well, onwards!
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Sep 24, 2019 08:00
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Poor henchman dude
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Sep 24, 2019 09:23
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Flashman is kind of an interesting character because he's cruel and a rapist but otherwise he pretty much exhibits every heroic trait at one point or another. Then again he pretty much straight up left his Indian buddy to die without a second thought, and only turned to fight once escape was impossible, so who can say.
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Sep 24, 2019 10:29
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He is never motivated by anything laudable, but that doesn’t stop him from doing traditional action hero things in pursuit of his selfish goals.
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Sep 24, 2019 11:58
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Yeah if he does anything heroic, it's either by accident or because he has literally no other choice. Or the one time he got seduced and drugged into it 
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Sep 24, 2019 17:43
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Pistol_Pete posted:I've been reading about the retreat from Kabal and holy poo poo, Flashman wasn't wrong when he says that Elphinstone was the absolute worst choice of a commander for the Afghan expeditionary force. I didn't know much about the history of Afghanistan and Britain in the 1840s, and I read the first Flashman book this weekend on the strength of this thread. Holy poo poo that got incredibly dark. I don't want to discuss it until the thread gets there, but  (I actually read the first two books this weekend and I'm halfway through the third. Despite the verisimilitude, they're actually pretty fast reads, although I've read the Aubrey-Maturin series 4 or 5 times over so I'm already used to the way 19th century England worked.) I wouldn't say Flashman is at all heroic, he's going to cheat or run away from anything resembling a fair fight unless you've literally got a knife to his neck. There's nothing heroic about being cunning enough to win the tug-of-war, it just shows he's clearheaded under pressure. And he's going to use that clear head to run away. e: And jfc this third book. Phenotype fucked around with this message at 03:24 on Sep 25, 2019 |
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Sep 25, 2019 02:10
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Maybe physically competent is a better way to put it?
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Sep 25, 2019 06:08
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he's capable of deeds and feats but he's a moral vacuum, yeah
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Sep 25, 2019 12:05
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