Riddle 1 - The book
Did you like the book? Why or why not?
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It was an attempt to be a thriller, but it wasn't very thrilling. There was some activity, but no immediate stakes for any of it. And it's not even to say it's a book of its time; stories by Conan Doyle and Haggard are more thrilling than this one. Saying that, it kept tripping along so it was a decent read.
Whatever you call it, I liked it.
I enjoyed it, greatly! I was expecting it would be right up my alley and it was. All that fascinating information about the Baltic and North Seas, the fact that my mother's father's family were from Friesland, the sailing and nautical descriptions, the politics and espionage... loved it all!
Struggled mightily with this one and I admit I was just skimming by the end. Did not enjoy this one at all. No interest in boats, the drama was not really dramatic, and the characters mostly pretty flat. I didn't care much what happened at the end.
Oh one thing I do like about writing in this time is that often the relationship between men is much more interesting. The way Davies and Carruthers spoke to one another and treated one another feels so much from a different time (because it was) but in a good way.
Interesting. Could you say more about this? What did you find different? Was the older interaction better or worse than you'd expect in modern times (whether in life or in a fictional portrayal)?
I don't have the book with me at the moment to pull out examples but the way they relate to one another seems more respectful (even when at times they are more direct!), but affection seems to be more acceptable as well. I think it's a good thing overall.
I think there's something about changing attitudes towards friendship and masculinity. I think the book was from a time when people could be friends, without any expectation of romantic or sexual feelings. Also, men were less expected to be extremely masculine.
While I'm all for portrayals of non-heterosexual relationships in fiction, I'm disappointed that just about all relationships are expected to have some kind of non-platonic dimension. People can be friends, and those friendships can be deep and powerful.
I agree entirely!
For sure. It's just something I noticed and I like that about older books.
It also had an interesting discussion that included the idea of authentic, which in rpg terms might have something to do with believability / verisimilitude. Authenticity implies comparison, which requires transcendence, which is what play does - it permits us to be beyond activities that in actuality we cannot transcend.
One of the curious features (to me, at least) of the book was that the job of spy was regarded by Carruthers and Davies as being rather underhand and somehow not "nice"... while still going about the process of actually being spies. As though they have to become "un-British" in order to counter the threat to Britain,... which ties in with the constructed self here, I think.
A lot of the invasion genre literature of this period which I have read recently has a similar view - spying is a thing which the enemy do, and the British response is to unmask and counter the spying activity (or in some cases to fail to do so, with disastrous results) rather than up their own spy game.
This is why I consider these cultural aspects of play theological - depending on their cosmology determining what a human self is, the players will seek to manufacture different roles in the game. These roles are shaped by society beyond the table, but are pretended to be independent of it.
These cosmological ideas also shape what is considered monstrous, I.e. anti human. Of course when the nation requires it we should become monstrous, as Carruthers and Davies do.
At the same time, this seems to be a constant fear in our times - that people will lose their selves in fantasies that are anti social, e.g. the Satanic Panic.