(no subject)

[skygiants]

Catch-up booklogging from last year: Bring Up the Bodies, and also Wolf Hall, because I knew if I tried to read Bring Up the Bodies without rereading Wolf Hall I would realize two chapters in that I had forgotten everything about everything.

So remember that time when I read Wolf Hall and I was like 'wow, I finished a Mantel book and I don't feel crushingly depressed! I don't know how to react to this! Hilary Mantel, have you grown as a writer and a person?'

. . . yeah, that did not happen at the end of Bring Up the Bodies.

If I was going to boil it down to one sentence, I guess I would say that Wolf Hall is a book about Thomas Cromwell being a person, and Bring Up the Bodies is a book about how he kind of stops being a person.


As I said in a comment thread somewhere, I left Wolf Hall feeling sad because I wanted to give Cromwell a hug, and I left Bring Up the Bodies feeling sad because giving Cromwell a hug at this point would achieve absolutely nothing; it would be like hugging a dry icicle.

The first moment that got me is actually quite early on - it's the part in the first couple of chapters when he's looking at Jane Grey, and he's like, "huh, I vaguely remember that I used to like her a few months ago! Oh, but that was when I was a human being with human feelings." And it's all downhill from there, man; this is a book in which human feelings are sacrificed on the wheel of politics, one by one.

Which as you might imagine is not cheerful to read about, and yet all the same I kept thinking, "I can't wait to get Cromwell's perspective on" -- fill in the name of Interesting Elizabethan Personage here; and half the time it would be "Catherine Parr" or "teenaged Elizabeth" and then I would remember the historical fact that Cromwell is not going to live long enough to deliver his perspective on them, and get really disappointed. Because Cromwell's head is not necessarily a cheerful place to be, but it's a fascinating one, always. Dammit, Mantel!

By the way: Wolf Hall miniseries? Is it possible that this will be good? Or is it just going to be the BBC sticking their tongue out at Showtime and going "nyah nyah our historical accuracy is better than yours?" Or, alternately, is it going to be Sexy Tudors: Electric Boogaloo? I don't know how to feel!

Comments

[aberration]

While this sort of depends on one's historical perspective, I'd have to imagine Cromwell would have to become either emotionally stagnant or really a dick, as what happens to Anne and some guys who really didn't have much to do with any of it was pretty vile, even though Cromwell had legit concerns about his own self-interest.

And not to make everything about The Other Boleyn Girl and how much I hate it, as the BBC made an adaptation of that, I don't give them much ground to make fun of Showtime :P But I'd imagine either way it will be along the lines "this is a book with some notoriety so we will make a production in the hopes that people will watch our programming!" ... so I have no answer, though I was amused to see someone in the comments of one of the articles complain that the article didn't include a spoiler warning before mentioning that Cromwell is executed.

[skygiants]

Yeah, and there are really no bones made about how vile it is. Like, there is one tiny spark of moral victory, and that's the fact that Thomas Wyatt doesn't actually get executed. THAT'S IT. That is the very, very last scruple that Cromwell has left, and even that comes real close to being destroyed.

Ha! I forgot the BBC made an adaption of that too. Or . . . blocked that out of my mind . . .?

(THESE ARE RELEVANT SPOILER WARNINGS. Not everybody knows!)

[applegnat]

Great post! Also, god, Wolf Hall miniseries? I -- will probably watch that just because. I hope they cast Roger Allam as Cromwell. Because Roger Allam.

[skygiants]

Thanks! I mean you've seen most of it already in a comment thread, so you know.

I have to confess, there is a tiny part of me that hopes that they have EXACTLY THE SAME cast as The Tudors and it's a deeply surreal experience for everyone involved.

(Note: I have only actually seen one episode of The Tudors ever.)

[schiarire]

I'm SO AFRAID OF THE MINISERIES.

[skygiants]

I think I can enjoy it if it's actively terrible! What I'm afraid is that it will be mediocre D: