skygiants | (no subject)

Danse de la Folie is Sherwood Smith's go at writing a very deliberately traditional and old-fashioned sort of feel-good Regency romance -- the Heyerian kind where everybody is aristocracy and nobody has sex and for the most part everybody is playing politely by the rules.

This book centers around a classic game of Engagement Chicken, which is a thing I discovered in a Heyer book a few years ago. To briefly summarize the rules, Engagement Chicken is a game for four players or more, in which everybody gets engaged to the wrong person and then sits around and stares hard at each other in the face of the rapidly approaching nuptials until somebody finally gives in and breaks their engagement. It seems to have been popular in the Regency and a certain kind of fantasy of manners.

-- and as a sidenote, if you have other fictional examples of games of Engagement Chicken, please share them because I still kind of want to populate a TVTropes page for this!

ANYWAY. Normally Engagement Chicken is a thing that annoys me, but here it doesn't bother me, mostly due to the fact that Player A's engagement and subsequent engagement-breaking have as much to do with social anxieties and her expectations of happiness in self-sufficiency as they do with pining after Player B.

I also enjoy the other heroine, a would-be writer of silly Gothics (I always like would-be writers of silly Gothics), and the friendship between the two of them, and the cheerfully non-evil stepmother and half-sisters. Overall it was a nice soothing Regency brain-bath, as it was designed to be, and my only actual quibble is the fact that I don't think we really needed to have That Mean Girl From High School -- who is sort of a stock Sherwood Smith character, and if we're going to have her I always want at least a little sympathy and development for her, and this is not the book for that.

Crossposts: http://bookelfe.livejournal.com/326027.html

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

sophia_sol

....ENGAGEMENT CHICKEN. You are so right, that is so a thing, how did I never notice before?

You definitely need to make a tvtropes page for it!

From:

skygiants

But I need enough examples first! Right now I have this and a handful of Heyers, and maybe some Jeeves and Wooster if I can pinpoint a Jeeves and Wooster story/episode.

From:

sophia_sol

Alas, I would help you if I could, because I'm sure I've read more examples of this, buuuuuut my ability to remember things I read is kind of tragic.

From:

schiarire

Engagement Chicken is such a good name for it! The only question is whether the first to break wins or loses Engagement Chicken ... I suppose, by the rules of chicken, they lose. But by the rules of life they are winners!

From:

skygiants

In my heart, I feel they always win! But they never seem to see it that way, or else why keep going with the game for half the book?

From:

minkhollow

Quinn says there's an episode of Jeeves and Wooster that's full-blown Engagement Chicken, but the books have a two-person version a lot of the time (Bertie gets engaged through Shenanigans and then sits there going O_O until Jeeves handles it).

From:

jinian

Jeeves and Wooster was what I thought of too. I haven't read many of the books. Does Bertie ever get engaged on purpose? I was shocked when he did so once in the TV series rather than being trapped into it as usual.

From:

skygiants

But which episode? Details are necessary!

From:

jinian

I'd say "Bridegroom Wanted!" and "The Ties That Bind" are closest, but there may be something else I'm not remembering.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Jeeves_and_Wooster_episodes

From:

skygiants

"The Ties That Bind" certainly SOUNDS like it should be an Engagement Chicken episode!

From:

cahn

Ha -- this is what I so loved about Cotillion -- that I read the first chapter and was all, "Yeah, classic Engagement Chicken." (Or I would have if I had known the phrase Engagement Chicken, which is an awesome way of putting it!)

naq gura vg gbgnyyl jnfa'g!

From:

skygiants

Yes! Cotillion was my first Heyer, and is still one of my favorites for so many reasons.

From:

rymenhild

This is relevant to my interests. Next time I need junk reading, it will be read by me!

EDIT:

Clarissa Harlowe? Clarissa HARLOWE? For the name of a protagonist of a Regency novel who presumably lives happily ever after and is not, you know, deflowered or despoiled or doomed in any way? That is some hubris right there. What were you thinking, Sherwood Smith?

Edited (Clarissa freaking Harlowe?) Date: 2013-02-21 03:12 am (UTC)

From:

skygiants

No elopements, no brothels, and no villainous Lovelace! Alas, the timing is wrong for there to be the meta-suggestion that her Gothic-novel-writing friend might have stolen her name for the purposes of fiction.

From:

rymenhild

Alas, yes, if it's Regency, the timing is definitely wrong.

I mean... I could see how it would look like the right name for a Regency heroine, all fluffy and elegant.

And then I remembered who Clarissa was, and I'm very much afraid I will not be able to suspend my disbelief through this book.

Okay, putting the computer away so I can watch Episode 17 of Princess Tutu before Mark gets to it. As you may have noticed, the Ahiru/Fakir shippers are already out in force over there, and there is going to be SOME EXPLOSION tomorrow when the newbies figure out that their ship is actually going canonical.

From:

skygiants

Oh my god, I'm EATING IT UP. Sadly my schedule is such right now that I usually can't get over to check out the post and the comments until after most of the discussion has already happened, but it fills the cockles of my little heart with joy to see so many people so excited about the show!

From:

kate_nepveu

Oh wow, are people really shipping them already? I'm impressed by their perception, or maybe I was super-slow.

It is awfully cute over there.

From:

rymenhild

As of the second-last episode of season 1, yes. People were joking about Fakir/Ahiru as a possible ship even earlier. When our heroes went down to Swan Lake and started actually communicating with each other, Mark said something in his video like, "I don't ship, but if I did, I'd ship them," and the commenters went wild.

I think it helped that the mod arctic-hare felt free to observe, at that point, that Ahiru/Fakir is a popular ship for watchers of the show. But I also think everyone has noticed that Mytho has no personality and Fakir has plenty of personality, and they want Ahiru to end up with Fakir because they're more interested in him.

From:

skygiants

Weirdly enough, I think I am actually more interested in Mytho on this rewatch than I ever was before. I mean, he's still my least favorite of the main four by virtue of my UNDYING LOVE for all the rest, but there is something really interesting for me now in trying to pie together the glimmers of his actual personality that you very occasionally get!

From:

rymenhild

It does happen! ... once in a tiny while. I'm pretty sure the moment with Neko-sensei and Mytho in the infirmary in 17 was one of the glimmers. But. Well. The heartshards of personality are few and far between.

From:

thistleingrey

I'm pretty sure that Sherwood Smith knows about Clarissa. Cognitive dissonance, granted, but that's different....

From:

rymenhild

It did strike me as the kind of thing she would know, which is why I was surprised!

From:

vivien

Engagement Chicken should be its own novel. Or mini-series. With chickens.

(I am a very silly person.)

From:

skygiants

I'D WATCH IT. Sequel to Chicken Run?

From:

vivien

Bwahahaha...

I see chickens in Jane Austen garb, somehow. It's all a very proper imagining.

Bok!

From:

skygiants

It's even funnier because chickens are all the wrong shape for Jane Austen garb! Perfect, on the other hand, for bustles . . .

From:

crossedwires

Engagement chicken is a great phrase! I know I must have read some, but I can't think of any titles right now.

From:

skygiants

It's a very easy game to play and requires no special equipment! Except a couple engagement rings I guess.

From:

cyphomandra

LM Montgomery's Emily's Quest has Engagement Chicken in it, with that whole countdown to completely the wrong wedding, although the other protagonist's engagement has ended earlier and involved a scene of book critique (and subsequent book-burning) that still rings in my soul. (and makes me terribly grateful for modern technology and backups)

From:

qian

Creepy dude is such an asshole!!! In certain moods I find it comforting to have someone love me for things other than my writing ... but not that way, Creepy Dean. >:(

But actually I intended to comment just to say that it delights me that you named Emily's Quest, because of course that is Engagement Chicken.

From:

hafl

And yet, creepy Dean still seems like a better choice than the actual love interest, who is the most boring and bland of all love interests of all time. (Seriously, Emily should have ran away to live a scandalous life with the other couple, if she could not be wedded to her art.)

From:

qian

No way!!! Well, from a Doylist perspective maybe, but not a Watsonian one. At least Ted supported Emily's writing. I don't think her running off with the other couple would have worked either because Perry was annoying and I was never really convinced by Emily and Ilse's friendship.

From:

hafl

I'm literally unable to look at Emily's Quest from Watsonian perspective. (I like the interpretation that Teddy was so boring, so that he wouldn't get into way of the true OTP: Emily/Writing.)

From:

skygiants

Hee! I missed the Emily books as a kid but that does indeed sound TEXTBOOK.

From:

hafl

Read them. They are awesome, even if Emily's Quest is an endless parade of misery and tragedy.

From:

antisoppist

Some of Wodehouse's Blandings Castle books might fit too, especially Something Fresh.

From:

skygiants

Man, it's been so long since I read any Wodehouse. I really should change that, they're just the sort of fluff that is perfect for reading in the midst of thesis . . .