(no subject)

[skygiants]

I know I read at least some Wodehouse when I was a kid, but the problem with the Jeeves and Wooster stories is that there are SO MANY of them and I can never remember which I've read and which I haven't. So last time I wanted some pleasant Wodehouse fluff I started reading the Mike and Psmith books instead, because I knew for a fact I had not read those, which made it overall less confusing for my head and for my completionist urges. Except since I'd only ever heard of them as the Mike and Psmith books, I accidentally skipped the first one, Mike at Wrykyn, thus thwarting my completionist urges ANYWAY.

But I'm going to talk mostly about Psmith regardless, so that's fine. Psmith is interesting because he's basically everyone's favorite archetype -- the aristocratic British Troll Hero, see also Peter Wimsey, Francis Crawford of Lymond, Percy Blakeney, Julie Beaufort-Stuart (sob), etc. etc. -- taken to the ONE HUNDRED PERCENT comic extreme. Usually the Troll Hero gets loaded down with some sort of major tragic angst so everyone remembers to take him seriously deep down. But this is Wodehouse, so nobody ever has to be taken seriously! And in Mike and Psmith Mike and Psmith frolic around and have a school story, and in Psmith in the City Mike and Psmith basically have an extended school story except that it takes place in a bank office, and that's all fine.

But then you hit the third book in the series, Psmith, Journalist, which is when Psmith notices that TENEMENT HOUSING IS AWFUL, which is a subject that sort of forces a little bit of seriousness to creep in, because ... well, tenement housing is awful. And there are GANGSTERS and ANGRY MOBS and SERIOUS THREATS TO PSMITH'S LIFE AND LIMB and everything kind of balances on this weird tightrope with Wodehouse on one end and Newsies on the other and a sort of looming pit of accidentally talking about social justice in the middle ... and all this weirdness means that it would probably be my favorite, except of course then all the racism. >.<

And then Leave it to Psmith bounces back to pure screwball, with the addition of a heist, and that's fine! One can cheerfully imagine Eve played by a young Katharine Hepburn.

Comments

YES. also

[qian]

Psmith loves Mike SO HARD. :DDDD

Re: YES. also

[skygiants]

IT'S TRUE. AND HILARIOUS. He is so jealous of cricket. :(

[ceitfianna]

Wodehouse has been on my to read list for years. I know I started one of the Jeeves and Wooster books years ago but forgot it while I adore the TV series. Maybe I'll try out these instead.

[skygiants]

They're nice and easy to hunt down, anyway! Also, available from Project Gutenberg. :D

[lacewood]

Weirdly the only Wodehouse I have ever read was NEITHER Jeeves nor Psmith, because I could not figure out which was the first book of either series and then track them down. But one day I will get around to it! ... Probably. >_>;

[skygiants]

Hah, well, as you can see this is also ... a problem I have ... and did not successfully navigate. >.< But Psmith is relatively easy though because there are only four! Whereas there are FOUR BILLION Jeeves stories. That is the literal number.

[rymenhild]

I have not read Psmith. Instead I am wondering about the important question: Why do I love Julie a hundred times better than Wimsey and a thousand times better than Lymond? Because I guess you're right that she's the same archetype.

But I think there's an obvious answer, that being that Julie is female. What is annoying in Wimsey and insufferable in Lymond is glorious in Julie. As a woman doing a man's job and playing a man's roles, Julie's always fighting for the right to be arrogant and trollish. I mean, she's privileged and she knows it, but she's not privileged AND MALE.

[skygiants]

Absolutely and for sure. This is one of the things that stuck out to me most on a first read of Code Name Verity, that this was the first time I had EVER encountered a female character who fit within that particular archetype, and it was SO EXCITING for me. And it means, as you say, a whole extra layer of things, because playing that role implies a sheer level of intellectual confidence that I think it's harder for women to achieve.

[genarti]

I have only read Mike and Psmith, because someone -- happydork?? -- recced it a few years back.

I found my utter lack of any knowledge of cricket to be slightly a disadvantage, as I recall, but it was otherwise hilariously ridiculous! I'm not sure how well it would mesh with having a social conscience, though, yeah...

[skygiants]

happydork seems plausible! The rest of the books are increasingly less cricket, mostly because they're increasingly less Mike and Psmith cares about cricket approximately as much as you or I do.

[genarti]

hee hee hee fair enough. As I recall, Psmith cares deeply about Mike, however...

[lnhammer]

I think City is my favorite, because it brings the possibilities of the goofball school story to the corporation, which I wish more authors did. Corporations deserve to get taken down like that more often. Journalist gave me mood whiplash, which is not bad in itself but not what one goes to Wodehouse for -- one goes to Wodehouse for the mood itself.

I want to like Leave It more, but it's a Blandings story and I adore Blandings over any other Wodehouse series, and the essence of Psmith is not the same thing as the essence of Blandings. When I come to it as part of rereading Blandings, it feels just enough Off to be Offputting. When I read it as a Psmith story, it comes across reasonably well, if not as fine as City. Psmith trolling bank managers is tastier than Psmith trolling bumbling aristocrats.

ETA: I am disappointed that TV Tropes does not have a page for Troll Hero, aristocratic or otherwise. Humph, as the camel said. And, HUMPH.

---L.

[skygiants]

Hah, City is actually my least favorite -- not for any fault of its own, because it does what it does very well, but because I find Mike's existential ennui at the prospect of being a poor, depressed bank stooge for the rest of his life so terrifyingly relevant that it actually gives me worse mood whiplash than anything in Journalist.

I ALSO am disappointed by this! I think TVTropes thinks Guile Hero covers it but Guile Hero just does not convey the same sense of horrible delight at pulling one over on everyone just to be a nuisance.

[lnhammer]

Fair enough, about Mike's corporate angst. I tend to read past that (much as I do the cricketing) for the Psmithery.

It's clearly a subtrope of Guile Hero, but until you named it, I had not realized it needs to be identified separately. Well, you could justifiably call it Gadfly Hero. But Troll Hero is more, well, trollish.

---L.

[skygiants]

Troll Hero is having way more fun!

[lnhammer]

And, actually, I just read last night a book with a real Troll Hero, who takes his trollishness to antihero levels: Kazuma Yanagi of Kaze no Stigma. Peter Wimsey does his gadfly thing to stir up clues -- Kazuma outright does it for the lols, especially with anyone connected with his former family.

(The main protagonist of Mahouka Kakou no Rettousei isn't quite as trollish, though he does like trolling his classmates. He's more on the Wimsey/Pimpernel level of gadfly.)

---L.

[skygiants]

I am not familiar with either of these works! :O But I am always interested in Troll Heroes.....

[lnhammer]

The project pages for the fan translations of Kaze no Stigma ("stigma of the wind") and Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei ("irregular student at the magician high school"). Both are shounen light novels, the former contemporary fantasy with elemental magics, the latter a futuristic fantasy with weaponized magic. They are both pretty tasty, in different ways.

---L.

[antisoppist]

When my father and I need cheering up, we mutter "Across the pale parabola of joy" at each other.

[skygiants]

oh man, INFALLIBLE METHOD. *___*

[metaphortunate]

I have been giggling to myself about this all week. :)

[katta]

I should read a Psmith book at some point! I read a bit of Wodehouse in high school, but mostly Blandings Castle stuff. It took me slower than it could have, because my dad claimed Wodehouse must never be read in translation, and his English is pretty hard going. (I could probably manage better now.)

[skygiants]

I know I've read at least one Blandings Castle book, but I can't remember anything about that either ... technically the last Psmith book is also a Blandings Castle book, though. But I don't think that's the one I read. At least it rang no Blandings-related bells.

Anyway the Psmith books are fun, is my point!

[katta]

I don't remember much of them, except that one of them was an audiobook that taught me to pronounce "Hermione" a couple of years before all my friends. :-)

[applegnat]

I love these books. Leave It To Psmith is just miraculous in its happy perfection. I could read it everyday. I want to make a crazy movie in which Roshan Seth plays the Earl of Emsworth one day.

[skygiants]

I'm SO ON BOARD for that.

[applegnat]

You know, I saw your most recent post and went "WHAT? SKYGIANTS READ LEAVE IT TO PSMITH THIS YEAR?????" and came here to leave an excited comment. I'm leaving one anyway. Cos lol.

[skygiants]

it's still exciting for me too! :D THE EXCITEMENT OF LEAVE IT TO PSMITH NEVER ENDS