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I'm sick, but the topic of this post only occurs to me when I'm sick so you'll have to put up with my mildly delirious rambling.
The three authors I read when I'm sick are Jane Austen, Dorothy L. Sayers, and Lois McMaster Bujold, since they're light and engrossing which counteracts my natural tendency to morose fidgeting.
**Spoilers ahoy for all three!**
**SPOILERS** **SPOILERS** **SPOILERS**
Anyway I've noticed a distinct similarity between the three, specifically the last two. Googling "Sayers Mcmaster" finds plenty of other people with the same opinion (including Lois McMaster Bujold herself, though her books have enough unique merits to stand on their own), so I geuss it isn't that unique an idea. Another author mentioned in the same breath is Gorgette Heyer but since I've been unable to bring myself to read more than one of her books she doesn't get a look-see.
Both Sayers and Bujolds works involve a plot where the main character (a Lord, somewhat battle-worn, with a flip intelligence masking a decent soul) meets a an intelligent but put-down woman who has just come out of a nasty reltionship with an unpleasant man who dies a horrible death under mysterious circumstances. The main character is immedietely smitten but the two only get together after much excitment and drama, close-calls with murderers etc. Another similarity I noticed is that while the description of the exes feels incredibly real (it probably helps that Tien reminds me of everything bad about my ex plus a bit more), and I really felt for Harriet and Ekaterin in Strong Poison and Komarr, I found myself much less convinced by the happily-ever-after bits in Gaudy Night/Busmans Holiday and A Civil Campaign. Not that they were terrible or anything, but to some extent they have more of the "good writer using their imagination" feel of say the space battles.
Investigating the three writers (rather haphazardly over time) it becomes clear that certainly Jane Austen and Dorothy L. Sayers drew from their own bad romantic experiences to write characters like Wickham (I can't find a link with that particular experience in it, unfortunately, but she did meet a charming guy who led her on then dumped her for being poor), but wrote the kind of happy ending they would have liked but didn't get. There's very little indepth biographical info for Lois McMaster Bujold, and anyway I'd feel kind of wierd speculating on the life of someone I could plausibly meet..but still the one thing I do know is she quite her job to raise a family, and is now divorced.
I would say Dorothy L Sayers is the most Mary-Sue-ish, since the similarities between her and Harriet are pretty extreme and Lord Wimsey is the most implausibly perfect romantic lead.
Finally, while I have no interest in marrying a member of the aristocracy I can understand the appeal of having one's nasty ex dead and out of the way rather than hanging about. Just saying :)
The three authors I read when I'm sick are Jane Austen, Dorothy L. Sayers, and Lois McMaster Bujold, since they're light and engrossing which counteracts my natural tendency to morose fidgeting.
**Spoilers ahoy for all three!**
**SPOILERS** **SPOILERS** **SPOILERS**
Anyway I've noticed a distinct similarity between the three, specifically the last two. Googling "Sayers Mcmaster" finds plenty of other people with the same opinion (including Lois McMaster Bujold herself, though her books have enough unique merits to stand on their own), so I geuss it isn't that unique an idea. Another author mentioned in the same breath is Gorgette Heyer but since I've been unable to bring myself to read more than one of her books she doesn't get a look-see.
Both Sayers and Bujolds works involve a plot where the main character (a Lord, somewhat battle-worn, with a flip intelligence masking a decent soul) meets a an intelligent but put-down woman who has just come out of a nasty reltionship with an unpleasant man who dies a horrible death under mysterious circumstances. The main character is immedietely smitten but the two only get together after much excitment and drama, close-calls with murderers etc. Another similarity I noticed is that while the description of the exes feels incredibly real (it probably helps that Tien reminds me of everything bad about my ex plus a bit more), and I really felt for Harriet and Ekaterin in Strong Poison and Komarr, I found myself much less convinced by the happily-ever-after bits in Gaudy Night/Busmans Holiday and A Civil Campaign. Not that they were terrible or anything, but to some extent they have more of the "good writer using their imagination" feel of say the space battles.
Investigating the three writers (rather haphazardly over time) it becomes clear that certainly Jane Austen and Dorothy L. Sayers drew from their own bad romantic experiences to write characters like Wickham (I can't find a link with that particular experience in it, unfortunately, but she did meet a charming guy who led her on then dumped her for being poor), but wrote the kind of happy ending they would have liked but didn't get. There's very little indepth biographical info for Lois McMaster Bujold, and anyway I'd feel kind of wierd speculating on the life of someone I could plausibly meet..but still the one thing I do know is she quite her job to raise a family, and is now divorced.
I would say Dorothy L Sayers is the most Mary-Sue-ish, since the similarities between her and Harriet are pretty extreme and Lord Wimsey is the most implausibly perfect romantic lead.
Finally, while I have no interest in marrying a member of the aristocracy I can understand the appeal of having one's nasty ex dead and out of the way rather than hanging about. Just saying :)
