Recent reading
Mar. 8th, 2020 03:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
luzulaStill enjoying my fandom research reading!
The Jacobite Clans of the Great Glen 1650-1784 by Bruce Lenman (1984)
This is well written and gives a very good background to the buildup and aftermath of the '45 and why the various factions acted as they did, though I occasionally had to resort to Wikipedia. It is rather opinionated and ironic, which is what saves it when it goes into what would otherwise be rather too much detail for me (sample sentence: Simon Fraser's sense of grievance was always one of his best-developed faculties.) I haven't read/watched Outlander, but the Clan Fraser infighting seems to have been rather spectacular and the clan chief was...a character (who gets a surprisingly dignified end, though). Does the book/show go into that?
Also, I have to say, the book does not offer a flattering picture of Britain's governing elite of any political camp during this period: the sheer amount of bribery, jockeying for power and money, bootlicking, cheerfully accepted-by-everyone buying of elections, etc. Gah.
But, about the Camerons! I already had a vague idea for an AU where Ewen is a werewolf (so much fun worldbuilding!) but then I come across the section about Sir Ewen Cameron of Lochiel, Ewen's namesake two or three generations back, writing in his memoirs about "the skirmish in which he literally bit the throat out of an officer in the Inverlochy garrison". In human or wolf form, I must ask? OMG, I could not make this up.
The '45 by Christopher Duffy
This is a brilliant 600-page brick which has really a lot of detail; I suppose it might be boring if you weren't into the subject, but I found it immersive. Duffy is...not partisan, but I get the impression that his heart is probably with the Jacobites. I actually found it emotionally difficult to read when it approached the inevitable slaughter and repression at the end, though my sympathies were also with the poor Hanoverian soldiers earlier in the war in the episode when they were literally freezing to death in the snow since they had no firewood and could not pitch their tents on the frozen ground. Augh.
I had come across references that MacLeod of Skye and MacDonald of Sleat, who were on the fence, did not join the Rising because they were being blackmailed by one of the leading government representatives. And then I find in the section on the clans at the end what they were being blackmailed about: they had apparently planned to kidnap and sell a number of their own clan members into slavery. *boggles* If that is true, I hope they were found out and got what they deserved (though somehow I doubt it).
The Jacobite Clans of the Great Glen 1650-1784 by Bruce Lenman (1984)
This is well written and gives a very good background to the buildup and aftermath of the '45 and why the various factions acted as they did, though I occasionally had to resort to Wikipedia. It is rather opinionated and ironic, which is what saves it when it goes into what would otherwise be rather too much detail for me (sample sentence: Simon Fraser's sense of grievance was always one of his best-developed faculties.) I haven't read/watched Outlander, but the Clan Fraser infighting seems to have been rather spectacular and the clan chief was...a character (who gets a surprisingly dignified end, though). Does the book/show go into that?
Also, I have to say, the book does not offer a flattering picture of Britain's governing elite of any political camp during this period: the sheer amount of bribery, jockeying for power and money, bootlicking, cheerfully accepted-by-everyone buying of elections, etc. Gah.
But, about the Camerons! I already had a vague idea for an AU where Ewen is a werewolf (so much fun worldbuilding!) but then I come across the section about Sir Ewen Cameron of Lochiel, Ewen's namesake two or three generations back, writing in his memoirs about "the skirmish in which he literally bit the throat out of an officer in the Inverlochy garrison". In human or wolf form, I must ask? OMG, I could not make this up.
The '45 by Christopher Duffy
This is a brilliant 600-page brick which has really a lot of detail; I suppose it might be boring if you weren't into the subject, but I found it immersive. Duffy is...not partisan, but I get the impression that his heart is probably with the Jacobites. I actually found it emotionally difficult to read when it approached the inevitable slaughter and repression at the end, though my sympathies were also with the poor Hanoverian soldiers earlier in the war in the episode when they were literally freezing to death in the snow since they had no firewood and could not pitch their tents on the frozen ground. Augh.
I had come across references that MacLeod of Skye and MacDonald of Sleat, who were on the fence, did not join the Rising because they were being blackmailed by one of the leading government representatives. And then I find in the section on the clans at the end what they were being blackmailed about: they had apparently planned to kidnap and sell a number of their own clan members into slavery. *boggles* If that is true, I hope they were found out and got what they deserved (though somehow I doubt it).
(no subject)
Date: 2020-03-08 05:59 pm (UTC)Definitely something I've also noticed in reading more about this period! Now I understand why the characters in all those George Eliot books kept making such a fuss about the 1832 Reform Bill...
I already had a vague idea for an AU where Ewen is a werewolf
...tell me more?
In any case, Ewen Cameron of Lochiel certainly seems to have been very memorable. :D Apparently there's a story that he personally killed the last (normal) wolf in Great Britain—could that have had something to do with his own wolf nature, in this AU?
(no subject)
Date: 2020-03-08 06:55 pm (UTC)So, people want different things out of werewolf stories, but what I want out of it is the connection to nature and also worldbuilding around how it fits into society. I already wrote a series of werewolf stories in another fandom, and I'm kind of itching to see how the same basic idea might work out in this fandom.
The idea is that being a werewolf is a genetic thing, not something that is contagious. And it's largely been eradicated in England (or driven extremely underground) because those people were killed as witches. Keith might not actually believe it's a real thing at all. But in Scotland it's still around, and it's integrated into the clan structure, though they keep quiet about it (would really have to think about how it fits in with the various branches of the church, though). So I figure Keith can realize there's something odd going on while he's a captive. Later, he can come on Ewen as a wolf while he's out scouting or something, and to avoid being shot, Ewen has to turn back into a man. And there's Keith, disbelieving and confronted with a naked Ewen (because of course they're naked when they turn back). : ) Well, this needs more plot, but it would be fun if I can make it work. I figure one change could be that Ewen doesn't go to France, but hides out in Scotland as a wolf instead. And if you spend such a long time as a wolf, you can kind of lose your human self, and Keith finds him and has to coax him back.
Apparently there's a story that he personally killed the last (normal) wolf in Great Britain—could that have had something to do with his own wolf nature, in this AU?
Huh, I didn't know that! Would certainly have to make something of it...maybe werewolves compete with real wolves?
(no subject)
Date: 2020-03-08 07:44 pm (UTC)I agree about the connection to nature and the worldbuilding possibilities being the most interesting things about werewolf stories, and there are definitely some good possibilities with this setting—and what a thing to confront Keith's Enlightenment scepticism with! And I love the idea of Keith finding wolf!Ewen in hiding and bringing back his human side.
Huh, I didn't know that! Would certainly have to make something of it...maybe werewolves compete with real wolves?
I was thinking something like, he killed the last wolf so now the Eternal Spirit of Wolf-ness is transferred to him instead, and that's the origin story of the Cameron werewolves—but perhaps that wouldn't work with it being a straightforward genetic thing!
(no subject)
Date: 2020-03-08 08:34 pm (UTC)Yes, definitely.
he killed the last wolf so now the Eternal Spirit of Wolf-ness is transferred to him instead
That is also a good idea, but would be a different story, I think!
(no subject)
Date: 2020-03-08 10:35 pm (UTC)/awaits developments
Scottish history is a wild ride. It makes English history look positively sedate by comparison. And yes, Georgian England was corrupt as all hell, a rip-roaring, gutsy, full-on society that was nonetheless... well, I'll stop banging on. One of the things that I love about Jane Austen is that she's so Georgian. And I do think Victoria went a bit far in her reaction to her Georgian uncles' behaviour but she'd probably had enough of embarrassing relatives to last her a lifetime.
(no subject)
Date: 2020-03-08 10:37 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2020-03-09 03:57 pm (UTC)Glad you like the werewolf AU idea! : )
(no subject)
Date: 2020-03-09 04:17 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2020-03-09 06:01 pm (UTC)According to the book: It seems that the clan leaders and other aristocracy were gradually assimilated into the other upper classes in Britain, and the means of doing this was giving them army commissions where they recruited regiments among (mainly) the Highlands, which had a large population. Because of course Britain needed lots of manpower to fight in America (partly against native Americans and then later against the revolution). Also manpower was needed to gather kelp for soda-making, which industry later collapsed because soda could be made industrially. So until around 1790, they really tried to stop people from emigrating, because the manpower was useful to the elite. But then after that, with the large sheepfarms and less need for army fodder (before the Napoleonic wars), that's when it became more profitable to get rid of the people.
The Ewen Cameron of Lochiel mentioned in the post allegedly killed the last wolf in Britain in 1680.