One other gaudy night

“One moment," said Mary. "Mr. Goyles, here is the ring you gave me. Good-bye. When next you make a public speech calling for decisive action I will come and applaud it. You speak so well about that sort of thing. But otherwise, I think we had better not meet again."

"Of course," said the young man bitterly, "your people have forced me into this position, and you turn round and sneer at me too."

"I didn't mind thinking you were a murderer," said Lady Mary spitefully, "but I do mind your being such an ass.”

—Dorothy L. Sayers Clouds of Witness

“Of course, while art and evangelism were distinct, they turned out to demand one another. Bad art on this theme went hand in hand with bad theology.”

peter in have his carcase calling harriet sherlock but also watson: non-exhaustive compilation

Whilst in Oxford, I also did a bit of homage-paying to Dorothy L Sayers—found Balliol on purpose, stumbled across her birthplace on accident. Both delightful!

Got a question about Lord Peter Wimsey

Please spread this because it's applicable to about five people and I would like to find all of them.

Murder Must Advertise

Murder Must Advertise + Coffee

if there's one thing about classic literary detectives it's that they are not conventionally attractive. doyle told sidney paget to stop drawing holmes so pretty. christie was like "let me introduce you to this short pudgy balding man who is retirement age and i hate him." sayers compares wimsey to maggots on literally the FIRST PAGE

i love it. i love them. stop casting hot people in these roles. we need our detectives to be Charmingly Weird-Looking

I just realized that Ekaterin Vorkosigansaga's maiden name is Vorvayne because the structure and nature of her and Miles's romance are heavily inspired by Sayers's Wimsey novels, in which the romantic heroine is called Harriet Vane.

#I've never read the wimsey novels even though I have been vaguely aware of their existence since before I went through puberty#for some reason I spent a long time thinking that Lord Peter Wimsey was a wizard detective lol#but in these months I've been hyperaware of them because I keep making all these Bujold vs. Dunnett comparisons in my head#on so many topics very relevant to my heart#and I once had a theory that Bujold was inspired by Dunnett but I kept thinking that#this can't be true#because if it's true then Bujold misconstrued or ignored a lot of what Dorothy was saying in pretty in-your-face ways#and then I realized nah#they were both inspired by Sayers#they had the same parting point and each seems to have taken the elements they liked and made them her own#and each developed and elaborated on those elements while introducing other unique elements of her own from other sources#which makes a lot more sense and makes for a fascinating comparative reading project :3

this is super interesting and I haven't read Dunnett but obviously I need to?? and need to re-read/finish reading Bujold because I can't remember where I left off...

A special episode of @wimseypod on authors influenced by Sayers would be so interesting! could be a little broad, but even limiting to science fiction we'd have Bujold and Connie Willis at least, just off the top of my head

I looked into this once and Bujold said that she had not read Dunnett. But Sayers is one of the dedicatees of A Civil Campaign.

Dorothy Sayers in 1932: "Church clocks and bodies in belfries are rather overdone lately."

Dorothy Sayers in 1934: lol jk I have a new special interest so strap in

bookmarking this for @wimseypod when we start Nine Tailors soon XD

Fugitive Telemetry ends on such a Dorothy L Sayers vibe. yes, the mystery is solved, but the dead can't be brought back, the harm can't be undone, and the societal rift that led to the crime in the first place is unchanged, so similar injustices will KEEP happening. and if only the detective had been a little smarter, a little faster, a little more capable of seeing past their own biases.... a victory, but filled with self-loathing and existential despair.

thank goodness for friends who drag you to musical theater.

#peter wimsey being all 'excuse me i need to go consume some 17th century media about this'#constantly reaching for his Emotional Support Poetry

omg you're absolutely correct and I love this

Finished Gaudy Night. Let me assure you that the only reason I'm not screaming is that it's quarter past midnight and my parents are sleeping.

#I read Busman's Honeymoon on a trip where I shared a room with my parents#I have up half the night with the lamp on quietly having EMOTIONS#trying to process all my feelings without waking them up (via @agreyeyedgirl)

This really ought to top every, “Best Opening Lines,” list. The 21st century reading public is sleeping on Dorothy L Sayers.

The whole first paragraph is worth quoting for its snarky conclusion:

"The best remedy for a bruised heart is not, as so many people seem to think, repose upon a manly bosom. Much more efficacious are honest work, physical activity, and the sudden acquisition of wealth. After being acquitted of murdering her lover, and, indeed, in consequence of that acquittal, Harriet Vane found all three specifics abundantly at her disposal; and although Lord Peter Wimsey, with a touching faith in tradition, persisted day in and day out in presenting the bosom for her approval, she showed no inclination to recline upon it."

Still thinking about Them (Peter/Harriet fancasts)

when a character is written inconsistently because nobody thought about it that hard and you're like it's time for me to get in there.. and think about it that hard