Ortberg re Mary Renault

[jesse_the_k]

From Daniel Mallory Ortberg’s newsletter, The Shatner Chatner
https://www.shatnerchatner.com/p/how-to-tell-if-you-are-in-a-mary-renault-novel

Monday, May 14, 2018 How To Tell If You Are In A Mary Renault Novel

Your mother is, you know, hoo boy.

It’s genuinely unclear to me if you have had sex with your best friend or not. Like, there was a scene where you two were laying down together, and then in the next scene there’s a throwaway line about how the light has changed, and several paragraphs earlier there’s a bit that only makes sense if you two are now understood as having established a sexual relationship, but no one ever mentions it again, and it seems to require a time jump in order to work in the narrative?

You have gray eyes because you are a good person.

and much more. Nails it, as usual.

Comments

[hurry_sundown]

LOL

Yup, nailed it.

[sovay]

Like, there was a scene where you two were laying down together, and then in the next scene there’s a throwaway line about how the light has changed, and several paragraphs earlier there’s a bit that only makes sense if you two are now understood as having established a sexual relationship, but no one ever mentions it again, and it seems to require a time jump in order to work in the narrative?

Nice.

[vass]

This makes it very clear why Jo Walton likes Mary Renault so much.

(I've only read two Renault books, which was not a large enough sample for me to see the mothers thing.)

[decemberthirty]

HAHAHAHAHA!

Never seen a better summary of the Alexander/Hephaestion relationship. On the nose.