flemmings: (Default)
flemmings ([personal profile] flemmings) wrote2005-02-10 10:14 pm
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More Gankutsu-ou

It gets worse, she says with satisfaction. Watching ep 15 tonight, and there was an ad for the DVDs. Unless I'm delusional what I heard was Albert's voice-over: 'I was fifteen when I first lost my heart to someone.' Yes, OK, horeru has a range of meanings outside the romantic and sexual 'fall in love' because I see it used all the time about people who aren't romantically attached. But the point is, 21st century NAmerican English doesn't have another word for it because for whatever reason we don't allow of the situation where male A (usually) is deeply drawn to and fascinated by male B in a way that we'd call sexual attraction if it was *female* B. Japanese thinks it normal and I'm sure once upon a time so did English. Nelson's men for sure horete ita'd Nelson. Poor translators have to have recourse to 'fascinate' which I suppose is close; but I note with amusement how gay-shy our language usage is even when it's not overtly trying to be.

Of course this reminds me of that long ago I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again version of the Battle of Hastings:
Narrator: Harold was appealing to his men.
Swishy voice over: Must have been all that campy gear of his.

Whether intended or not, the idea that came to me was that obviously the way to be revenged on the man who stole your fiancee is to steal his son. The notion floats past for a minute or two before the Count says adieu to Albert for what cannot be forever but certainly seems intended as such. This after Albert is all Take me with you! Let me go with you! practically throwing himself into the Count's arms. One waits to see if the Count's No is indeed his refusal to accept exactly the opportunity for revenge mentioned above (it certainly looks like it) and more, whether that refusal is a virtue in him or the reverse (and it certainly looks like the reverse: evidently he intends a more demonic revenge than taking a young boy for whom he has a strong affection away from his enemy, the boy's father. Recalls Dumas' Monte Cristo's Why didn't I tear my heart out when first I decided on revenge? Gankutsu-ou would seem to have done just that.

Though I have more hope now. Characters allowed to feel affection for affectionate characters are rarely allowed to turn into total rat bastards afterwards, not by the Japanese and not that often by us. One attends the next stage of this.

It would seem that Albert is much younger here than in the novel, which explains both his naivete and his likableness. Fifteen is still awfully young to be travelling about alone and to have a fiancee. Shall check that tomorrow: it might just be GW pilot syndrome.

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