January Talking Meme

[lunabee34]

executrix asked: Who Would Ouida ship if she were around today (or had a crystal TV set)?

For anyone who doesn't know, Ouida was an extremely prolific and popular Victorian writer who is the object of most of my academic interest and research.

Okay, so to answer this question, I first need to break down the most common character types in her writing. Most of her male protagonists are aristocratic. Many of them are military men. They are all noble and honorable and do not boast about their good deeds, preferring to commit them in private. They never break promises or lie, and they're extremely self-sacrificing. They sleep around a lot and drink and gamble, many of them, but they have hearts of gold.

Ouida has three kinds of female protagonists, most of whom are aristocratic--the childlike, innocent boring women that many of her male protagonists end up married to; scheming adventuresses who destroy the lives of men and generally have a grand time and usually aren't punished for their transgressions; women who don't fit into either mold (reformed adventuresses; innocents who aren't boring; peasants).

Ouida despises the nouveau riche; she despises merchants and businessmen. She is extremely suspicious of politicians. She does not think women and poor people should be able to vote. She is anti-science and technology. Despite living the life of one, she is vehemently against the New Woman. She's also very anti-Semitic and racist.

She is super into environmentalism and animal rights. Many of her protagonists (male and female) are artists, writers, or actors. Her novels are also deeply homoerotic; most of her male protagonists seem pretty deeply in love with their male best friends, and a fair number of them marry the sisters of their BFF who reminds them so much of the BFF physically and temperamentally.



I feel like Ouida would mostly not be interested in sci-fi or fantasy. She didn't write that kind of lit, and I don't think she read it either. She would mostly be interested in dramas.

But if she and I did watch the same shows, here's who I think she'd ship.

For the Gateverse, she'd totally be into Sheppard because he's from money, he's a leave-no-man behind kind of guy, he's in the military and brave. I think she'd despise Rodney for what she would see as his cowardice and because he's a scientist and because no one is allowed to have an ego bigger than Ouida's. She'd probably be a rare pair shipper and ship Sheppard with Mitch or Dex (the comrades he tried and failed to save).

For MCU, she'd hate Tony for a lot of the same reasons she'd hate Rodney (minus the cowardice). She'd hate all the scientists. She'd be into T'Challa's kingship but write weirdly racist and fetishizing fic about him and all the Wakandans. I think she'd ship Thor and Valkyrie or Sif, but in all her fic, Thor would spend way too much time thinking about one of the Warriors Three to be completely straight.

For Star Wars, she'd definitely be a Resistance fan. Ouida spent the end of her career writing a lot about Italian politics and the plight of the Italian peasant. She'd be thoroughly into Princess Leia and Han, but she'd headcanon him as some sort of royalty masquerading as a commoner, and she'd make all his smuggling be Robin Hoodish in nature.


This was a fun question to contemplate.

Comments

[kore]

OMG, that is too cute. Now I wonder who Charlotte Bronte would ship (she declared herself Team Linton re Wuthering Heights, but I wonder about that).

[lunabee34]

Oh that is interesting! But I can kind of see it. I mean, yes she does create the dark and brooding Mr. Rochester, but she has to permanently maim him before she lets Jane marry him. I think she probably did see Heathcliff as someone who'd never let Cathy have the kind of autonomy she wants.

[kore]

https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/charlotte-bronts-1850-preface-to-wuthering-heights

Yeah, she famously says "Whether it is right or advisable to create beings like Heathcliff, I do not know: I scarcely think it is" but then I forgot she also says "For a specimen of true benevolence and homely fidelity, look at the character of Nelly Dean" which even when I was ten or so seemed kind of Wrong, heh. I always thought that in that preface she's defending Emily as much to herself as outsiders.

[lunabee34]

Ha! I mean, Nelly Dean is definitely not an Ogre, but she is also a deeply unreliable narrator, and she treats Heathcliff badly as a kiddo along with the rest of them.

[misbegotten]

Ha! Well answered!

[lunabee34]

*takes a bow*

[nyctanthes]

I love these answers.

[lunabee34]

Thank you!

[makamu]

I checked out the Wikipedia article because I hadn't heard of Ouida before (despite my avowed interest in Victorian lit and Neo-Victorian adaptations). Sounds like that was my loss! I love your answers to the question, and now I would love to read something by her myself. Any newbie recs you might want to make? *g*

[lunabee34]

*cracks knuckles*

Ouida is really funny. Like really funny. I think one of the books that showcases her humor is Puck. It's narrated by a Maltese dog, and using his POV, she gets to make lots of witty observations about humanity. Also has a lot to say about animal rights, the theater, and the role of art and the artist in society.

I also think a good starting place is Princess Napraxine and its sequel Othmar. PN is a 3 volume novel, and I think Othmar is just one volume. Princess Napraxine is a completely unique female character; I think she stands alone as a Victorian female protagonist. PN is an amateur psychologist; she's extremely intellectual and emotionally cold and she is witty as fuck. She's the embodiment of what Ouida thought science was doing to people.

All her novels are available for free on Project Gutenberg or Internet Archive.

I think starting with anything written in the 1860s would be good if neither of those things grab you.

One later book that might also be a good starting place is Moths but YMMV. If you are fine with Fanny Price, you'll be okay with this book. I think some people find Vere, the protagonist, to be boring and morally rigid and unnecessarily masochistic. But the book is really interesting for its treatment of marriage (specifically as a market; Vere is essentially sold to a sadist who mistreats her terribly).

One thing to know is that Ouida loves to pepper many of her books with foreign words and phrases, so reading with google translate nearby is a good idea. Chandos, for example, is almost impossible to read without looking something up every three seconds, so I would not start with that one (although I love it!); the books I've listed here need minimal translations.

[makamu]

Thank you for the many recommendations! I'll definitely look into all of them, though Princess Napraxine and Puck sound right by two different of my academically-trained alleys *hits the Internet archive like the speed of lightening*

[lunabee34]

Yay! Let me know if you read any of them. I'd love to talk about it with you.

[makamu]

Will do! Oh, and since you are also on Goodreads (I think), and I at least manage to chronicle my reading on there even if I cannot find the time to write on DW (or write fanfic, though maybe this weekend both may change), maybe you are interested in the stuff I post about there

[lunabee34]

Awesome! I friended you over there.

[makamu]

Friending accepted and returned :)

[kat_lair]

Really interesting thought exercise! Victorian writers are a fair distance from my academic area, but as part of the LGBT History Month in Feb I'm helping to organise a talk on Edy Craig, Christopher St John and Tony Atwood who apparently lived in happy female only ménage trois and wrote all sorts! Looking forward to learning more about them.

[lunabee34]

Oooh, I don't know anything about them. I hope you post a write up once the presentation is finalized. I'd love to know more, too!

[rydra_wong]

Belated comment is belated, but this is an amazing and delightful post; thank you for writing it.

[lunabee34]

Yay! <3