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areyougonnabe · 1 year

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How would you suggest people get started learning about polar expeditions? I read Frozen in Time but I'm at a loss of where to go now 😭 any suggestions?

Hi!!! It depends on which era you're interested in!!

For Victorian exploration including the FE, I always recommend Erebus by Michael Palin, William Battersby's Fitzjames biography, and Barrow's Boys by Fergus Fleming. Now, all of those books have their flaws as many nerds (like me) will tell you, but they are all great starting points and will introduce you to the cast of characters/run of events of that era. Once you've advanced a bit, you could check out Dave Woodman's Unraveling the Franklin Mystery for an intensely detailed look at Inuit testimony; The Spectral Arctic by Shane McCorristine for an academic exploration of ghosts and clairvoyance in Victorian exploration; or Finding Franklin by Russell Potter for an overview of the search expeditions up to the present day. Michael Smith's Crozier biography is also a solid read. (EDIT: I forgot The Man Who Ate His Boots by Anthony Brandt if you want to know more about Franklin himself and his earlier expeditions!)

If you're more interested in the late Victorian/Edwardian era, commonly referred to under the "Heroic Age" umbrella, you have a lot of potential starting points....

That era could be said to have begun in 1897 with the Belgica expedition, one of the most chaotic and insane expeditions of all time. Madhouse at the End of the Earth by Julian Sancton is a RIDE of a book (more like FRATHOUSE at the end of the earth, amirite) and will get you started with two of my favorite figures of the age: it was the polar origin story of Roald Amundsen, and where he met a pre-pole controversy Frederick Cook (HIS SOULMATE).

For more Amundsen after the Belgica, I really liked The Last Viking by Stephen Brown. You could also check out Roland Huntford's biography buuut this blog is a No Roland Zone so I am hesitant to recommend him, even though re: Amundsen he's more legit than elsewhere.

The Worst Journey In The World is a classic for a reason: a really beautiful and detailed first-person account of Scott's last expedition that is a pillar of travel writing and the foundation for much of the historiography that came after. However, you could also start with A First Rate Tragedy by Diana Preston (which I haven't read yet but comes highly recommended) or even Cherry's biography by Sara Wheeler which is really excellent. OH and the graphic novel version of Worst Journey just released its first volume which is a WONDERFUL introduction to the story! Buy it here and support the artist!

I've also really enjoyed all of the other first-person accounts I've read, many of which are free & in the public domain: With Scott: The Silver Lining by T. Griffith Taylor and The Great White South by Herbert Ponting are super interesting and give you a taste of what it was like to really be there.

For Shackleton, definitely start with Endurance by Alfred Lansing and go from there. Shackleton's Forgotten Expedition is a good second step & will get you background on him and Scott (& Wilson). I have had Shackleton: A Life In Poetry by Jim Mayer recommended to me as well but haven't read it yet. After that, Frank Worsley (captain of the Endurance) wrote two books which are great supplements: Shackleton's Boat Journey and another one just called Endurance. And Caroline Alexander's The Endurance is really good too but it's a coffee table book with nice pictures, so grab a hard copy!

And last but CERTAINLY not least, I May Be Some Time by Francis Spufford is the be-all and end-all of polar exploration nonfiction, IMO. I'm just finishing a reread right now actually—I first read it post-Franklin obsession but pre-Scott obsession and honestly, it's an entirely different book once you're crazy about the Heroic Age, so while I have recommended it in the past for people just getting started, and still do, at this point I also kind of want to tell people to maybe wait until you've already reached a certain level of derangement to dive into it.

#polar exploration #there's a bajillion books out there but not all of them are good lol so hope this helps!!!

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charlesdesvoeux · 2 months

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terror rewatch time!!! i'll be using this post to comment on ep. 5 "first shot a winner lads" block the tag terrorwatch2 if you'd like :-)

waaaait I didn't know dundy lost his toes also ❗️ STANVOEUX ALERT ❗️

goddd crozier being like "Hi ned!!!" and then ned has to say "a guy died :-/" this show is a comedy

poor ned is just so. exhausted. and the way he looks at jopson after crozier requests he collect Mr. Hornby's things!!!! the way he clearly prefers jopson to him!!!! "why can't I be the favorite son???"

the way!!!! hickey tries to pull goodsir but harry clocks him immediately!!!!!

that hickeygibson scene... the way there is obviously this transactional element to their relationship. but is absolutely not just transactional. billy's smile after hickey gives him the ring is frankly very earnest, very sweet- it's the closest thing they'll ever get to a marriage and he knows it. it's very serious!!! and then hickey says "unbutton your ears" and billy's smile falters bc its a reminder of. you know. it being transactional.

I think jirv's reaction to manson's fear is bc well. you know. the thing that irving clings to for sanity and emotional safety and structure and order is christianity and the idea of ghosts just goes contrary to all doctrine. and what if manson's right- what if he really heard them, does that mean ghosts are real??? if the church is wrong about ghosts what else is the church wrong about??? gay sex and then his castle crumbles just like that. he can't have that he just can't. and so he reacted with frankly a surprising amount of emotional violence but thats because the idea of a church tenet being wrong is emotionally violent TO HIM. and I mean also of course the discipline thing. bc I think jirv feels guilt in a sense of "well if I had ratted out hickey he would have been punished earlier and maybe the seeds of rebellion wouldn't have been planted and hartnell and manson wouldn't have gone with him and everything wouldn't be fucked so I NEED to be strict now" even if frankly I think he looks uncomfortable showing that aggression.

and then of course hickey slithers in and positions himself as a hero to manson. the officers are all so distant, they're authority figures, the ones who met out punishment- but that's not hickey, no, hickey is nice and funny and high spirited and he helped me i like hickey :-)

sol taking care of heather :-((( he takes his role as the leader of the marines very seriously- and if that entails cutting heather's nails and chatting to a practically dead man then so be it. also interesting in light of Dave K's q&a where he mentioned how they tried to keep an eye on physical touch on the show considering he holds poor heather's hand very tenderly. another sign of the pretenses of "proper" victorian masculinity fading away given the circumstances.

didn't remember ned being present on silna's "interrogation"; he makes a good suggestion- "maybe it's gone off, somehow" he's privy to a lot more information than I remembered actually!!! and the way he shakes his head when francis orders silna out, he know this is cruel and wrong. wonder if blanky hadn't stood up to francis if little would have (probably not I guess :-( he just would have done it anyway but pissed off, which is the story of his life)

goddddd the way blanky manages to somehow joke around even as he's about to get his leg cut off. that's my man <3

"jopson, I'd like you to join us"

ned seething with rage in the background at first as crozier announces he's drying out.....

it's just incredibly touching how he allows himself to be seen in this moment of great vulnerability. that's when his relationship with fitzjames starts to turn which of course would become incredibly important as the series unfolds.

#terrorwatch2

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stovepiperat · 1 year

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TERROR & EREBUS PUB QUIZ NIGHT: EACH TEAM’S WORST QUESTION

(teams from original post and follow up. PLEASE click those links i just reread the memes for the first time in like a month and there are tears in my eyes i laughed so hard i scared my roommate. all questions from freepubquiz.co.uk for realism)

Lieuts (Little, Irving, Hodgson) - What is the smallest unit of memory? (they spent a long time debating if a jiffy or a twinkling was the shortest unit of time possible to remember and the answer was “kilobite”)

Stewards (Jopson, Bridgens, Gibson) - In football, which team has won the Champions League, formerly the European Cup, the most? (they don’t know this.)

Formidables (Stanley, Sophia, Lady Jane) - What is the stage name of the rapper born Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr.? (with clenched jaws Stanley and Lady Jane disagree strongly trying to reverse engineer the rap name from the birth name which does not work because the answer is “snoop dogg” (dogg father, snoop rock etc would have also been accepted. I think actually this one goes to the Lieuts who for some reason know that he briefly went by “Snoop Lion”)

Franklingore (Sir John, Gore) - (sorry i could not come up with a fun category name for them lmao. The Drew Barrymores?) Who was the first female artist to achieve a UK number one with a self-written song? (i don’t believe either of these men have heard a kate bush song in their lives)

Women Want Me Fish Fear Me Club (Crozier, Blanky, Silna) - One Direction is known for being the runners-up in The X Factor in 2010, but who came first? (I can’t decide if this or the BTS question feels meaner. either way they’re not going to get it)

Nice Boys (Goodsir, Hartnell, McDonald) - Spell “millennium.” (Goodsir and Hartnell panic and cannot do this, McDonald claims he got it but his handwriting is so bad they don’t get the point anyway)

Fitzvoeuxconte (Fitzjames, Des Voeux, Dundy) - Which nationality was the polar explorer Roald Amundsen? (i don’t think any of them could find norway on a map)

Headache Squad (Heather, Collins, Morfin) - True or false: Edinburgh is further east than Carlisle. (by the time the true-false round is reached, headache squad has already gone home to lie down with a cool cloth on their faces)

Hickeytozer plus adult adopted child (Hickey, Tozer, David Young) - Who discovered penicillin? (a very standard easy piece of trivia which they ought to know but do not. Hickey very confidently guesses that the answer is “Irish luminary Robert Penicillin” and then tries to gaslight the judge into thinking that’s correct (which also does not work))

#not!fic #the terror #cornelius hickey #follies #crosspost #i spose this is a modern au but 😌 is it really #mine

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jaggedcliffs · 10 months

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So I’ve finally finished Dan Simmon’s The Terror (2007). The fact that it took me a month, rather than a less than two week, should give a quick preview to my feelings.

Stuff that’s Good Actually:

The Goodsir, Pelgar, Bridgen, and Blanky chapters

I love the depth and the history of Pelgar and Bridgen’s relationship (which, in the series, for me was unfortunately hampered by the fact that I couldn’t recognize Pelgar since he was just another brown-haired white guy)

The Blanky chapters are wild, as expected

While the Goodsir chapters have neither the tenderness of Pelgar/Bridgen, nor the excitement of Blanky, they were still a nice break from everyone else’s POV

While they’re stuck on the boat in the first two thirds of the book, it’s a slog to get through. However! the slog across King William’s (Is)land is comparatively very engaging

It’s really effective at conveying the exhaustion of boat trek in a way that the series can’t get across (and why I also think it’s a good idea they didn’t try to)

Similarly, the effects of scurvy and the other mysterious poisoning from the tins (I think botulism?) are horrifying in a way that can’t really be conveyed on screen

Like, the detailed description of FItzjames’ slow, agonizing death...it makes you appreciate his death in the show, and not just because of the homoeroticism.

JOPSON!!!

(Jopson dies almost the same way as in the series, but it’s still painful. and it was his birthday....)

It’s also kind of funny how Tuunbaq starts to eat Hickey’s soul, then immediately regrets it because Tuunbaq’s body is temple and he has standards.

In the trek across King William’s (Is)land and across the straight that leads to the Back River, there’s this terrible sense of hope. Maybe, maybe, maybe they just might make it. In the series, they’re barely even that much into their trek when it becomes obvious that they’re doomed (which I also quite enjoy). But they make it far enough in the book that, even though you know they don’t make it, they might. They might.

(They won’t)

The Rest:

If a woman appears, 9/10 times she’ll have her titties out

Silna gets naked in pretty much every single chapter she appears in

The Platypus Pond chapter exists.

The first two thirds of the book is, again, a slog. So many POVs that are just so hard to get through

Book!Irving is a fuckboy. And has many POV chapters

I wanted Hickey to kill Irving in Hickey’s first POV chapter just so I wouldn’t have to read any more fucking Irving chapters. Alas, Irving dies at the same time, place, and way that he does in the show

There is...a lot about boats.

The problem is just that it’s not well written at times. Mainly -- though not always -- because Dan Simmons is so focused on showing off research that he sometimes forgets to write a narrative

In the first chapter, Crozier sees that Hickey is out on deck, then goes on a spiel about how he can recognize the men despite the fact that they’re so bundled up that they don’t have any recognizable features -- like some have scarves from home and the like. But he doesn’t say why Hickey is recognizable. Hickey, while not as important as in the series, is still pretty major here. And what is noticeable about his way of dress might, for example, say something about his character. Maybe there’s a lack of clothing from a loved one, because he’s an asshole.

If Crozier tells us in detail why the topmasts are down in winter, then Blanky doesn’t need to tell us the exact same thing, in detail, several chapters later. Either put it in Blanky’s chapter, where it’s narratively relevant, or put it in Crozier’s chapter as exposition with only a quick reminder in Blanky’s because Blanky is currently getting chased by Tuunbaq so it’s better not to interrupt the action

Crozier’s stupid fever dream chapter where he tells us in exact detail what the rescue effort will be like -- including the names of ships, which country they’re from, which islands they’ll search, etc.. That’s not narrative, that’s research. Make it more fever-dream-ish and make it weirder and vaguer! Or put in a POV character from back in England like the show! Or put it in your endnotes! Incorporate research in a way that doesn’t sound like a history text, or just write a research book and not a novel

(and etc. -_-)

I don’t know what the fuck was up with the dead body with the rat teeth or whatever in Terror so Crozier has to burn the ship down (the irony is that in real life, the Terror is so well preserved that Parks Canada is letting it be for now to focus on Erebus.)

In the last 150 pages or so, it includes some good reflections from Crozier on the way he’s treated women, the folly of the British Empire, colonialism, and even a glimpse into the future of the ruin of global warming on the north. It’s also obvious that Simmons did a lot of research into Inuit ways of life, as well as some mythology. And we finally get a better sense of Silna as a character as well as her voice, in a way. But it’s all still told through Crozier. Like, the stories of Inuit mythology that Crozier dreams come through Silna, yes, but they’re still filtered through Crozier’s POV. And Silna is still so much presented as this exotic other throughout the book, not just because she doesn’t have a tongue, but because she’s also always described as not reacting to anything. As just constantly staring unblinkingly. Even while getting naked. She only gets with Crozier because, in the book, they both have second sight and she needs babies with second sight...yet she’s also so devoted to Crozier that she’d apparently follow him to England or America. And it’s frustrating, because while we finally get a hint of her personality, it doesn’t do enough undo her presentation in the rest of book, or even a lot of the final portion.

#the terror #dan simmsons' the terror #meta #I guess

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majorxmaggiexboy · 2 years

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I'm having a fitzjames moment again do you have any headcanons about him?

Mostly just that he and Little actually could've got on very well given the opportunity, due to having such similar insecurities and self-doubt. Which could also lead to them being very frustrated at times as well.

He and Bridgens don't strike me as being as close as Crozier and Jopson, but i think they probably have an excellent working relationship and a nice mutual respect. Bridgens in particular has watched Fitzjames grow as a person and truly admires him.

James + Neptune is precious to me and i fully believe that one of Crozier's early gripes against Fitzjames is that every time he visits Terror, he brings a treat for Neptune- an obvious attempt to steal the dog's affection from Francis. Really though James just likes animals in general, particularly big fluffy ones like Neptune.

ngl in a modern au i think he'd make a good figure skater tbh

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swiftzeldas · 2 years

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What songs would be on The Terror (Taylor's Version) playlist??

WKJDFSGFJDG what a great question. ok it depends on which characters we are talking about. because...okay let's think about this.

fitzjames gets sad introspective songs like the archer, this is me trying, mirrorball

goodsir and silna's taylor swift soundtrack has to go together and they get my tears ricochet, ivy, coney island, willow

hickey is just pure reputation, he thinks reputation is ABOUT HIM and he's NOT WRONG. end game, i did something bad, look what you made me do in particular. also dancing with our hands tied. blank space too actually. see hickey does not get when taylor is being ironic (partial credit to @bradmarchandstan for this headcanon this is a joint effort between us lol)

billy would not listen to taylor swift i know in my soul (it's time to go) he gives hickey shit for being a swiftie (hickey is such an unapologetic Reputation Era Swiftie which are ftr the MOST annoying kind of swiftie /affectionate) but also cowboy like me and all too well 10 are about billy and hickey

hoax is about fitzjames and crozier. you know the hero died so what's the movie for :/ long story short is about them too though, in the au where nobody dies and fitzjames and crozier retire to scotland to raise sheep :)

this is why we can't have nice things is literally just crozier @ everyone on his ship because every time things start to go semi-okay somebody fucks it all up again

credit to alex again for this one but thanks to her i've started relating august to tozer and armitage. i do think tozer needs to listen to taylor swift though i think her angry songs would fix him. if solomon tozer had an iphone and could listen to dear john none of this would happen.

finally, i just know modern au irving owns a copy of the taylor swift holiday collection. you can't prove me wrong. he is SO valid for this though. oh and on this note, jopson is absolutely the biggest fearless stan.

#sarah tag #wecanbepirates #ask #thank you for this #this is so dumb and fun #terror tag

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vierschanzentournee · 3 years

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Top 5 deaths in the Terror, have fun :))))

you’re a terrible, terrible person <3 these aren’t ranked but a few contenders for me are:

david young. there was just enough blood and screaming to keep me terrified for the whole first episode, i loved goodsir’s increasingly awkward attempts to be comforting, and i think it was very iconic of him to nope the fuck out of there before shit got real.

solomon tozer. I HAVE SO MANY FEELINGS ABOUT THIS ONE! bc tozer spent most of the show being Slightly Evil, or at least aiding and abetting evil (in the form of hickey, obviously) but he finally (finally!!!!) makes a stand against it right at the very end. and he’s so desperate to save his men (yelling at them all not to move) and so very very brave (man walked straight up to tuunbaq holding his rifle!). and i enjoy it because he and crozier are working together, rather than as captain and subordinate, and it costs tozer his life but it helps crozier to survive, and i think that’s very cool! (and ok yeah i AM choosing to interpret it as tozer making a moral decision when he helps crozier but it could equally just be that he’s decided it’s his best chance of survival now that hickey’s clearly unhinged, because i think he more than just about any other character in the show is driven by a simple urge to get away from this all - “we’ll do what we have to do”) (also i just really enjoy his “tommy, give me your gun. i’m the best! shot! here!”)

harry goodsir. i just... god! he’s so obviously beyond caring about the pain he’s in and the pain he’s going to inflict (which is like. can you be a doctor anymore when you can’t care? is that why he has to die now!?), because the world is good and beautiful but the people in it are not, and that’s too much for him to bear. and it fucks me. and i’m also still really haunted by the image of his body laid out on that table, sans ass.

thomas blanky. this was maybe the one that affected me the most throughout the whole thing? i love the way that it illustrates that even there, even then, humans are not beyond laughter and they are not beyond love! crozier is strong for the men; blanky is strong for crozier in that moment where he can’t be. the contrast of his acceptance with crozier’s absolute refusal to allow it, and then crozier’s eventual crumbling, is ridiculously painful, but it means that once we cut to his actual death we can share in his genuine sense of peace and contentment. because it’s alright! it’s okay! he’s got his pipe and his forks and, would you fucking believe it, he’s just found the Passage, and he’s going to die but in the end, that’s cool! it was, weirdly enough, a nice respite in what i found to be the most emotionally intense episode of the show.

james fitzjames. look. i couldn’t NOT include this. truly “the end of vanity” for former pretty boy james fitzjames - no amount of incredibly stylish waistcoat and jumper pairings can save him now. the whole scene is just so ugly and raw. bridgens’ “there will be poems” is so beautifully poignant (although every time i think about it now my brain jumps to “there will be a ten part limited tv series...”) and the... idk, the physicality of the last moments between fitzjames and crozier is. it’s fucking something. i think it’s very fitting that james fitzjames, war hero and dashing explorer and polished liar, has to be physically forced to die, even when it’s what his mind wants. long story short, james fitzjames is Built Different. and it makes me cry.

special mentions to john bridgens (”aw man my boyfriend’s dead i’ll just go lie down on some rocks and Die”), sir john franklin (mostly for fitzjames sticking his head down the hole), and, obviously, jopson (because JESUS)

#yes i wrote an essay no i am NOT sorry #the terror #urtica-dioica-22

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cockroachesunite · 8 days

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Go for broke AU part 2

☞ (Part 1)

#edward little #dundy le vesconte #james fitzjames #francis crozier #fitzier #henry dundas le vesconte #the terror fanart #amc the terror #the terror #the terror amc #my drawings #101 go for broke #go for broke au #why won’t tumblr let me attach nice looking links #ah well #i’ll have to content myself with an ugly link under a ‘read more’#dundy doing that time honored trick where you get your little sibling to talk to your parents for you #edward little: god’s weakest soldier #he is not being very brave about it #as is his right #yes dundy calls fitzjames ‘fitzy’ in this #i know he has actual canonical nicknames #but i thought this was funnier in this case #i assure you he calls him those too #since we are given very little to work off of in regards to dundy’s character in the show #i try to give him a bit of a bertie wooster vibe #because why not #and here’s crozier with the steel chair #i used wwe wrestling pictures as a pose reference #the working title for this was fitzier wwe pillow fight

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catilinas · 3 years

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hey you're the girard-knower so i figured i'd ask: is there any actual mimesis in the terror or is it just "hickey wants mimesis but he doesnt have the juice"

oh there’s totally Actual Mimesis and my personal take that hickey is a guy who just really Gets how mimetic rivalries work is very much secondary to just. the whole plot. being a mimetic crisis. here’s a post on That from holy shit 2019 my Thots have probably developed since then! but overviews nice.

but yea outside of the General Vibe Of Mimetic Crisis. hickey also does “want mimesis” @ crozier he’s like. we COULD be brothers francis. we could vibe. an imitative relationship is There (mostly hickey imitating crozier but also. crozier Does inadvertently imitate hickey via kidnapping plans / Connecting The Dots / sober descent into that which resembles the grave but isn’t) before they leave the ships, and hickey thinks they could maybe be ritual substitutes in a fun power sharing maybe gay way. but crozier is like who the fuck are you. because he really does Not want to acknowledge that He Is A Potential Model For Imitation. thinking about the bit in violence and the sacred where girard says that when a person’s vibe is “imitate me!” the vibe is simultaneously “don’t imitate me!” which actually means hashtag “do not appropriate my object!” and how crozier is saying Do Not Imitate Me very hard to avoid having to admit that he Can be imitated.

because the “object” he doesn’t want potential imitators to appropriate IS like. his status as scapegoatable. like early episodes crozier is kinda strangely attached to making himself miserable and distant and hard to love? like in the dinner party scene. he is very much Not a model there. even his own lieutenants are involved in the fitzjames appreciation club. and crozier plays into his own exclusion from that with the birdshit island joke!!! or when he volunteers to sacrifice himself lead the mutinous sledge party. he doesn’t want anyone else to do it because he’s weirdly protective over his own scapegoat status. (important but i think this changes after franklin dies because crozier realises that him Being In Charge means he really Really can’t be the scapegoat. he’s the sacred king now and it’s time to find his double in the fool).

so while crozier is going Do Not Appropriate My Scapegoatiness the version of hickey he sees (pretending to be irish, Out Of Place and so scapegoatable) IS uncomfortably similar to Him. which is why the convo in ep2 Doesn’t have the significance hickey attaches to it. crozier doesn’t just Not See Him At All, he’s like actively looking away. then around episode 4 when hickey starts Actively developing their mimetic relationship crozier lashes out (haha) and reinscribes Difference (particularly in hierarchy) physically onto hickey’s body via the lashing because a) he doesn’t want hickey to be similar to him / doesn’t want to see himself as a model, and b) he doesn’t want himSelf to be similar to hickey, because now that he’s In Charge he can’t! be a scapegoat figure it would be very bad for everyone if that happened. and hickey is very clearly Taking That Role. so crozier pushes him Further into the scapegoat role but by being the one to Do the pushing he’s like. nope not me! no scapegoat here! 0/10 would not sacrifice!

idk where im going with this tbh i am procrastinating writing my essay on pliny :) but i do think it’s interesting that hickey kidnapping crozier near the end puts crozier in a similar position towards hickey’s authority as hickey was towards crozier for most of the show. like if crozier won’t actively Do Mimesis with hickey, hickey will put crozier in a situation that Makes their relationship mimetic just by reversing the earlier mimetic power dynamic.

ok pliny time for real now. bye

#terrorposting #girard #beeps

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pianodoesterror · 3 years

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2020 Fanfic in Review

tagged by the realest, @veganthranduil - thaaank you.

I reversed the question order a bit because, like veganthranduil, my list of fics written this year is... extensive. And that’s also how they did it so.

Takeaways from reflecting on your kick-ass writing, or kick-ass lack of writing, during a year more focused on survival than perhaps any other:

I wrote a lot. So much. I went from 59 fics to 100 and that’s just... show’s how boring my year was. There is a lot of familiar themes and vibes in my fics that I am highly aware of; I think they are as much for comfort as they are for ease tbh. Who doesn’t love people in room’s expression emotions. I also wrote some short fics - which aren’t even that short - but that felt good and it forced me to be more economical as I usually am.

Also, this year I learned the difference between ‘sitting’ and ‘sat’ and ‘stood’ and ‘standing’, although there is not guarantee on whether I use them correctly on the first attempt.

I really enjoyed the two women’s POV I got to do (incidentally, for both of the exchanges I signed up to this year), especially Ann Ross’.

Most surprising fic you wrote this year:

Uuuh, a threesome involving Sophia for the fitzier fic exchange. I never really considered doing an actual threesome despite thoughts because Who would be in it? Also so many limbs. And I had considered a Sophia pov, but not for this, and certainly not modern. But despite false starts, and periods of abject dejection, I got it done and I’m kinda proud of it.

How you grew as a writer this year:

I think my voices became clearer, my descriptions took on a snappiness. I took style risks and I think they mostly paid off. Also, first time I’ve taken ‘research’ trips for fics, but how can I noooot ships are so cool and so is Greenwich (who’s high-street has the best ice cream shop btw)

What’s coming in 2021:

WELL. There is only one WIP in my google doc’s rn. And it’s a present for my friend lobsterbang who threw the idea at me on a calculated whim and I grabbed it and overthought it, because then I could actually use my degree and the stuff I specialise in at work this year 😭. - Tozer/FJ, Romans.

What is planned from my bingo card;

Three scenes that might be in the Let the River Rush In universe.

Capetown, Dundy/FJ

Rossier, which could be one thing or another, I haven’t made up my mind yet.

Fics written this year:

There’s so many i’m so sorry

Fitzier;

you found me beautiful once (G) - a spooky drabble to go with art by @matt-j-freeman

sunset and evening star, and one clear call for me (M)( hinted Fitzier and past Rossier, and Gibson/Hickey). First chpt posted about this time last year, but was finished in February 2020, a colab with @lobsterbang about how we thought they would get home within the context and intentions of the show. Also Hickey is suuuper creepy and FJ gets to shoot rockets.

the snow grows from the ground up (M) - 5+1, FJ is jealous of Crozier until he isn’t.

and all I've done for want of wit (T) - James dies, and wanders through everyone else’s afterlife, waiting for his own to arrive.

the world will always smell of salt (M) - where, much like the real expedition, they are forced into cannibalism to survive (rated M cause it’s not graphic cannibalism but a dude still gets ate)

Oh, why would you weep, my friends, for me? (T) - the greatest tragedy of Francis’ life, coming to see him through the last day of his life. (wrote this in 24hrs and I am very proud of it)

gathering primroses series (M) - Trans Francis, FJ and Francis being comfortable with one another. The OG fic might be the best thing I wrote this year.

all the boards did shrink series (E) - pwp, FJ own’s a dildo, that’s all you need to know.

let the river rush in (E-T) get’s it’s own little bit. The last 8 (eight!) fic’s of the series were written this year. My baby. My cosy universe of Francis and James working out how to be the men who survived all that happened, all while navigating sexuality and gender and their own selves.

Fic’s go from; whatever stirs this mortal frame (E) - where James is in his corset and split seam knickers being fussy and bossy. TO it hangs like flax upon a distaff (M) - Crimean war erectile dysfunction (not a sentence I thought i’d ever type). And from lately i've been fine, floating away (E) in which Francis bottoms for the first time, TO the bit of me still at sea (M) - where James is posted to the Med fleet and Francis potters about without him, both unhappy to be parted but used to a sailors life. And a honourable mention to by the time you are Real (G) where FJ is highly relatable and finally starts processing 10 years after the Expedition.

For Fitzconte;

Way haul away... ,(M) series. in which Dundy belongs to a story that is very different from the one happening about him.

Clio Goes West (M)series, in which - they go swiming in Yemen, eat dates, and get one another off. The Basra Marshes are very beautiful and sticky, and so are they. And - Nebet attacks.

It isn’t much fun for one, but two (G)- the Dundy and Jas orign story.

For Rossier;

Oh, a nice watch below wouldn’t do us any arm.(M) - HMS Fury days, larking in the gunroom.

positive values of inclination (M) -handsomest man in the royal navy sucks dick to unwind and manages to be a nerd about it

For Fitzjames/Tozer (lobsterbang);

magnitude and definite direction (M) - James is a nerd and they misuse a jollyboat.

marriage, in the maltese style (M) - FJ is off home and is gonna have to behave himself. so says goodbye to Malta in the company of a obliging marine.

how prettily he foots it with his hands (M) - Mr Fitzjames stars as Queen Fadladinia, and gets quite a memorable standing ovation

Misc;

we've got one thing in common, its this tongue of yours (E) - Fitzier exchange, modern AU threesome with requested pegging.

and of their shadows deep (G) - Rossier exchange. Ann Ross pov (which I LOVED doing), her reaction to Francis’ disappearance, and reflection on her friendship with him.

I tag @norvegiae @laissezferre @junomarlowe @lobsterbang @clockheartedcrocodile if they would like to do it

#my fic #the terror #i speak #quemas

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cinemaocd · 5 years

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Victorian undergarments: a guide for Terror fans

AKA the truth about men’s corsets, leather gear, garters, over the knee stockings, drop front versus front fly trousers and More Terror Shit Shirt Posting

My hot mess of a shirt post continues to get notes. I continue to get lovely asks and pms, so I’m going to bring you more shirt information as well as more info about other articles of historic clothing worn in the Terror. My hope is that this will be useful for fic writers and artists as well as giving fans a deep dive into one of my favorite obsessions: historical dress.

The style of shirt that Francis wears was an all purpose undergarment. It was almost always white, or unbleached linen (though cotton was used for shirts at that point in the 19th century). It was cut with a very full sleeve (up to twenty inches) to allow ease of movement and long tails which were tucked under the groin to form a protective layer between the body and trousers. The shirt was not a button down as we know it, but had a pullover V-neck with two buttons at the throat as on this extant example:

One of the things that interesting about this shirt was how little it changed over the years. This cut of shirt had a 150+ year reign. It was a practical design that provided a washable layer next to the body. The generous sleeve allowed for a variety of clothing to be worn with it. It had the downside of requiring a lot of fabric (more than 3 yards of linen for each shirt) and as such patterns could be a complex patchwork of sewn together squares that helped avoid waste.

By the 1840s men’s shirts were changing. The front was often decorated with pintucking, the fabric was lighter weight cotton, rather than linen, but the full sleeves and long tails were still in evidence.

Those would gradually be lost over the next decades as the popularity of knitted drawers, union suits and other types of underwear came into being and as sewing machines made mass production of shirts possible.

But obviously our Francis cares nothing for these modern shirts and wears his old favorite that he has owned forever, possibly made by a family member, as was common in the period especially for officers in the military. Mind you, it doesn’t really matter most of the time that his shirt is very old as it was never meant to be seen. One of the worst costume fantasies that has been perpetrated in so many period films is the gentleman walking around in his shirt. At least Andrew Davies Mr. Darcy had the good sense to be embarrassed to be caught in his shirt. Joe Wright’s Darcy actually goes a courtin half dressed...but I digress. We only see Crozier in his shirt sleeves after they’ve left the ship, have been hauling for a few days and during the mutiny. I like to think that Crozier realizes that wearing his old shirt will help the men identify with him more.

If you were an officer in the military you would be provided with a steward or valet to assist in your dressing. This man would also help to keep your uniform clean and and in good repair. (Honestly one of the best relationships in all of fiction is the one between Captain Jack Aubrey and his steward, Killick, who lives in a state of constant paranoia about Aubrey’s uniforms.) An officer would have several shirts so that they could have a clean one at all times and they would probably keep a best one for dress. (Maybe Francis has a cotton shirt with pintucking, folded away in a trunk somewhere, guarded feverishly by Jopson) The sailors who had no access to regular laundry would have a few as well, though they might be made of cheaper, rougher cloth, with ticking or striped patterns on them, like the one Hickey wears during his trail.

Again, Francis appearing hauling alongside the men in his shirt is his way of signaling to them that he is one of them. Mr. Goodsir, also appears in his shirtsleeves after the mutiny, a sign that his civilized veneer is scraped away along with his outer uniform.

Drops and drawers

Well into the 19th century both men and women had no such thing as drawers, pants, underpants, knickers etc. as a rule. For men, the long shirt tails were tucked under the groin, front and back and created a little, er..nest for their equipage. For women, the shift, just a long shirt really, provided a layer of protection between menstrual blood and valuable gowns and stays, as well as protecting less washable layers from sweat and grime.

But for the men of the Terror, there was layer of knitted wool underwear, that may have been either two pieces or one suit, with buttons running the length of the body. There are very few examples of these garments, but we do know they existed thanks to the Maritime Museum saving Lord Nelson’s stuff.:

Interesting that this shirt has the long tails for tucking. But by the time of Franklin expedition, knitted long drawers would have been available as well. The full long underwear suit wasn’t patented until the 1860s in America (where it’s use by soldiers in the Civil War earned it the moniker “union suit.”) However that doesn’t mean some kind of full suit of long underwear wasn’t available in England at the time of the expedition. My guess is that Francis has a separate shirt, the top of which is visible during the crisis over Mr. Morfin, and woolen or cotton “drawers” which he mentions to Jopson on the morning after Morfin’s death like these from 1840s made by John Smedley:

Hickey is shown in his underwear after Irving’s murder and then after the mutiny he adopts it as a sort of uniform (complete with stolen boots and great coat) of the new regime. It’s such a wonderful little detail that this BASE creature is wearing only a BASE layer.

Garters, Stockings, Corsets and other Kinkwear from Military history

Men’s and women’s stocking differed very little in the 19th century. Over the knee stockings of embroidered silk would have been kept for dress, but every day socks of cotton and wool with embroidery near the top or “clocking” (because the pattern was often of a clock) were worn by all.

Lord Nelson’s stockings had a crown insignia instead of a clock, which I just think is neat. (His undershirt has the same insignia at the neck...whether it was Emma Hamilton or Lady Nelson doing this embroidery, we’ll leave to Terrence Rattigan to decide...)

Officers would have had dress socks that were held up by sock garters (elastic garters for men and women were patented in the 1820s.) Given that their shirt tails were cut to mid thigh and their socks were over the knee, it’s fairly plausible that they used a double ended garter which clipped at one end to the shirt tail and the other to the top of the stocking. If all of this is sounding like some of the racier James Fitzjames fanart that is not my fault. Blame history!

Speaking of which, did you know that men sometimes wore corsets to make their uniforms fit better? This 1830s Royal Marines uniform at the Maritime Museum is specified to have required a corset for proper fit. Sadly the corset didn’t survive! (If anyone wants to draw Tozier, Pilkington or Hedges in a corset, I would very much like to see that.)

As if all of that weren’t kinky enough, there is this leather and rope jock strap, which was attached to a corset, also from the very naughty nautical museum in slutty, slutty Greenwich. The less said about the white crust on the jock strap the better.

Waistcoat Discourse

Well this will probably be a bit pedestrian after that section, but I think it’s worth talking about waistcoats as well. In the flashback scenes Francis wears a fancy silk waistcoat that has the same cut as the other wool one he wears.

Again this is Francis’ practical nature. Navy uniform patterns were sent out in 1843 with changes to the uniform, including a different waistcoat, so he’s having his man make the waistcoat off the same pattern, saving him money. An interesting footnote was that the Lieutenants uniform in 1843 had a bunch of additional gold braiding and there were many complaints to the admiralty about the cost of these additions. There was also a thriving second hand market in used uniform jackets.

Fitzjames has a white waistcoat cut from the same pattern.

Which is based off of the portrait of real life Fitzjames.

Wool flannel would have been the fabric of choice for arctic explorers. It’s a nice little detail, that The Real Mr. Hickey had a plaid flannel waistcoat in the flashback scene:

That striped shirt looks familiar! I wonder if the imposter Hickey took his clothes after he dabbed him?!

And finally: STOCKS

In the 18th and 19th centuries men went so far as to cover the collar of the shirt with a stock (think of it as a cumberbund for the neck) so that their collar wasn’t peaking out from their tie. It also helped to make for the appearance of a long, graceful neck. I mean scroll back up and check out the giraffe neck on historical JFJ. Stocks have generally fallen into the vast pit of forgotten fashion and it’s the rare historical costume nerd that even knows what they are, yet for almost 200 years they were considered essential kit for men. Officers in the military HAD to wear a stock as part of their uniform, and it was often uncomfortable (the base of the stock was made of leather, horsehair or WOOD) and covered with fabric. It buckled in the back, requiring a servant to help put it on. Here is a 1845 silk and leather stock from the Maritime Museum:

Though it isn’t exactly undergear, trouser fronts were in flux during this period. Here is the 1843 uniform with the fall front trouser opening. But in the world outside the navy, fly front trousers are starting to pop up around 1840ish.You are welcome to my JFJ has newfangled fly front trousers head canon...

#the terror #fashion history #corsets #leather gear #stockings and garters #waistcoats #stocks #18th century #19th century #Jared Harris #Tobias Menzies #Naval History #Age of Sail #the franklin expedition #Adam Nagatis #Cornelius Hickey

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deeisace · 3 years

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Well. That seems to have been about three dreams stitched into one.

Or at least, three sort of plotlines in the same universe, maybe?

Mystery, magic, murder and mayhem, that's for sure

Also, I don't usually have like, sexy dreams, but uh. Crozier and Fitzjames came round to dinner to mine (everything was Victorian era, and my flat was in the Ropewalks), and then uh. Ended up fucking another in-dream friend of mine (witchy lady, I've forgotten her name but she seemed very, well, I-know-what-I-want) in my kitchen - it was a sort of thing, where I didn't want to,,, get involved, shall we say, with this witchy woman, or at least that particular time (I got the impression she was very intense), so Francis basically went, alright, we'll do it since you won't

I won’t go into detail of uh, what happened, but I fell asleep at the table, anyway, and was woken up by several of - my colleagues?? I'm not sure but I knew them and they were police - and so me and the witchy lady, and someone else, I'm not sure, we scarpered out the window and over the roof (roofs? rooves?), were turned into caymans, them little alligator fellas, and swum about in a big shallow pond a while

And I found, in the pond, this -- sort of aleithiometer-looking thing, except that it had three faces all in a line, all clockwork, and also sand hourglasses that you span like a time-turner, and this, instead of answering questions, granted wishes - sort of, you'd have to be very careful about your wording, which is tricky when you've only got like three little pictures to use

Anyway, it was just the same as one that Fitzjames kept on him at all times, under his shirt - I'd seen it, briefly, at dinner, and he gave me a very intense sort of hypnotise-y look over the second course, so as to say 'none of your business'

So I took this aleithiometer thing out of the pond (and a book on it's use, somehow bone dry), and it seemed to be working - I didn't use it, but I could hear the tick, and I had to stop someone else (not the witchy lady, the other now-cayman woman who was with us for some reason) from immediately spinning it about, god only knows what that would've caused

Then I was in a rich man's house (back looking human), that he was preparing to leave and/or sell (the rich man was very Colin Firth-esque, and this is all still very Victorian), and I wandered round - nobody seemed to be able to see me, so I stole some bits and pieces - a book that would fit in my pocket, a couple of shiny silver buttons - there was a servant, doing a similar thing - not stealing, but wandering around and saying goodbye to the house - and then he, I think it was him but there might've been a last minute cast change in my head, he, or another-he, took a rifle, and went out into the woods

He was going to shoot himself, because though he had been cleared, he had been suspected - by the police and his employer (the aforesaid Colin Firth) - of murdering Colin Firth's daughter

He hadn't, but it weighed so heavy on his mind, that he could believe that of him, even so briefly, when they had known each other for so very many years

Anyway, I followed him for a while, in a distracted sort of way, more interested by my floaty yellow skirt and hopping over fallen trees then I was in this poor man's inner turmoil, and I didn't see the actual deed

Anyway then I was back in town, around the Ropewalks I think, all still Victorian or before then, and I came down the stairs to my flat down into the street, where there was maybe a sort of market on? Or at least, it was incredibly busy (unless that's my being used to covid levels of people), with all sorts of things going on, stalls and not tents but marquees maybe? Y'know those, where it's just fabric stretched out as a roof? Anyway, lots of people, and the doors to pubs open, so I could hear the music - and I saw a man playing guitar I thought I knew, but it wasn't who I thought. He was playing music tho, singing songs that sounded very familiar, so I tried to hum along as I walked - there was a pyramid-shaped juggling ball I almost trod on, and chucked back to a group of children under one of those tarp things, and a man giving out leaflets who knew my boat was booked for Thursday, and somewhere there I fell into step with a man I knew from working at Oxfam, and I'm not sure what Tom was doing there, but he was headed down in the same direction as me, and could hear the man playing guitar much better than I could by this point, and was singing snatches of the song himself - I tried to remember any of it, but it's far-and-away gone now I've woken up

Anyway, we walked all down to the end of the road, and how the ropewalks streets come diagonally on to the crossroads, we were suddenly back in the modern world, with cars all there and traffic lights - I took a little too long to cross to the island in this road, and a very angry man in a convertible car (it was summer, or at least nice and sunny) went on the lights rather than actually paying attention to what was happening, and hit me

Not, like, it didn't even knock me down, but I had to keep my balance by holding on to the grill of the car and hauling myself standing straight again, and the man in the car was very angry (tho I couldn't understand a word he said, it was just angry noise) that I didn't immediately get out of his way

And I stood there a second, such to keep my balance, then carried on, and I could feel a bruise forming on the side my left calf

And then I woke up!

Well, I'm not at all sure what to think about all that, really, but I'm glad we're going away from the actual visceral bloody murder (and puppets) and back towards my usual time travel dreams again ^^

#i have weird fuckin dreams #dreams #uhhh people don't tag n s f w any more do they cs of tumblr being tumblr #I've no idea what to use in it's place tho can someone tell me?#not safe for what #ask to tag

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amisssunbeam · 4 years

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A Little Response to Rhavewellyarnbag's latest Review of The Terror's "Horrible from Supper" (the italics are me)

Being another look at The Terror, episode 01x07, “Horrible From Supper”. But first, the characters in The Terror to whom I own an apology for the things I said last night when I was drunk, in ascending order of how vile it was: Francis. Yes, what I said was true, but I should not have said it. Goodsir, on general principle, because he is a nice man, and doesn’t deserve to have the likes of me talking about him that way. Author’s note: Only daily do I apologize to Harry Goodsir (fictional) for the things I say about him, and to Harry Goodsir (nonfictional) for the things I say about a fictionalized version of him. I like to think that the former would forgive me, but I think that the latter might not. I painted him from the few photos made of him; he has a delightfully reproachful look. Resting bitch face, even.

In the 1845 photos, his eyebrows come together in a way which could be interpreted as judgmental. But, when we think of the trials of sitting for a daguerreotype at that time (not nearly as jolly and pain-free as depicted in “The Ladder” –forgetting about the subsequent Tuunbaq attack) Goodsir’s reproachful look might merely result from the tedium of having his picture taken (or that fatal tooth was beginning to hurt). Tozer. Though, again, I meant it, and, like, look, I defy you tell me that he doesn’t look absolutely stunning when he’s afraid for his life in “Terror Camp Clear”.

“The Terror” certainly broadens the parameters of handsome-ness. Tozer, while listening to Morfin singing “The Silver Swan”, is more attractive than, than, than the Moon! Or the Pyramids! He’s supernatural.

The ship before it weighs anchor, before it, in some fundamental way, becomes a ship. Not yet having fulfilled its function, it is more like a theatrical set. The notion of limbo is a fitting one: the men descending the ladder, coming from the bright, noisy world above, could be entering the afterlife.

Who’s the cat who does the words about utter existentialism? Rod Serling, was that his name? Did everyone see his episode of “The Twilight Zone” about the toys in the Salvation Army barrel? Yikes.

Nothing is working as it should, logic is suspended, and the topsy-turvy world of the carnival will become real.

The movie “Topsy-Turvy” is a great favorite of la famille Sunbeam. Even so, there are useful parallels between that film and “The Terror”: class clashes, pretense and pageantry, and mainly ripping away the fine lace mask of the Victorian era. The attitude of the servants in both shows is strikingly craven.

“Any tips, sir, for a first-timer?”

In the super-heated world of fandom, “any tips for a first-timer” sounds like the sort of pick-up line EC would use on the true Cornelius.

Poor Morfin.

Morfin is “The Terror’s” equivalent of the Victorian Little Nell. Headaches, bad teeth, song-forgetter, probably a once-in-a-lifetime sodomite but nevertheless flogged for it. When he and Tozer go out on that exploratory mission, he falls flat down and Tozer says something like “Don’t volunteer if you don’t have the bottom for it.” (More heat for the fandom). And he gets to be the first to see the severed heads. (Who thought Tozer and Morfin would make a good team for this task? Did they draw names?) “Gently with that one, please.” It’s a little bit insensitive of Goodsir to express concern for his luggage before he does, Morfin, after Morfin’s just collapsed from pain, only looking like the living dead. That trunk, though, is Jacko’s tomb.

Harvey, your theory about Goodsir’s, ah, class-related selfishness is confirmed here.

“Are these our choices, Cornelius, or are they being made for us?” Gibson seems to falter, which is interesting. His idea to separate from the larger group doesn’t seem to be his own, which suggests that Hickey understood that it couldn’t be seen to have come from him. Gibson looks like death warmed over, but Hickey is just as perky as ever.

Gibson seems to get on-and-off injections of great intelligence, but his death-warmed-over look is consistent through the series.

Hickey is also under-dressed, not even wearing a hat.

This is perhaps a very English-major thing to say, but there is a suggestion of a climate change (or a massive change in consciousness) occurring after Carnivale, as if the trauma of the fire left living dead who can no longer feel the cold, or, having felt so much fire, the survivors have had the idea of cold burnt out of them.

He does sometimes dress more appropriately, as in “A Mercy” when he was helping Hartnell transport supplies for the carnival. Suggesting that, in this scene, Hickey means to maximize his attractions. The obvious beneficiary is Gibson, but I think Hickey sees some value in displaying himself for Tozer, the one Hickey is really after, and has been since at least “Punished As A Boy”.

A sexy thought; how much nudity the men would crave. When Hickey is flogged, he is completely exposed to the men present, and I think the sexuality of his having his pants pulled down really hits the sailors hard. Francis alone looks like he’s going to climb out of his skin with the ferocity of his feelings (I won’t say desire, but that’s what I mean). Was it you, Harvey, or someone else who discussed how strong the thirst for touch must be among the Franklin Expedition? I imagine the thirst to see bodies is just as powerful.

Then, I was immediately resurrected by the peek at Collins’ suspenders. He is... built like a cement outdoor commode. There is a lot of Collins to love.

The suspenders become iconic. Collins is one very alluring sailor, even in his bulky sea-diving outfit with that great furry head sticking out. Yet his sexuality seems neutered, compared to the other significant sailors (Still, if Hollywood decided to make a chubby “Wuthering Heights”, Collins would make the perfect pudgy Heathcliff.) Author’s note: I don’t think Francis thinks very much of Goodsir, and the feeling is mutual. Goodsir has to obey Francis, but it’s duty without devotion, without deference, Goodsir having seen very little that would indicate to him that Francis has reformed himself. Francis may have stopped drinking, but he’s up to his old tricks, dismissive unless he wants something, ingratiating when he does. This is the way that Francis behaved toward Hickey, which gives an interesting contrast between Goodsir and Hickey: once Goodsir understands Francis’ motives, he’s no longer taken in; Hickey must understand that Francis was only drunk and trying to get into Hickey’s pants, but Hickey continues to try to make Francis like him.

Francis might resent Goodsir’s place in society, so settled and unique, while Francis himself has to maneuver around Sir John and James and all the rest. But Hickey he can control. (In a way, it’s a shame that Irving, the stupid old king of coitus interruptus, has to bust in again. It would be in vain, and yet interesting, to consider what might have happened if that seduction had been consummated. Think of the bickering harem Crozier could assemble: Hickey and Jopson and Gibson and then Irving, etc etc. (But this speculation, that a captain would handpick a seraglio of sailors, is ruined by the knowledge that, despite all the porn stories and movies, there is no one a teacher would want less to seduce than her students.)

James has to move his little pick ax from one hand to the other to reach out to Francis, suggesting that, emotion aside, he made a conscious decision (his bones not yet reduced to broken glass) to grab Francis’ jacket, right over his heart, no less, and jostle Francis in a friendly manner.

This moment is comparable, to those who might be interested, to Star Trek: The Original Series’s “Amok Time” when Spock grabs Kirk by the arms. Quite the pensee could be written comparing Kirk-Crozier (the fair-haired captains) and Spock-Fitzjames, the haughty eyebrow-waggling second. The latter’s reserve is melted, melted utterly by his realization of how much he loves his Captain.

Author’s note: I am into Edward, but conditionally: I like him in that coat that makes him look substantial. Matthew McNulty is lovely, but he’s far thinner than I thought he was, which came as a bit of a shock.

His shortness is also quite astonishing. I can’t imagine Levesconte being involved.

Levesconte is too busy lying on his little officer’s cot, reminiscing about the time he said “benjo” and everybody cheered.

“There was a fourth man.”

I know you are referring to the raid on Silna in “Punished as a Boy”, but these words put one in mind of T.S. Eliot’s notes to the “Fire Sermon” in his “Wasteland”: “it was related that the party of [Anarctic] explorers, at the extremity of their strength, had the constant delusion that there was one more member than could actually be counted”. Ah, the hypnotic potency of the top of the world.

Did Edward just grab Irving’s knee? Judging by Irving’s expression, yes, I think he did. I think he leaves his hand there for the rest of the meeting. Actually, no, he does not, but he appears to again bring it down to the general vicinity of Irving’s lower body.

I have run this scene over again and again and again (like the Zapruder film), and I think Edward does make an aggressively intimate gesture: “left and to the back, left and to the back.” Irving does not seem displeased.

Hickey begins to assume what he imagines as Tuunbaq’s character. Having already, it’s implied, eaten part of Heather’s brain . . .

It is more probable that Hickey was just tapping at Heather’s brain, mainly because a brain IS not like a pudding; a pudding can be nibbled on without anyone noticing. But if someone nicks a part of a cathedral, which is a self-contained entity, it would be noticed by, at least, Nurse Tozer. Still Hickey might have tasted the cerebrospinal fluid, just for the Hickey of it.

When first aboard Terror, Hickey appears to be sizing up his new environment, but he also looks relieved, hopeful. It’s implied that he had a lucky escape from England, which had gotten too hot for him, but I think that he really believed that he was making a fresh start. Taking another man’s name was practical, perhaps a necessary evil, but I think that E.C. just didn’t want to be E.C. anymore.

I admire the symmetry of Hickey throwing a Neptune-sized bag down by Hodgson, thus startling him far more than one think a tough lieutenant would be startled.

Author’s note: . . Silna doesn’t fall into Goodsir’s arms, because there’s no reason why she would; she might like him, but he’s merely the least untrustworthy of a group of untrustworthy men who, by the end of the series, have not just made her home almost uninhabitable, but killed her father and her friends. Her discovery of Goodsir's body, the state it’s left in, confirms it: if this is what the British do to each other, she was lucky to get away when she did.

Hear hear!

By the way, if one is in the mood, another pensee could also be written about the real daguerreotypes of the Franklin expedition. I am particularly amused by Gore and Fairholme. Gore hates Lady Jane and this stupid thing she’s making him do. just so Sir John can be further exalted. Fairholme picks up the vibe and poses just like Gore, only he has to borrow the affable Fitzjames’ jacket.

I think we’ve all been there.

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