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PaperclipPerfector  4d ago (text post)   2858 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for January 26, 2025

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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I have never seen someone in the wild recommend this author. It's so odd to me that nobody's heard of him around me, because his Flashman series is iconic, and I still find myself thinking of his Quartered Safe Out Here anecdotes (like the one you mentioned, his friend getting cut in half by machine gun friendly fire in the middle of the night, or the one where he randomly stumbled on a Japanese soldier and surprised each other and he unshouldered his rifle and shot him first).

I read all the Flashman books and I greatly appreciate the Three and Four Musketeer films based on the screenplays he wrote. I will readily second the recommendation.

But now I have to ask myself why I haven't read more from the man. I guess it just never occurred to me. Will have to remedy this.

Greeting, fellow man of culture!

I always remember him saying that people in real life react so exactly like the most hackneyed of Hollywood films that they're completely unwriteable, like the friend who got a bullet in the shoulder and rolled over shouting, "They got me, the rats! They got me!"

That said, I could never get into Flashman. I recognise that they're absolutely gripping yarns, and very well-researched, but the main character is too deliberately unlikeable for me to enjoy spending time with him. I wish GMF had written more books like McAuslan.

I've only read the first Flashman book but it was his unlikeability that made it so enjoyable. The character's utter lack of apology for being so unabashedly self-serving provides a lot of fun.

The first book is where he's the most unlikeable, the latter books increasingly make him trend towards being more of a rascally anti-hero rather than the complete shit he is in the first one. (He's still pretty monstrous in the few following ones but the process has already started.)

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