gay changes to the Karla trilogy continued

[cimorene]

Since being gay was a 3000% improvement in the character of Peter Guillam, my thoughts returned to it frequently while reading and I think you could do it quite well in The Honourable Schoolboy as well by merging Molly Meakin and Fawn into one character. Um, probably not having that character shoot or potentially shoot Westerby in Guillam's absence in that case? But hey, this universe does like pessimistic views of the human condition and sympathetic characters doing bad things, so maybe you could leave it.

Fawn is referred to as "dark" at one point and othered quite a bit by Guillam, plus there's all this subtext around jealousy although I'm sure neither Fawn nor Guillam is actually in a sexual relationship with either each other (or Smiley of course)... but there's also the queer character's spontaneous exclamation about how beautiful Fawn is at one point, so I distracted myself quite a bit wondering if he could be black or perhaps Indian or Pakistani. The setting is in the 1970s, and he has a mysterious and 'tough' background in Brixton, so Afro-Caribbean is probably more likely, right? (I say with extremely limited knowledge of boroughs and recenter British history etc?) The thought that Fawn is intended to be black is nice in a sense - but then problematic when you look at his characterization (with his later outbreaks of brutality, I would say we aren't meant to just put it down to Guillam's bias).

But all of that could probably be well done in a good screenplay - a hypothetical and imaginary one in this case (I don't think The Honourable Schoolboy would make a very good miniseries - all the colonialism is just... too much. Way too much).

Comments

[princessofgeeks]

I always found Fawn a fascinating character.

[cimorene]

There's so much slightly odd focus on him; there's the physicality associated with him; there's Guillam's unsettledness and Fawn's alienness, both maybe due to racism, or class, or maybe because he's like - a psychopath? Or an expert assassin on loan? And Guillam is sensing it? - And I couldn't decide if we were meant to read between the lines that Fawn shot Westerby, or if it was meant to be deliberately ambiguous.

Also then he mysteriously vanishes and they make a big point out of how mysterious it is!

[aurumcalendula]

Ooh that would be neat!

I'm kinda glad the BBC skipped this one when they were making their two miniseries (I suspect that was mostly because of how expensive it would've been to film).

I do hope there's a film version of Smiley's People at some point (also this reminds me I need to see how the 1982 miniseries handled the queer characters)

[princessofgeeks]

I personally always felt that they had Fawn shoot him because it all turned out to be such a mess and because he went so rogue on that one.

Every now and then Le Carre experiments with that, like with The Night Manager.

But also maybe Fawn morphed a bit through the books. My view of him is probably affected by how he was cast in Tinker,Tailor -- that is, not black, although you make a compelling case for him being that.

I do think Guillam was fascinated by him and afraid of him. And I do think we are to look on him as a ninja assassin type. He's always there on the edge of things. But clearly Smiley considers him one of his, as well.

[cimorene]

I just read Tinker Tailor a couple of weeks ago and I don't remember him being in it at all!

(I didn't notice in the movie, but then, I saw it when it came out so it's been quite a while now.)

[cimorene]

Someone was saying they loved the old miniseries recently... maybe it was princessofgeeks? I've been meaning to check it out once I read Smiley's People.

[princessofgeeks]

I'm sorry -- it was Smiley's People he was in. He was there guarding Ricky Tarr. I meant to type Smiley's People. My mistake.

[princessofgeeks]

Both the miniseries starring Alec Guinness as Smiley are FANTASTIC. I have rewatched them many times.

[princessofgeeks]

also I need to watch the new movie sometime. I missed it when it came out.

[cimorene]

Ooh, then I look forward to meeting him when I manage to watch that!