![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
It occurs to me that part of what I love about Comfort and Joy by Jim Grimsley is that the main characters are Sirius and Remus. Or, rather, Dan Crell is Remus, and Ford McKinney is a Sirius who hadn't rebelled against his family or met Remus until he was an adult--or possibly just never realized that Remus was a werewolf, if one can assume that part of the reason behind Sirius's rebellion is that he had an "impure" werewolf friend.
Which would be a gorgeous AU, actually, though v.v. complicated. If Remus's identity had remained a secret, then: 1) Peter couldn't betray the Marauders, or at least not in the same manner, 2) James, Sirius, and Peter wouldn't become animagi, hence no MWPP, 3) Snape wouldn't nearly be killed... And then Sirius and Remus would have dinner together in London a year or two after leaving Hogwarts, and Remus would 'fess up to being a werewolf, and Sirius would attempt to reconcile himself to the situation, and it would all be most satisfying.
Which would be a gorgeous AU, actually, though v.v. complicated. If Remus's identity had remained a secret, then: 1) Peter couldn't betray the Marauders, or at least not in the same manner, 2) James, Sirius, and Peter wouldn't become animagi, hence no MWPP, 3) Snape wouldn't nearly be killed... And then Sirius and Remus would have dinner together in London a year or two after leaving Hogwarts, and Remus would 'fess up to being a werewolf, and Sirius would attempt to reconcile himself to the situation, and it would all be most satisfying.
Tags:
From:
Poking my head in the door for but a moment....
I adore your comparisons between Sirius/Remus and Ford/Dan. Sirius, angry at his heritage and the expectations therein, hiding behind a facade; Remus, quiet and subdued, carrying a legacy of death with him, 'death' transferred through his bodily fluids (assuming that lycanthropy is transmittable through them, rather than the werewolf bite itself).
I am seeing Remus "curled like a geisha, a presense in his (Ford's) bed."
(heavily paraphrased because, again, I don't have the novel on hand)
Now I'm really twitching.
From:
no subject
Oh God, what a gorgeous image. I love how in the book there are continuous reminders that Dan is tall and brave and strong (stronger than Ford in many ways) that add to rather than detract from elements such as the depiction of him as quiet and self-effacing or the use of the metaphor you mentioned. That complexity of characterization is one of my favorite things about both Dan and Remus.
Also, I really like how you refer to Remus as carrying a legacy of death with him--that's beautifully phrased--though I'm not sure how much the mode of transferal matters. After all, he and Dan are both suffering from communicable diseases that they received in childhood, that to a large extent determine how they interact with other people, and that have treatments but no cures. It seems as though their diseases already have the most important characteristics in common, and everything else is window dressing.