Light my fire?
© The Estate of Bob Carlos Clarke As Laura and Alec part on the train platform, the word 'Smoking' hovers between them, etched on the carriage door. Wasn't it just. I hadn't watched 'Brief Encounter' for ages but the hound and I were transfixed by this passionate story of love, honour and restraint last night - talk about sexual chemistry. (In case you think I'm exaggerating the dog actually does watch films - she is after all a sighthound!) From the first touch - the calm, intimate way the doctor takes charge of the situation and gets the grit out of her eye, the story is electrifying even after all these years. Noel Coward knew a few things about cups of tea and the dynamics of attraction - not to mention the importance of a brilliant score (the Rachmaninoff that swells and courses perfectly through the film was his choice).
There's been a lot in the papers recently about the return of the Retrosexual - real men like Doctor Alec as opposed to new age buffed and depilated Metrosexuals. Did real men ever go away? When Celia/Laura walks home to her marriage 'without wings' she leaves the love of her life on the train to Africa just as Bogey is left on the runway in Casablanca. Why is it many of the great stories aren't happily ever after? Why are so many of the Retrosexuals left alone? There's definitely been a resurgence in the popularity of the Alpha male - the marvellous photo by Bob Carlos Clarke above is of the Renaissance man Marco Pierre White. Clarke was a brilliant photographer who died tragically young - he was better known for his erotic work (even knives and spoons became sexy in front of his lens), but his photographs of White at work are legendary. Michelin starred chef, philosopher, family man, and hunter of furry creatures (if you haven't come across him in your part of the world this Youtube link 'Marco's Charisma' will give you some idea of his appeal to the female population in the UK), Mr White is having something of a moment in the press. The book after next I have planned is all about food and taste, so this is all very fascinating and has a strange synchronicity about it. Tough female journalists swoon talking of the palpable sense of testosterone around the man, and the way he feeds them tidbits by hand (quails eggs, warm oysters ...).
Mr White clearly cuts a dash in real life but what do we look for in our fictional heroes and heroines? We talked yesterday about developing three dimensional characters, but what do we want from the love stories that develop between them? I've read countless times that you have to be a little in love with your characters for the dynamics to work - do you think that's true? Personally I've always veered towards the Retro (before I met him the pilot variously modelled in Tokyo, taught scuba diving, worked for the FO in Russia and had just mapped uncharted rock formations in NZ). I prefer fun, romantic and challenging to clothes shopping together - and I think this translates into the male characters I write. Qualities that don't get talked about a lot any more - kindness, humour, honour, loyalty, selflessness, passion, skill, experience - these can be the most attractive of all. Maybe I'm getting old, but for me at least, I value men and women for what they are - 'vive la petite difference' as they say.
TODAY'S PROMPT: Who are your great heroes and heroines of romantic fiction? Which characters in book or film set your pulse racing? Is it a classic like Mr Darcy, or Heathcliff? What about the girls? Have our tastes really changed, or through our stories do we look for a more enduring ideal? Does your work reflect your real life passions? What magic recipe would conjure up your ideal - why not take ten minutes on a lazy bank holiday and make the ideal male/female character, plot out your own brief encounter?
