#Andrew raynes

[famousmyth]

laurie & andrew

#the charioteer #mary renault #laurie odell #andrew raynes #books #literature #queer #lgbt #gay #art #fanart #my art #digital art #illustration

[telltaleangelina]

At the end of The Charioteer, Laurie lies to Ralph but feels the lie as if it's true. There's something that must be done, and only he can do it. He accepts this, even if he lies in order to achieve it.

Before, Ralph told Laurie he hates to stand by watching while there's pain or the possibility of it, and do nothing. It's not the way he's made, he says. This is a direct contrast to Andrew, who we see literally standing, watching and doing nothing when caring for Charlot. This is not because Andrew is unkind, it is because there is right and wrong and nothing whatever in between. Ralph is not like this: people need someone, he takes on that responsibility, even if it isn't his to shoulder. He acts like God, they say. He's the opposite of Andrew in this regard. Maybe the point is that Laurie isn't like Andrew either, although he loves him. It's also not in his nature to stand and watch people suffer; this is why he felt something ought to be done in school when Ralph was being kicked out, and why he feels it at the end of the book when he realizes what Ralph is planning to do. It's why he feels the pressing demand to deceive Charlot even as he knows that, in his right mind, the man would never want it. I got the sense the first time I read the book and now the second, that Laurie is much more generally suited to Ralph, and this is why.

I don't know if this makes sense, I've not gotten much sleep. Any thoughts? Do you think this is right, wrong? Am I overthinking it?

#mary renault #the charioteer #laurie odell #ralph lanyon #Andrew Raynes

[carrotcakecrumble]

Ok but girls the ‘53 Quaker picnic, but Laurie and Andrew get some alone time just as the sun’s setting <3

For an art trade with @famousmyth !!!

#the charioteer #andrew raynes #laurie odell #art #procreate

[merc-chan]

I was just thinking about The Charioteer's ending and how, at the time the book was written, most gay books (if not all gay books) ended with suicides and tragedy. I love how Mary Renault just plays into the expectative. Ehm... obvious spoilers under the cut.

So, we see Laurie lose Andrew because of Bunny (was he really his to lose, that's a discussion for another time, I guess) and then confront Ralph because of what he supposedly did. Now, the smart reader probably had caught the clues by now: that was really out of character for Ralph to have done, plus the line in Andrew's letter saying that he didn't seem like how he had imagined Ralph to be. So they would know that Laurie was probably unfair and that he broke Ralph's heart, and probably assumed that Ralph was gonna kill himself, and then Laurie would be left all alone and feeling guilty, and either will kill himself too or would go and do something stupid like marrying nurse Adrian (even though she's wonderful, just not for him). But then Renault made her wonderful plot twist by introducing Alec in the scene, just in time for Laurie to go and save Ralph, giving us hope for a happy ending.

This book was meta before the word "meta" even existed, and that's why I adore Renault's writing.

Btw, talking about the last paragraph. "Now their heads droop side by side till their long manes mingle; and when the voice of the charioteer falls silent they are reconciled for a night in sleep." I interpret that like Ralph and Laurie's bodies mingling in sex until they fall asleep together. The charioteer in this could be Laurie's thoughts (doubts) finally falling silent as he accepts his true feelings for Ralph. I don't know. Am I reading too much into it?

I'm just happy believing that they fall asleep together with their bodies intertwined, reconciled and satisfied.

#the charioteer #mary renault #laurie odell #ralph lanyon #andrew raynes #nurse adrian #alec deacon

[renaultphile]

Propaganda for Andrew's moral code....

Time for a bit of Andrew love I think.

@telltaleangelina I loved your post about Ralph/Laurie’s philosophy of life compared with Andrew’s, which so resonated with me - they have a kind of heroic idealism which is very attractive, and apart from anything else it supplies most of the drama and action of the book!

But it also made me want to think more about Andrew and his motivations. So, inspired by the 'Hot Austen men' polls, here is some propaganda for Andrew. At fifteen he had to decide whether to throw in his lot with the military side of his family or the pacifist one, and it is made clear he took this decision seriously:

“I thought all around it. I thought there might conceivably even be some circumstances when I felt it was right to kill. If I knew whom I was killing and the circumstance and the nature of the responsibility. What I finally stuck at was surrendering my moral choice to men I'd never met, about whose moral standards I knew nothing whatever."

He becomes a CO not to abrogate moral responsibility but so that he can take responsibility for his actions.  Later he and Laurie have this exchange:

“One has to draw the line where one sees it oneself."

"Is that what you call the inner light?"

"If you like, yes."

So the thing that strikes me about the Charlot incident is that his principled stance is not blind faith or rigidity of thought. His main regret is that fighting with Laurie prevented him finding a solution to the problem.  He says:

“If I ... if my mind had been where it should have been, I'd have known what ought to be done, something would have come to me."

Laurie says:

"I do this kind of thing. I get steamed up about things that happen to people till I've got to do something or burst, and if it turns out to do more harm than good, hell, what's the odds, it did good to me. At school for instance. A man -- one of the boys I mean, was going to be sacked, and because I liked him I took for granted he couldn't have done it, and I was all set to have raised hell and involved a lot of other people. And all the time he'd done it after all."

Laurie admits that actually it feels good to ‘do’ something, even if the other person doesn't want it. It is easy to see that both of them have a valid point when it comes to the practicalities.  But for me, the point is that as long as they are trying to impose their will on each other, and operating from a place of ego, there is no possibility of finding another solution.  There are a hundred things they could have done to ease Charlot’s last moments if they had stopped thinking about themselves for one moment.  I think it's interesting for example that Laurie is the only person Charlot still recognises but he wants to 'outsource' comfort to someone else.

And then I realised that when Laurie is referring back to his 16 year old self getting 'steamed up' it is Ralph who points out to him that however much he might ‘want’ to ‘do’ something, it will be hurting other innocent people such as his own family (and very likely including Ralph himself).

Often, Laurie is annoyed at Ralph's inability to stand by.  The bit on the stairs at the party, for instance, and the bit where he tells Ralph "You can't eat and breathe for me, or live for me. No one can."  Pretty strong stuff to say to the man you just made passionate love to a moment ago! And let's not forget the comment about the drunk trying to mend the watch.

Sometimes I think the really sad thing is that Laurie is locked in to a different system of morality (The Phaedrus), one which means he is Andrew’s mentor and protector and Andrew is the innocent and therefore had no real moral agency. I'm not sure that means he could have or should have been with Andrew as a romantic partner, but the loss of that relationship feels real to me.

And finally....I think you have made me understand something that has always puzzled/amused me a little bit about the arguments that Laurie/Ralph have. He uses all those military analogies that seem to suggest that even while he sees that Ralph is trying to dominate him and battles with it, he is also, kind of, comfortable with it. And maybe it is that he sees himself in Ralph, he completely understands why Ralph is behaving the way he does. I always find that so touching (a little bit funny too, especially the captain shouting 'fire'!)

#the charioteer #ralph lanyon #laurie odell #andrew raynes

[mildredmost]

For the "Sorry Dearie" drabble challenge!

Andrew recognised him at once when he was brought in, even with the blackened eyes.

“Fell downstairs in the blackout,” matron said.

“Ralph,” Andrew said, stupidly.

“William,” Matron corrected, glancing at his chart. “He’ll need to be checked every hour. Concussion. No - don’t move,” she said to the man who wasn’t Ralph. “You’ve broken at least three of your ribs.”

“Bunny,” the man said hoarsely, but Matron had already moved on.

“Who are you really?” Andrew said, his heart thudding. “What happened to you?”

The man flinched and looked away, not quickly enough to hide tears.

“Sorry dearie,” he whispered.

#the charioteer #sorry dearie drabble fest #bunny apologist #andrew raynes

[muggleriddle]

Oh look. The three men… who are homosexuals… the story is about them

#I did Andrew dirty on this I’m so sorry Andrew #the charioteer #my art #laurie odell #ralph lanyon #andrew raynes #Andrew looks a little closer to how I imagine Alex #alec

[gayskogul]

Poster boys

#the charioteer #ralph lanyon #laurie odell #andrew raynes #mary renault #fan art #that one pose from the twelfth night #digital drawing #clip studio paint #gay art #gay literature #just lots of gay going on in general #gayskoguldraws

[nikhos]

Andrew´s depiction:

The boy put down his floorcloth, wiped his hand on the seat of his trousers, and with the back of it pushed the hair away from his eyes. It was fairish, the color of old gilt. He had a fair skin which was smoothly tanned, so that his gray eyes showed up very bright and clear. He was working in old corduroy trousers and a gray flannel shirt with rolled sleeves. (...)

“Here. Move that mucking bucket, you lazy—, d’you think we’ve got all day?” Laurie hadn’t heard Willis coming up behind them. The boy had started a little, but repressed it quickly; he moved the bucket, civilly but without apology. Willis stepped forward to pass it. There was a kind of forced clumsiness in his gait, a crude preparation for knocking the bucket over. Laurie swung out on his crutch and, silently, caught Willis’s eye.

I have to say I liked Andrew more than Ralph. There´s so much to say about this character...

#tc characters #tc fandom reread #the charioteer #andrew raynes

[mandhos]

after 3 readings I have been able to find the first kiss...

I had to draw it

#the charioteer #El auriga #mary renault #Rhalf Lanyon #laurie odell #andrew raynes #objetor de conciencia

[catboyralphlanyon-archive]

"Toward the end I thought you felt the same." (<- hurl. lying on the floor, shaking visibly irl, worst chills and sweats of my life, hurl, pissing myself, throwing my body off a cliff, throwing up, hurl 🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮, changing my name and never coming back, walking into the ocean for forever and ever, explodes, EXPLODES EXPLODES EXPLODES EXPLODES EXPLODES 💥💥💥, sobbing and screaming, biting off my fingers, perishes)

#jack is mean #andrew raynes #laurie odell

[famousmyth]

more the charioteer art what started as a silly doodle of bunny as an actual bunny turned into a bunch of the charioteer characters as animals ,, ralph's group + andrew !!

#the charioteer #pspsps tc fandom let me in #mary renault #laurie odell #andrew raynes #ralph lanyon #alec deacon #sandy reid #bunny #books #literature #queer #lgbt #gay #art #fanart #my art #digital art #sketch

[telltaleangelina]

“‘Machine’ is journalese....Inexact terms like that are part of the war psychosis. People are never machines, even when they want to be. You have to start somewhere.”

andrew raynes you will always be an anti war king to me, idc what anyone else (ralph) says you will always be famous

#mary renault #the charioteer #andrew raynes #another funny aspect of this book is that i actually respect quakers anti-war stance #so ralph's hating andrew for this makes me laugh

[carrotcakecrumble]

I accidentally drew them all (almost) whilst listening to the ja’miezing podcast instead of sleeping 🫶

Also I included what I imagine their signatures would look like?? For some reason??

Also I threw a school boy Ralph in there <3

#the charioteer #I wanna do a full one of Bunny drinking tea #bc I’m obsessed #Alec suffers from doctor’s handwriting fr #art #procreate #ralph lanyon #laurie odell #alec deacon #sandy reid #andrew raynes #reg barker

[hennethgalad]

"a stubborn boy with good bones" Mary Renault: 'The Charioteer

Andrew Raynes

#the charioteer #mary renault #andrew raynes #james dean

[renaultphile]

Laurie and Andrew: if opposites attract this is one hot couple

#Too harsh? #the charioteer #mary renault #laurie odell #andrew raynes #tc fandom reread