My dad wants me to show his artist friend my MASH drawings and I am like nervously sweating wondering if he'll be able to smell the homoerotic tension through my iPad
having an absolutely unacceptable (and incomplete and nonsensical) thought this am
"haha the writers' are inconsistent with hawkeye's background early on why is he sending a letter to his mother and sister in vermont"
considering a world in which this is not contradictory to later seasons but rather a very early example of hawkeye rewriting his history by reverting to the last time he felt safe
sure the sister and vermont don't make it out of season one but what if i could make a mental corkboard with strings between vermont->sister->babies????? what then??????
I’m currently training for a new position at an eyeglass company and we’re practicing reading perscriptions, and they all have fictional character names and today a bunch of them were from MASH and listen I know just enough about MASH-blr to be slightly indignant to think that these surgeons were just passing out eye perscriptions
there is no way charles did not have very strong (negative) opinions about contemporary classical music
he gets a tape from honoria in fall 1952 telling him how some guy named john cage composed a piece that is performed by. not playing your instruments. instead it calls for the audience to consider the music that's always around them. it's called 4'33''
he is outraged. he sends her a tirade detailing how these new age thinkers are intent on destroying one of the last forms of truly civilized culture and he would sooner attend a crooner concert than any symphony that would stoop so low as to feature pieces by modernist hacks
and then
he can't listen to music anymore
he goes home and he can't listen to music anymore.
but one day he's sitting with honoria, looking at the new england autumn stretched out in front of them and he hears the leaves rustling, and the soft rush of water of a nearby stream and he feels the sun on his face
and honoria glances over and asks for the time; maybe they'd better be getting back to the house
How do you think Trapper and Charles would have been together?
My immediate thought is the hometown connection seeing as they’re both from Boston. Culturally this is something Americans love to bond over in general but is of elevated importance during the war. Radar’s Iowaisms are noted a few times throughout the series, Hawkeye is From! Maine!, Henry and the opposing Dr. Tan in Rainbow Bridge both having attended the University of Illinois creates common ground even though they never meet. Trapper has at least one moment we get to see where he’s able to reach an otherwise non-responsive patient over the Red Sox. I mention all this because under most circumstances Trapper and Charles’ personalities would clash horribly (and hilariously) and while they’ve got medicine in common as with BJ and Hawkeye, they’ve also got Boston which opens the door for some sentimental connection.
I think Trapper would frown heavily upon Charles’ upper-class snobbery and would probably have great fun scheming with Hawkeye to prank and otherwise malign him. I also think Trapper would facilitate some development for Charles, maybe by encouraging kindness and perhaps a little debate - he made this effort with Frank and Charles isn't nearly as pigheaded. If that fails, he'll knock him down a few pegs in subtler ways like BJ does on occasion.
That’s my in-universe, serious response but if you mean in a shippy way, haha, I don’t hate it!! I’d consider writing Trapper/Charles for sure, probably as crackfic because I think that would be fun to do.
One of my favourite post-war fic set-ups is Trapper and Charles workplace comedy set in Boston. There’s a post floating around on tumblr about Hawkeye giving Trapper the heads-up that Charles is incoming after the war and I love that – the potential!