Rum, Sodomy and the Lash
| The Professionals Fanfiction | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Rum, Sodomy and the Lash |
| Author(s): | Rachael Sabatini |
| Date(s): | 1997 |
| Length: | |
| Genre: | slash |
| Fandom: | The Professionals |
| External Links: | online here (offline) |
Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Rum, Sodomy and the Lash is a slash Professionals story by Rachael Sabatini.
It was published in Guilty Pleasures.
Summary
"Bodie, an officer in the British Navy of the 18th century, serves under Capt. Macklin. When Doyle is pressed into service aboard his ship, inner turmoil and angst disrupt Bodie's neatly structured career and almost cost him his life. Rape, sadism and H/C are part of this swashbuckling historical."
Reactions and Reviews
1997
A historical A/U.
STORY: Bodie is the First Lieutenant on a Bounty-like ship with the harsh Captain Macklin. When the new carpenter, Doyle, comes on board, Bodie remembers their last meeting in which he raped the twelve-year-old Doyle, an incident which changed the path of his life from crime to honourable seamanship. As Macklin gets more cruel, Bodie at last is himself driven to mutiny, and unites with Doyle.
I like seafaring stories, and though this might not be Patrick O'Brien, it had its moments. But it confused me. Bodie raped Doyle, right? Then we get a flashback to the event, then a return to the present, and I was darned if I could see any rape by Bodie. Saying to myself, "But he didn't rape him, he saved him," I had to go back and read that section again before I could even makes sense of what Bodie was thinking or why he was thinking it. How could I miss something like a rape? Did I blink? When I read the flashback again and figured it out, it seemed rather flimsy in its reasoning, and it was certainly no surprise when Bodie then tells Doyle about their previous encounter and his horrible guilt and Doyle says, "Of course I haven't forgotten, and you didn't rape me, you saved me."
Right: that was what I thought, too. Perhaps a real rape might have given the story more point, and more verisimilitude? Not that I like stories in which rape victims forgive their rapists, but the confusion in Bodie's mind looked stupid to me, and made me feel unsympathetic to him, as well as making the story seem weak. I like a guilt-ridden Bodie and a dangerous Bodie, but a Bodie who embraces guilt when he doesn't need to doesn't do much for me. As it stands, it would have been better with the mutiny but without the original "rape". [1]