#iwtv#interview with the vampire#assad zaman#the vampire armand
seen from Italy
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seen from Yemen
seen from T1
seen from Russia
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seen from Uganda
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seen from United States
Peg Gratton is everything Puck can and will become, and I think that’s sorta nice
Romantic Subtext for Gabe in The Scorpio Races?
For those of you who’ve read The Scorpio Races, please weigh in on this. (If you haven’t read it, don’t keep reading this, go get a copy of the book now.)
My memory from my first read of The Scorpio Races was that Gabe and Tommy were queer-coded as a gay couple.
But I just finished my reread, and I didn’t get the feeling that they were more than friends at all. Was this a wishful ship on my part?
Even more surprising, on this reread it seemed to hint to me that Gabe was having an affair with Peg Gratton. And that’s why he was leaving the island, to escape the temptation of an affair with a married woman.
Did anyone else find hints of a romantic relationship between Gabe and anyone in the book? Am I imagining things that aren’t there?
“All I’m saying is that you’re asking them to treat you like a man. And I’m not sure either of you want that.”
“I just want to be left alone,” I say.
“Like I said,” Peg replies. “You’re asking to be treated like a man.”
Things I'd be down with: Gabe brings a girl back to the Island during the festival
OH THAT MAKES ME SO CURIOUS??? How would Puck react? Is this the first time he’s returned? Is the trip a surprise? Is the girl a surprise? Did he bring her as a buffer so Puck would not murder him in front of company? What sort of girl would Gabe fall for? I mean, it would be a BIG deal to bring an outsider into the vestiges of his past life. He would have so much baggage.
Thisby is a place where:
His parents died
His one true love best friend died
His dreams died
He had an affair with a married woman, who is probably still living there
He almost left his younger siblings homeless
He is known to everybody on the island and they all know his business better than he does
He still smells like fish
How much would she know about Thisby and what it means to Gabe? Would he conceal everything from her behind his shiny new mainland facade? Would the evasiveness and tension and the shame and the hurt spark and explode among the bonfires? Would they cross paths with Peg? Would there be jealousy or, possibly worse, indifference? Would anyone’s heart be cut out neat? Or would all the hearts be too broken to be worth the effort?
Or perhaps this mainland girl has long-since cracked Gabe’s shell, freeing him from the weight of secrets so that he could become rather philosophical about it all? Would her eyes light up with curiosity and recognition as the things she knows about Gabe suddenly come into focus in this strange place? Could he dance with her through the streets like a tourist? Would he be able to find some bit of happiness on Thisby, enough to carry away in his pocket as the ferry takes him home—to her home—to their home?
And would they be back? Because what would happen if she fell in love with Thisby? What in the world would he do then?
//WAIT WHAT YES PLEASE TELL US MORE ABOUT YOUR LOVE/HATE RELATIONSHIP WITH PEG (whispers don't mind me i shouldn't be sending shit on my mostly unrelated rp blog but here we are)
Hello, hello! Glad you asked! So, because Maggie writes characters that I can’t ever hate completely (STOP MAKING THEM SO REAL AND FLAWED AND HUMAN MAGGIE!!!), I have SO MANY mixed feelings about Peg. I’ll probably fail miserably at keeping this short and coherent, but oh well, you asked for it! ;)
Even before Maggie revealed the affair backstory, I struggled with Peg, largely because she often gave really bad advice. It wasn’t bad advice for her time period, but it was bad advice for Puck and I’m glad Puck didn’t listen. I don’t fault Peg her internalized sexism, because I think she mostly did life on her own terms within the patriarchy, which is really admirable for the time, but I would hate for Puck to turn out too much like her? There are, of course, many things Peg deserves praise for: she’s fierce and independent and respected. She’s perceptive. She flouts many conventions of her time. She’s solid. She’s clever. She’s friendly. She gives tough love.
But there are other things about her that don’t seem so healthy. For one, she never struck me as a particularly happy person. She works, she has a family, a home, she doesn’t cook (shocking!), she’s prominent in the community, and yet she often appears to just be going through the motions, because that’s what’s expected of her. Thisby can grind a person down, unless one chooses their own happiness, and Peg seems more comfortable with the appearance of happiness than actually being happy. She doesn’t really let you see past her mask.
I also think, on some level, Peg resented what Puck was trying to do, as so often happens when different generations of women have attempted to rise above their circumstances with wildly different tactics. (If you’ve seen the show Mad Men, then you’ll recognize a similar struggle between Joan Holloway and Peggy Olson). Peg Gratton, like so many women of that period, learned that they could use or overemphasize their sexuality and gender to manipulate men (see the “a mountain they have to climb” quote). Peg’s brand of mysterious femininity is not exactly mainstream (she’s not that conventionally attractive), but you can bet she has very carefully cultivated her image as a woman who could cut your heart out neat.
Puck, on the other hand, instinctively knew that she shouldn’t have to change who she is to suit or impress anybody; her fierceness isn’t a mask. Peg knew how to work the system, but Puck already acted like the system didn’t exist, which some could perceive to be more dangerous because the system did still exist and one false move could’ve resulted in the loss of whatever amount of control women found within it. Peg might have had a good grip on reality, but Puck knew herself and what she was capable of. Her risk paid off because sometimes breaking small, unspoken rules (riding in the races) and changing your lot in life can be just as important as breaking the big, spoken ones (the suffrage movement) that technically affect everybody. If you’re “all for women,” like Peg claimed to be, that has to mean all, for all and in all, in big ways and small (trademark Dr. Seuss, probably).
Ultimately, I think Peg accepted what Puck was trying to do and supported her in it, as shown with the symbolic gesture of (literally) passing the (bird) mantle to her right before the race. Peg represents the past, women like her may have paved the way for Puck to get where she is, but Puck is the future of the island and the world.
But then there’s the elephant in the room: the affair. In this post, @wickedwinterwillow does an excellent job of showing why Peg engaging in an affair with Gabriel is so predatory and loathsome. I really don’t want to comprehend the reasons behind the affair, but because I have a terrible need to try to understand everything no matter what, all I can think of is that after years of familiarity, Tom saw her as a teacup, and everyone else saw her as a mountain, and maybe (???) Gabe just saw her as herself (???). Anyway, that’s enough of that because CREEPY and EWW and NOOOO.
It’s so hard to interpret Peg and Puck’s interactions in light of the affair. I cannot fathom how or why Peg could attempt any sort of normal relationship with Puck while all that was going on, but I guess to her credit, Peg always seemed sort of pained. I almost think that maybe Gabe convinced Peg to check in on Puck in his place because that seems like just the sort of cowardly yet brotherly yet wildly inappropriate thing he’d do. Also, the whole scene at the Gratton’s house (where I believe we get a better glimpse at the “real” Peg) is AWKWARD AS HELL. Puck says, “The only time Peg Gratton addresses me is to tell me that I’m welcome to give Dove more hay if she needs it before the end of the night, before the storm gets bad.” She’s not exactly going out of her way to build a relationship with Puck because things suddenly just got TOO REAL under HER OWN DAMN ROOF.
So I almost get the sense that Peg didn’t ask to be a mother figure to Puck, but ultimately she ends up doing a fairly decent job of it (Puck draws out the best in people), minus the dubious life advice. I mostly respect Peg (if we pretend the affair didn’t happen), but she’s not without nuance, both good and bad. That’s just my interpretation of her character, so if anyone is a full-on Peg stan, I want to hear about everything I’ve missed! :)
Endless List of Shows That Remind Me of The Scorpio Races – Home Fires
Has anyone seen Home Fires? There’s a family of butchers that could totally be the Grattons.
Peg >:)
How I feel about this character:
OH LORD I CAN’T WITH PEG!!! (See all that here.)
All the people I ship romantically with this character: HER OWN DAMN HUSBAND WHO IS POSITIVELY DECENT FROM WHAT I CAN TELL ANDNOTGABE.
My non-romantic OTP for this character: See, I want her to be a good mother figure to Puck, but most of the time she’s not so good at it? I ship Peg and her butcher knife. I ship Peg and Father Mooneyham and his fancy red car, because I wonder what they have to talk about and, also, he seems pretty cool with this terrifying woman just driving him around the countryside for all to see when most men of his age and position probably wouldn’t have been back then. And, finally, I ship Peg and her bird costume (RIP), which, like all things on Thisby, met with a bittersweet end (the feathered cloak bit redeems Peg to me, if I’m honest).
My unpopular opinion about this character: I really want to love her because she is such a strong and intriguing woman who seems pretty empowered despite living in a patriarchal society, but I find myself liking her less and less. I guess she has a good arc, in that she finally seems to understand what Puck is doing at the end, but I’m wary of her and her advice (and that’s not even getting into the affair, which is probably also an unpopular opinion: I believe that it did happen off-page…I couldn’t unsee it if I tried…and I’ve tried).
One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: That she would have been more supportive of Puck, although I suppose it is more realistic the way it is. And even though it’s not technically canon, that PEG HAD NEVER SEDUCED GABE.
i can’t help but feel that a peg/gabe relationship is maaasssively too different in age, and it does honestly feel unhealthy?
Oh my gosh, YES. I can understand why it would be a real reason for Gabe to leave, BUT WHAT WERE YOU THINKING MAGGIE???? There are so many better reasons for leaving. LIKE TOMMYYYY!!! I am so, so glad Peg x Gabe (ship name GAG) only exists in the realm of subtext because it’s wrong on so many levels while at the same time I’m revoltingly curious about what bits are still left in and what it means to the story WHY CAN’T I LOOK AWAY I DON’T SHIP IT.
