there was a crown.

[quigonejinn]

The Dead Sea Fruit - Horatio Hornblower FST (18 tracks, 113MB)

1. The Kinks - (Wish I Could Fly Like) Superman

   "Your name?" asked Masters, after waiting for it for a moment.
   
   "H-Horatio Hornblower, sir. Midshipman," stuttered the boy. -- Mr. Midshipman Hornblower:The Even Chance

   
   
2. The Roots - Don't Say Nuthin'

   Hornblower was naturally expecting that question and was ready for it. Now was the time to answer truthfully and modestly, to receive the praise he deserved, a mention in the Gazette, perhaps even appointment as acting-lieutenant. But Pellew did not know the full details of the loss of the brig, and might make a false estimate of them even if he did.
   
   "No, sir," said Hornblower. "I think it must have been spontaneous combustion in the paint-locker. I can't account for it otherwise." -- Mr. Midhipman Hornblower: The Penalty of Failure

   
   
3. The Notwist - One With the Freaks

   "This, sir," he said, waving it at Hornblower, "is a personal order. It is countersigned by the Duke of Fuentesauco, Minister of Marine, but it is signed by the First Minister, Prince of the Peace and Duke of Alcudia."
   
   "Yes, sir," said Hornblower. -- Mr. Midhipman Hornblower: The Duchess and the Devil

   
   
4. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Date with the Night

   Bush was making a mental note that this Hornblower was a firebrand when he met his glance and saw to his surprise a ghost of a twinkle in their melancholy depths. In a flash of insight he realised that this fierce young lieutenant was not fierce at all, and that the intensity with which he spoke was entirely assumed-- it was almost as if Hornblower had been exercising himself in a foreign language. -- Lieutenant Hornblower

   
   
5. Fugees - Ready or Not

   Bush still could think clearly enough to realise that Hornblower must have collected the prize crews from all three vessels before running alongside in the Galitana; by Bush's calculation he could have brought thirty seamen and thirty marines to his attack. But while one part of Bush's brain could think with this clarity and logic, the other part of it seemed to be hampered and clogged so that what went on before his eyes moved with nightmare slowness.
   
   "Bush! Bush!" That was Hornblower's voice, pleading and tender. "Bush, please, speak to me." -- Lieutenant Hornblower

   
   
6. Sufjan Stevens - God'll Ne'er Let You Down

   The health was drunk amid acclamation, with all eyes turned on the blushing Maria, and then from her all eyes turned on Hornblower. He rose; he had realized, before Cornwallis had reached the midpoint of his speech, that the Admiral was using words he had used scores of times before, at scores of weddings of his officers. -- Hornblower and the Hotspur

   
   
7. Lucy Kaplansky - Small Dark Movie

   She had learned her lesson well during half a dozen farewells since their marriage. She knew that her incomprehensible husband disliked any show of emotion even in private, and disliked it twenty times as much with a third party present. She had learned that he had moments of withdrawal which she should not resent because he was sorry for them afterwards. And above all that she had learned that she weighed in the scale nothing, nothing at all, against his duty. She knew that if she were to pit herself and her child against this it would only end in a terrible hurt which she could not risk because it would hurt him as much or more. -- Hornblower and the Crisis

   
   
8. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Gold Lion

   "He's sick," said Mrs. Mason. "Poor little man. He's so sick."
   
   Hornblower knelt beside the bed and bent over his son. He put out his hand and touched the feverish cheek. He tried to soothe his son's forehead as the head turned on the pillow. That forehead; it felt strange; like small shot felt through velvet. And Hornblower knew what that meant. He knew it well, and he had to admit the certainty to himself before telling the women what it meant. Smallpox. -- Hornblower and the Atropos

   
   
9. Cat Power - Evolution

   In accordance with standing orders -- hallowed by now with the tradition which is likely to accumulate during a voyage of such incredible length -- Brown, the captain's coxswain, had seen to it that the weather side of the quarterdeck had been holystoned and sanded at the first peep of daylight. Bush and the midshipman with him withdrew to the lee side at Hornblower's first appearance, and Hornblower immediately began his daily hour's walk up and down, up and down the twenty-one feet of deck which had been sanded for him. -- The Happy Return

   
   
10. Sufjan Stevens - The Upper Peninsula

    "Your hands are beautiful," she said, spreading one of them on her own palm, and playing with the long slender fingers. "I have loved them ever since Panama."
    
    Hornblower had always thought his hands bony and ugly, and the left one bore the ingrained powder stain he had acquired at the boarding of the Castilla. He looked at her to see if she were teasing him, and when he saw that she was not he could only kiss her again -- her lips were so ready for his kisses. It was like a miracle that she should want to be kissed. -- The Happy Return

    
    
11. Craig Armstrong - The Ball

    "I'm not frightened. I'm not frightened," the boy said; his jacket was torn clean across the breast and he was trying to hold it together as he denied the evidence of the tears in his eyes.
    
    "No, sonny, of course you're not," said Hornblower.
    
    Then Longley was dead, hands and breast smashed into pulp. -- Ship of the Line

    
    
12. Hem - Leave Me Here

    There were the two nights when it rained, and they all slept huddled together under the shelter of a blanket stretched between willow trees -- there had been a ridiculous pleasure about waking up to find Bush snoring beside him with a protective arm across him. -- Flying Colours

    
    
13. Cat Power - Cross Bones Style

    Suddenly remembering, he looked round at Lady Barbara. She had eyes only for the baby, her serenity strangely exalted, her smile tender. He thought then that she was moved by her love for the child. Richard noticed her too. -- Flying Colours

    
    
14. Party Ben - Kraftwerk v. Coldplay - Computer Talk

    An armed guard brought Lebrun into the cabin, and Hornblower looked him keenly over. He was one of the half-dozen prisoners taken when the Porta Coeli came into Le Havre, one of the deputation which had mounted her deck to welcome her under the impression that she was the Flame coming in to surrender.
    
    "Monsieur speaks French?" said Lebrun. -- Lord Hornblower

    
    
15. Aimee Mann - Lost in Space

    It was hard to think of a world without Bush in it, of a future where he would never, never see Bush again. -- Lord Hornblower

    
    
16. Vertical Horizon - Everything You Want

    Brown was leaning forward expectantly in the chaise. There it was, the grey pepper-pot turrets only just visible in the distance against the grey sky through the rain. A flag flying from the flagstaff made a tiny darker spot above the château. The Count was there. Marie was there. -- Lord Hornblower

    
    
17. The Arcade Fire - Crown of Love

    "There is news from Belgium," said the aide-de-camp. "The Emperor has been defeated in a great battle. At a place called Waterloo. Already Wellington and Blücher are over the frontierand marching on Paris. The Emperor is there already and the Senate are demanding that he abdicate again."
    
    Hornblower's heart was pounding so hard that he was still incapable of speech.
    
    The aide-de-camp went on to say something about the restoration of His Most Christian Majesty, but Hornblower did not listen to him. He was wondering about Richard. And Barbara. -- Lord Hornblower

    
    
18. Jim White - Static on the Radio

    It was not so very long ago that the railway had made its way round the edge of the park at Smallbridge, sullying the fair fields of Kent on its way to Dover.
    
    It was strange that he should be so happy and so secure.
    
    -- The Last Encounter

Notes

Unlike on previous FST's, I monkeyed a bit with the accompanying textual quotations in order to get things to fit. Damn you, Hornblower, difficult to the last -- specifically, as you probably noticed, I had to monkey with the text for the Fugees/Great Moment in Literature bit, the Arcade Fire/Lord Hornblower, and the Jim White/Last Encounter. The title is from that bit in FC where Hornblower is making out with Barbara and thinks Happiness was a Dead Sea fruit that turned to ashes with the tongue you have shoved down your new fiancee's throat in the mouth.

And yes, I know, Gold Lion is kind of, um, a driving lustful track, but Gold Lion ~ the Lion and the Unicorn, and the song brims, to me, with desperation. I always imagine Hornblower in the days after the funeral, watching zombie Maria try to deal with her grief, and he's sitting at the table, numb in grief himself, knowing that the sea is only a couple streets away and wishing, with every molecule in his body, he could just get back onto it with a ship. I mean. Can you imagine how much he would want to go to sea? And how much he would hate himself for wanting it that badly? It would just be hell, and then, imagine what happens when that letter from the Admiralty comes through, and it turns out that Bush is in Portsmouth with the Temeraire. And that the Lydia is not, in fact, bound for blockade duty.

It's such a song for Hornblower, man, even without the reference to the crown. And the Cat Power track is him being at sea on the Lydia, during that long journey, and wrestling with his grief. I re-read the end of Atropos while typing this up, and goddamn, he loved his children.

Cover and back are from Hornblower's second favorite book in the world after Decline and Fall, Norie's Epitome. Lucy Kaplansky track is courtesy of commodorified who suggested it way, way, way back in the day for HH/Maria. <3

And randomalia -- I packed a copy of these onto the CD's I sent, so WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT, YOU ARE GETTING THESE :D :D :D

Comments

[nolivingman.livejournal.com]

You know, that period might be just too painful to read, even for angst and pain-loving me. Hornblower in Atropos is basically a content person - within the bounds of being Hornblower - and the guy we meet in BtQ/THR is just broken. I'm glad that Forester didn't write that in a way.

[quigonejinn.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I imagine that it's one hellaciously nasty period for Hornblower -- I mean, in the books, it's not like Hornblower is an old hand at dealing with grief, y'know? In the movies, by the time he hooks up with Maria, he's already gone through Clayton, Mariette, and Kennedy. In the books, he has a . . . father who just kind of disappears out of the picture at one point or the other.

Some people are, I guess, ghouls for the amputation and typhus and the getting shot. I'm an emotional ghoul.

[nolivingman.livejournal.com]

Oh I'm with you for the most part. I love and adore Atropos, and a lot of the reason is the sucker punch at the end. I love when my entertainment hurts that bad. And I would probably love the book that filled in that blank, it's just. Damn, that's some hard times.

[quigonejinn.livejournal.com]

Seriously.

It kinda surprised me, in a way, to see what a family man Hornblower turned out to be. Like, sure, I knew he was hungry for affection and love and a place to belong, but man oh man. I know some hardcore AoS people complain about the fact that the first bit in Atropos is HH going to London or whatever with the family, but I loved reading about the Great Sausage Caper and how he's like :> if baby Horry were a few years older, I could teach him all about boats. :>

I wonder whether Barbara would have gone for him on the Lydia if he hadn't been so fucked up and broken.

*is rambly this morning, don't mind her*

I enjoy rambles about Crazy Baby Boyfriend

[nolivingman.livejournal.com]

I was very surprised when I read Atropos, because I had started at BtQ/THR where he thinks about his homelife as being just a giant ball of inconvenience and misery. And yes, I think people discount Atropos because of that silly opening and ignore the fact that Horatio was actually pretty happy in that book, and loved his family. But, you know, it has to be a happy fun opening in order to set you up for the end. There's a point in the book (I have it marked for discussion once we get there in the comm) where Horatio talks about the law of averages and good luck following bad and vice versa and I didn't notice that the first time through, but on this reread I'm like - oh Forester you dog, you're preparing us for the ending.

Re: Babs: You know it had to have made him more attractive to her - don't we all want to fix the broken, especially if they look like Ioan Gruffudd? Heh. But I think that Barbara and Horatio seem enough alike in personality and temperament that she'd have been drawn to him anyway; she just might not have done anything about it if he hadn't been so clearly in need. Marie as well, I think, especially since he also had the grief then of not having Barbara.