Hmmm...

[meganbmoore]

 Blind swordswoman assassin in Victorian or 1920s steampunk setting who lives by day as the poor but provided for genteel relation of a reclusive noble* and dictates horrid novels** to her companion/assistant.***  Gets invited to a lot of gatherings as a charity case, of course.

I'm the only person in the world who would ever want to read this, aren't I...

*Most likely, he was a very unpleasant person she offed some time back, and nobody had kept in touch with him for decades.

**Except I'm pretty sure they weren't called that anymore by then.  Which is a pity, as I do love saying "horrid novels."

***Companion/Assistant is her assistant in both lives, but not an assassin him/herself.  

ETA:  context here 

ETA 2:  I suck and left out the vital "steampunk" word originally... 

ETA 3: Sometimes, I forget just what kinds of people read this LJ...

Comments

[keelieinblack.livejournal.com]

...considering that my reaction to reading those sentences was "ooh, ooh, what story is that?" and then "aw, no! it doesn't really exist?"

Yeah, I don't think you're the only one who'd read it.

[oxymoronassoc.livejournal.com]

OH WHATEVER THIS IDEA IS AWESOME AND YOU KNOW IT. THOUGH SWORDSWOMAN? IN THAT ERA? SEEMS A LITTLE...ANACHRONISTIC? IDK BUT EXPLAIN TO ME THE WHY OF SWORDS!!! I AM INTERESTED.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Actually, swords, while not run-of-the-mill, aren't unusual in the steampunk setting. Steampunk is kinda...anachronistic historical scifi/fantasy as it is, and lends itself pretty well to things like swords.

Ok, it's in the comments of the linked post: but basically, I mentioned that I wanted to find a way to create a blind, female, sword-wielding assassin on the same level as a manga character who's essentially a goddess of death(she can slaughter a dozen men, up close, with blades, without getting a drop of blood on her) only without the character's "woe is me"-ing. But at the same time, I don't want her to have superhuman abilities, and the steampunk setting allows for inventions that can affect sound and hearing.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I think I'm worried that I was piling on too many of my love and would be accused of overkill.

[oxymoronassoc.livejournal.com]

Oh I hadn't realized it was steampunk! Makes sense then. It sounds really cool.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

*facepalm*

That is because I suck and left out a vital word...

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

Seconded!

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

Zaitoichi! That's the famous blind assassin I kept forgetting.

[kingcrankycat.livejournal.com]

I would read it. And then I could never read anything ever again

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

note: I accidentally left out the word "steampunk" earlier, which is rather crucial as it occured to me that making it steampunk could left me play with radar and vibration type machines.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Interestingly, it comes from a quasi-secret desire for a blind assassin of Makie's level, but without the woe-is-me-ness, without having to result to supernatural abilities.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Aaah...yeah. Zatoichi is something I'm always meaning to watch, but haven't yet.

[kingcrankycat.livejournal.com]

That by itself would sell it to me.

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

There's two different versions-- the Takeshi Kitano one, and the original movies. And there's a blind swordspig in Usagi Yojimbo, but that's another story.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Blind swordspig with a wooden nose, at that.

Actually, I think he's what got me interested in Zatoichi. I am prone to going "This! This character in Usagi Yojimbo! Who is it! I go find original source now!"

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

That's how I found Lone Wolf and Cub!

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Me too. Though, the fact that every woman in it was dead, a prostitute, evil, or a rape victim made me drop it after a while. I mean, aside from the evil part, I know it was because it fit the times, I just wished there were a few contented women in it.

But it also led me to Tomoe Gozen and Mushashi Miyamoto and Akira Kurosawa, so...

[havocthecat]

DUDE. Steampunk? Blind swordswoman assassin? That sounds awesome.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

If you look back a couple entries, you can see how I came to the idea.

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

Ninja Turtles comic books taught me so much. Sort of.

[ryanitenebrae.livejournal.com]

Oh, man, I would not only read this, I wouldn't put it down. Please, please write it, because it sounds amazing.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Right now I'm trying to figure out exactly when to set it. Part of the reason for status and Victorian setting is that it lets her "get lost" in certain places to get used to the layout, and then handwave it away, but there are other elements I'd like that I think wouldn't be possible until something set in the 20s or 30s, but I'm not sure that kind of gathering was as common then.

[ryanitenebrae.livejournal.com]

Hrm, well, do you mind my asking what those elements are? I'd be glad to help in any way possible.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Essentially, I'm currently picturing her foil as a constable along the lines of Inspector Japp in Christie's Poirot books, or Parker in Dorothy Sayers's Peter Wimsey books. Someone who isn't upper class or genteel himself, but respectable enough to interact with them as long as they weren't too stuffy, and I don't think those social conditions existed until the early 20th century.

Obviously, if I do do it, I'd need to do a lot of research. Right now I'm largely shooting off random ideas in my head.

[woodburner.livejournal.com]

^ What she said, lol.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Well, I pretty much assumed you and Vern would want to read it...

[ryanitenebrae.livejournal.com]

^^ Pardon me for using the obvious example, but do you mean like Sherlock Holmes? And if that's the case, I know those books were both set in England, and written in the Victorian period. The only thing I don't know is how reflective they were of reality regarding Holmes' social standing.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm thinking an actual constable. IIRC, (and I could be off my rocker here) Holmes wasn't an official officer of the law, and that's what I'm thinking of.

[seriousfic.livejournal.com]

**Except I'm pretty sure they weren't called that anymore by then. Which is a pity, as I do love saying "horrid novels."

You mean penny dreadfuls?

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

Not counting small children and elderly grannies, ummm...I can think of at least one female character in LW&C who's neither dead, evil, a prostitute, or a rape victim? It's the girl from the brother-sister pair of teens who hire Ittō to help them in their quest for revenge against the guy who killed their father. (Since they have to do it themselves, it ends up with him helping to lure the guy out to where they can get to him and keeping his bodyguards/retainers/etc. out of their hair while the kids go all slice-and-dice on him with naginata.)

Also, I'm fairly sure that in at least one of the cases where a poor peasant girl was being sold off to a brothel, he winds up interfering and killing off baddies so that she can go back home with her contract paid off.

There's probably at least a couple more, but um, loooooong series and I haven't reread it in several years, those are just the ones that stuck with me. Still not enough I'm sure to balance out your irritation enough to be worth picking it up again, but just sayin' -- Kazuo Koike loves him some exploitation chambara, but he's not quite at Frank "WHORES WHORES WHORES" Miller levels.

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

Holmes was not an officer of the law; he was a "consulting detective" of somewhat bohemian lifestyle, and Watson was a medical doctor, formerly with the British Army's medical corps but discharged after sustaining a grave injury in battle.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Pretty much. Though I was thinking more along the lines of 3 volume gothic novels, which "horrid novels" conveys better than "penny dreadfuls," IMO.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Yeah. It was definitely much more "the times were cruel to women" than "WHORES!" but just too much. Mind you, I quit after around vol 12 or. I very much appreciated what it was doing and the fact that it was pretty much brilliant, but...

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Yup, that's what I thought, which keeps him from counting for what I'm thinking of.

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

I am a major, major, major Zatoichi fangirl, if you haven't gathered as much from past discussions. I'd recommend both series -- the Takeshi Kitano is fabulous (I'm a huge fangirl of his work as well), but it has a lot of the director/star's usual quirks and doesn't really give you the same feel as the classic Shintaro Katsu movies/TV program. The Katsu series ran FOREVER and they do get a little repetitive after a while, but if you like the premise and the period and the lead, they're still quite enjoyable just for watching the story ring minor changes on the familiar tropes.

(Mind you, it's typical chambara of the period in that there are a lot of tragically dead women, hookers-with-hearts-of-gold, etc, but there are also plenty of perfectly-alive-and-respectable young wives, doting mothers, sweet and innocent young things for Ichi to get all protective over, etc. etc. etc.)

[southerndave.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure on the 1920s usage, but "horrid" would always have seemed to me more a description of the novel's quality, rather than the subject matter... "lurid" could possibly be a better word. They could possibly have been called "gothic romances" (but both those words have different connotations nowadays - very much different, in the latter case) and maybe "potboilers" (which I think would fit quite well in the context you're describing). Anyway, considering the setting is going to be "steampunk", you don't have to go for strict period accuracy; just internal consistency is all you need.

Anyway, the most important thing is, I want you to write this story so I can read it. You could even try doing it for nanowrimo this year (I've got a vague plot idea in my head that might escape in time, although I'm not promising anything, but if it works out I could inflict my incompetent attempts at prose on yourself... if anything could make you feel like writing, seeing someone much less creative than yourself having a go at it could do it...)

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I'm not positive, but I think they were originally called "horrid" because they were about young women drawn to bad men and having desires.

I suspect that if I try to have a go at it, I'll end up trying to make it a book, and researching as much as I can and trying to make it as true to the period it's based on as I can.

[sienamystic.livejournal.com]

You were supposed to end this entry by telling me that this so-described book was out now and I could run out and buy it.

Hmphf.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

As far as I know, you have to get me to spend months of my life researching and writing it fitst.

[salimbol.livejournal.com]

Then Megan, please please spend months of your life researching and writing it first. We wants to read it, we does!

[magicnoire.livejournal.com]

Good assumption!

[ryanitenebrae.livejournal.com]

You are not off your rocker - I am off mine. Sorry for that, no, Holmes was not actually afilliated with Scotland Yards. I should have checked that, first.

I have been looking for information online, to help you. I hope this link is helpful, and I will try to come up with more. Also, if it is Steampunk, would some anachronisms really be a problem?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/victorians/beat_01.shtml

[bellzooks.livejournal.com]

That sounds so very far beyond awesome, that I can't even express it. I am almost tempted to resort to macro-speech, but I am somehow able to resist.

Seriously? I wish I could read it right now.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Thanks. *saves link for later*

Well, if I do write this, I'll probably try to make it as close to historically accurate as I can, even if, by definition, it has to be historically inaccurate.

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

I just saw an utterly awesome one with a lovely young thing he fell for-- The Festival of Fire. Sweet.

[akosikae.livejournal.com]

Are you going to write this? It first I thought "wait, wait, what's the title of the book that she's referring to?" Am interested!