Of course, one of the worst parts of travel is that Archie isn't able to be sure that when he comes back, Wolfe will be where he left him!
Oh yeah, I kind of have to mention this:
For ten years I had been accustomed to being as sure of finding Nero Wolfe where I had left him as if he had been the Statue of Liberty, unless his house had burned down, and it was upsetting, not to mention humiliating, to find him flitting around like a hummingbird for a chance to lick the boots of a dago sausage cook.
Then two paragraphs later:
I let a greenjacket open the door for me and trusted my hat to another one in the hall, and began the search for my lost hummingbird.
(1) "ten years" -- the timeline is still progressing
(2) there's something really sweet about Archie thinking of Wolfe as one of the landmarks of New York City, one of the touchstones of the place where he's chosen to make his life...
(3) MY LOST HUMMINGBIRD oh my god. "MY LOST HUMMINGBIRD" you guys. What is this I can't even.
(4) And then there's Archie's intense resentment of Berin-- any time Wolfe shows vulnerability, Archie hates it. He hates it when Wolfe sucks up to people-- orchid fanciers, cooks, Dazy Perrit, anybody that has something Wolfe wants. And the thing is, Wolfe is proud, but he's not too proud to fail to recognize that he can't order around everyone in the world. And sometimes, when you want something from somebody, and you don't actually have anything to hold over their head, like a threat or an obligation, you have to (gasp) ask nicely for what you want! And maybe even grovel a tiny bit! And Archie HAAAAAATES it, and gets REALLY pissy when Wolfe does it. And he always displaces his anger onto the other guy-- in this case Berin.
And then way later on in the book, when Wolfe is giving his speech at the final dinner, we get this: For the first ten minutes or so I was uneasy. There was nothing in the world I would enjoy more than watching Nero Wolfe wallowing in discomfiture, but not in the presence of outsiders. When that happy time came, which it never had yet, I wanted it to be a special command performance for Archie Goodwin and no one else around. And I was uneasy because it seemed quite possible that the hardships on the train and loss of sleep and getting shot at might have upset him so that he would forget the darned speech, but after the first ten minutes I saw there was nothing to worry about. He was sailing along. I took another sip of brandy and relaxed.
*EYEBROWS RAISED* hradzka, you were saying something about D/s dynamics in Wolfe canon? The subtext is rapidly becoming text! Seriously, I, wow. Archie doesn't just hate it when Wolfe shows vulnerability, he hates it when Wolfe shows vulnerability *in public*, to other people, because *Archie* is the only person who ought to get to see that!
no subject
Of course, one of the worst parts of travel is that Archie isn't able to be sure that when he comes back, Wolfe will be where he left him!
Oh yeah, I kind of have to mention this:
For ten years I had been accustomed to being as sure of finding Nero Wolfe where I had left him as if he had been the Statue of Liberty, unless his house had burned down, and it was upsetting, not to mention humiliating, to find him flitting around like a hummingbird for a chance to lick the boots of a dago sausage cook.
Then two paragraphs later:
I let a greenjacket open the door for me and trusted my hat to another one in the hall, and began the search for my lost hummingbird.
(1) "ten years" -- the timeline is still progressing
(2) there's something really sweet about Archie thinking of Wolfe as one of the landmarks of New York City, one of the touchstones of the place where he's chosen to make his life...
(3) MY LOST HUMMINGBIRD oh my god. "MY LOST HUMMINGBIRD" you guys. What is this I can't even.
(4) And then there's Archie's intense resentment of Berin-- any time Wolfe shows vulnerability, Archie hates it. He hates it when Wolfe sucks up to people-- orchid fanciers, cooks, Dazy Perrit, anybody that has something Wolfe wants. And the thing is, Wolfe is proud, but he's not too proud to fail to recognize that he can't order around everyone in the world. And sometimes, when you want something from somebody, and you don't actually have anything to hold over their head, like a threat or an obligation, you have to (gasp) ask nicely for what you want! And maybe even grovel a tiny bit! And Archie HAAAAAATES it, and gets REALLY pissy when Wolfe does it. And he always displaces his anger onto the other guy-- in this case Berin.
And then way later on in the book, when Wolfe is giving his speech at the final dinner, we get this: For the first ten minutes or so I was uneasy. There was nothing in the world I would enjoy more than watching Nero Wolfe wallowing in discomfiture, but not in the presence of outsiders. When that happy time came, which it never had yet, I wanted it to be a special command performance for Archie Goodwin and no one else around. And I was uneasy because it seemed quite possible that the hardships on the train and loss of sleep and getting shot at might have upset him so that he would forget the darned speech, but after the first ten minutes I saw there was nothing to worry about. He was sailing along. I took another sip of brandy and relaxed.
*EYEBROWS RAISED*
DAMN.