RD audiobooks

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

(Here I come wearing out my welcome once again. Ah, well ...)

I bring up the audiobooks for Red Dwarf because that's sort of what got me back into this show, and into this fandom. My sister gave me her old Zune and on it she had bought and loaded "Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers." At first I just listened to it during long drives because it passed the time and I remembered liking the show and the books; it was, of course, entertaining, and I completely ignored who was reading it until my sister mentioned it to me near the end of my first listening. ("Wow, Rimmer does voices?")

So I've listened to it a few times. She also managed to secure the other three books for me to upload to the Zune to listen to (although I think "Better Than Life" is abridged; it's the radio show Chris read, with all the sound effects done for him instead of him having to simulate his own vomit and disco music, LOL). I just finished BTL and have a couple of observations (if they've been made before here, forgive me; as I said, I'm a clueless n00b).

Right, then. If you haven't read or heard it, "Better Than Life" picks up with the guys all stuck in the video game from the end of "Infinity," all living their fantasies: The Cat is king of half-naked valkyries on an island, Kryten is his housekeeper and dishwasher, Lister is married to Kris in Bedford Falls, with twin sons and where every day is Christmas Eve, and Rimmer is the richest and most powerful man in the world. As on the show when BTL is introduced, however, Rimmer's brain eventually turns everything to shit for them all - which is actually fortunate, since it turns out they've been stuck in the game for a hella long time and NEED to want to escape.

Without going into great details, I'll just pretend people have actually listened to it (or read the book, at least), since that's easy and I'm lazy. IMO at least, BTL is like the saddest piece of unrequited slash romance you will ever listen to being professionally read. IMO, it is painfully clear that Rimmer has a thing for Lister a mile wide and ten miles long, almost on the scale of Lister's dream of finding Kochanski. Here's the bits I noticed:

1. Rimmer divorces his first wife in BTL, a sexy Brazilian model, because she's highstrung and adultering. She comes back in this one a changed woman - literally, having had a personality transplant. She has a sense of humor, has had some of her selfishness removed, and no longer cares about money - and he is hooked. (Who might that sound like a female version of? *G*)

2. When he crashes into Lister's town in the lorry, he actually apologizes and seems to feel bad for ruining his perfect life. (Which, for Rimmer is GAH.)

3. After Rimmer is forced to leave Starbug because Red Dwarf can't sustain his hologram on board there, and Lister crash-lands on an ice planet, Rimmer spends his time harassing Holly and the others to find a way for them to go rescue Lister, who he keeps pointing out is starving on that planet and waiting for them. I mean HARASSING. He brings it up constantly, even worrying while they're being sucked into a black hole.

4. When they slingshot out of the black hole and are safe again, Rimmer and the Cat go down to the ice planet and track down Lister - who has been there for 34 years because of time distortions, being a farmer, and is an old man. Rimmer just seems so happy to have found him, and crestfallen when he realizes how long it's been for Lister to be alone with the cockroaches. (He also refrains from saying anything contradictory when Lister goes on yet again about how he intends to find Kochanski, and notices the memorials he's put up to her: a photo the wall of his house, and a field planted in jasmine with the initials K.K. For Rimmer to shut up about something like this MUST be love.)

5. After Lister dies and they give him a space burial, there's a little line where Rimmer sadly murmurs "goodbye" to the coffin and then has to go inform Holly of Lister's death. Shortly after, Holly begins printing out instructions for how to revive Lister by going through the black hole and burying him on the Backwards planet and then picking him up 36 years later - this to me is the best part of the audiobook, because the description of how damn HAPPY the solution makes Rimmer, how it makes him laugh out of joy for the first time in forever, is quite sweet.

Yeah, I'm a girl. I can't help it. The entire BTL audiobook just has this great undercurrent of Rimmer's love of Lister, whether you choose to see it as slashy or brotherly.

Any of you who've listened to the audiobook/read the book - your thoughts on the Rimmer/Lister dynamic (present or just alluded to one-sided)? What about the other audiobooks?

Comments

[laurenthemself]

Rimmer's joy over Holly finding a way to bring Lister back is one of my favourite things ever in those books.

You are not a clueless n00b; bear in mind this comm started after the release of the majority of the source material, so there are quite probably things we've never discussed, and honestly? We can always stand to get a new perspective on everything anyway, because it keeps the community alive.

[missflibble.livejournal.com]

>(Here I come wearing out my welcome once again. Ah, well ...)

(In female Holly London twang) 'Argh, who woke 'er up?'.
Joking aside, your contributions are amazing (both fics and posts) why should you worry? Keep posting, I enjoy the read muchly.

>("Wow, Rimmer does voices?")

Back in the 80s, Chris's stand up was entirely based on impressions. I love watching 'Spitting Image' and pulling out Chris's impressions (again, I remember watching it when I was younger and never clicked it was him)

More on the point, I think the novels feel far darker than the TV show - I tend to write my fics more around that tone (with the odd joke simile thrown in if my terrible comedy-writing brain can dredge 'em up). The novels also leave much more for interpretation. You've pulled out some nice and interesting moments in BTL there.

> Rimmer's joy over Holly finding a way to bring Lister back is one of my favourite things ever in those books.

I concur. Even though it feels strangely un-Rimmer, for some reason, in that single moment, it's totally believable. Love it.

[nice-girls-play.livejournal.com]

Ahhh, BTL.. so much love :) (and such a heteronormative ending... with someone who had no dialogue in the book...)

The one line in that book that really got to me was Rimmer/Trixie putting a hand "tenderly" on Lister's shoulder when he's telling him he's sorry, but it's okay because none of this is real.

"Infinity" has my other favourite moments: one, when Lister tells him that the fact that he wants to be adored is "cute," and when Lister and Rimmer are thinking about each other's fantasies in the game: Rimmer's upset because Lister's dream is so much more mature than his and Lister's sorry that he didn't indulge in quite the fantastic, imaginative elements of the game as Rimmer did.

[sadera992.livejournal.com]

can't say i noticed it being particularly slashy, but BTL is my favourite RD book. And it means i can't watch the ep BTL without being slightly dissappointed because its not as good as the book.

[jameta4all.livejournal.com]

I sincerely love book-Rimmer because he seems so much more fleshed out (impressive for someone who's a hologram). In the series, unless you're an expert at reading between the lines like us lot, it's easy to survey him as an arrogant git. But there's a lot going on in his head. Youngest of much better brothers, spent half his life being bullied - the other half ignored. You're not going to grow up to be 100% right with that kind of history.

When I go back to my parents over the summer I'm going to re-read all the books and hopefully pour out some fic :D

[fearcat.livejournal.com]

I've got both of them plus the audiobook 'Last Human' and because it’s only on type I I've had to buy a walkman so I can sit and relisten to them hehe.

I’ve been wanting to know if they will they be releasing 'Last Human' on iTunes or on CD anytime soon???

Yes Rimmer is my all time fav character out of RD, as I was growing up watching RD as a kid. I looked up to Rimmer as someone I wanted to be like, yes I know that making me sound as insane as some crazy mindless person working down at the co-op but OMG I just love him.

late, but i was rereading recently

[slinkhard.livejournal.com]

There's a nice bit in, I think it's The Last Human although I've got a poor memory for the books, when there's a GELF who's designed to please whichever master owns them (heh, the books sexual politics are a little more advanced than the show, too, always a plus. I think even Rimmer learns from his misogyny, and Lister's more right-on than say, S8, when they're watching the girls being spied on.) and transforms into Kochanski wearing a g-string. He says don't, I won't be able to concentrate, so it transforms into her dressed. He tells it that he loves her but they're apart (and iirc, she was with someone else?) to which it transforms into Rimmer and he says 'I can't focus if you're him, either.' LOL.

Oh, and one of the Better Than Life parts (I'm guessing it was probably in the BTL book, heh.) when they're still in the game and Kryten comes in saying three people survived the accident: Rimmer, Petersen and Kochanski; to which Lister knows it's still his fantasy.

[dauphkantus.livejournal.com]

Alright, I need to reread/listen pronto.

Anyone in need of a gestalt-partner/beta-reader/plotbunny-breeder?

I'll be loading up my RD-series-RAM file in the meanwhile (and ewe know that's a horn-ful of RD recall! 8D).