Chapter 17, TQSiT

[rthstewart]

It's up.  Moles in the Garden, Part 1.  I tried really hard to get another update in February -- it's been slightly more than 2 weeks.  So...
Once again, we are not in Susan's point of view, and in fact, it's not in America at all.  As happened at the end of Part 1, it's both looking back, and beginning to set the stage for the next part, Part 3.  It's the night that TQSiT began, when Peter arrives to see Eustace, Lucy, and Edmund, the evening of their return from the Dawn Treader, so the barriers between Spare Oom and Narnia are rather "porous" -- though of course a thematic element of TQSiT is that the two worlds are not so separate after all. 

So, that's that.  Thanks so very, very much.  And why did it never occur to me before that Neverland and Narnia both begin with the letter N.

Comments

[ilysia-039.livejournal.com]

And why did it never occur to me before that Neverland and Narnia both begin with the letter N.

I'm afraid there's no time tonight for a great long, in-depth review, but let me just say that the above comment just about made my day.

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

Neverland is one of those things that I knew wish I had considered further. On the other hand, Part 1 was set in Oxford and there is the lovely connection to Carroll and the Oxford Museum of Natural History. I have always found the Peter Pan stories vaguely sinister as well and really the underlying elements of the story are precisely opposite of where I am taking the characters here so it would serve only as the counterpoint. Peter (Pevensie)has no real connection to the boy who never grows up, the Trickster and Pan, Peter Pan. If I wanted to turn the story into a cautionary one where Peter Pevensie is always looking back with longing to Neverland, never wanting to grow up, the parallel could work nicely. But of course, that is not the Peter of this story who is, if anything, very much too grown up. While he is, at the beginning, still looking back, the point of his journey is that the way forward is here. Peter is expected to take his many skills learned in Narnia and apply them meaningfully here, to go, as Asim and the cat discuss, through the window.

[autumnia]

I blame you, rth, for my not going to bed earlier this evening. I had been prepared to log off when the story alert arrived in my inbox, and well, I simply cannot wait till tomorrow to read this.

So one hour and a somewhat long review later, I am done! Tomorrow, I will most likely find myself analyzing this latest chapter and trying not to mix it up with The Irregulars (up to chapter 3 now).

Loved, loved, loved the chapter! As for 'N' -- if only you could find a connection to 'Alice in Wonderland' as well!

[elouise82.livejournal.com]

woNderland?

(hey, it's 7AM - this is as clever as I get before my second cup of tea.)

[autumnia]

I'm now on my second tea of the morning (Chinese Pu-Erh at breakfast, and now some inferior Decaf Green at work), and I'm still not clever or witty at this hour!

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

I cannot BELIEVE I did not think of Casp in the telegram and Mrs. Caspian. ARGH! Oh well, it will be a revelation to come later, I think. We'll assume he only heard about "Mrs. Caspian" and just assumes he doesn't have enough information about Casp to do anything else with it, unlike the A where Asim has Edmund's telegram, Peter's response, and Susan's letter and where he has the telegram and letter for N.

[autumnia]

And speaking of Asim, I would be very impressed if his Cantonese was pretty passable. Mandarin's a lot easier to learn (or so I've been told) and more literal, while Cantonese is based on a lot of slang. As a native Cantonese speaker, even I have trouble understanding half of what has been said to me.

When he does finally meet Susan, I wonder what his impressions of her will be. Will he be greeting young Miss Pevensie, or the older, more experienced and wary Mrs. Caspian?

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

Now I **think** I knew that you were from Asia/spoke a Chinese language, or something of that sort. Good heavens, PLEASE speak up if I get something wrong!! I'm still wondering if I should add some reflection on Casp and language and belief systems are far more important! Thanks so much! I had checked and in Hong Kong it has seemed Cantonese was the predominate language, so that's what I used. The nuance of Mandarin vs. Cantonese was not something I picked up on. Given that (in my head) Kun is educated in a rough sort of way, Catholic school primary school, Buddhist household, joining Mary's family on staff when they were in Hong Kong, I think the more slang-based language probably works. I see his wife as being more educated. Anyhow, I'm babbling now. Please share any thoughts you have! PM, email or otherwise!

[autumnia]

In Hong Kong, Cantonese is/was the predominate dialect spoken. In more recent years, Mandarin has slowly been infiltrating society, with all the mainland Chinese people heading down there. (I can't understand Mandarin and it's hard for me to wrap my head around it.) Written Chinese is universal and can be understood by everyone even though there are hundreds of dialects spoken throughout China.

Considering the time frame, Kun and Lee would indeed speak Cantonese if they were from Hong Kong. So the words from the conversation during the Hong Kong tea early on back in Part 1 were correct. I easily picked up on fung zao, bau, gow and of course, Dai pai dong and nai cha.

[metonomia.livejournal.com]

Will review tomorrow in full, but my past two hours spent being beat about the head by Qur'anic chronology theories have inspired more poetical effusions (God bless the Japanese and their wondrous poetry style):

Liquid golden eyes,
Summer and the smell of rain,
Hey, this cat can growl!

There were fragments of others but my mind is fading quickly from the realm of coherent thought, so, just a few quick things that I can't wait for my review to note, for fear of forgetting that I want to discuss them:
1. Neverland/Narnia, Peter Pan/Peter Pevensie - Pevensie as a more grown up Pan?
2. Smoking in Nirvana - the nature of heaven. (also, dragon's smoke is like Patel's cigarette - Narnia as heaven and mix of more common dreamworld with Asim's God-given dreaming)
3. Windows, doors, further down and further out.
4. Polly and Mary in the Library of fossils. Otherwise called - Just what stories of Richard are Polly telling to Mary?
5. Europeans' linear thinking vs eastern world - where does Narnia fall?
6. Oh, Richard.

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

Thank you for all your help! As you know, the dragon and the smoke came late to this chapter, so I'm glad you liked the change! As for the Library of Fossils, I'm not sure what you had in mind! I see the house as having sort of 3 floors, because well, I need 3 floors to work the way I want it to -- first floor with kitchen, dining room, library, ballroom, hall and most of them filled with giant blocks of plaster, bone, and rock, from Tendaguru and the Gobi (yes, this is back in chapter 2 of part 1!!). Second floor guest rooms, drawing room with big huge windows looking out on the lawns, with a back stair that connects to the family floor. Ahem, right, yeah. I sound like LARM here.
I definitely see Narnia falling outside the rigorous linear thinking of almost everyone -- you can see where it gets you when dealing with the mystery of Narnia in the Colonel's thought processes in the previous chapter. Thank you again, I could not have not managed it without you and Larm!
As for the stories Polly is telling Mary, well, whatever can be managed as Mary plies her with the gin. Refer to the Christmas story for likely effects and outcome.

[lady_songsmith]

*flailing and general incoherency* Full review tomorrow when I sort out what I want to say. For now, just a comment that I am seriously in love with your OCs, all of whom have so much depth to them. We've seen the Russell household for about two pages in total, maybe? And yet everyone has a major personality and a wealth of backstory.

Also I have a half-stirring desire to do a timeline of what's happening to who when for the sake of my own brain.

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

The Russell Hall staff have been in my head since the very, very beginning, chapter 1 of Part 1. I had certain things in my head, certain qualities I wanted them to have, and it's been sitting there for a year waiting to come out. Unquestionably, their personalities have been more developed as I've worked through the support staff of Cair Paravel. If you take those individuals, Cook, Mrs. Furner, Mr. Hoberry, the Guards, Sir Leszi the swordmaster, Master Roblang the armsmaster, and mashed them all up and cut them into different pieces, you would have the Russell Hall folks, more or less.

As for the timeline (I've been thinking about a cast list too), yeah, it probably wouldn't hurt for me to do it. Thanks so much for reading! I so appreciate it!

[ilysia-039.livejournal.com]

As for the timeline (I've been thinking about a cast list too), yeah, it probably wouldn't hurt for me to do it.

Yes.

Simply yes.

[lady_songsmith]

Not sure that was a 'full review'; as everyone's been saying there's a LOT in this chapter! Skimming through some of the other reviews, I want to add: the connection of Aslan/Narnia to Cheshire Cat/Wonderland may bear some consideration! And the Casp/Caspian connection I think definitely he should pick up on -- but maybe a bit later; there's only so many flashes of insight one person can get at a time!

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much for the review and all. For some reason, I think there's another cat in Wonderland... need to look at it again. I had not really thought there was that much in the chapter -- I know I was setting some things up, like the staff, the flues, the return of the plaster blocks, and so on. And yes, two big revelations, but I'm... well, surprised at the reaction to this chapter, I guess. But, I'm always surprised and am a terrible judge of what I write. Oh and yeah, there's the whole seduction thing going on with Polly and the gin and Kwong Lee manipulating the whole situation.

[(Anonymous)]

Not in Wonderland, I think, but possibly in Looking Glass. Unless you count Alice's own cat(s) which only appear in the frame.

Oh, the flues! I was thinking about those - an interesting construction! Much potential for eavesdropping intentional and otherwise.

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

Oh, Alice does have the cat with kittens, as I recall! Certainly the cat comes into play in Looking Glass (I think). Oh yes, the flues. There are parts of this story from Part 3 that have been in my head for well over a year now -- the flues are one of them.

[lady_songsmith]

Er, that was me, forgetting that I'm not automatically logged in at work.

[varnafinde.livejournal.com]

There have been comments about 'Why didn't Lewis use Susan more, flesh her out more, use her possibilities more?'

I think the answer is 'Because he wasn't writing a novel, he was writing a fairytale.'

I love the opportunities that fanfiction gives for writing (and reading) the novel(s) behind the fairytale.

Yours is a great novel. Not a novel for children, not only because of some 'adult' moments, but also because it's about grown-ups and their mindsets. Never mind that the birth certificate of one of those grown-ups says that she's fifteen ...

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

Awww, thank you so much! I love how you describe Susan as one of the grown ups, regardless of what the birth cetificate says.

[ilysia-039.livejournal.com]

Have read chapter.

Am amazed.

*flails in amazement*

This chapter is brilliant. I said it in the review and I'm saying it here and probably will say it at least ten times in every conversation I have with you from this point on, but, God. This is an Epic chapter, not so much because of what goes on physically but, um, spiritually. It makes me want to philosophize or go out into the desert to pray. Just... I love Asim so much. He's such a brilliant character.

Goodness, I'm such a fangirl for this story.

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

Oh, thanks so much! I'm listening to your awesome interview now. Tasty needs to edit out a piece of it that repeats, but it's a GREAT conversation. Really great. Hello? Fandom? Are you listening?

As for Asim, you'll need to check out the review that Gillian left (with spew warning). I am such a poor judge of what works with readers. I mean REALLY bad. I so appreciate your review and reading.

[min023.livejournal.com]

What a delightful chapter. It's lovely to see the return of the denizens of Russell Hall. Lots of nice connections all over the place, too. Love how you're now tying all of parts one and two together. Reviews are owed, so I'll leave them over at FF.net, rather than repeat myself here, and bore you senseless. Oh, and BTW, on then question of a timeline and dramatis personae, yes please!
: )

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

You are (still) alive! Thanks!