AW, Chapter 6, Change of Heart Part 2

[rthstewart]

Oh look!  Another snow day when there's no snow!  In that case, why not update with Chapter 6, Change of Heart, Part 2, here  A huge thanks to snacky  for the beta!

Notes!
For the non Americans who may not know the story, the not very accurately named Boston Massacre and the Boston Tea Party.  Those uppity colonists.  The story of the Massachusetts Volunteer 54th is in many places, including the film Glory.  Research can begin at the wiki site.

The discussion of the Lieber Code, the General Orders No. 100, and the philosophical and legal bases for the Laws of War, are from Telford Taylor's memoir, Anatomy of the Nuremberg Trials.  The description of the declaration circulated by the governments in exile is also from Taylor's memoir. 

The British imprisonment of the Congress Party leaders in India is recounted in many, many places.  Here, Here, and here

I've developed all sorts of head canon involving the OCs in this chapter.  Me bad. 

I admit I couldn't resist the thought of Eustace and Edmund drinking rum (a sailor's drink to be sure) and Peter having his first taste of Mexican tequila.


As mentioned, I'm deep into Chapter 7 and have been trying to nail down the demographics of Liverpool and the events surrounding the Labour Party rally that occurred at Caxton Hall on September 2, 1942.  I'm also wading into race issues with duck boots on and having all those, OMG, what the HELL am I doing moments in my desire to avoid inadvertent race fail fanfiction on the Internet.  If anyone has any thoughts on this, anonymous and otherwise, I invite them.

I hope folks will review!


And because it's Susan's return:
His mother let out a deep sigh. Again she fiddled with the gloves in her lap then looked up at her children at the end of the train car. Susan had her hands over her mouth in surprise. Edmund put his hands out, mimicking dragon wings and Lucy looked like she was beating something with a bat – perhaps a sea monster with Caspian’s second best sword.

“I really can tell you nothing of it, Peter. I do not know that much as Susan keeps her own counsel when you all are not about. What I do know, I cannot say by law. But…”

Mum suddenly gripped his hand and so fiercely he almost winced.

“Your sister is a hero, Peter. She is courageous and brilliant and has impressed some very important men.” Mum dropped her voice lower to almost a hiss. “And you all damned well better appreciate her for it.”

Comments

[cofax7]

Oh, I quite liked that chapter. And I had never heard of the Brits sinking the French navy before, how awful. Eustace's attempts to behave better are quite amusing as week...

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

Yep, the British sinking of the Vichy French fleet was to keep the navy out of the hands of the Nazis. It was a huge communications screw up but in the end 1300 French sailors died and insofar as war crimes were concerned, there was some speculation that Churchill did have it on his mind.

Love the icon. And thanks so much for weighing in. Between the weather, power outages, and slow FB, I'm feeling quite down about the chapter.

[cofax7]

Well, not week. Damn you swype!

[min023.livejournal.com]

Brilliant update, love it. Won't rehash my ff.net review, except to note again that the internal law nerd did a big mental squee (had to be mental, 'cause the first read was in the early hours of the morning, when sensible people are supposed to be sleeping - blasted heat)

Anyway, I am very intrigued by that little excerpt from chapter 7. I realized after several re-reads that Mrs P. wouldn't be aware that the others know about Susan's American exploits. However, I did wonder just how much of the future state of Peter and Susan's relationship it portended. Has there already been some off-screen niggle between those two, that their mother feels the need to warn Peter off (as it were)? Or is it that she feels the need to warn of something that she doesn't think that Peter will necessarily like/understand? Or is it simply more of that "British manoeuvre" stiff (adore that expression, BTW), that she can't say, but wants to sort-of highlight? Curious minds want to know : )

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much. I'm feeling very down about the reception to the chapter and the lack of power and sucky weather here. As for curious minds wanting to know, I've already written the exchange between Peter and Mrs. P (who I still have not named yet) but your commentary raises some points I need to think about. I think she perceives that Susan is just generally discounted as the pretty one who is rubbish with books and she wants Peter at least to know that his sister is awesome. There's some female vs male going on here as well -- something she hinted at with the Colonel and with Tebbitt -- how the distaff side is ignored and discounted. So, she feels slighted and sees those slights directed to her daughter as well. The tension between Susan and Peter will enter the dynamic by the end of the chapter, but it's not here.

There's a lot about children and parents going on in this last chapter and the one to come. Anyhow, thanks for the commenting. I so appreciate it. I'm feeling about this chapter the way I did about the later chapters of H&M and the end of TQSiT with readers disappearing again. Thanks so very, very much. I keep thinking that if someone liked it well enough, they would say something instead of that great echoing silence.

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

Oh and you were wondering about Mrs. Clark. I've been developing head canon there which will probably, maybe, eventually, work it's way in, but you know, OCs so who cares, right? So, stop me before I totally commit Mary Sue-itis. I Anna Clark nee Adams is from a more upper class Boston family -- the Brahmins who were referred to in the earlier chapter. Pretty, rich, a bit spoiled, maybe some mental illness, and she and Tom elope, and have Jack and then she runs off with trapeze artist or something and the family pretends she never existed. The Clarks are from Andover and have been associated with Ruby's family -- the Smiths -- for a long time -- going back to maybe a Clark freeing a Smith? Or maybe the Smiths never were slaves. Both families are middle class and Ruby herself has mostly finished college at some school in New York but with Anna Clark running off, she's pretty much raising Jack.

Tom is pretty sentimental, deeply misses his former wife; still loves her and keeps pictures of her. There was no reason to introduce any of this into the story at this point, cuz he's a guy and doesn't go around thinking of that sort of thing unless there is reason to. Also, funny, but I've read that with so many men away, and with so many women at Bletchley Park, there were lots of torrid affairs going on with the men who were there. So, I think Tom is going to be seriously pursued. Not that he minds. I'll need to get in the line that Orwell used:
The British thought the Americans were overpaid, overfed, oversexed and over here. The Americans thought the British were underpaid, underfed, undersexed and under Eisenhower.

[min023.livejournal.com]

Whee - that's a lot of fun, even if you don't end up bringing it on stage.

[the_rck]

Yea! That was fun. I had to put off reading it so I could work at my daughter's school, but I was looking forward to getting home to read, and the chapter lived up to my expectations.

Thanks for writing!

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! There's a lot about parents and children here and in the next chapter. Really, I have no idea where this all comes from.

[autumnia]

Just read and reviewed! It was hard, you know, to get the notification this morning and avoid FF.net and LJ like the plague for the rest of the day. Otherwise, I'd have gotten no work done at all!

Snow day without the snow? I'd be happy to give you some of our snow! (Sixth snowstorm since Christmas, as the weather people keep telling us on the news. I'm so tired of it all.)

The Susan bit is fascinating... My only guess here is that perhaps there is some bit of mention about our Lord Peridan? And Mrs Pevensie! Well, I can see a bit more of the traits she's passed down to her children.

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, in the chapter to come there is lots of the traits of children stemming from mum. Thanks so very very much. I hope you are digging out. We're in a terrible mess here. Power out, and what not. It's a mess. The FB on this chapter is reminding me of what happened at the end of TQSiT and H&M, so fandom downer is contributing to the overall bummer of a day here. Ugh.

[autumnia]

I trudged into work today (early!) despite the snow. It wasn't that bad except once I could manage to get into the middle of the street. No power outages despite the storm, thank goodness.

I think one thing I liked about Tom Clark is that he doesn't treat the Pevensies like children; he compares them to Jack and see the differences (blame the War all you want, even if it's not the complete reason) and for the most part, treats them a bit more like how they are, with minimal patronizing when they say things that one doesn't really expect from teenagers.

Also, I saw this on the BBC today and thought of Queen Susan and Tashbaan!

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

Snow and power outages. We're scheduled for restoration on Jan. 30 by 11 PM. I'm not sure we'll have power back until then.

Fascinating article! As for my boyfriend, Lt. Col. Clark, he's probably being a bit too naive about it, attributing it all to what he thinks is the school, the culture, and the War. But, he doesn't know. He can compare them to his own kid and figures that is what it must be.

[varnafinde.livejournal.com]

Fascinating excerpt from chapter 7! What is going on?

This time I did my whole review of chapter 6 at ff.net - in here I will only say "delightful"!!!

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

Thank you so very, very much. what is going on?
Peter, Edmund and Lucy travel to Liverpool to meet the boat.
They all travel back, with Peter sitting with his mum on the train.
Susan then has multiple conversations with, in succession, Lucy, Edmund, and finally Peter.
September 2 arrives.

Thank you so very, very much.

[elouise82.livejournal.com]

I haven't had a chance to read either this chapter or the previous yet - I've been taking my reading in snack-size bites these days, and your works are definitely full meals - but I am enjoying reading your footnotes on here, and the little glimpses you give into what is to come. Mrs. Pevensie swearing at Peter to make her point! Lucy demonstrating how to bash a sea monster with a second-best sword!

I get the impression that Susan takes after her mother more than the others? One reason why Mrs. P feels so fierce regarding her, and wants to be certain the others appreciate her, because she knows what it's like to be undervalued because of your pretty face?

I am looking forward to delving into all the recent chapters, someday soon, I hope.

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

Oh my friend, you have long, busy, wonderful, and very trying days. I know that and understand so well. The past two days with no school, I've been overseeing the care of 3-6 children ages 12 and under.

I get the impression that Susan takes after her mother more than the others? One reason why Mrs. P feels so fierce regarding her, and wants to be certain the others appreciate her, because she knows what it's like to be undervalued because of your pretty face?

that is it, exactly. Mrs. Pevensie discussed with the Colonel her feelings that the distaff side of things was ignored, and she sees that same trend toward her daughter. She gets pretty waspish about it, too. In particular because she SEES that her children are different and odd, and she doesn't know why, and she is fed up with people dismissing her observations because she is just an over-reacting mother. She knows it doesn't add up and it's really hard for her. She and Peter are going to be tackling this head on -- I think that she's regretting her "hand's off approach" some and she wants to be more involved by trying to get her children to open up about their secrets is very much a force meets brick wall problem.

[elouise82.livejournal.com]

I would love to see someone - not me, but someone - tackle a "Mrs. Pevensie before she was married" story. Even as a one-shot! She had to be a fairly extraordinary mother to raise the four children she did, and I would love to see someone take a stab at just who she was and her philosophy toward life, before becoming a wife and mother. For example, just what did she do during the First World War? Just fancy if she was involved with Intelligence, and her children have no idea, because to them she is "just Mum"! Ooh, and the conversation between her and Susan when Susan finds out ...

Hey look! I'm being an instigator!

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

or example, just what did she do during the First World War? Just fancy if she was involved with Intelligence, and her children have no idea, because to them she is "just Mum"! Ooh, and the conversation between her and Susan when Susan finds out ...Hey look! I'm being an instigator!

you get right on that!!

[min023.livejournal.com]

Goodness me. I have enough trouble entertaining one child. 3-6, without power? My hat's off to you. Now that's an interesting direction to be taking -the kids had to get their strong wills from somewhere, and why not their mother? In lots of ways, I can't see the kids doing anything but keeping their own counsel, so this could be the foundation for some truly spectacular battles with their parents, given they're all running off in unexpected/unwanted directions (or at least from a parental perspective). Fascinating new headspaces opening up here.

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

I can't see the kids doing anything but keeping their own counsel, so this could be the foundation for some truly spectacular battles with their parents, given they're all running off in unexpected/unwanted directions (or at least from a parental perspective).
Why yes, this is all very true. Back to writing.