rthstewart: (Default)
rthstewart ([personal profile] rthstewart) wrote2011-02-09 10:14 am
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Happy Birthday to Ilysia!

Happy Birthday to the fabulous and talented [livejournal.com profile] ilysia_039 
Oh gosh... I owe birthday fic...  Errrr, hold on...  I've just skimmed the whole of the next two chapters and I think it's really boring and it needs massive cutting, but here's an excerpt:


The house seemed smaller.  Everything seemed smaller and Susan recalled what Aslan had said about how he had seemed bigger because they themselves were.

And she was bigger, far bigger, so large and so complex a person that she no longer felt it all could fit in the confines of Susan Pevensie.  She stared a long time at the freshly laundered school uniform hanging on the bedroom closet door and blinked back tears.  The graying starched blouse and skirt that hit at just the wrong place, the flannel jacket and tie would replace the sensible, but very fashionable and flattering, Washington dresses that Mrs. Caspian favored.  

She was not sure she could do it.  It was like the way Lucy packed – tossing everything into too small a case, sitting on it, and hoping it would all fit, even if the thing was fit to burst.  Susan Pevensie wasn’t  large enough for her many selves.  She had to find a way for them to peacefully coexist.  

Or, perhaps all she needed was a bigger suitcase.  Maybe a steamer trunk.  Or, and she smiled as she became hopelessly ensnared in the metaphor and Aslan gave her the answer – a wardrobe.  

This was not the first time she had learned how a confined space could hold something so very much greater.  Yes, she could fill a space the size of Narnia, or France, perhaps.  

“Susan?” Lucy asked from her bed.

“Just thinking about how much I do not wish to return to school.”

Lucy sniffed.  “It will be horrid.”  She sounded so miserable, Susan stopped staring at the stupid schoolgirl uniform and immediately crossed over to Lucy’s bed.  Sitting, she took her sister in her arms.

“So what is this all about?” Susan asked, dabbing Lucy’s dribbling tears.  “You’ve been keeping something inside a long time.  What had to wait until I returned?”
autumnia: Susan Pevensie, 1942 America (Susan (writing))

[personal profile] autumnia 2011-02-09 03:20 pm (UTC)(link)
Fic!! I especially liked this line: Susan Pevensie wasn't large enough for her many selves.

It so true for all of them. And I now wonder what Lucy needs to tell her sister.
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[identity profile] rthstewart.livejournal.com 2011-02-10 12:28 am (UTC)(link)
Thanks! I wish the rest of it wasn't boring!

[identity profile] mrstater.livejournal.com 2011-02-09 03:52 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, loved that excerpt, particularly the idea of Susan feeling too small to contain all of herself and tying that in with the wardrobe. I really need to check out this fic in its entirety--lately I've come to think a lot about how awful it must be to have to cope with going back home after Narnia, and this sounds right up my alley...Something to read at the Tater Tot's next naptime!
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[identity profile] rthstewart.livejournal.com 2011-02-09 04:18 pm (UTC)(link)
Errr, checking out the fic in its entirety... on that path lies madness. I did post some shortcuts here a while back, http://rthstewart.livejournal.com/30663.html It is quite the chore but yes, a fundamental premise of the overall work is Narnia for Grown Ups -- I'm an adult, writing adult characters (admittedly for part it in children's' bodies) for adult readers. I think that most folks can read the first four chapters of TSG Part 1, Oxfordshire 1942 and see very quickly what they are in for and whether it's what they like. The idea expressed above that Susan Pevensie is too small to contain her many selves goes to the significant expansion of Susan's character in Part 2. The question of Susan's identities is one that is played with a lot in the work.

[identity profile] ilysia-039.livejournal.com 2011-02-10 12:09 am (UTC)(link)
*blushes*

What a fantastic birthday gift! It is to my great shame that I'm not quite entirely caught up with AW at the moment, but I adore this little sneak peak. And let me just say again how much I love your Susan.

Thanks so much!
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[identity profile] rthstewart.livejournal.com 2011-02-10 12:27 am (UTC)(link)
I hope you had a great birthday!!

[identity profile] min023.livejournal.com 2011-02-10 10:35 am (UTC)(link)
Wow, that is a very profound metaphor. Now I'm even keener for the forthcoming chapter.
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[identity profile] rthstewart.livejournal.com 2011-02-10 08:29 pm (UTC)(link)
Yep, I'll get a shorter one up today or tomorrow (7,000-8,000 words) though this segment isn't part of it. Then, another 10,000 up in another 2 weeks or so. Based on recent events, and re-reading some of what I've been musing on over the last year under the Going There tab, I've decided to push and pull Peter and Susan's reunion in some new directions. I'll just work it out in the fic.

[identity profile] andi-horton.livejournal.com 2011-02-10 08:21 pm (UTC)(link)
Excerpts are yummy things, and your excerpts are yummier than most *g* I especially love the idea of her own --old-- self being insufficient to contain her any longer.

I'm currently --this very second, in class, whoops-- developing a unit on YA fiction, and seeing this, I immediately thought of Mrs Caspian--
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/3b/Whatisaw.jpg

Will let you know if its insides live up to the cover that contains it ;)
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[identity profile] rthstewart.livejournal.com 2011-02-10 08:26 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh how fabulous. It's been an unpleasant day for me in Real and Imaginary Life. Just seeing your alert has turned this around a bit and oh yes, that is an awesome cover!!! I do hope all is well! You are missed! In fact, on the recent AsCast I even mentioned how much Andi Horton is missed in the fandom! Yes, I know, RL is more important, but still!! you are missed!

[identity profile] andi-horton.livejournal.com 2011-02-11 02:05 am (UTC)(link)
Aw, thank you. I miss fandom! I sort of dragged fandom into my practicum, in a way-- they wrote Narnia fic, and I felt like I had accomplished a Great Deed! One young man even wrote a self-insert and handled it far better than I have seen lots of other people do, so I gave him as high a mark as I could, considering that he had missed the point of the whole assignment . . .

I do have a professor who has referred to the fact that I write fic more than once when she is addressing the class, so I am regretting my essay on that topic, but at least it is a nice reminder of how much I miss everybody in fandom to whom I am not in some other way attached.

What I Saw and How I Lied is shaping up quite nicely, so far . . .