Chapter 7, the Queen Susan in Liverpool (and Finchley)

[rthstewart]

So, Chapter 7 is up.  It's been a really rotten week, with Friday most definitely of the not fun variety for me especially.  So, here's a bit of very, very long distraction.  I have gone back and forth on whether to include the first of four encounters Susan has in Finchley.  I decided that as the chapter is entitled Queen Susan, I should just ignore the fact that the chapter clocks in at 11,000 words and include the first one so you actually have some Susan rather than just Peter.  The next one is very nearly done though based upon a review of my prior journal entries tagged "Going There" which I undertook in light of some recent yukiness, I'm going to expand it a bit.  (Hopefully without polemic, but I'm in an expansive mood at the moment). 

In any event, moving on, as you can see, I waded deep into racial territory and my thanks to those who aided in the research including Clio and autumnia  .  snacky  had the excellent suggestion of contacting a Liverpool library, and I shall do that when I get deeper into the story.  For now, sources include:

The Lascars --  sailors from the Indian subcontinent who sailed on European ships
Including, History of the Lascars
The Merchant Seaman's War -- Sons of Empire  28,000 Merchant seaman died during World War 2. The book notes that Europeans were “capable only of seeing Indians, Chinese, Africans and Arabs through the bizarre lens of racial cliché.”

The Chinese community of Liverpool comes from this site among others.  There is a lot more to go there and I'm still looking for this book and will probably have to order it from the UK.

As for Liverpool generally, I spent time at the city's Museum websites and various other sites about the Durning Road disaster including here and here and here

Here are some fabulous pictures of Liverpool bicyclists, including members of the Home Guard mentioned in the story.



Last, you may blame anastigmatfic  and snacky for the insertion of a 2 year old John Lennon into the story whose absent father was, in fact, a Merchant Marine.  Really.

I've tried really, really hard to get these racial issues right, early on, because I'm going somewhere with it.  I'm very cognizant of race fail in fandom.  If you think I've gotten it wrong, please speak up, and we'll see what might be done. 

In the next chapter, I'll go into the Caxton Hall rally and the issues of continuing apathy regarding awareness of the plight of Jews in occupied Europe.  My source is British Jewry and the Holocaust.  And huge thanks to autumnia  for the assistance there.

Also, again, a big thanks to the anonymous and unsigned reviewers.  I really appreciate you weighing in.  Thanks to everyone.  The story broke 200 reviews this week and I'm very grateful.

Comments

Re: Syrena lets her inner novelist write comments

[(Anonymous)]

One of the things I love most about your stories is that, like with the beauty spell, they help me understand and appreciate the books better. (Not to mention the historical period--I am always overwhelmed by your research and wish I had that same dedication regarding my own projects!) I was particularly struck by your comment about writing Pevensies you would be proud to have your children emulate. It made me realize one of the reasons I love your Pevensies so much: each one, or parts of each all cobbled together, are the kind of person I want to be. Your heroes are real people, with flaws, but very Good with a capital G, and I deeply admire them. And you for being perceptive and insightful enough to write them!

I think I've come to the end of my ramblings, but have one last comment that I've hesitated to make for some time but feel the need to throw out there. The one thing that bothers me when I read your posts is your reaction when some narrowminded or callow individual comes along and disparages your work or your vision. I fully understand the desire to please readers-but I hope your inner Pevensies can vanquish that particular monster (maybe Eustace could whack at it with a certain second best sword). I don't like the idea of you trying to tailor your wondrous world to someone else's idea of what's right and proper. Whether that involves Edmund, Morgan, and honey or simply word count and more or less dialogue, I want to read *your* story, the way *you* conceived it. Feedback is all well and good, as is constructive (emphasis on the constructive!) criticism. But I hope you can find the balance of accepting the constructive bits while discarding what does not fit. You do not have to be a wardrobe holding all of your readers' expectations inside like Susan's selves! We are the ones entering your story, if I may be permitted to mangle the metaphor, and the choice is ours to embrace it or not, in all its different glory--which, after all, is what the Pevensies did in Narnia and are now relearning to do in England!

Thanks for bearing with me, and as always thank you for the pleasure of reading.
~Syrena

Re: Syrena lets her inner novelist write comments

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

But I hope you can find the balance of accepting the constructive bits while discarding what does not fit.

Thank you for your thoughts and there's no reason to hesitate in sharing ideas. I've been taken to task over this from others and for some time. It's a thing and it's tiresome. I am a very poor judge of what readers will like -- this recent chapter showcased that again, actually.

Thanks you again! and thanks so much for reading and commenting!