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

[min023.livejournal.com]

I think that I've observed previously that I don't have quite the same 'racial' take that you do, probably due to our different cultural contexts. So I didn't really feel like duck boots had been applied at all. Yes, I suppose that you could argue that there was racial stereotyping or slurring going on, but really? This is a period piece, it was all in context, and we all know just how much research you put in to make your writing contextually accurate. To be honest, I didn't really register that there could be a problem until I read your AN and LJs. Maybe that means that I'm blindly oblivious (and yes, sometimes I am), but what that really says to me is that there was nothing there so contextually jarring as to throw me out of the story.

Initially, I was like... What? Why wouldn't Kwong Lee know Peter? But then it clicked that they hadn't met, that Peter had never been to the Russell house, so that was well played. Be interesting to see whether any of the Russell Hall denizens have any new insights on the Pevensies to share with Asim.

I missed the beatle allusion at first, but now it's explained, that's very cute.

[min023.livejournal.com]

Oh, and one other point which I meant to put in my review (and all of today's other LJ postings). I know I've asked about this before, but I've lost my sense of your timelines again. I know you've compacted some things up (like the VoDT and TSC visits). I'm now struggling in finding context for the conversation between Peter and Mrs P. She's obviously been noticing "Things" for a while, and been keeping her mouth shut, but I can't quite work out how long a time this is.

The discussion with Peter has the feel of a fairly well entrenched mindset, so now I'm curious about how long it's been since their return from Narnia (canon would say about 3 years, I think), how long since they returned home from the Professor's country home, and what length of time it was before everyone got packed off again, as per VoDT.

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

Uhhmmmm kinda spacing and tired here after really stressful day and late night (I really was on the treadmill at midnight) and I never sleep well after I post. In any event, the time is that is the last week in August 1942. Sept. 2 is a Wednesday and that's when Lucy and Polly go to Caxton Hall. I think they leave for school thereafter. So, there have been at least 2 years where she's observed the changes, most notably when they came back from the Professor's after the blitz (which the timeline says was 1940). I'm not sure how long that was, but I assume there was at least one summer and Christmas holiday. Sometime after they went back to school, Mrs. Pevensie went to speak to the Professor and Polly. I think she gave it a few months and compared her children to the others also evacuated and comes away thinking WHAT? Huh? And of course, with John Pevensie away, for months and years, he sees none of this at all.

Thanks again!!

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

My concerns about depicting race are very much driven by how fandom itself treats those who get it wrong. I have been really concerned that I'd end up cross posted somewhere with Oh No They Didn't or Race!Fail tag.

And really, I would have never thought to include the beetle, but once Anastigmat mentioned, it, I realized it was an easy insert give what all has gone on before.

Thank you so very, very much!