rthstewart (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rthstewart) wrote2011-09-08 08:21 pm
rthstewart) wrote2011-09-08 08:21 pm
Entry tags:
NFE, Research links
Worse disguised anon writer, EVAH.
Well, OK, so maybe you didn’t guess immediately that Jess_in_time was me, though channeling a 16 year old was much harder than I had thought. Food for Thought speaks for itself. It was fun and easy and I hope my recipient liked it. It was amusing to think that the Queen of No VISUALS did a mixed media fic, but it was fun. It coincided with connecting with a trove of my mother’s family photos and I have lots of black and white pictures from the 20s-60s. A college picture of my mother almost became Gran Susan.
The Great Bonding, I love not man less but nature more, story (ILM) was another matter entirely. Gosh, how to put all this down? After rambling through this for a few days now, I’ve decided to not bother with my internalizations and hand wringing.
There is a bit of a mish mash of Anastigmatfic’s characters and mine and in that sense it’s not compliant with her ‘verse in Breaking the Borders – characters like Cloudstrike don’t show up for another few years and the Pevensies ride Talking Horses because there aren’t other dumb horses. You can assume, the OCs wandering about notwithstanding, that this is fully compliant with TSG.
Team Licentious Trees was something Anastigmatfic and I joked about 2 years ago. I started writing in Narnia because:
I put the three together and came up with promiscuous, drunken Holly dryads. And then I thought it would be hilarious to do a “I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore” story where Susan and Peter are invited in their first year of rule to the Great Dryad Dance and realize that there’s no dancing and lot of wild dryad tree sex, because that’s what Trees and trees do in the spring.
This leads to a decision for the Pevensies. Do they go all White Man’s Burden to reform the colonial territory and literally tame the savage beast? Or do they go native? And if they did go native, thought rth, what happens once they go back to England? “Oh! Shiny!” and rth got distracted by that idea and TSG was the result.
Other influences, research, sources, and inspirations however fed that seed that became this story.
Inspirations for rituals
Not Great Marriage but Great Bonding
I had originally thought along the principles of a Great Marriage in the Celtic tradition, but that ended up being unworkable in a vision of Narnia where there is not a lot of traditional marriage. Also, I realized that I did not want an exclusively male ritual. I was dealing with a brother and sister so that meant steering clear of the “great marriage” as that could quickly lead to uncomfortable places.
A Multi-cultural Narnia
The Narnia I’ve developed is a very multi-cultural place. I always knew that, like the death rituals explained in TQSiT, there would be several rituals, specific to different species. I’d hinted at some of these from the very beginning– Peter mentions nestbuilding without hands to Richard. Susan reflects on the centaur narcotic ritual Peter underwent in TQSiT.
A huge, huge thanks to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
snacky for giving me the time to do this right and who has held my hand as I negotiated this very personal project.
linneasr, Clio, and harmony_lover have been hugely supportive through this. h_dash_h was as well, though he didn’t know it. Miniver gave me the riddling idea. And of course there are the readers who would see my odd reference to it and say, “no, really, we do want to read this.” So, here it is.
I had more, about what an intensely personal project this became. blah blah blah. It’s all so much navel gazing, but if you PM or email me, I won’t stop talking.
Well, OK, so maybe you didn’t guess immediately that Jess_in_time was me, though channeling a 16 year old was much harder than I had thought. Food for Thought speaks for itself. It was fun and easy and I hope my recipient liked it. It was amusing to think that the Queen of No VISUALS did a mixed media fic, but it was fun. It coincided with connecting with a trove of my mother’s family photos and I have lots of black and white pictures from the 20s-60s. A college picture of my mother almost became Gran Susan.
The Great Bonding, I love not man less but nature more, story (ILM) was another matter entirely. Gosh, how to put all this down? After rambling through this for a few days now, I’ve decided to not bother with my internalizations and hand wringing.
There is a bit of a mish mash of Anastigmatfic’s characters and mine and in that sense it’s not compliant with her ‘verse in Breaking the Borders – characters like Cloudstrike don’t show up for another few years and the Pevensies ride Talking Horses because there aren’t other dumb horses. You can assume, the OCs wandering about notwithstanding, that this is fully compliant with TSG.
Team Licentious Trees was something Anastigmatfic and I joked about 2 years ago. I started writing in Narnia because:
- I learned from my landscaper that holly bushes were sexually prolific.
- Aslan to Bree, “I am true a Beast”
- In PC, when the holly dryads drink wine, they get very talkative.
I put the three together and came up with promiscuous, drunken Holly dryads. And then I thought it would be hilarious to do a “I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore” story where Susan and Peter are invited in their first year of rule to the Great Dryad Dance and realize that there’s no dancing and lot of wild dryad tree sex, because that’s what Trees and trees do in the spring.
This leads to a decision for the Pevensies. Do they go all White Man’s Burden to reform the colonial territory and literally tame the savage beast? Or do they go native? And if they did go native, thought rth, what happens once they go back to England? “Oh! Shiny!” and rth got distracted by that idea and TSG was the result.
Other influences, research, sources, and inspirations however fed that seed that became this story.
Inspirations for rituals
- I'm not the first to think in this direction. The wonderful Bedlamsbard described the aftermath of Peter’s marriage to a sentient Narnia in a fertility rite, but we do not get the actual rite.
- Riddling: Bedlamsbard suggested that Edmund riddles with a dragon, but again, we do not see this; Snacky wrote of Edmund riddling with a Sphinx; ages ago, Miniver, when I discussed kingmaking rituals, wrote that she always thought a riddling challenge would be wonderful.
- Anastigmatfic wrote the ritualistic dance and sexual content in Sun Tides, but no kingmaking.
- Linneasr reminded me of the mythos of Epona.
- There were the Celtic kingmaking and great marriage rituals including the feis temrach and banais righe.
- The White Horse is common in numerous mythologies.
- Pomona is mentioned in PC, though I expanded her more broadly to the earth mother goddess with attributes of Flora and many others. Here and here and lots of other places.
- Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Mists of Avalon famously includes Arthur’s Kingmaking at Beltane which includes a ritual deer hunt and ends with a Great Marriage with Morgaine, Druid priestess/goddess (and half sister, oops).
- Beltane and other pre-Christian rituals incorporate fertility-based rituals (lovemaking, women running through fields during menses). Here and here, among others
- Other seasonal rituals
- From my college Catholic theology classes, I learned how early Christians co-opted pagan rituals, some of which ended up in my Christmas story. The Easter candle in the baptismal font has its roots in fertility, with a ritual of dipping a dagger or other phallus (symbolic or literal) in a font, well, or other feminine receptacle (again, symbolic or literal).
- Clio put me in the direction of various enthroning ceremonies.
- Egyptian rituals included the Ritual Kiss and the concept of being encased in a womb like thing and breaking free. Here and Here
- Many faiths incorporate concepts of the cycle of death and rebirth.
- There were elements of initiation into the greater mysteries in the Water of Life rituals from Dune.
- The Fire Salamanders are described in The Silver Chair and are also mythical here, and associated with elemental fire. Xucoatl is based upon the Aztec serpent god.
Not Great Marriage but Great Bonding
I had originally thought along the principles of a Great Marriage in the Celtic tradition, but that ended up being unworkable in a vision of Narnia where there is not a lot of traditional marriage. Also, I realized that I did not want an exclusively male ritual. I was dealing with a brother and sister so that meant steering clear of the “great marriage” as that could quickly lead to uncomfortable places.
A Multi-cultural Narnia
The Narnia I’ve developed is a very multi-cultural place. I always knew that, like the death rituals explained in TQSiT, there would be several rituals, specific to different species. I’d hinted at some of these from the very beginning– Peter mentions nestbuilding without hands to Richard. Susan reflects on the centaur narcotic ritual Peter underwent in TQSiT.
A huge, huge thanks to
snacky for giving me the time to do this right and who has held my hand as I negotiated this very personal project. linneasr, Clio, and harmony_lover have been hugely supportive through this. h_dash_h was as well, though he didn’t know it. Miniver gave me the riddling idea. And of course there are the readers who would see my odd reference to it and say, “no, really, we do want to read this.” So, here it is.I had more, about what an intensely personal project this became. blah blah blah. It’s all so much navel gazing, but if you PM or email me, I won’t stop talking.
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I had been thinking your bonding ceremony would be in a similar vein to
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I didn't read it until after the reveal, so I knew it was yours, though I'm sure I would have guessed even if I didn't know. (The other story, incidentally, I had no idea. I noticed the common ideas, but I thought it was just someone who had been influenced by you, the style was so different! I never even seriously considered it!)
I don't think I can isolate a single thing that I loved most. If I try, it pulls in the entire story. As long as it is, it's a single unit.
I just finished reading "The Hero with a Thousand Faces", and am now reading "The Golden Bough". This story, therefore, hit a lot of shiny new buttons.
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Since this is a post about the background material (and I've commented on the story elsewhere) I will make a terminology quibble: while "narcotic" has come to just mean any illegal drug (at least in the U.S.), it is really more applicable to sedating drugs, and particularly (but not solely) opioids. Hallucinogens (psychedelic, dissociative or otherwise) aren't generally narcotics, properly speaking. Of course, the Centaurs can use any kind or combination of drugs you want them to use! In a ridiculously large wineskin...
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