Rth, I'm aghast to hear you're feeling like going to ground. Please don't do it! I'll have kittens if I can't find out what happens in AW.
As always, your work is superbly written and it's intriguing to see this side of the characters, but I'll tell you why it doesn't work for me. Firstly, I feel Peter is too old, too mature for Mary. Although he's a schoolboy, she's beset by insecurities and doubts and is so full of fire and anger and angst, what with being a woman in a man's world and having to prove herself all the time - it makes a girl defensive and who can blame her? She is still on her quest, but Peter - he's arrived, and is looking for something deeper. Which path to follow out of the many that present themselves? Peter, for me, has always seemed to be more adult, more certain, than Mary, which for me explains why she's been so intrigued by these Pevsnees and why, sometimes, she's lashed out at P. Kind of a frustrated: 'You're so much younger, what is it you have that makes you so certain, and why do you have it if I DON'T?'
I personally see Peter with an older woman, a real equal, someone with a great deal of power and poise. For some reason I keep picturing a really glamorous Russian or Frenchwoman, mid-forties, maybe an ex-diplomat or government official who fled to England during the war or during the Stalinist purges...? Maybe she's Susan's contact in the Resistance!!! For me, Peter will always be looking for a Dalia equivalent, someone with the intellect and power and poise to meet him at his own level and challenge the High King as an equal... and for me, that woman will be older, and that woman cannot be Mary. Part of what makes Mary so wonderful is her passion and her frustration and hidden insecurities, and she and Peter would never work because he would have to mentor her where what he REALLY needs is someone to shake him up a bit and force him not to be the High Kingiest of Kings and Always Bloody Right all the time.
And the other reason this jars for me is because, well, Peter is not extraordinary *because* he went to Narnia. He and all the others went to Narnia because they are extraordinary, and what they learnt there made them more so. So the mention of Dinan, Mary referring to him as 'High King' - for me, it's irrelevant. I think about Peter sitting Mary down and saying 'Right, I'm going to tell you the secret, how I came to be as I am...' and it doesn't make sense that he says 'I used to be a king in Narnia.' It almost explains all the interesting parts away. i don't think she needs to know the story of how Peter - or any of the Pevensies - came to be as they are. The fact is they are here and they are living amazing lives here. They aren't looking backward to Narnia, but forward at this wild world of Spare Oom.
On Peter and Susan - I wonder if a conflict over sexuality might be an issue in their estrangement. Susan has a matter-of-fact attitude to sex and has shown that she's not afraid to use herself as bait for the good of the cause - whether that's through marriage in a game of thrones with Rabadash or enticing Tebbit to screw up his courage in Washington (no pun intended). Peter strikes me as a bit of a romantic who thinks it should only ever be about love - even if not love of each other, then love of sex, love of companionship? And he sees things in black and white - he just can't see how Susan can't adhere to his beliefs. Not that I'm suggesting Susan is some sort of seductive spy whose only talent is being sexy - but maybe she's used her wiles on occasion, and Peter has judged her for it. I see parallels with old debates between feminists about whether high heels and make up are empowering or a tool of women's subjugation - and given Peter's new commitment to anticolonialism, I can see him having quite Dworkin-esque views, in comparison to Susan who's willing to work within established patterns of domination if it's for a cause she believes in.
Bottom line is, if anyone can think so deeply about stories and characters created in your mind, your writing must be pretty amazing. So don't run away!
no subject
As always, your work is superbly written and it's intriguing to see this side of the characters, but I'll tell you why it doesn't work for me. Firstly, I feel Peter is too old, too mature for Mary. Although he's a schoolboy, she's beset by insecurities and doubts and is so full of fire and anger and angst, what with being a woman in a man's world and having to prove herself all the time - it makes a girl defensive and who can blame her? She is still on her quest, but Peter - he's arrived, and is looking for something deeper. Which path to follow out of the many that present themselves? Peter, for me, has always seemed to be more adult, more certain, than Mary, which for me explains why she's been so intrigued by these Pevsnees and why, sometimes, she's lashed out at P. Kind of a frustrated: 'You're so much younger, what is it you have that makes you so certain, and why do you have it if I DON'T?'
I personally see Peter with an older woman, a real equal, someone with a great deal of power and poise. For some reason I keep picturing a really glamorous Russian or Frenchwoman, mid-forties, maybe an ex-diplomat or government official who fled to England during the war or during the Stalinist purges...? Maybe she's Susan's contact in the Resistance!!! For me, Peter will always be looking for a Dalia equivalent, someone with the intellect and power and poise to meet him at his own level and challenge the High King as an equal... and for me, that woman will be older, and that woman cannot be Mary. Part of what makes Mary so wonderful is her passion and her frustration and hidden insecurities, and she and Peter would never work because he would have to mentor her where what he REALLY needs is someone to shake him up a bit and force him not to be the High Kingiest of Kings and Always Bloody Right all the time.
And the other reason this jars for me is because, well, Peter is not extraordinary *because* he went to Narnia. He and all the others went to Narnia because they are extraordinary, and what they learnt there made them more so. So the mention of Dinan, Mary referring to him as 'High King' - for me, it's irrelevant. I think about Peter sitting Mary down and saying 'Right, I'm going to tell you the secret, how I came to be as I am...' and it doesn't make sense that he says 'I used to be a king in Narnia.' It almost explains all the interesting parts away. i don't think she needs to know the story of how Peter - or any of the Pevensies - came to be as they are. The fact is they are here and they are living amazing lives here. They aren't looking backward to Narnia, but forward at this wild world of Spare Oom.
On Peter and Susan - I wonder if a conflict over sexuality might be an issue in their estrangement. Susan has a matter-of-fact attitude to sex and has shown that she's not afraid to use herself as bait for the good of the cause - whether that's through marriage in a game of thrones with Rabadash or enticing Tebbit to screw up his courage in Washington (no pun intended). Peter strikes me as a bit of a romantic who thinks it should only ever be about love - even if not love of each other, then love of sex, love of companionship? And he sees things in black and white - he just can't see how Susan can't adhere to his beliefs. Not that I'm suggesting Susan is some sort of seductive spy whose only talent is being sexy - but maybe she's used her wiles on occasion, and Peter has judged her for it. I see parallels with old debates between feminists about whether high heels and make up are empowering or a tool of women's subjugation - and given Peter's new commitment to anticolonialism, I can see him having quite Dworkin-esque views, in comparison to Susan who's willing to work within established patterns of domination if it's for a cause she believes in.
Bottom line is, if anyone can think so deeply about stories and characters created in your mind, your writing must be pretty amazing. So don't run away!
Flavia