It's Sunday, Breaking Borders, Jill Pole, and things that go boom

[rthstewart]

Thanks so very, very much to everyone who commented on the latest. I am so grateful and the reason I've not responded is that I've been trying to finish up the next chapter. It's not been a good week for writing, so I'll just keep pushing. It's a good thing I'm not doing NaNo, because I'd be so far behind it's ridiculous. So, let's talk about some things.

I've had several comments over on ff.net with reviewers wondering if I'd departed from canon in writing Jill as Afro-Caribbean and such.  Maybe. There is the "fair children" line in Silver Chair. Apart from the illustrations in the books, which do show her as white, there is no description of Jill at all.  None.  There is no history of her family.  So, when I read Miniver's suggestion, and given the oddity of Experiment House, I decided I did not need to default to the white character. 
EDIT because [Bad username or site: anastigmatfic / @ livejournal.com] reminds me there is that bit where Jill, Eustace, and Tirian rub themselves with stuff to make themselves dark like Calormenes and there is some uncomfortable language later. I suppose there are ways of explaining it away and I'm not going to fret over that. Or, well, I am, but I prefer to focus on ways of making this more inclusive, not less so.



We've recorded AsCast! Yeah! And this evening we intereviewed the superlative anastigmatfic who just updated her amazing Breaking the Borders What? You mean you haven't read Breaking the Borders? What are you waiting for? I love this story so much.

Also, NFFR is now starting its Santa Fanworks exchange. So if you find the Narnia Big Bang too intimidating, maybe consider signing up for that? And they do need artists for the Big Bang too!

Speaking of the Narnia Big Bang, I did sign up for it. I'm still trying to work out where I want to stop with AW to pick up Big Bang and... well, I'll work it out. Ideally, I'll get AW to the point in early 1943 with both Susan and Peter leaving school and then telling their war stories.


Speaking of, l_a_r_m started a tumblr account, toomuchtebbitt so you can guess its focus. She posted a picture of rum bottles and then
I added to it.


Over the roar of the Whitley bomber’s engines, Tebbitt shouted, “Since you’ll be in the vicinity, bring me back a bottle of Chambord!”

“Tired of the rum at Beaulieu?” Susan tugged hard on the harness, confirming that her chute and gear were secure. The Whitley lurched and with the added weight on her back, it was heavy enough to unbalance her. She tipped forward and Tebbitt caught her by the shoulders. She looked up. “If there is room in my radio equipment for a bottle, it shall be cognac or claret, not chambord.”

Tebbitt kissed her forehead. “We’re at your jump zone. I’ll be waiting for your message. Godspeed, Mrs. Caspian.”

She grabbed onto the handhold; he did the same and pulled a lever to open the bomb door. There was a blast of cold night air and thundering engine noise. The darkened countryside of Mer was thousands of feet below. Gryphon-back was much more civilised, Susan recalled. This was ear-piercing noise, the smell of fuel, and impersonally mechanical.

Tebbitt gave her thumbs up and she nodded. Susan let go of the handhold, teetered at the bomb door’s edge, and jumped.

The Americans had taken to bellowing “Geronimo” when they parachuted. The wind and aircraft noise ripped the sound from her mouth. “For Aslan!”

Susan plunged down into occupied France.

(In other words, I've apparently decided screw the ages, let's go for it).

Comments

[h-dash-h.livejournal.com]

If people can't handle things that aren't specifically in canon, then why are they reading fanfic? Also, aren't they outraged that the movie swapped hair colors around? I mean, really! That's not how it was written! (there's some sarcasm here...)

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

If we get AsCast on smooth schedule again, I really want to talk about this -- whether and why canon adherence is so very important in some fandoms, fans, age groups, and communities, but not in others and the value judgments attached to it. The story that caught my eye, and I did not click, was the summary: "Know this well, O my child: I have made careful search of the records and found nothing which indicates that any of the four sovereigns ever wed, nor did the famed Kings sire sons, nor the beautiful Queens bear daughters." Mostly a rant."

Yeah, I guess it is a rant, you know? Never mind the sexism.

[elouise82.livejournal.com]

Oh, but did the not-so-beautiful queen bear daughters? Or the kings have daughters? Or the queens have sons? Or a king have a child back when he was only slightly famed?

Ahem. Sorry for thread-jacking. I'll go be quiet now and fume over sexism and badly-constructed sentences and unclear thinking to myself.

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

Meh. It's not fair for me to pick on someone who can't defend herself, and now I should probably leave a review to the effect that I really disagree with the premise -- it's the old bathroom thing -- just because no one writes of them, doesn't mean they aren't there. I certainly have used fic to advance agendas -- Princess Even More Dim, all of TSG, etc. etc. though I've never put in a summary: "and now a rant against bigotry and silly reasons to come to Narnia." The progeny thing is a trigger issue for me too. I wonder if a lot of the complaint is not that there were no children or spouses, but that a lot of the stories that do provide these things aren't as strong as they might be. They are lightning rods for the cause against exploring these issues in a meaningful way, maybe?

And, I keep tweaking my original post and actually thought of just taking it down because I was victim of my own unclear thinking. Meh.

[lady_songsmith]

I did click on that one, bracing myself all the while, and I give them points for doing the rant creatively. They kept a lovely old-world storytelling style akin to that summary all the way through, and it wasn't so much 'rant-y' as 'rebuttal'. So there's that at least.

[metonomia.livejournal.com]

FOREHEAD KISS FOREHEAD KISS

<333333333333

THEY ARE PERFECT, SCREW THE AGES, I AM SO EXCITED.

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

Heh. We'll see if I ever get there. God I hope so. FAIL otherwise. FAIL FAIL FAIL

[anastigmatfic.livejournal.com]

Susan's an old soul and an adult mind in a young body. All the physical benefits of youth, the bouncing back quickly, needing less sleep, not nearly so much wear and tear, and none of the mental drawbacks. Lucky wench -- my busted knee and wonky spine make me very jealous of her!

Regarding Jill and Lewis' take on her, the only mention I recall of any physical description is a sort of side-note in TLB, where it's mentioned that she, along with Scrubb and Tirian, rub oil on themselves in order to darken their skin and 'look Calormene.' But I think we can gently ignore this misstep Lewis took, and enjoy your characterization for the many awesome ideas she has to offer.

(And I know you loathe visuals, but now I'm sort of imagining Freema Agyeman as Grownup Jill in the Everybody Lives! AU. It's the pragmatic-doctor thing she did to such great effect on Who.)

Thank you for the review, and the interview (which went like this: blah blah blah imagery whoogle garble cosmology blerg blah mythological HEY LOUD AIRPLANES stutter where was I just then?) -- and also for the pimping of my fic. It wouldn't be even half of what it is without you!

[metonomia.livejournal.com]

FREEMA AS JILL I VOTE YEA! I had been thinking about Angel Coulby, but Freema's perfect.

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

Between your airplanes and my dog and chicken in the oven, it's a very odd podcast. You know, I'd forgotten about that part in TLB. No wonder, since I dislike so much of it. There's also something where Tirian has them remove it so that they are fair again because they don't want to die looking like Calormenes are something. Hmmm. Well, I can figure out all sorts of complex ways to explain that away but I'm not going to worry about it. Well, I am, but won't inflict it any further.

Love Freema Ageyman. She's on Law and Order UK now.

[anastigmatfic.livejournal.com]

I'm just gonna come out and say it: BLACKFACE? CLIVE STAPLES LEWIS, YOU COME OVER HERE AND EXPLAIN YOURSELF.

Ehm. There are so many reasons TLB just collects dust on the shelf... that's one of them.

[adaese.livejournal.com]

Not strictly relevant, just wanted to alert people to lions running loose on the moors: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-15614294

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

This is so awesome. There was also this yesterday, about fossil remains of a 50 or 60 foot "shield croc" skull found in Madagascar. A really annoying and incomplete link is here

And, oh my gosh, the article states:
Other specimens of species closely related to shieldcroc have been described, but not since the 1920s, Holliday said. And because those specimens were found by German archaeologists, they ended up getting blown up in the bombings of World War II.

I had completely forgotten about this. It was something I was going to include in AW!

[anastigmatfic.livejournal.com]

That annoying and incomplete link led to this lovely gallery of croodilians, mostly alligators.

Eustace, put that tentpole down.

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

OMG LOVE the one with the gator eating the python. I know that there's this video of some Wisconsin tourists who witnessed one of those encounters in the Everglades a few years ago. My son and I went driving the Everglades highway at dusk a few years ago hoping to see one.

What I'm looking for and just remembered is that in 1938 the Germans mounted a brachiosaurus at the Humboldt Museum in Berlin and may be the largest dinosaur ever mounted. Not sure. But when they unveiled it, they covered the display with swastikas. I would really like a picture of that -- I think Mary has one pinned up in her ballroom/laboratory. She's never seen the skeleton and feels the loss keenly and the perversion of science it represents even more.

[anastigmatfic.livejournal.com]

I want to see that, too!

[linneasr.livejournal.com]

Yep, Aslan is about: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/06/lion-line-passengers-held-station

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

Get Polly Plummer on that!

[harmony-lover.livejournal.com]

OMG. Too much fic and NOT ENOUGH TIME IN MY LIFE. Possibly in several of my lifetimes. I need to read AW (and that bit about Susan jumping out of an airplane just made the compulsion to read it that much stronger), I need to read "Breaking the Borders," and I STILL haven't finished the NFE fics. I was eaten alive by a conference last week, and life doesn't look to be slowing down anytime soon...

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

Welcome home! I hope you get a break soon!

[vialethe]

I probably shouldn't be as happy to see Susan jumping out of a plane into war with Tebbitt's encouragement, and yet...! Forehead kisses make me happy.

As for Jill - well. I like your Jill; she's actually interesting, which is something I honestly never found her to be in canon. And the fact that her background allows her to come at Narnia and everything else from a different angle as the Pevensies and the others is where a lot of that interest comes from, I think.

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

Jill is such an unknown! We see so little of her and know so little about her she could be anything we want, really. It's very intimidating to play with a fic character who is that open-ended. Thanks so much! And yes, the jumping out of airplanes is, theoretically, for the Big Bang.

Thank you again!

[varnafinde.livejournal.com]

I like your Jill very much!
And I like Polly picking them up from Experiment House and the household taking care of them.

And that's probably as much as I'll have time for as a review of your AW chapter ...

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

It is lovely to hear from you! I hope all is well!! And thank you!