Chapter 11, Squamates

[rthstewart]

Chapter 11, Squamates, is up.

After much angst, I decided to split the chapter, putting off, yet again, conversations about camels and same sex bonded pairs of black swans, albatrosses, and giraffes. There will also be a flashback with Lucy, Aidan, Morgan and Edmund which answers the question Doctor Dolly raised after He loves not man the less, but nature more -- if Peter and Susan did the great bonding with Narnia, what did Lucy and Edmund do? The answer is that they performed Narnian bonding ceremonies with their spouses. Also, we (finally) get a normal, non-AU conversation with Mary and Peter -- the first since Part 1. But that is all for later.

For this chapter....

Thanks to lady_songsmith, clio, and snacky for the nudges and to many previous reviewers who asked some of the things I now wrestle with here.

I spent way too much time looking at historical agricultural production in Oxfordshire and locations of RAF bases and Aeorodromes. We finally get into the ballroom and return to the plaster blocks and Eustace finally hears about Chinese dragons. I found the story of the four dragons who became the four rivers of China in several places, including here. It is purportedly taken from Dragon Tales: A Collection of Chinese Stories. Beijing: Chinese Literature Press, 1988

I first found the discussion of the same sex giraffe pairs and rams who prefer other rams in the very comprehensive wiki entry, Homosexual behavior in animals and I'll be going back to that in a longer discussion in the next chapter. Other references, however, include the Merck Veterinary Manual which I understand recommends dealing with the rams that will not tup ewes as a matter of herd management and husbandry. N. Bailey and M. Zuk, Same-sex sexual behavior and evolution, Trends in Ecology & Evolution, Volume 24, Issue 8, 439-446, 10 June 2009 was also useful, here

Some time ago, readers expressed an interest in seeing something of Mary and Richard happy, some explanation for why their relationship was what it was. So, I've done that here, writing what I hope is an older man and husband's point of view on his wife, love, lust, and bitter regret.

In an original text with Christian symbolism (I hesitate to call it allegory, as Lewis eschewed the term) and a fandom that so emphasizes it, I know that, nevertheless, there are plenty of readers (including some or many who come here) who do not adhere to Christianity and who do not and never have read the Chronicles for their Christian symbology. Some time ago, a reader asked me if Mary was an atheist. I said no, and of course, Richard is not an atheist as a point of his character was to show the co-existence of science and faith. The question though has stayed with me. As I moved into Part 3, I have begun to play with an idea with Digory -- that as a religious scholar he is, nevertheless, not religious. He is, however, a deist and shows how seeing God in everything means he sees God everywhere.  He does not subscribe to the view that God must be worshiped one particular way. He (and Lucy) are very iconoclastic, but still they are not atheists.

With Eustace, I go there, posing the questions a lot of fans have with this series. If we assume Aslan is a Jesus-stand-in, he is, at best, a pretty poor deity, so this argument goes. He imperils children, is inconsistent, arbitrary and even cruel, and, for instance, unlike Jesus who did tell his disciples that he would be resurrected (they just didn't understand the elliptical message), Lucy and Susan didn't have that information and so for a night, they weep over Aslan's dead body thinking he is really and truly gone forever. Nice.

Eustace, both in the canon character that we know, and as developed here, is in a position to express those viewpoints about where Aslan can be seen as falling short in the love your children, God is omnipotent, department. Eustace voices the criticism of Aslan the other Friends of Narnia don't voice. The counter is Jill who, as is developing here, has a very charismatic view of God and has been raised to see God as the deliverer, shepherd, and protector of oppressed people.  Jill is very comfortable with the age old question, why does God let bad things happen to good people?  She comes from slaves and still believes.

And if there was any doubt, Peter is no theologian or philosopher.

So, the next chapter is mostly finished and the one after that is the Christmas chapter, Just Like The Ones We Used To Know. I've been trying to get AW to the point that I can move seamlessly to my Big Bang, but they may not happen.

Anyway, thanks so much.  I would not have pushed Eustace in this direction were it not for the thoughtful commentary I've read over the last 2+ years so my thanks to those who have posed these questions.

Comments

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I'd been hoping to hear from you about certain aspects of this chapter but knew you'd be super busy so I appreciate you taking the time out!

I know that you were one of the readers who expressed in interest in more regarding Richard and Mary and what the "good" of their relationship looks like. This was an effort to get at that (OCs OMG! WHY WHY WHO CARES - as said below, I'm feeling insecure and defensive again). But there were good times for them and while the relationship was certainly inequitable, it did give both of them things they wanted, for a time.

I am, once again, awed by the insight of others with your comment about how Mary is trying to work things through rather than blast through them. One of the tenets of my Mary characterization from the very beginning is that she wants the word to revolve around her and yet it never does. (The contents of that plaster block that she and Eustace just unearthed are another old, old idea).

The where of Russell House was always more important than Mary herself. In my head canon it was this open, welcoming, beautiful place to which things came -- more train station that hospital. This chapter was a huge, huge departure from what was supposed to have happened, 3 years ago when I outlined it where each person who arrived at Russell House (in 1946 or later) found something transporting and incredibly important. I don't need to do that as much having established already, argumentum ad nauseam and ad infinitum that Narnia and Spare Oom are inter-connected.

Come January with more time, if you are interested, the scholarship on non-reproductive relationships in the non-human animal kingdom is very interesting reading -- even apart from the study itself and the wide spectrum over which it occurs, there's the human reaction to the research, which is a study in and of itself. My best judgment is that the evolutionary biologists and geneticists who are looking at the issue are super-careful in their language so as to avoid getting drawn into the applicability or non-applicability of non-human behavior to human politics. I rambled a bit about this in response to snitchnipped and so won't repeat other than feeling this desire to run away again, lather rinse repeat ad nauseam and ad infinitum.

[h-dash-h.livejournal.com]

Mary's struggle to work things through is somewhat personally familiar to me, although I was pursued the "room-dominating personality" approach that she's favored. So it's probably equal parts recognition and projection when I read this development for her.

With the scene of Mary and Richard's relationship, both the imbalance and the strength of the relationship came through, and both aspects made it all more real and more believable.