I wish I had a quip or a comment that would help brush away the mean-spirited comments that some people make to you, or a magical shield that I could erect around your creative mind.
The value of the fiction that you are writing is soo big, in that you are providing grown ups with a way to see ourselves, our lives and our experiences & situations in Narnia. Narnia! A world of magic and wonder, where the beasts & trees talk and love!
I'm well into middle age (as you know :-)) and I don't want to leave my self & my maturity (if there is any) behind when I visit Narnia. It's a great place, but Clive Staples did write it for children, and at a certain point, I needed more juice to the story to be able to stay enchanted - which you are providing. Of course I want to see the complex, dynamic world I live in today reflected and refracted into this fictional place! Why wouldn't I?
There is a view of the world which believes that it is better, safer, and wiser to delimit and deny that which "shouldn't" be there (according to a 2000 year old story, but it's not necessary to go there right now). This is, at the core, the same view which veils women and hides them behind laws and walls "for their own protection." Do we really want to surrender to this view?
Have courage, Rth. You're writing fiction, and I do hope it's a fun hobby - because it's a very fun read - and you're also bringing light to a very dark corner of the world, for who knows who might read your material today and open their minds tomorrow? And if their minds open because you mentioned a same-sex giraffe-relationships in AW, perhaps they'll be kinder to a gay man or a lesbian in RL someday.
The meaning of what you're doing in Not-My-Children's Narnia is important: it's about freedom, and courage, and honesty & integrity. It's about having confidence in one's own imagination, and that's very important. Not to mention the occasional terrible pun.
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I wish I had a quip or a comment that would help brush away the mean-spirited comments that some people make to you, or a magical shield that I could erect around your creative mind.
The value of the fiction that you are writing is soo big, in that you are providing grown ups with a way to see ourselves, our lives and our experiences & situations in Narnia. Narnia! A world of magic and wonder, where the beasts & trees talk and love!
I'm well into middle age (as you know :-)) and I don't want to leave my self & my maturity (if there is any) behind when I visit Narnia. It's a great place, but Clive Staples did write it for children, and at a certain point, I needed more juice to the story to be able to stay enchanted - which you are providing. Of course I want to see the complex, dynamic world I live in today reflected and refracted into this fictional place! Why wouldn't I?
There is a view of the world which believes that it is better, safer, and wiser to delimit and deny that which "shouldn't" be there (according to a 2000 year old story, but it's not necessary to go there right now). This is, at the core, the same view which veils women and hides them behind laws and walls "for their own protection." Do we really want to surrender to this view?
Have courage, Rth. You're writing fiction, and I do hope it's a fun hobby - because it's a very fun read - and you're also bringing light to a very dark corner of the world, for who knows who might read your material today and open their minds tomorrow? And if their minds open because you mentioned a same-sex giraffe-relationships in AW, perhaps they'll be kinder to a gay man or a lesbian in RL someday.
The meaning of what you're doing in Not-My-Children's Narnia is important: it's about freedom, and courage, and honesty & integrity. It's about having confidence in one's own imagination, and that's very important. Not to mention the occasional terrible pun.
Please continue writing.
Best wishes.
And lots of magical shields.