rthstewart | More of the Meme -- TSG Backstory

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More of the Meme -- TSG Backstory

linneasr asked me about Asim in the previous meme and the response is too long to fit in a comment. So, if you aren't interested, you can just move along.

Sorry it has taken me so long, but I had a long backstory on Asim and it’s been a long time since I’ve thought about it. When I first started thinking of the story, I was really powerfully motivated by the pictures below. The first two are from or about the film Becket, the last is from the film Lawrence of Arabia and the one right before it is the true Prince Feisal, the third son of Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca. Both films star a much younger Peter O’Toole and to the extent I had visuals of Peter, they come from this as well as the film The Lion In Winter. I was really interested in the friendship shown in the films between Henry and Becket, and between Lawrence and Ali.

O'Toole and Burton in Becket

Becket

Prince Feisal, the third son of Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca

Omar Shariff and Peter O'Toole in Lawrence of Arabia

When I actually started researching T.E. Lawrence, as opposed to merely my romantic notions of the film, I came away decidedly disillusioned and Asim was born of that study. As a child and teen he rode and fought with the great men of the Pan-Arab movement, Faisal, his father, Hussein bin Ali, and his brothers Abdullah I and Ali, and the Bedouin leader, Auda Abu Tayi. Because I rapidly learned that there was so much I did not know about that world, that culture, and that religion, I’ve left much of Asim’s backstory untold. Everyone says he’s from Egypt, which is true of a sort, but it’s actually very far east, and specifically, Hejaz, on the eastern side of the Red Sea which is part of present day Saudi Arabia. Hejaz had been under Egyptian and Ottoman control and briefly was its own independent nations. Asim grew up there, with no parent he can recall.

The British were tramping all about the Negev Desert pretending to be archaeologists but really doing intelligence work and that is where Asim met them, working as guide and eventually interpreter. When riding with the Arab Irregulars, he became particularly expert in the various exercises in sabotage committed on the Hejaz railway lines. What exactly he did between the wars and how he came to the rank he has is a mystery, though for a time he was certainly one of Edmund Allenby’s boys and did all manner of tricky things for the Field Marshall when he was in Egypt and the Sudan until 1925 (or thereabouts).

God found him sometime after Allenby’s death and as Asim’s hopes to see a united Arab nation dimmed. It was very reminiscent of Saul on the road to Damascus, a thunderbolt out of the sky that threw him to the ground and when he awoke, God was with him. He enjoys dark chocolate, has never had a sip of alcohol, and he has never been in an intimate relationship with anyone.

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Oh, neat! All of this is fascinating. But how old is he?

Asim doesn't know how old he is. He was in his very early teens in around 1914 when British intelligence had archeologists in mapping the Negev Desert because the Turks would have to cross it to invade Egypt. The revolts were in 1916-1918 and he was riding with Faisal at that point. He is over 40 but less than 50. His papers identify him as 43 in 1942.

I still maintain that according to the Law of Romantic Cliches, Asim/Lucy is Meant To Be. :P
(that's not a request!)

How did he come to have loyalty to England?

Loyalty to England is a really good question. I'm not sure how much of it is disillusionment with the inability of the Arabs to develop their own pan-Arab identity. He's lived under the Empire his entire life and while he will be glad when the sun sets on it, he owes a lot to the British military. He had the benefit of working with and around some extraordinary people, Lawrence (who he admired, but also saw as very flawed) and Allenby. He admires their competence and plumbing, their tea, and their eye for talent. There is a decided lack of assassination and certain British have been very, very good to him.

It is always so interesting to see who ships who. I am always surprised!

That sounds really interesting. Contradictory and nuanced, like all real things are.

Incidentally, I wasn't exactly serious about Asim/Lucy. I just find the idea vastly amusing for some reason. I seem to have completely failed at communicating this though, as, unfortunately, happens far too often to me.

Oh goodness, no apologies!!! I mean, I've got readers who ship Peter and Asim (there may actually be fic out there.) And there's this whole thing involving dark chocolate too.

More importantly, your comment generated the Lucy and Asim idea of one of them as a Time Lord -- YES PLEASE. Lucy in a Tardis that is in the shape of a wardrobe. And Intrikate said that Asim is always worrying about logistics at the next planet while Lucy madly pushes buttons.

I prefer bluejayfic/dark!chocolate to Asim/dark!chocolate. (You know, "I want you inside of me", etc.)

This is where I really wish I had watched more than a single episode of Dr. Who. I've picked up the general gist over time, which allows me to appreciate the idea, but it feels like it has lots of places it could go... Still, I've inspired an idea! *pats self on back*

Fascinating... My early depictions of T.E. Lawrence came from "The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles", actually. He appeared in several episodes, the last one being the end of WWI at Versailles... by that point, I had already began to be disillusioned by his character, which is probably similar to your thoughts though I never read up on the real background of the man.

I also quite liked h T.E. Lawerence in n "The Young indiana Jones Chronicles." Not so much in the movie, possibly because for a bio-pic, I'd already been told it was in many ways not very accurate.

Love all of this about Asim. For some reason, he is older by about ten years than I'd realized, but that makes sense. Though I don't think it will be romantic, I am very interested in what his relationship with Lucy will be (because of her bright light/closeness to Aslan).

If you start doing the math in the story you realize he has to be about this age to have done anything in the Arab Revolts and WW1. I never saw those episodes of the Indy Chronicles with Lawrence -- the film is incredibly romantic and also (oi) casts Alec Guiness as Prince Faisal. Errr, right. But Peter O'Toole striding across the landscape is not something easily forgotten. I really liked the films depiction of his assimilation to Arab culture and his friendship with the Arabs. That was what especially interested me and why I have this thread in the stories of Peter interested in the desert.

Ooooh, Asim!!! *like* :-)

Ooooo Rth! Gosh! Look elsewhere for a few days and riches unfold before my eyes upon my return! THANK YOU!!!

What you provide confirms, somehow, my sense of Asim as soo upright as to be beyond rigid - he's is just in righteousness all the time, and so can operate in a violent world without wavering. Masculine to the hilt. Almost ascetic, and maybe would be, without the drive to find companionship. Not unloving, as Allah recommends compassion, but I don't know that I feel Asim to be warm-hearted. Not cold-hearted, precisely, but somehow, so mentally-oriented!

Which makes his relationship with Lucy all the more interesting. With apologies to Bluejayfic, I don't think they could be romantically involved, and it wouldn't be because of Lucy (assuming the age & religion thing could be overcome). Asim feels just too dispassionately controlled by his own Self. I could see him falling in love with a Star (:-)) more easily than Lucy; surrendering to his feelings would involve dissolving that incredible self-control, and I think he might not be himself again afterwards.

I dunno, might be wrong.

But, thank you! What a delight to have this, in the middle of dealing with HauptDeutsch!

These are wonderful observations. Thank you and once again readers pull out things I cannot and see things I do not. In Rat and Sword, at this moment of high drama, where Tebbitt and Asim are rushing to Edmund to find out what the meaning of Susan's message is, Asim takes the time to remind Edmund of his obligation to secrecy. Tebbitt observed that the man can be really cold. He is much the same way with Susan during the deer kill. He is compassionate, but I do not see him as a warm person. He's very cool, he's a professional. I've never expressed it before in meta, but I have tried to convey this emotional distance and intellectual coolness before. When he and Tom Clark are speaking to Elizabeth Pole, Clark finally gets disgusted with Asim saying all the wrong things to a worried mother. Asim isn't unkind to Elizabeth, he knows she wants to know, but there's no warmth at all in how he relates to her. In the scene early in AW when Peter is angry and hurt at how Asim kept the information about Susan and Edmund from him, again we get Asim saying very factually why he was glad it went down as it did. He's very intellectual about it and not comforting though in the end Peter sees the wisdom of it.

He and Peter both connect on the masculinity ground -- though I typically write Peter as engaged sexually whereas Asim is, as you point out, not at all, to almost the point of asceticism.

Asim's relationship with Mary is interesting in this light too, I think, because Mary, for all her passion for things, is very comfortable with the ascetic relationship. I'm not quite sure how to express this but I think it's one reason that she and Asim get on. They are friends, they trust one another, but they are both very self contained people -- two spheres who occupy the same space rather than inter-connecting. I'll need other readers who like Mary to explain this to me. I've been thinking that Mary is rubbish at expressing herself sexually -- having been with Richard from a very young age, I think she probably talks to show she's hip and liberal but is very insecure about herself as a woman. Whatever it is, this means that she and Asim are able to co-exist without any sexuality or particular emotional intimacy getting in the way at all.

Thanks!

If I may butt in here...

(yes, hi, catching up on the Rthverse, and OH IT NEVER DISAPPOINTS)

Here's how I see Asim and Mary: respect and understanding, without ever having to explain themselves to each other. Mary has no idea what Asim means when he says he sees the light of God, but she trusts him and understands that it is important to him, so accepts it as important to her too. Likewise, Asim may not approve of the intricacies behind Mary's marriage to Richard - the age, the polygamy; though I get the feeling that, according to Asim, nobody is good enough for Mary - but he sees what she gets out of it: the validation, the comradeship, and yes, the scientific resources that would otherwise be closed to her, being a woman in that time. So, because he respects and understands her, he accepts it.

They don't need to talk about this. They wouldn't even think of talking about it. They wouldn't know how to talk about it.

They just know, instinctively, the way they know themselves. Two parts of a whole -- but, two parts that operate independently, too.

Your insights into these characters are so wonderful. Thanks so much. I agree so much about them two parts operating independently. That's exactly how I've seen the. I hope I can get your reaction to a chapter or two of H&M, particularly where the lion broach is concerned. And I've now written Morgan talking to Aslan and your Deny the Child is really fundamental to that exchange.

Wonderful! In response to Lucy/Asim shippage, somehow I see them as having a very Doctor/Companion relationship, though I'm not sure who is the Doctor and who is the companion. I think it would depend upon the situation.

In response to Lucy/Asim shippage, somehow I see them as having a very Doctor/Companion relationship, though I'm not sure who is the Doctor and who is the companion
I love this. LOVE IT. Oh my gosh, YES and I actually think Lucy is more the Doctor than Asim. Except Lucy plays such a wonderful conscience and voice of wonder and Asim can do that cold analytical person .... or maybe they take turns?

That's kind of what I was thinking, the trading off, and for those reasons. I could see them meeting the Doctor and maybe Donna and hitting it off. Though Asim would be more Nineish than Ten or Elevenish. Hmmm

Was scrolling through my massive backlog of the flist, mostly just glancing at what people have been up to and bookmarking fic and such to come back to later, but I of course have to stop and let you know how much I love this.

ASIIIIIIIIM. I think I had a lot of these pieces from you, but I love seeing all the details. Also also it's interesting (and fitting, I think), that his background is so marked by place, by large events and movements. He's always been a character tied to both the widely political and the intensely personal aspects of the story, so it works perfectly.

He enjoys dark chocolate, has never had a sip of alcohol, and he has never been in an intimate relationship with anyone.
This is like a dating profile or something, and I'm just going to point out that he now has an extremely intimate, if not physically romantic, relationship with Lucy. :)

<33333 Asim/my heart 4eva

Somewhere around here we have speculation of Lucy and Asim as companions or Lucy as Time Lord and Asim as companion. I don't ship him with Lucy and I really haven't decided how I feel about Lucy seeing anyone post-Aidan, assuming I continue with AW which is currently a "no" at the moment. I'd stop H&M in its tracks and take it down completely but I've got most of the next segment written.

Anyway, you and LARM were responsible for the dark chocolate along with Gilian who I think has since moved on, but the dark chocolate remains.

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More of the Meme -- TSG Backstory

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