rthstewart | Digressions is Us

So, in my defense for how TQSiT is already and will be considerably longer than Part 1:

I don't really get to Not Tashbaan until Chapter 4
And 2 chapters so far are even more superfluous than the rest of it, meaning the Mrs. Ellis and Mrs. Brown Not A Chapter and now, Chapter 12, Heart and Mind, subtitled, What Lucy Thinks About All Of This

At a mere (for me) 5,900 words there is still a lot going on, and as I reflected on this first foray into Lucy's point of view, I realized that in writing Lucy, she most fully integrates Narnia and Spare Oom. The story looks back and around to the other characters floating around this vision, including Sir Leszi (referred to earlier in TQSiT and The Palace Guard), Mr. Hoberry (TSG Part 1, By Royal Decree, and TPG), Rats and Crows (BRD, TPG, and my short, Black As Rat and Crow), Jalur, Briony, and others.

And, why yes, I am hinting at some one else waiting especially for Lucy in Aslan's Country. That too is referenced in previous stories. Twice.

As stated, Lucy has the shortest journey in this particular vision. Further, back in Chapter 2, when we learned that Edmund had heard his Narnia friends, companions, and others from behind the Wall at World's End, readers asked me, well, what about Lucy? Did she sense them too? To which I decided, yes, she did, but that for her, it was not as tumultuous an experience because Lucy lives, very much like Asim, with a foot in both worlds and so Aslan and the dead are always with her.

I wish I could say that back in April when I wrote Edmund in Chapter 3 of BRD saluting his Rats and Crows with the 2 fingered salute to his brow, or when Min23 asked me about how and why Jalur was sworn to Edmund's Order of the Stone Table, that I knew that Peter and Lucy, in the Order of the Lion, would return a salute of fist over heart. Nope. It is appalling how much of this I make as I go along. Shhhh! Don't tell anyone, OK?

As for Lucy's future, I think that's shaping up. As I said in Chapter 1 of TQSiT, "Unleashing the indomitable Queen Lucy the Valiant upon an unsuspecting England was a fearsome, wondrous thing to consider."

So, that's my first attempt at the point of view of the Valiant Queen, wherein I learned that it is much easier to have other people say a character is insightful and have that insightful character say amazingly perceptive things when that character is not the point of view character.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

As I said before, I think your development of Lucy is fantastic and brilliant in every way- I really do love how very much she integrates Narnia and England.

And, at this moment, I'm truly envying your ability to make things up as you go along and then have them make such brilliant sense</i. Gah.

Thank you! The fact that things I insert for no reason whatsover that end up becoming HUGE later has happened over and over. The best example is really oh, pretty much everything in TQSiT. WAAAY back in Part 1, during Peter's first meetings with the Russells and then when he meets Richard, we learn about his father being at Cambridge and that their mother is a part-time secretary and the whole father is working for Intrepid. When I wrote that, I had no intention of doing TQSiT. I have to say that reviewers keep me honest and it is hugely flattering when someone says, "Well, what about?" and then digressions is us.
Love the icon by the way.

You know, I forgot how Lucy is very much like Asim until you mentioned it here. As the Pevensies do, Asim also lives with multiple identities, and the one that appears to others depends on the occasion.

As for who else is waiting for Lucy besides her friends and her Guard... I do have a guess. :-) Can't wait to see if my assumption is correct later on.

I am happy to see mentions of the others from your previous stories; it really does complete your entire Narnia-verse and it's a nice way to refer back to Narnia even though "The Stone Gryphon" and "Queen Susan" take place entirely in England.

Lucy's salute to Edmund -- does this mean she is a Knight of the Order of the Lion? (I saw discussion of this somewhere -- NFFR forums maybe? I lurk there, but I can't remember if that's the right place.) Or is she saluting him as both a Queen of Narnia, and on behalf of their brother the High King?

I believe she is a Knight in the same Order as Peter, the Order of the Lion. After a NFFR AsCast about the mention of the Orders of Peter and Edmund in PC, we discussed whether Lucy was a Knight, and several authors started playing with the concept. So, this was my take on it.

As for the other, so far you are the only one who has mentioned it! I've found though that what people don't mention in reviews doesn't mean they don't see it. In any event, there are not that many to chose from and if you look for it, it can be seen easily enough. One of the reasons that I did not continue Palace Guard to the Lampost was because, in this vision, Aslan doesn't just yank the 4 back with no word or explanation to those left behind. But, to do that, I needed to know WHO was left to carry on in Narnia.

As for Lucy's inevitable meeting with Asim, this is something that I've been thinking about. I'd intended it to come relatively late in part 3, 1946 or even 1947. I'm not sure I can hold it out that long. I've been thinking a lot about Part 3, obviously. ACK. Must finish Part 2 first.

I had not even thought of Lucy being similar to Asim until you mentioned it here! Can't wait to see that interaction - I'm sure Asim will be positively blinded by the brilliance of Lucy's light.

I decided to muse on this further in a separate entry. But yes, the meeting of Lucy and Asim has been coming since Asim first saw Peter and then we learned, some 8 chapters later that Asim sees a god-light in special people, including those who have been to Narnia.

Hi Rth,

Thanks for the call-out. I'd love to say that it was genius that saw all these wonderful things coming, but truthfully, I have a number of these refrigerator moments (you know, go to the refrigerator to get a drink and suddenly start thinking "Hey, I wonder about...")

Digression or not, I really like where you've gone here. I can't wait to see more unleashing of Lucy (once you're done with the unleashing of Susan, of course). Heck, let's just unleash all four of them, and maybe Eustace and Jill and... yeah, yeah, OK - you get the idea.

Further to Autumnia's comment, OK, so Lucy is a knight in the Order of the Lion, along with Peter, while Edmund is a knight in the Order of the Table. So what about Susan? I'm seeing the parallels between the salutes and the designations that you've applied to the Four - fist to heart for the Heart and Soul, and fingers to the temple for the Concert of Minds. We've established (I think) that Susan's less likely to go off to war with her siblings (or is that somewhere else in the fandom?), so could she be a knight as well? Or is just that she's not less of a fighter, just more apt to fight differently?

Is this a sneaky and brilliant way of differentiating Susan from her siblings. They're knights, she's not, they go ahead after the train smash, and she's left to fight a different enemy in a different way? Or am I just reading in a lot of stuff that isn't there at all - wishful thinking, and all that?

Cheers,
Min
: )

Well, a call out is warranted as you've been personally responsible for a number of my digressions thus far. You and Autumnia both picked up on the "other." I've answered that above, to some extent. I had not really thought of Knighting Lucy until the scene came into my head, and then, there it was. I truly do make this up as a go along.
Your point about Susan is an excellent one. A part of what I think has been said, but not really shown, is that Susan's contributions were undervalued. Ed even reflected on that in BRD when Susan pulls off the Hound in the corset and appropriate background music. In TQSiT, as readers commented on how much they liked reading of others appreciating Susan's accomplishments, I've emphasized that more. yeah, I do pay really close attention to what people write and I do let it influence me.
I have no particular Narnia side of the story in mind that shows Susan's perceived undervalued status, so I've been relying on telling rather than showing in TQSiT. There was an undercurrent of Susan's silent skills in several places in Palace Guard -- I think those intimate to the monarchs and the management of the Palace know very well what all she is doing. I think there is a story there, especially to develop the relationship between Peter and Susan.

Where this leads me, I think, is that Susan is not a Knight. And, as you say, it is something that separates her from the others. The more I think on it, the more important I think that distinction is for the choices to come in Part 3 and that it can be part of what brings Peter to declare her no longer a Friend of Narnia.

And yep, I've been thinking (and writing) all sorts of shippy, angsty, and funny bits for Part 3 lately, as well as a lot of those, "Am I really going to go there?" Me bad. And odd, because when I started this, I assumed there would be no audience whatsover for a Spare Oom based story.

Well, if you're making it up as you go along, then there's only one thing left to be said... more, more, more : )

Digressions is Us

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

Min23