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rthstewart) wrote2009-12-28 04:47 pm
Chapter 13, Keep Your Friends Close
Once again in the category of, I couldn't possibly make this stuff up, the episode involving the stolen pamphlet, its frantic copying, and return with no one being the wiser is taken straight from The Irregulars, sans Gryphon.
“Marsh had given him a draft of a pamphlet written by his close friend Henry Wallace. Entitled “Our Job in the Pacific” it summarized the vice president’s postwar goals, among them international control of the airways, economic assistance for the industrial development of Asia, and the demilitarization of Japan. Wallace was also in favor of “the emancipation of colonial subjects” in the British Empire, including India, Burma, and Malaya. Dahl could feel his hair stand on end. Dahl, immediate realized the document’s importance, and knowing that his superiors would want to see it, he excused himself saying that he was going to finish reading it downstairs. He quickly phoned his BSC contact, explained the urgency of the situation, and convinced him to meet him on the corner as soon as possible. The agent knew something was up and materialized on the street in front of Marsh’s house in a matter of minutes.
Dahl sneaked out of the hosue and handed the document through his car window, warning his partner in crime to be in back in half an hour or there would be hell to pay. … [T]he agent went straight to the BSC’s Washington offices to make copies and made it back within the allotted time. Dahl nipped back out, collected the paper, and no one was the wiser.
[The document] created a bit of stir in New York and again when it reached London. Churchill reported could hardly believe what he was reading. … [The] American government’s postwar plans for civil aviation … coupled with the liquidation of the British Empire, inspired Churchill to cataclysms of wrath.
J. Connant, The Irregulars, Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington. pp. 121-122.
It's funny, when I first started mapping this out, I knew I would need a way to record and copy documents, Narnia-style. That problem was solved with the dual action now part of the story. You may also notice that I've stopped signaling the switch between Tashbaan and Washington. I figure the reader is able to slide back and forth as well as Peter is at this point.
So, I hope you'll read and review.
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I like the transgression and the way things now shift smoothly between Spare Oom and Narnia. It is very effective. And you use it very humorously at times too. Fabulous!
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I just finished reading the chapter and left one thing out of my review. But I did see that Love and Rock Music drew the same conclusion as well -- that the section in the pamphlet that discussed liberating the colonies from the British Empire was VERY reminiscent to the Pevensies' dealings on the matter of the Lone Islands.
With regards to the transition from Susan Pevensie's description of events to Queen Susan's view, it seems so effortless now. As I go from one paragraph to the next, I don't bat an eye at the shift. It really is a lot like how Peter has now picked up on the key that Susan and Edmund had been using in their letters.
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It is strange, to be putting Narnia against Calormen, and England against the US in this regard. It's all a bit topsy turvy, because of course, we the reader bring the idea of Calormenes as slave traders into the brew and the role that slavery had in the Lone Islands. This is all, of course, in addition to my own harping upon the problems the Lone Islands posed to Narnia in this 'verse, and how delicately the Four tried to tread there.
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I am curious though, did you purposely set up the Calormenes and the Lone Islands in By Royal Decree to mirror what was to come in Queen Susan? Or was it all just a happy coincidence?
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In TQSiT, Terebinthia actually sits in for the colonies, while the Lone Islands are Africa. If I'd been truly consistent, the Lone Islands would have been the colonial interests -- though of course the British had colonies in Africa too, so...
The fact is, the amount of making it up as a go along is pretty appalling. Time and again, things I introduced by accident ended up being important to the vision, or were things I ended up explaining. Mr. Pevensie at Cambridge, Jalur being in Edmund's Order, the splints first used in BRD, Lucy's letter to Peter in Chapter 4 of part 1, these are all things that I did not intend to have any special meaning, but have now become integral to the story. So far, I've not gotten myself into too many corners -- Archenland being New York or Canada is the most notable one that I couldn't get out of. Yeah, as if anyone remembered THAT one.
Something I've realized from review responses is that readers how are following both sides of this vision have sort of mashed BRD and The Palace Guard together. That's fine of course, good, even, but I have found it interesting.
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Wonderful new chapter here - there's a lot of things that I like, and but I'm fascinated by your continuation of Rabadash/Susan and the Great Game. I know you've been hesitant to take on The Horse and His Boy, but I'd really love to read more about the game in play, and the way that Susan was taken in, then pulled it out again (with the aid of Edmund and the other Narnians).
Sorry you've been unwell - do hope that you managed to have an enjoyable Christmas anyway. Congrats again on the awards - I'm rally pleased for you.
Cheers
: )
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And of course the reason the Trickster helps Aslan is because he really doesn't like Rabadash much. He thinks it's all just a great joke! Oh, right, where was I? Yeah, not much to add to Susan, per se. So far.
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Forgot to add earlier that I liked that little sneaky Tebbitt/Susan moment. If he's admiring her, then that's all to the good. I still don't know that I'd class myself as a shipper, but I'm leaning more that way all the time.
Another interesting thought just occurred, too. In the opening paragraphs, we see Edmund's difficulties with trust. Being the Morgan/Harold fangirl that I am, it occurred to me to wonder about the effect that would have had there. We've already established that M/H was a bit more than some sort of temporary fling, so was trust an issue, or was Morgan an exception? Would be interesting to see how that played in that particular 'ship.
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Most fundamentally, I would not characterize the Morgan and Harold ship as a particularly functional one. This is one where I could see everyone else around them just in a continual eyeroll. Morgan, in her role as financial advisor to Narnia, keeps sending these men and women as potential marital prospects for the Four in order to secure the succession (and her house's investment) and then gets really pissed if Harold so much as looks at one of them. And Harold is all, "Well, but you sent her!?" There is not a lot of self-knowledge on either side of that relationship to my mind. Hence Ed's Might Have Beens. I don't want it to be too angsty, 'cuz I'd rather write sexually charged witty banter.
After Jadis, I just don't see Ed trusting easily at all, of anyone. I have Sallowpad observing that of Ed in both BRD and TPG. Which brings me to sort of an interesting place... he obviously comes to trust Morgan to a point, and maybe for him, it's just easier to trust her, to the extent he is able, rather than any of the others who come knocking after. I do think she is pretty transparent to him which he respects. By the end of BRD he understands her agenda and her motives. It's not romantic -- it's businesslike, but that works for both of them, because it's her milieu and because that's just how he is. These are good things for me to keep in mind!
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Hah. I'd bet so. Moving on. Like I said in the review, I adored this chapter. There's simply so much going on here, not only plot-wise but character-wise as well, and that a bloody fantastic story does make.
I'd be really interested to see some of those theories you mentioned in your response to Min come to fruition... (Why, no, I'm not sitting here instigating plot bunnies. Why ever would you think that?)
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As for the plot bunnies, yeah, I know. There's a lot I could do. Some of it, I probably have to do before I wrap up part 3. In particular, I also need to do more with Peter and Susan, build up their relationship -- probably in Narnia, so that the split we all know is coming has some heft. Doing more with Harold and the Evil Banker would be fun, though again, that is not an easy relationship to write because there's a pretty high degree of dysfunctionality but I still need to keep that fundamental element of snark. I also realized when I posted the shorts over here that one thing readers like about the relationship is that there is a partnership aspect to it -- they DO something, it has a purpose. Which means a plot involving the Lone Islands.
As for the Trickster in Calormen, that came about when I was doing research for developing Agnes. The kids around here all learn some of the African folk tales and I'd heard of Anansi the spider years ago. I did not know he had been transferred with the slaves to America in the form of Aunt Nancy. Nor did I realize that Brer Fox is his other American incarnation. The Rick Riordan series Percy Jackson and the Olympians plays with another aspect of the Trickster -- Hermes, as god of messengers and thieves.
So yeah, I'm not sure I'll have much more to say once Part 3 wraps up on the Spare Oom side, which means more Narnia I suppose. I really think I need to do a Mary Sue and Bromance story -- and see what happens.
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Anyway, what came to my mind just now is that I'd love to hear more about this discussion between Peter and Lucy. I feel like Lucy could almost help Peter with his issues with the theoretical - after all, didn't Lucy see Aslan as a Lamb? A different body, but the same Form, as it were.
Blargh. It's late and I've been crying over Dr. Who and I'm not even sure any of this makes sense, but there ya go.