Reading: From the Ashes (by Estora)
Tonight I'm going to embark upon a largish project of closely reading a chapter of estora's fic, From the Ashes. Because it's quite long, and covers a lot of (con)textual ground, I'm going to be breaking it into bits. estora, your comments are solicited.
Here is a link to the chapter, on ffn: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5609369/26/From_The_Ashes
*~*~*~*
The chapter opens in media res. Time has passed; a couple of months. Long enough for things to change between Obi-Wan and his no-longer apprentice. Estora starts us off by detailing some of the changes, through Obi-Wan's internal musings, in two concise paragraphs. Briefly:
"The last two months can be contemplated in the safety of the Jedi Temple, but strangely it is not the battles that weigh on his mind. It's Anakin. It's not a bad thing, he doesn't think. Anakin has been on his mind a lot lately. Always has been, but now more so than usual. It makes sense, of course. They are a team. They are the team."(estora)
Here she subtly sets up the epiphany Obi-Wan is going to have later in the chapter, by interweaving Obi-Wan's awareness of Anakin into his thought patterns. She plays with her readers, giving them all the information they need but holding them so close to the text they can't see the big picture yet. Obi-Wan is taking a moment of his time off to reflect, as Jedi are presumably wont to do; Anakin is around, as he usually is; and he is the center of Obi-Wan's attention, which doesn't seem strange until readers revisit the passage in light of Obi-Wan's own epiphany. That is: readers are in Obi-Wan's shoes. They have all the information he does, but they are no swifter at putting the pieces together to form a structure of meaning. This is arguably true of Obi-Wan's experience through Star Wars canon, and is certainly exemplary of the way Estora writes him; Obi-Wan is aware, but he is rarely self-reflective. Estora's fic plausibly construes this as a consequence of his Jedi training.
Then she drops the bomb: "Sometimes the same bed, if it's cold." Wait, what? Come again? And yet this is precisely the kind of behavior expected of soldiers on campaign. It is practical, not sexual ... readers are alerted to the heightened intimacy of their relationship, but Estora provides an innocent context for the interpretation of this line, and suspicions subside.
Throughout this first section of the chapter, Estora uses language with sexual associations to suggest more than her words say. The meanings of the text reach out in multiple directions, refusing to resolve. For instance, "Anakin [...] approaches, flushed and sweaty." In the context of a training salle, it is hardly surprising that physical exertion would leave Anakin flushed and sweaty, but the choice of words has resonances with romantic literature. Additionally, the reader knows that Obi-Wan is paying attention.
This attention is played out by his in attention only a few lines later, when Obi-Wan distractedly caresses the curve of Anakin's lip. And yet, instead of pushing his realization, Estora allows it to fade, and the two go off to spar together, with "Anakin's grin [promising] a workout." She thus allows the tension between the expectations her turns of phrase have raised and the behavior of the characters to slowly build, mounting in a back-and-forth rhythm that brings them ever closer together.
*~*~*~*
And that's it for tonight. Aren't I a tease? Go read Estora's fic, it's really good. :) And leave a comment!
Here is a link to the chapter, on ffn: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5609369/26/From_The_Ashes
*~*~*~*
The chapter opens in media res. Time has passed; a couple of months. Long enough for things to change between Obi-Wan and his no-longer apprentice. Estora starts us off by detailing some of the changes, through Obi-Wan's internal musings, in two concise paragraphs. Briefly:
"The last two months can be contemplated in the safety of the Jedi Temple, but strangely it is not the battles that weigh on his mind. It's Anakin. It's not a bad thing, he doesn't think. Anakin has been on his mind a lot lately. Always has been, but now more so than usual. It makes sense, of course. They are a team. They are the team."(estora)
Here she subtly sets up the epiphany Obi-Wan is going to have later in the chapter, by interweaving Obi-Wan's awareness of Anakin into his thought patterns. She plays with her readers, giving them all the information they need but holding them so close to the text they can't see the big picture yet. Obi-Wan is taking a moment of his time off to reflect, as Jedi are presumably wont to do; Anakin is around, as he usually is; and he is the center of Obi-Wan's attention, which doesn't seem strange until readers revisit the passage in light of Obi-Wan's own epiphany. That is: readers are in Obi-Wan's shoes. They have all the information he does, but they are no swifter at putting the pieces together to form a structure of meaning. This is arguably true of Obi-Wan's experience through Star Wars canon, and is certainly exemplary of the way Estora writes him; Obi-Wan is aware, but he is rarely self-reflective. Estora's fic plausibly construes this as a consequence of his Jedi training.
Then she drops the bomb: "Sometimes the same bed, if it's cold." Wait, what? Come again? And yet this is precisely the kind of behavior expected of soldiers on campaign. It is practical, not sexual ... readers are alerted to the heightened intimacy of their relationship, but Estora provides an innocent context for the interpretation of this line, and suspicions subside.
Throughout this first section of the chapter, Estora uses language with sexual associations to suggest more than her words say. The meanings of the text reach out in multiple directions, refusing to resolve. For instance, "Anakin [...] approaches, flushed and sweaty." In the context of a training salle, it is hardly surprising that physical exertion would leave Anakin flushed and sweaty, but the choice of words has resonances with romantic literature. Additionally, the reader knows that Obi-Wan is paying attention.
This attention is played out by his in attention only a few lines later, when Obi-Wan distractedly caresses the curve of Anakin's lip. And yet, instead of pushing his realization, Estora allows it to fade, and the two go off to spar together, with "Anakin's grin [promising] a workout." She thus allows the tension between the expectations her turns of phrase have raised and the behavior of the characters to slowly build, mounting in a back-and-forth rhythm that brings them ever closer together.
*~*~*~*
And that's it for tonight. Aren't I a tease? Go read Estora's fic, it's really good. :) And leave a comment!