Far From The Tree: Part 3/3

[feral_shrew]

Original credit for the idea and background still belongs to avocado_love. I would love to know what you've thought about this story, and if you think that anything should have happened differently. "What if..." is one of my favorite questions when it comes to stories, and I usually can go into far too much detail about why I chose A instead of B

Comments

[beboots]

I came here through Avocado_Love as well, and read this entire thing all in one go despite the fact that I really should have been studying for my final exams. >_> I just wanted to say that I second all of the motions that Avocado said about what was absolutely lovely about this fic.

I would also like to add that I really liked the cultural details you included - little things like how the Fire Nation dispose of their dead, even just tossing the bodies over the wrong side of the ship, not facing the sun... Zuko's moments of self-loathing seem very in-character to me, here, especially when he thinks himself unworthy of Agni and thus unworthy of firebending or of seeking solace in Agni... ;_; I like that he's slowly getting over that in this last bit.

Sokka's attempts at helping, but still keeping his distance, and Zuko's reactions to Sokka's actions are just heartbreaking. I like that Zuko still has contingency plans: hoping for the best while planning for the worst. ;_; I also really like Zuko's attempts at helping - giving directions, explaining more about lightning shock... I, too, really liked the moment where Toph realized that he was a prince and asked about the THREE people who could shoot lightning, and Zuko had to correct her. ;_;

In conclusion: a really, really awesome fic! I salute you! Rock on, and keep up the good work. :)

[feral_shrew]

I formatted/posted the thing instead of studying for my finals, so we're in good company.

I am very, very far from an expert in Eastern philosophy, but one of my favorite classes was the anthropology of medicine. That's an odd way to get into it, but we went through the medical philosophies and histories of a large chunk of Asia. It's actually pretty awesome when you start paying attention to all of the different cultures, and the different ways that people think about disease.

I'm also a mythology nut. Just about any myth system that you can find features the male sun and the female moon. In China and Japan, the sun is a goddess, so I think of Agni as a female. All of the rest of the little details are extrapolated from the parts of culture that we've seen. Firebenders seem extremely likely to use funeral pyres, Airbenders probably had sky burials (those sound much prettier than they actually are, but they are wonderfully eco-friendly?), Water Tribe has the ocean right there, and Earth Kingdom would be the society to have people actually buried. They have the land to spare.

I'm really, really happy that people have been pulling out the parts that I really wanted to focus on. It was hard to tell if people would be able to pick out what I wanted to say. Many sexual assault victims develop PTSD. He has a lot more material for flashbacks than the average, and with the way that his culture seems to value close control over emotions, I don't think he's going to take it well. He wants to be in control of himself.

This entire story was ;_;, really, but my muse didn't want to leave Zuko where he was. I think I'm still horrified that he doesn't have Uncle. He doesn't think enough of himself to hold a permanent grudge for what people do to him (see: Agni Kai with Ozai), and that's even more with the ;_; and... yeah. I need to go write Zuko some serious fluff to make up for this.

[beboots]

Oh, don't worry, I don't think you're strange to be fascinated with the anthropology of medicine. I'm writing my honour's thesis on the history of medicine, specifically the crazy stuff going on with ideas about miasma and infections and amputations and such in the mid-nineteenth century. It has its own logic to it which I find fascinating.

"Firebenders seem extremely likely to use funeral pyres, Airbenders probably had sky burials, Water Tribe has the ocean right there, and Earth Kingdom would be the society to have people actually buried." I completely agree with you - this is my personal headcanon. ;) I mean, the show did put in a lot of effort in showing the four nations as culturally distinct, and I think that that would carry over into their death rituals.

I know what you mean about an Iroh-less Zuko. Iroh does so much to shape Zuko and offer him support (his only existing family member to do so), and I think that his uncle's death would hit Zuko really, really hard.

I certainly hope that you write more of anything after this, especially fluff! ;) I look forward to reading more from you!

[feral_shrew]

I did my undergraduate degree in the history of medicine. I only know a very small variety of topics, but I know them very well. My favorite paper was a cultural history about the tampon. The teacher said we could write any technology, and she was the one that taught us the full history of the vibrator. (That's fascinating in itself, because women could have a "hysterical paroxysm" induced by the doctor, by way of a hand job, and it was not at all a sexual transaction.)

The show did a great job adding in little touches of the culture that fit with existing societies. When little-Zuko and Azula are at Azulon's funeral/Ozai's coronation, they're dressed in white. If there aren't enough hints about airbender culture, they have Gyatso. Check how many of the Dalai Lamas aren't named Gyatso for the hint there.

The show never talks about the transition after Zuko was banished, but I've always thought that Ozai would want the boy gone very quickly. My personal interpretation is that Iroh volunteered himself sneakily enough that Ozai couldn't say that Zuko had to do it alone, and Iroh had a ship and a crew leaving the harbor before Ozai knew what was going on.

I'm very bad at writing extended fluff for Zuko, but I have a few really cute scenes in the next project I'm working on. I'm not allowed to watch movies. They give me ideas, and sometimes the ideas take over chunks of my brain. I'm using V for Vendetta as my source material, Sokka and the Blue Spirit (Zuko, to no reader's great surprise) overthrow Ozai's government to put (a not really reformed, but way better than Ozai) Azula on the throne. Prince Zuko is dead, but Blue and Mai probably have the cutest courtship that ever started with somebody bleeding. (He moved. Obviously it's his fault, never mind that she was throwing the knives)

[beboots]

Ooh... now the history of the tampon sounds interesting! I only know bits and pieces, mostly about pads. Native and Metis women in Western Canada used the softest part of rabbit fur or absorbent moss, but I get the impression that a lot of European women used rags or nothing at all. The history of hysteria and its treatment is also quite fascinating. ;)

I really liked the white mourning clothing as well. It was a nice detail. :)

Ooh... I do love stories that address political shenanigans too! Interesting... :3

[feral_shrew]

Roman women used wool, Japanese women had paper tampons, and then WWI came. Kimberly-Clark made "cellucotton" for bandages. It was extremely absorbent, and some clever nurses figured out that if it soaked up blood from wounds, it would pick menstrual blood right up. Kimberly-Clark had loads of the stuff left over, they marketed it brilliantly (wrap it in brown paper, leave money in the box instead of asking the clerk for them), and then it all kept moving.

Politics are fun. I've had to convince a few friends, but they're fascinating and they give you lots of chances to maneuver characters. I'm not using all of the V for Vendetta material, but a few little aspects are going to come through. There was a sickness, Zhao is Creepy Creedy, and the entire reason I let the story happen was Zuko being Zuko. I still don't know exactly how I got here, but I decided that Zuko might be the only person crazy enough to break out of prison and sneak back in every night.

It's also an excuse to let Sokka and Zuko (with assistance from Jet) fix the country. (Jet is a funny story, but Sokka and Jet quickly despise each other and leave Zuko as the voice of reason.) Mai is also the most pragmatic potential girlfriend for the masked-hero type ever.

[beboots]

Have you ever read "The Dirt on Clean: an Unsanitized History" by Katherine Ashenburg? I think that you'd like it. They briefly talk about tampons and such, but go more in depth in ideas of cleanliness in the Western world. Fascinating stuff. (Answers the question: "Just how dirty were they?")

"Zuko might be the only person crazy enough to break out of prison and sneak back in every night." YES! THIS! Also, this: "Mai is also the most pragmatic potential girlfriend for the masked-hero type ever." XD Definitely!

[feral_shrew]

"The Dirt on Clean" sounds very, very cool. My best source for the tampon paper was a history of women's undergarments as they relate to sports. (It was awesome. They used to be convinced women would fall over dead if they did anything strenuous during a period, 20 years later the Gold medalist in an Olympic swimming event was on her period.) My favorite part about writing the paper was at a club, though. Most guys heard the topic, went a few shades pinker or grayer, and backed off. The quiz bowl guys tilted their heads and immediately started asking where I was getting my sources and if I'd checked (many useful suggestions). It was an academic problem, and they're also mature enough to not go "OMG there's blood there?!!!!"

There's blood the first time the first time Zuko and Mai talk. It's entirely his fault, because he moved the wrong way when she threw knives at him.

Jet meets Zuko the first night that Zuko breaks out of prison. Jet (again) looks at the scar and goes "soulmates!!!" and pulls the guy home to talk him into joining the Freedom Fighters (based in the Fire Nation capital for convenience). Jet's the one that gives Zuko the mask, and that starts calling him Blue.

[beboots]

"They used to be convinced women would fall over dead if they did anything strenuous during a period" - I have never heard this before but I am unsurprised. There are ideas like that all over in "The Dirt on Clean". You've gotta have that protective layer of dirt or the miasmas will get into your pores and make you ill, right? ;) It's interesting to see the transition period in the 19th century when those ideas were on their way out but half the population still adhered to them... culture clash within a single culture. It's when the term "unwashed masses" came into use to refer to the poor: before the early 1800s, the rich weren't noticeably more clean than the beggars. ;)

(And hey, would you happen to remember what the title/author/periodical of that paper was? It sounds super neat and I'd like to read it!)

"There's blood the first time the first time Zuko and Mai talk. It's entirely his fault, because he moved the wrong way when she threw knives at him." XD Almost everything ends up being Zuko's fault in the end...

Ooh... an interesting origin story for this version of the Blue Spirit! Super cool! Will this be set in the same "era" as in canon, or will it be a modern alternate universe? (I'm hoping for the former, actually. ;) )

[feral_shrew]

My university library's special collections department has a 1951 pamphlet about menstruation. It recommends not going near pools (women are "easily chilled" during menstruation) or horseback riding during your period, and has a few pictures to demonstrate the silly female creatures that didn't stay home and knit or whatever they should have done instead. (I do knit. I just don't stay home from riding horses to do so.)

And success on the source. I dug through all my back-files for undergrad:
1. Phillips, Janet and Peter Phillips. “History from below: women’s underwear and the rise of women’s sport.” Journal of Popular Culture 27 (2): 129-148. 1993.

It's pretty fantastic.

It's canon-era. The unholy alliance of Zuko, Jet, Azula, and Zhao (I don't know what's the weirdest part) was about to depose Ozai (Zuko doesn't like Zhao, at all, but needed access to the Fire Lord) when the Avatar showed up and ruined the entire plan. (The plan was "Zuko kills the Fire Lord." Simple and effective, they made sure Azula had a great alibi, she takes over, they get rid of Zhao, done.)

[beboots]

You knit? Excellent! <3 I was big on knitting for the longest time, and I really need to go back to it in these stressful times... When it goes right, it's one of the most relaxing feelings in the world. :) I prefer to knit socks and really, really long scarves. I never got the hang of knitting fingers after two or three aborted attempts at knitting gloves and mittens. >_>

Excellent! Thank you for the reference! I still have access to the university library system until a little bit after I graduate this spring, and I'm going to make the most of it until then. ;)

I'm really, really interested to see how all of this will play out... :3

[feral_shrew]

I knit really long scarves and snakes. I'm a detail freak, so when I say I make snakes-- I freehand knit/crochet snakes with realistic proportions and lower jaws and I actual did a detail about where the belly scales switch texture. I was bored and I had yarn, somehow I ended up with a fuzzy rainbow cobra.

I'm going to be very, very sad when I lose my university library privileges. I'll still get science journals to do my job, but I like researching history when it comes to writing out papers. Writing pages and pages of science just feels like you should be more succinct.

[beboots]

You crochet SNAKES? That is so cool! (... pictures, please? :D )

Yeah, science is all about being concise and such. :P One of the reasons I love history is because the world is like one giant story with a billion little subplots that begin and end and repeat themselves, and you're continually finding more stories to fill in the blanks. I find history really easy to learn and memorize for that reason. You just have to learn the story. ;)

[feral_shrew]

I'll be home in a few days and might be able to find one of the yarn-snakes living in the closet. I live with seven snakes right now. I'm the semi-normal one with a single juvenile corn snake, my roommate has six (one python, four boas, and a king snake). Two of her babies are four feet long.

I'm the crazy person that did the history of science major... then went on to do more science. There's also a lot of cool interpersonal interaction and I like the job (and I can't write if I didn't do other things with my life, I get ideas from doing things), but I'm starting to think that a PhD in history of science would have been way more fun.

[beboots]

Awesome. :3

I'm trying not to think about that gray murky area of "after graduation". D: I've been starting to save all of the really interesting articles that are in PDF format online to my harddrive and such...

A PHD in the history of science and technology would be super cool. If you were to do this hypothetical degree, what would you write your thesis on?

[feral_shrew]

"After graduation" was very strange for me. I got accepted into my first-choice program in October of my senior year, and it was through the same university. I graduated in May and came back to school six weeks later. I don't have to find a real job for a good long time.

Ooooh, good question. There are so many things I want to write about, but I think I would do a history of evolutionary psychology. I think the field is generally made out of a whole lot of just-so stories and bad reasoning, and will never forgive it for this strange article I need to find again-- women like pink more than men because they used to hunt for berries. They had two sample groups (native-born Brits and Chinese immigrants to Britain), and completely ignored that Chinese men liked red (which is a lucky color in China). I really want to know when we decided that personality traits/habits/problem-solving could be traced back into animals.

Are any fields especially interesting to you? I just might be writing a paper over the Christmas break for a journal competition. I need a history of medicine topic and might be able to do my evolutionary psych history.