Cloud no. 9
1) All fills for prompts of the earlier prompt posts go in the post the prompt was posted in. No re-posting or splitting up prompts and fills.
2) Self-prompt when you post unprompted fic. (This means posting what the fill is about in a first comment, like a real prompt, and commenting on that with your fill.)
3) Try not to get too srs business. ( Read more... )
Ralph had never been one for myths and fables, nor the opium of the masses. But, when David stuck his hand up in the middle of a Socialist Register steering meeting, asking questions about Crosland and the Fabians, changelings and possession didn’t seem quite as farfetched anymore.
‘He’s going through a phase’, Marion said, ‘he wants your attention’. So he tried, sitting awkward and cross legged on David’s bedroom floor to ask him what he was doing. David regarded him seriously and told him the motley crew of plastic dinosaurs, farm animals and lego men had been very bad, and that he was issuing them all with control orders.
The worst thing was that it was contagious. No sooner had David ‘liberated’ Ed’s train set back into private ownership, than Ed was at his knee asking, ‘but could socialism really work, daddy?’
‘They’re their own people,’ Marion said, wisely, but it still felt like failure, watching them sat near on top of each other, murmuring words like modernisation and revisionism.
David went on work experience with Ken, and Ed went with Tony, and all either of them could talk about was David’s new Walkman and the wonders of global commercialism. Ed trailed David around like a shadow, and David started wearing expensive suits and talking about the achievements of capitalism.
‘Do you think it’s my fault?’ He asked Tony, defences down, in a room full of David’s peers. ‘Did I go wrong somewhere?’
‘They say your boy is dangerously left wing, you know,’ Tony answered, and they both looked towards where David was standing, speaking animatedly with another Tony. He smiled, when their eyes met, and David came over, let himself be pulled into a hug.
‘What was that for?’ David asked when he was released, and pushed his glasses up his nose. He simply smiled in return, and patted David’s shoulder,
‘Nothing, I’m just proud of you.’
Reply
CONTROL ORDERS ON DINOSAURS.
Ed questioning whether communism could work ;___;
I think my Milibands/unabashed Marxism button has been sufficiently pushed by this ficlet. Lovely stuff.
Reply
The worst thing was that it was contagious. No sooner had David ‘liberated’ Ed’s train set back into private ownership - this line near killed me of wibbleness. And the control orders on dinosaurs! and RMil's thoughts on changelings! This fic is exactly what I needed to pick meup, thank you :)))
P.S- Read the dedication of RMil's last book, written after his sons had joined New Labour and were riding up it, there was a thank-you to David and Ed for their 'helpful (and stringent) suggestions' I love that he was that cool with it :)
Reply
Reply
And the control orders on dinosaurs!
I was totally ripping off odd kid from Harry Enfield & Chums with that scene. xD
I was reading Panitch's article in memory of RMil a few weeks ago, and got all soppy when he printed part of Ed's eulogy to him, saying how he always encouraged them to have their views, no matter how disagreeable he might find them!
Reply
Oh wow. Just read it- I am now tearing up a little, it's beautiful. The bit about the sheep stories was lovely.
-I've was reading online the collected letters of C.Wright Mills*, another socialist theorist RMil travelled across Europe and was friends with- they truly were amazing men.
*David's middle name is Wright. I just got that.
Reply
As you can tell I'm a total Ralphist fan of the New Left.
Reply
Leave a comment