Fic: The Gift That Keeps (On Giving)

[nfe_gremlin]

Title: The Gift That Keeps (On Giving)
Author: zempasuchil
Recipient: katakokk
Rating: PG
Possible Spoilers/Warnings: suggestive of intimacy
Summary: England in Narnia, or, By the time Christmas comes again Lucy knows exactly what to give.

AN: thanks muchly to be_themoon for the beta!

Comments

[caramelsilver]

Oh! So lovely. I really love your Lucy, her voice is very clear in my head when I read. I love the idea of Susan wanting to learn how to sow, but no one wanting to teach her. And Lucy painting!

Really, really nice fic!

[zempasuchil]

Thank you! I've never written Lucy before so I'm glad you liked it!

[makinhistory]

Aw, this is sweet! You're looking at a future history major, and one of the reasons I love it so much is the fascinating back-and-forths of trade, negotiations, wars, and compromising that went on. You captured that so well in your fic - the embargo, the wars, trade issues, all such mundane details of being kings and queens that we as Narnia fanfiction authors tend to forget about.

Good job, overall!

[zempasuchil]

Yay! I myself am a Latin American Studies major, so international stuff and colonialism kind of works its way into everything I think about :D Thank you!

Re: THE SUN NEVER SETS ON THE NARNIAN EMPIRE

[zempasuchil]

you know me and imperialism! and me and susan! <3

[zempasuchil]

<3333333
I... don't really know where that came from? I guess I was just thinking about how a repressed culture sort of deteriorates but then when it gets unrepressed he develops, and maybe the wildness the Pevensies see when they get to Narnia is a temporary stage, a phase of cultural development. Like how in PC they turn into dumb beasts because they're treated like it, well under the witch the same sort of thing would happen I think, but only 100 years' worth instead of 1300 years. So maybe it's a natural development, rationalization, or maybe it's induced by the concepts of civilization the Pevensies brought with them and employed in ruling their kingdom. Either way, the only constant is change, and even in the Golden Age Peter misses it.

[katakokk]

OH MY GOODNESS OH MY GOODNESS OH MY GOODNESS 8D

This is really beautiful, Z! I love the the idea that the Pevensies brought order and civilization to Narnia, but that these aren't necessarily good things and that Peter longs for wild Narnia (because Peter would.). Also, the imagery of Lucy painting is just really, really beautiful.

The fauns’ wild dances are developing steps now. Maybe it was a natural consequence, after a hundred years of being driven underground, that some of the structure and richness of culture would be repressed and lost. When Aslan banished winter, when he brought us to banish winter, it was only bound to develop complexity and formalization with greater freedom and more practice. But he misses the wildness.

This is so sad, but so true, and not just of Narnia but of everything. *loves*

ZORROSUCHIL, YOU ARE MADE OF AWESOME. THANKS MUCHO FOR MAKING MY VAGUE PROMPT SO AMAZING. <333333333333333

[zempasuchil]

YAAAY I am sooo glad you like it! And that whole theme of the ordering and rationalization of Narnia! You know these English-born kings and queens can't not affect Narnia, and in being so influential they change it, right? It can't be the same after 100 years of winter and they've changed it in rebuilding. And with all cultural change, you can't call it good or bad, but if you're Peter you can miss what used to be.

<3333333333333333 thank youuu! eeeee, I am so full of grins now :D

[zempasuchil]

RIGHT RIGHT so is Narnia myth or real? because sometimes it's treated as myth, in canon it's myth and treated so, but when writers, particularly ficwriters, worldbuild, they tend to rationalize - I mean I could've written a myth but I didn't, I wrote in a fantasy world. what happens when myth is rationalized is exactly that the wild fauns' dances get steps and the songs sung get lyrics and our kings and queens sit down to do paperwork because it's realistic.

[westingturtle]

How absolutely lovely!

[zempasuchil]

Thank you! :)