I think I left my brain in an ancient port city of Rome

[rthstewart]

So happy Tuesday after Happy Cat Sacrifice Day! By whose authority am I back and work?

Easter dinner for 20 was fabulous though I'll assume my jet lagged state was responsible for the gross over-estimation of food (coupled with my epic failure at  math). I also had to prepare for 2 readings at the church’s Easter Vigil mass (Moses parting the Red

Comments

[rthstewart]

I am reconciling myself that the next AW chapter is heavy on Lucy.

Several things occurred to me that tie into this and what you wrote. First, Edmund is very much suited to going undercover as a clerk and it's been fun to go back to the very beginnings of the story, both parts 1 and 2, to pull some of the threads together. Second, while it's not going to be a huge side story, there are some interesting things to play with, including how much Edmund knows, how he feels about working truly solo, and how he feels about concealing what he knows from his siblings -- which has been an issue for him. There's a fair amount of character growth that can occur.

I'm not sure, given the timing, how much he would know -- I don't know the precise timing of the Normandy invasion planning. Having him involved in the FUSAG deception is interesting on its own. I'm not sure at what point it was known that the 6th Airborne would be handling the eastern flank.

Anyway, if I can ever stay up later than 9 PM, I'll actually finish the dang chapter. Something that did occur to me is that Digory and Polly really have no clue about the espionage at all. They don't know what Susan was doing in America, they don't know Rat and Crow in Narnia, or the concert of minds -- I mean, they might, but I just can't see that being something that the Pevensies discussed with them much. In this, Mrs. Pevensie actually knows more than Digory and Polly do.

[autumnia]

Hmm. Edmund in DC will definitely be a lot lonelier than Harold the Clerk, not just because there's no romantic interest or distraction. At least on the Lone Islands, he still had his subjects around and they were mostly unnoticeable since they were animals. He will have no one to truly confide to or to ask advice of while working for the Colonel. For all that George will know who and what Edmund is in the way he knows Susan, it's not the same as having Sallowpad or Jina around. I'd like to think Ed would try to talk to Lucy but as I said earlier, it would be hard with the censoring and all the secrets.

Likewise, Lucy will be solo too, just in different ways. And with the addition of being stuck at school, it makes her life that much harder (as Peter reflected in "Rat and Sword"). I think at least, she's not completely alone because she has the wonderful ability to talk to Aslan, or Briony or Aidan. (Oh, and about Lucy's spelling -- it's a lovely trait to give her because it makes her more real. And besides, if Mary Anning Russell [as an adult and well-known woman of science] can have atrocious spelling, why can't Lucy as well?)

I think that Digs and Polly not knowing does make sense. For them and the Pevensies, I'm sure it's Not Relevant in terms of the types of conversation they would have about Narnia. And even so, given how much Digory does not want to know about some of Peter's Narnian experiences, I think he's even less likely to want to know about the darker sides of ruling the kingdom. The interesting thing is that Asim (and I feel in some way, the other members of Russell House) knows and he's very good about keeping Secrets. Digs and Polly not knowing is probably the same as Eustace never knowing as well. (I don't know how much Jill would know, given how her mother offered her old Continental wardrobe to Susan in that chapter of AW.)