Blame Be_The_Moon -- Egotistical Meme

[rthstewart]

So my whining in the previous post generated a Harold and Morgan Plot The Narnia Census comment fic courtesy of autumnia  keeperofqkeys and min023 I burned the dinner but it was fun.  On the plus side, thanks for the lovely comments.  I'm at 7,337 words, of which I'll probably use most of it, and I'm not half done, so that means probably another two parter.  The problem is

Comments

[be_themoon]

I loved SO much your oneshot on Narnian burial customs. Oh, my heart! all the cultures you drew from and the examples! the examples. D: I thought it was fabulous to see the darker side of your Narnia. My favorites were probably the first example, the seventeen soldiers who died in flooding after the coming of spring and the memorial service for them, and then the one further on when the first Palace Guard dies. :(

alsooo, since I never actually give feedback, I would like to confirm that yes, I do occasionally read bits and pieces of your stories. I'm too scared to start reading thoroughly because the one time I did I read Stone Griffin in one day flat and got NO school done. some day I'll get around to it! But you write so well, rth, and the humor is fabulous and wonderful. And I even have a question! I have only read short bits of TQSiT, but I am curious as to what you think Tebbit's background is? I may have missed it and you've already discussed it, but what do you imagine his family to have been/be like?

[rthstewart]

Well, funny thing with the burial customs and questions. I actually did (really) write about the death of one of the Guards -- Merle, the Boarhound, is Edmund's first Guard. They are together for 7 years and then Merle dies in an ambush and Edmund is all angsty for a while before he and Jalur come to their understanding. It's in the chapters of The Palace Guard story, Jalur and the Just King, though Merle actually appears as a character in the earlier chapters. He's a bit deficient, Merle, is. As for the dead soldiers, again, angst doesn't come naturally to me, so writing of all those farewells was as hard on me as it was on the characters. Really hard. Chapter 19 is dealing with Narnian deaths, Hound, Satyr, and Centaur, plus I'm discussing but not writing the death of 4 other unnamed unseen characters -- that's just an excuse for Peter to get drunk on Dwarf Lightning and more death worldbuilding

[metonomia]

TEBBITTTTT. I'm pretty sure that at least half of why I love him so much is entirely attributed to the fact that he was reading literature. <3333

And I'm REALLY excited for the Narnian death customs.

[metonomia]

I adored your story "Tales from Behind the Waterfall," about the dearly departed of Narnia sensing as Lucy and Edmund did the presence of their lost loved ones as they sailed up to Aslan's Country. Briony! Lambert! Merle and Jalur interacting! It was both humorous and heartbreaking in that lovely way you do so well, and getting more from the viewpoint of the Palace Guard was so great.

P.S. I kind of really want this to happen.

[rthstewart]

Errrrm... OK, so it's like this. Jalur is just so insecure about Merle and that Edmund might like him better, he just can't quite help himself, and he's very upset (for Jalur) that Merle sensed Edmund first (I mean, Merle's a HOUND, so of course he's going to know Edmund is there). And though I didn't write it, Jalur tells the others who don't have the sensitivity of the Beasts, and there's some angst there because well, they are hoping for some long put off introductions and re-introductions. (and boy, wouldn't they be surprised is Edmund did show up and he's only 13!). But, I'm not ready to write THAT story yet

[autumnia]

I am so, so happy that you finally wrote "Swordplay"! Asim! Peter! The sword fight we've all been waiting to see between the King and his temporary logistics man. It really is a shame Edmund wasn't in Oxford at the time to witness this, but at least he was able to read about it in his brother's letter to him. I was a bit surprised to see Digory agreeing to lend Peter a sword (after all, what would Peter's mother think?) instead of the High King just borrowing one of Asim's knives, but I suppose it would be best for Peter to use a weapon he was well accustomed with.

And now with the duel at an end, I suppose Asim now has more questions about this boy that isn't a boy, who shines with God's light. Well, he can add this to his list of interesting things about Peter Pevensie. Now, my next question is.... will we ever see a fight between Asim and Edmund as well?

I am sorry this isn't as long as my usual reviews... I am simply too stunned that you wrote it and I suspect I will need several more readings to fully enjoy this absolutely

[rthstewart]

Swordplay is always really hard to write. The two duels in PC are really among the best in literature, apparently, Trumpkin and Edmund and then Peter and Miraz. They are very skillfully constructed and it's difficult to write something even remotely comparable. Moreover, I'd already done the one between Edmund and Leszi, and sort of used up a lot of my tricks. So, I cheated by using Mary as the point of view character. She doesn't understand what she is seeing and her knowledge is far less informed. It's a bit like those of us sitting in a theater and watching the sword fighting in LOTR or POTC -- ohhh, pretty! But we could never dissect it in a meaningful way. But, I knew this was a scene that readers really wanted and had waited very patiently for, so it was worth the time it took to finally get it down

[autumnia]

I most definitely agree that writing a battle is terribly difficult to do. I marvel at how well others have written them because I can never figure out the details I would need in order to make a scene plausible. For now, I just save a small text file with random snippets of action that I've come across either in fanfic, published works or things I see in film or tv in hopes of helping to write a battle when the time comes.

As for Mrs. Pevensie, I could see her as "Helen" though it's a bit annoying that the film chose to use it when there's already a Helen in the books. It would have been nice to have used another era-appropriate name.

[lady_songsmith]

I adored the humor of "Dimming Magnificence", where we got to see Peter and Princesses Dim and Even More Dim on the road to Archenland, but I particularly enjoyed the moment of sobriety where Even More Dim talks to Peter's Guard about the High King's strange love of getting his hands (and everything else) dirty right alongside the Dwarfs

[rthstewart]

This was one of the hardest stories I've written for all that it comes out as a bit of a muddy romp. Of course it rains

[lady_songsmith]

*jaw drop*

Uh... and here I was thinking it was a silly setup tossed off because I couldn't think of anything in particular, being rather bad at creating prompts for other people to write (which is what this meme really is in disguise). And I get back this. Wow.

*scrolls up to re-read*

[rthstewart]

I'd meant also to add that Peter's transference, from Narnia to England, is (one of) the points behind that seemingly pointless digression in Chapter 2 of TQSiT, with the boy in the tree, Edmund's rather blunt question of who the High King's people are now, and then Eustace reflecting that the old lady looks like a wading bird -- I was thinking a Great Blue Heron. I'm thinking about that chapter a lot anyway as I'm now writing the Narnia side of it, for the different purpose of exposition of death rituals, though I realize I've just in my head put it AFTER Susan in the real Tashbaan sooo... there's going to be A LOT MORE going on in that scene.

[min023]

OK, I'm obviously a bit slow, but now I get where you're going with this. So, I'd like to know what part burned food plays in your creative process, since you've mentioned burned cookies at (I think) at least two burned dinners now ; )

More seriously, how did you come to your vision of Susan? The prevailing fic view is of Susan as a partygirl who's wilfully turned her back. I know you're aware of elecktrum's view, but I also know that you came to much the same point independently. Given that it's somewhat out of the ordinary, I'm curious how you arrived there. (I don't generally channel Susan, so I find it very interesting.)

On the other part, I love your fic that shows how Polly and Digory meet the no-longer abominable Eustace, and how he keeps making a mess of it. Poor Eustace, never had the right education or parental influence, so of course he keeps tripping over himself : )

[rthstewart]

Burned food is a fact of life for me. I do adore cooking and baking and I do a lot of baking at the holiday time. If I get distracted, however, I tend to ignore the two separate timers I set. Or, I neglect to set them. I multi task and for instance on Thursday night when Autumnia gave me the brilliant Harold and Morgan take the census, I had chicken on the grill for wraps. It was fine... just cooked thoroughly.
As for Susan, as I've mentioned, I did originally envision telling her story at all. I did not envision her being a spy and to the extent I was going to tell her story, it was going to follow a fairly predictable pattern I'm embarrassed to admit now. But, then Miniver and others asked, "Well, what about Susan's adventures?" At that point, I had been in the fandom longer enough to realize that like what was typically done with Kings in fandom, I did not like what I was reading about Susan AT ALL. She therefore became a deliberate reaction to fandom convention that has her making lists, throwing parties, ordering flowers

[min023]

Ah, so lots of it is a rebellion against the general trend. Your way is so much more constructive - I just don't read them to the end, or don't come back - you write some quality rebut-fic. I'm fascinated by all your responses above - brilliant, really brilliant. No wonder you've got a hard-core readership that keeps coming back. Hope you're not too exhausted by the big cook-up : )