NFE Reveal and Wrap-up
Sep. 7th, 2015 01:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
transposable_elementFirst of all, I want to again call attention to the story that was written for me, Ten Lashes, which I am pleased to see has been getting a lot of praise. The author, ![[archiveofourown.org profile]](https://p.dreamwidth.org/b164c54b26e4/-/archiveofourown.org/favicon.ico)
AviaTantellaScott, is someone I don't know at all. She clearly joined AO3 just for NFE, and she doesn't seem to have checked in since the exchange went live--at least, I don't see any comments or kudos from her anywhere in the exchange. I hope she looks in at some point, because I want her to know how much I like and appreciate the story she wrote for me.
I am not yet finished reading the stories in the exchange. I have been putting aside most of the longer stories due to attention span problems. I like the idea that there are more good stories awaiting me!
As for my own contributions. Uh. I got a little carried away....
In addition to my assignment, I wrote three Madness fics. I also started to write another by putting together excerpts from a longer piece I'd been working on, but that one never gelled, which is probably just as well. My total word count ended up just under 10,000.
One thing that pleases me is how different the four fics are from one another (though the theme of small people asserting themselves is discernible in three of the four). Still, they vary quite a bit in tone and structure. Also, all but one involve characters and settings I've never written about before. Overall, I think that I have stretched myself.
My assignment was I'll Take the High Road, formarmota_b, which is about Pattertwig the Squirrel. When I wrote it I had a couple of primary goals: wanting to make Pattertwig really seem like a squirrel, rather than a small furry Englishman, and wanting his journey to have some sort of purpose, given that we know that he doesn't fulfill the purpose for which he was sent out. So I had to start thinking about the landscape and how he might perceive it and move through it, and about what kind of help he might get along the way, and what kind of purpose his journey might have. And these all came together in the link between Squirrels and Trees. I'm still not completely happy with the ending, which I think is too abrupt, but otherwise I'm pleased with it.
The first of my Madness stories is The Honor and Glory of a Mouse, formarmota_b, redsnake05, and Selden, all of whom requested stories about Reepicheep and/or small Beasts. I invented the character of Neepipeek back in February in a three-sentence fic in which she puts her tiny little foot down and insists on joining the crew of the Dawn Treader. Since then I have had vague ideas of possible adventures for her but never got far with them. This vignette dramatizes her adversarial relationship with Reepicheep as she tests the boundaries of the chivalric tradition! The way I see it, he's the immovable object and she's the irresistible force, or possibly vice versa. My original idea was for Neepipeek to disguise herself so as to go into battle, but I tossed that out as unworkable pretty quickly. Then I had an idea for a much longer story that goes on to tell of the final battle of the war, with Neepipeek dragging the grievously wounded Reepicheep to safety and then having Feelings about the loss and restoration of his tail. But I think I prefer the smallness of the story I wrote.
The other two Madness fics are on topics that I had never thought about before I started working on them.
I wrote The Blood of Chiefs foredenfalling (the prompt is in the fic, so I won't quote it here). I had the bare bones of it worked out pretty quickly, then filled in and elaborated and tried to work out as many of the rough spots as possible. The mini-oration at the end was the hardest thing to write, because, well, I'm not an orator. As I said in one of my comments, I wanted Caspian to start out sympathetic and then become a darker and more troubling character. I deliberately refrained from giving most of the characters names, partly because I wanted to keep the focus on the central character and partly because I wanted to give a sense of how Caspian sees people, which is in relation to himself: my armsmen, my wife, my daughters, my people.
And finally, Clipsie the Mariner, forheliopausa: the previously untold story of the young daughter of the chief Dufflepud!
To write this one I had to go back and reread the episode of the island of the Dufflepuds in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and I was embarrassed that it had never before occurred to me what a White Man's Burden horror show that episode is: the foolish, childlike natives and the wise, benevolent colonial official who turns them into Monopods for the crime of disobedience. Well, it must have been something pretty terrible they were doing, though. Sacrificing virgins to the volcano god? Ritual mutilation? Desecrating the bodies of their enemies? Cannibalism? Nope. They were getting their water from a spring instead of a stream.
How did I never notice what a despot the Magician is? Even if the Duffers had deserved punishment (which of course they didn't), this particular punishment is both monstrously out of proportion and completely nonsensical! But of course he knows what's best for them, and they're really better off this way, and one day they will realize that they weren't worth much until he came along and made them better. The Narnians appear to accept the Magician's righteousness without question. Even Lucy thinks he's "a brick." They laugh at the Monopods. It's appalling. All except Reepicheep. Of course he's always a courteous knight, but it goes further. For one thing, it would be completely out of character for him to address the Monopods as "worthy and intelligent" while sniggering behind their backs; so apparently he means it. And why does he encourage them to develop a new skill, one that might even allow them to escape the Magician? Maybe he sees something the other Narnians don't.
So that got me going.
There are lots of details that suggest that the Monopods aren't as stupid and incompetent as they're made out to be. For example, when the Narnians arrive the Magician has been asleep and not interacting with the Monopods for some time (it's not clear exactly how long, but I would guess months or even years). And yet the place is immaculate, the people have good and plentiful food, they appear to be getting along well amongst themselves, they're well-organized, etc. They're also capable of formulating and carrying out an effective plan to get the cooperation of the Narnians, and of delivering a very persuasive threat. The only real troubles they seem have are their invisibility and their fear of the Magician, and given the Magician's past actions it's not surprising or unreasonable that they're afraid of him. (Mind you, I am certain that these details are not intended to make us question the Magician's narrative. But I go by the text.) The main things that make the Monopods seem "stupid" are their manner of speech and their behavior as reported by the Magician. But what if the Magician is misunderstanding and/or deliberately misrepresenting them? It's now my headcanon that the Duffers have a sophisticated rhetorical tradition that features a sort of call and response structure characterized by playful elaboration of self-contradictory assertions and truisms. The Chief is a skilled orator within this tradition, but all of his wit goes completely over the heads of the Narnians and the Magician. The Chief must have been very disappointed that Lucy didn't respond in kind when he started twisting her words around to mean their opposite.
Luckily, I was able to get Clipsie to set the record straight.
I am not yet finished reading the stories in the exchange. I have been putting aside most of the longer stories due to attention span problems. I like the idea that there are more good stories awaiting me!
As for my own contributions. Uh. I got a little carried away....
In addition to my assignment, I wrote three Madness fics. I also started to write another by putting together excerpts from a longer piece I'd been working on, but that one never gelled, which is probably just as well. My total word count ended up just under 10,000.
One thing that pleases me is how different the four fics are from one another (though the theme of small people asserting themselves is discernible in three of the four). Still, they vary quite a bit in tone and structure. Also, all but one involve characters and settings I've never written about before. Overall, I think that I have stretched myself.
My assignment was I'll Take the High Road, for
marmota_b, which is about Pattertwig the Squirrel. When I wrote it I had a couple of primary goals: wanting to make Pattertwig really seem like a squirrel, rather than a small furry Englishman, and wanting his journey to have some sort of purpose, given that we know that he doesn't fulfill the purpose for which he was sent out. So I had to start thinking about the landscape and how he might perceive it and move through it, and about what kind of help he might get along the way, and what kind of purpose his journey might have. And these all came together in the link between Squirrels and Trees. I'm still not completely happy with the ending, which I think is too abrupt, but otherwise I'm pleased with it.The first of my Madness stories is The Honor and Glory of a Mouse, for
marmota_b, The other two Madness fics are on topics that I had never thought about before I started working on them.
I wrote The Blood of Chiefs for
edenfalling (the prompt is in the fic, so I won't quote it here). I had the bare bones of it worked out pretty quickly, then filled in and elaborated and tried to work out as many of the rough spots as possible. The mini-oration at the end was the hardest thing to write, because, well, I'm not an orator. As I said in one of my comments, I wanted Caspian to start out sympathetic and then become a darker and more troubling character. I deliberately refrained from giving most of the characters names, partly because I wanted to keep the focus on the central character and partly because I wanted to give a sense of how Caspian sees people, which is in relation to himself: my armsmen, my wife, my daughters, my people. And finally, Clipsie the Mariner, for
heliopausa: the previously untold story of the young daughter of the chief Dufflepud! To write this one I had to go back and reread the episode of the island of the Dufflepuds in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and I was embarrassed that it had never before occurred to me what a White Man's Burden horror show that episode is: the foolish, childlike natives and the wise, benevolent colonial official who turns them into Monopods for the crime of disobedience. Well, it must have been something pretty terrible they were doing, though. Sacrificing virgins to the volcano god? Ritual mutilation? Desecrating the bodies of their enemies? Cannibalism? Nope. They were getting their water from a spring instead of a stream.
How did I never notice what a despot the Magician is? Even if the Duffers had deserved punishment (which of course they didn't), this particular punishment is both monstrously out of proportion and completely nonsensical! But of course he knows what's best for them, and they're really better off this way, and one day they will realize that they weren't worth much until he came along and made them better. The Narnians appear to accept the Magician's righteousness without question. Even Lucy thinks he's "a brick." They laugh at the Monopods. It's appalling. All except Reepicheep. Of course he's always a courteous knight, but it goes further. For one thing, it would be completely out of character for him to address the Monopods as "worthy and intelligent" while sniggering behind their backs; so apparently he means it. And why does he encourage them to develop a new skill, one that might even allow them to escape the Magician? Maybe he sees something the other Narnians don't.
So that got me going.
There are lots of details that suggest that the Monopods aren't as stupid and incompetent as they're made out to be. For example, when the Narnians arrive the Magician has been asleep and not interacting with the Monopods for some time (it's not clear exactly how long, but I would guess months or even years). And yet the place is immaculate, the people have good and plentiful food, they appear to be getting along well amongst themselves, they're well-organized, etc. They're also capable of formulating and carrying out an effective plan to get the cooperation of the Narnians, and of delivering a very persuasive threat. The only real troubles they seem have are their invisibility and their fear of the Magician, and given the Magician's past actions it's not surprising or unreasonable that they're afraid of him. (Mind you, I am certain that these details are not intended to make us question the Magician's narrative. But I go by the text.) The main things that make the Monopods seem "stupid" are their manner of speech and their behavior as reported by the Magician. But what if the Magician is misunderstanding and/or deliberately misrepresenting them? It's now my headcanon that the Duffers have a sophisticated rhetorical tradition that features a sort of call and response structure characterized by playful elaboration of self-contradictory assertions and truisms. The Chief is a skilled orator within this tradition, but all of his wit goes completely over the heads of the Narnians and the Magician. The Chief must have been very disappointed that Lucy didn't respond in kind when he started twisting her words around to mean their opposite.
Luckily, I was able to get Clipsie to set the record straight.
