miscellany

[asakiyume]

If I wait to have a chance to write about any of these properly, I'm likely to write about none of them, but if I list them here, then maybe I'll come back and do it?

• Nando has responded to the questions I sent him, questions that were gleaned from people's responses to his latest story. I will definitely be sharing his answers at some point, but I can't do it right now.


• I might write a cordyceps story. There is an awful lot of cordyceps fiction out there recently. But I might add to it. In honor of that possibility, I doodled some cordyceps critters. (Try to ignore the improbably long body of the dog in that doodle. Also: my story would not feature cordyceps critters. It would be All Humans.)


• Partly I want to write a cordyceps story because I feel like I have something in me--much less sinister, I'd like to reassure you (but of course that's what the fungus would get me to say, right???)--that is compelling me to go back to the Amazon. Or that's just me pulling a Digory-at-the-bell-of-Charn** move to forgive my own supremely selfish desires. Whatever, I AM going back. Solo, because Wakanomori does not have the flexible work schedule that I do. In 14 days. A 10-day trip, seven full days down there. I will shove my face in all the flowers, taste all the fruits, listen to all the birds, process some cassava and hopefully make some chambira twine, and ... uhhh, come back to infect everyone with a desire to go down there?

So yes. My news.

**
This is the moment in The Magician's Nephew where Digory and Polly come across a bell in a hall in a building on the dead world of Charn. The bell has an inscription underneath it that says


Make your choice, adventurous Stranger;
Strike the bell and bide the danger,
Or wonder, till it drives you mad,
What would have followed if you had.


Sensibly, Polly is ready to walk on, but Digory says no, they're doomed now--they have to strike it now or they'll go mad:


"I expect anyone who's come as far as this is bound to go on wondering till it sends him dotty. That's the Magic of it, you see. I can feel it beginning to work on me already."

"Well I don't," said Polly crossly. "And I don't believe you do either. You're just putting it on."


And then Digory pulls out some sexist nonsense, manhandles Polly, and strikes the bell.
... The point is, he uses the inscription as an excuse to do what he wanted to do anyway.

Comments

[yamamanama]

Charn was the best part of that book.

I think I first read about cordyceps on Bogleech.

[asakiyume]

That book had so much that was awesome! The whole Woods Between the Worlds thing! But yeah, Charn was pretty amazing.

It was thanks to that book that I learned of the possibility of nuclear annihilation. "We don't really have something like the Deplorable Word, right?" I asked my mom. Her: ......

What's Bogleech? (<--me, lazy, not googling...)

[yamamanama]

That sun too.

I think the book specifically alludes to nuclear weaponry regarding the Deplorable Word. They obviously don't have anything like it yet because it's set in the Victorian era (or is it Edwardian?)

Bogleech is a webcomic artist who also makes informative posts about various creepy-crawlies.

[asakiyume]

Yeah: in the book Aslan says, "It is not certain that some wicket one of your race will not find out a secret as evil as the Deplorable Word and use it to destroy all living things." --so he was predicting it for them (which he could do from his vantage point of writing in the 1950s. But kid me was horrified to learn that such a power really did exist.

Re: Bogleech, I'm going to check out his webcomic.

[osprey_archer]

Amazon trip incoming!!! So excited for you to smell all the flowers, taste all the fruits, listen to all the birds, and tell us all about it when you get back!

[asakiyume]

Me toooo!

[sovay]

In honor of that possibility, I doodled some cordyceps critters.

I think your story should include the cordyceps rabbit. It is horrifyingly cute.

I will shove my face in all the flowers, taste all the fruits, listen to all the birds, process some cassava and hopefully make some chambira twine, and ... uhhh, come back to infect everyone with a desire to go down there?

I think you're already contagious.

*hugs*

[asakiyume]

I think you're already contagious. --My cordyceps and I are delighted!

--and I will see about working in the cordyceps bunny.

[sartorias]

Looking forward to your report!

[asakiyume]

Thank you thank you!

[sonia]

Have a good trip! May it be thoroughly nourishing!

[asakiyume]

Thank you very much; I appreciate the good wishes!

[wayfaringwordhack]

Excuse me the all caps but: AMAZING!!!!! I can't believe you are getting to go back. This is so wonderful. Immerse yourself immensely; enjoy yourself exponentially. Sorry, just had to do an I/I and E/E.

I knew *exactly* what you meant about Diggory and Charn. :D

[asakiyume]

Thank you so much for your enthusiasm! I'm going to ask them about hanging clothes to dry and what they do about mildew, LOL. Among other things ;-)


And glad to know that Digory feeling is relatable.

[amaebi]

I agree: more than your now and earlier words about the Amazon, your eagerness is infectious. But I'm afraid that you make it sound Most Wonderful of All to go with you-- you sound like a fabulous person to travel with. (Not to worry. I won't just show up. Probably I will never even ask to go with you. :D )

Big old tangent:
Tomorrow we're doing The Voyage of the Dawn Treader in C.S. Lewis book club. I am shocked that this reading* was the first time I noticed the prominence of Redemptive Violence early in the novel. Also, if you're willing to tangent with me and in light of the anomalous episodic structure of the novel: what do you think the novel is about?

* I first read the Narnia books when I was nine. I then read them to death for fifteen years or so, rendering the pages transparent. On this reread it's probably been twenty years since I read them, barring reading-aloud to Chun Woo, which I apparently did on automatic pilot.

[asakiyume]

Awww, you are so sweet to say that!

When you say redemptive violence, do you mean the peeling off of Eustace's dragon skin? Because I found that a super effective metaphor in my own life. ... But I'm suspecting you're meaning something else which I probably have blocked out.

That's a good question, what it's about. I guess about people's questing nature? About seeking answers and when/how our desires get in the way and when they help? This is off the cuff; I'll need to think more deeply about it. What thoughts are you having about it, currently?

[amaebi]

No, I thought the dragon skin thing was brilliant and totes worked as a metaphor.

I was noticing how Eustace's physical cowardice is part of his heavymotif-- most notably shown up by Reepicheep challenging him to a duel, of course. And the cleansing of the Lone Islands by threat of force and then throwing over Gumpas's table and threatening to pitch him out of his offices if he didn't leave on time. Plus the rottenness of the government being shown not only by its housing slave trade, but by the lay rustiness of the armed men in Gumpas's courtyard.

Interestingly, Reepicheep is shown focusing more and more on smarts and compassion and other sorts of courage as the narrative continues.

While in the meta, C.S. Lewis as narrator gets less dogmatic, less frequently Tells Us Everyone's Value, as the narrative continues. I don't know that that's deliberate.

I will tell you what I'm inclined to think the book is about once you've thought about it more, if you don't mind.

And other tangential query: What are we to make of the Pevenseys' parents?

[asakiyume]

I will tell you what I'm inclined to think the book is about once you've thought about it more, if you don't mind.
--sounds fair! I'll get back to you :-)

The Pevensie parents seem super absent! I don't mean in the sense of neglectful; I mean only that they're not very present in the stories. I'll have to take a quick look through Voyage to see how they get mentioned, because my recollection overall from the books is that they're very much offstage except for maybe being (IIRC?) judgy about Susan in the last book.

[amaebi]

The appearance in Dawn Treader is that they are off in America on a Mr. Pevensie work trip that didn't pay enough for everyone to go, and Susan "would get so much more out of it," being beautiful though no good at school. (Except, one presumes, for swimming.) Then in Last Battle they're seen waving from another and stint portion of Aslan's country.

[asakiyume]

Interesting! Well, I do know about not having enough money to take all children everywhere. We've never been back to England as a complete family: We sent individual children either by themselves as unaccompanied minors or with one of us--that was how they got to visit their English grandparents.

Speaking pragmatically, I can understand Lewis wanting to make sure for his readers' sake that the protagonists' parents made it to paradise. From a theological perspective, I've always felt there's a conflict between the-way-is-narrow-and-the-travelers-few and a welcoming God. ... Personally, I feel like no one is every lost and nothing is ever destroyed, but I have no language to explain how that should/would work.

[amaebi]

Oh, I'm not dissing the real need to leave some children behind, nor putting that in the narrative. I recounted it only to save you time, and because it's the only personalized thing we learn about them. I think it's actually there to twist the knife in Susan's side that was inserted in Prince Caspian. Eustace's parents, by contrast, are vegetarians, non-smokers, teetotalers, and wear a special kind of underwear-- and send Eustace to a school Lewis thinks ill of. (Though he seems to think ill of schools in general.)

I think you're right about Lewis's purpose in the waving thing, which goes along with his many-mansions theology. If I bothered about afterlife I would (I think) have the same theology Lewis does: that all that's necessary is to accept God's gift. (I don't bother about aftermath because I there's plenty right in front of me to think about and act on, and I prioritize those things, and also because I don't think it's any of my business. Maybe it would be if I were concerned about afterdeath, but since I'm not, it strikes me as above my pay grade.)

[asakiyume]

Nodding--I think I feel much as you about above-my-paygrade.

I do remember Lewis belittling Eustace's parents, when all those things I thought/think are quite fine! (well, I don't particularly care about the underwear, heh)


I think it's possible it's not so much that Lewis thought there was anything objectionable in vegetarianism or alternative schools or teetotalling but rather that he felt that people who engaged in those things puffed themselves up because of them. In other words, not so much that he thought there was something wrong with folks who weren't red-blooded meat eaters and smokers as it was that he thought those people considered themselves superior because of their choices. And I do think there are people who are that way: who use their diet or their abstentions or their special schooling or organic cotton clothing as ways to make themselves feel superior. Of course there are plenty of other people who make diet choices, etc., because they're trying to do good in the world or at the least for their own health and aren't in the least trying to lord it over others. And it's possible Lewis was just showing his narrow-mindedness here.

[amaebi]

I think he liked meat and I know liked drink and smoking. (I do not wish to consider his underwear.) But I think he was mostly caricaturing "faddy types," as a part of his coarse characterization of the initial Eustace. The coarseness of which takes me aback-- continually asking for the British Consul in this world? *This* world? Really? A real person would do that?

[asakiyume]

Heh, yeah, a bit over the top. Though I can imagine someone who thought that any world they found themselves in might already have been discovered by the long arm of Empire. .... mmmmm but yeah: basically caricature.

[asakiyume]

Okay, so I've thought about the question of what the book's about periodically through the day, but I haven't gotten any closer to a good answer. There's what it's about in terms of plot summary, but that's not what you're after. And it's not like The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in having an allegorical significance hanging over it, or like The Magician's Nephew or The Last Battle in being a creation or final-moments story.

So I guess I come back to Caspian's quest, which is to find the end of the world and what lies there--which is what lies at the beginning and end of all things. And then I think of the various stops and adventures they have along the way--all with perils involving temptations of various sorts (greed on the gold isle, despair in the dark isle, and so on). By the time they reach the sea of lilies, they've all grown. Caspian has the last lesson of not being able to throw everything away and just satisfy his longing to disappear--he has to take up his responsibilities and go back to Narnia.

So what are your thoughts? You can share by messages if a public entry is uncomfortable.

[amaebi]

Thank you!

I think that the novel is a metaphor for living, with emphasis on both repentance and irreversibility, or adventure and discovery, mistake and nonetheless moving forward.

I think that the seven lost lords are a MacGuffin, but also stand in for objectives one starts with, which may not in fact be the ones that matter.

The corruption of the Lone Islands was easily solved by a little manly violence. But Eustace's need for repentance and change required that he understand what he was making of himself, and give himself over to Aslan for a painful but salutary longed-for undressing and baptism. (Thanks for causing me to think about these two incidents more carefully than I had!)

Other repenters include Lucy, the penitent star Corking, Rhoop (trapped on the dark island of dreams), and eventually Caspian.

There are irreversibilities-- the Dawn Treader can't get back to the Lone Islands on the provisions it has, after being storm-driven, the one-way page turns of the magic book--, situations reversible only with Aslan's aid-- escape from the dark island--, and what seem to be irreversibilities that aren't, like the current that bears the Dawn Treader to the edge of the world but is narrow and can be moved out of. Regardless, time does not turn backward, and repentance doesn't change that (Lucy's eavesdropping on her school friend's betrayal of her, through the magic book). Memory can't be relied on to turn even one's mind back: after Caspian and Edmund quarrel over the Midas pond on Deathwater Island and pull back from it they forget the whole thing, on the one hand, and Lucy cannot remember the refreshing story she read in the magic book, though Aslan will be telling it to her again and again.

In an arc sense, of course, you also can't turn back time and do the sequel as a different same, as Joe Bob Briggs requires of drive-in movie sequels. In Wardrobe the Pevensies become monarchs; in Prince Caspian they are their to install their true successor; Peter and Susan can't return after that; in Dawn Treader Edmund, Lucy, and Eustace are along for a voyage that could be read as being essentially about Caspian's kingship and understanding of it and his coming to adulthood.

I started out, before I began rereading, thinking about the anomaly of the episodic structure and wondering what it could be for/about, thematically, and this is what makes sense to me. For now, anyway.

[asakiyume]

What you write is just beautiful--I love what you say about irreversibility, all the examples of it, and then the things that aren't. And I like what you say about memory and forgetting. Forgetting as a form or consequence or element of healing! Wonderful. The part about the refreshing story that we are told again and again. Ahh, love that. GOD I love those books so much. So very, very much.

[amaebi]

And I’m grateful to you for helping me to contrast the violence-as-redemption with Eustace’s repentance! I was really bothered by the combination of the violence and the snarky caricature of Eustace. (Still not crazy about the caricature, nor the shivving of Susan.)

I’ll message you about how the meeting goes, unless you’d rather I didn’t. Next month we’re doing The Silver Chair, so if you’re interested in talking about it I’m so there. :) That’s probably my second favorite, after The Horse and His Boy.

[asakiyume]

I love The Silver Chair very much too and would love to. I have an impossible time picking a favorite--the best I can do is come up with two not-favorites, and those are Prince Caspian and The Last Battle. When it comes to the other five ... it's so hard! I suppose The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is the next lowest; I'm fond of it, but not with the intensity of the other four. But those remaining ones: they all contain things I love so, so much, and that I've relied on all my life as friends and guides. (And yes, I'd love to get a message about the meeting.)

[amaebi]

Ahhhhhh, The Last Battle is my least favorite, though I liked it one of the most, as a child. It feels perfunctory to me.
(I then liked The Horse and His Boy least, because it was the least High and Noble. Fool that I was.)

I should message you later today about the meeting. Though tonight I am doomed to die at the home of one of Sheeyun’s colleagues and Be Told About England. Please pray for me.

[asakiyume]

All the prayers for the disquisition on England!!

[amaebi]

(In January I went to Herndon with Sheeyun as his porter (due to his neck surgery, all ws and is well, he's released to do PT and his strength is coming back) and had to have a dinner of that sort with a different colleague. Among the many gems, he was trying to explain the dissolution of monasteries to us, without quite knowing what it was, when it happened, or why.)

(Several years ago I was doomed to sit at a Christmas party table with a number of Sheeyun's colleagues who had all been ex-pats together in England. That they all agreed that Downtown Abbey showcased how grateful the servants were to the family who Did So Much For Them gives a taste of their perspective.)

I am trying to embrace death. Almost anything to keep my mouth shut. Sadly, not-paying-attention is not one of my gifts.

[asakiyume]

When I'm forced to listen to things I don't want to be listening to, I sometimes count things behind the person who's speaking. Maybe you can derail with an irrelevant question--although people who are self-proclaimed experts will usually discourse with happy confidence on any topic.

[amaebi]

My beloved friend kayrevt is going to text me an hour in, so I can look at my phone and declare a herniated budgie. I'll arrange with Sheeyun to travel separately so I can get away.

[amaebi]

It was fine— not only are we all still alive, but I didn’t want to kill myself or anyone else.

[asakiyume]

Best possible outcome under the circumstances--hurray!

[amaebi]

And speaking of MacGuffins-- thanks for your kindness in putting up with this long divagation from what you wrote about in the actual entry!

[asakiyume]

I like this better! This is a bonus gift that just appeared on the page, and I'm very grateful to you for it. It made me so happy to spend time thinking about The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

When is your book group date?

[mallorys_camera]

FABULOUS adventure! I'm very excited for you!!! ❤️

[asakiyume]

Thank you :-)

You have been spared at least two angsty texts from me. My life has been improved by getting some paid work in, which is keeping me from creating horrible imaginations in my head, LOL.

[mallorys_camera]

But-but-but—I ❤️ yr angsty texts!!! 😀

[asakiyume]

These would have been dreadful, but--

[amaebi]

I'm so sorry for you going through the Angst. And so glad you're this side of it.

[asakiyume]

Thank you ^_^

[genarti]

Oh, lovely! Enjoy the heck out of that trip to the Amazon, and revel in all the flowers and creature calls and fruits and experiences for the rest of us! And above all for yourself, of course.

I found The Magician's Nephew a highly uneven book (it was my least favorite as a kid) but it has some really lovely and really memorable bits. The bell in Charn is one of them, you're absolutely right. Lewis had a real gift sometimes for getting at the heart of messy human rationalization!

[asakiyume]

That's interesting that it was your least favorite! My least favorite these days is Prince Caspian, followed closely by The Last Battle (though both of those have their good moments, of course!)--as a kid I think my least favorite was easily The Last Battle. So with me, my least favorite has changed as an adult... but not significantly. How about you?

More so than some stories, the Narnia stories seem to fall very memorably into scenes: there's this scene and this one and this one, etc. And it's easy therefore to pick out ones you like even in books you don't (and vice versa).

[genarti]

Hmm, let my think out loud! As a kid, I think Magician's Nephew and The Silver Chair were my least favorites. Magician's Nephew just felt so un-Narnia to kid me, though I loved Frank and Helen and Fledge and some of the imagery, and I liked the Wood Between the Worlds but just wanted it to be in a different book, you know? Whereas with The Silver Chair, I loved Puddleglum and of course his big speech, and the end with the salamanders talking about the living gems like ripe fruit, but I hated that they spent so much of the book bickering and forgetting the instructions; it felt like a cheat, and of course I was inaccurately but self-righteously sure that I would have listened properly and followed the rules etc. I loved A Horse and His Boy and The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian; I hated the end of The Last Battle and all the parts with Shift the Ape (he was MEAN, you see) but I loved the Tirian and Jewel and Eustace and Jill bits, and Jill getting to be a skillful wood-maid and all that, so I'd just selectively reread and skip the awful bits.

Now, as an adult, I think I have a broader overall appreciation for the ones I liked less, while also noticing more of the problems with the books and scenes I loved. So I think it's leveled out somewhat!

[asakiyume]

Wow, our child selves had such different reactions while loving some of the same actual scenes! Child you and child me would have agreed on A Horse and His Boy though--double thumbs up ;-)

Thinking over things as I read this, I realize my lack-of-liking for Prince Caspian has to have developed after I had read all the books--experiencing it for the first time, I'm absolutely sure I was caught up in it and enjoyed it as much as all the rest (... except the The Last Battle--I was dismayed by that one from the start because of the lying and deception (Shift...) and the harming of the woods, and oh just the air of everything falling apart. Who wants that?!)

[asakiyume]

(And many thanks for the good wishes! When I'm not terrified, I'm so, so eager!)