The Jewish Virtual Library
What We Knew And When We Knew It
Chronology www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Hol
The NSA Report, Eavesdropping On Hell
World War 2.net Timeline of the Holocaust, 1942
New York Times article discussing the NSA Report
I've been working toward this for a while now as I've tried to explore not only how Narnian culture is different, and how it made the Pevensies different, but why their exposure to that differentness is important and relevant. It's a thematic element that is woven throughout all the stories. I see that compassion and tolerance as a fundamental thematic element in the Chronicles and so have made it a centerpiece here, taking it out, stretching it beyond all recognition.
So. That's that. I need a drink. And an analgesic.
Chapter 9, the Queen Susan in Tashbaan, Means and End, Part 1, The Means
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5209349/9/Th
Oh, and for the record, I am completely freaked out by the NFFR Award nominations. Blithering, terrified, and moronic. Yeah, that about covers it.
Off to buy a bowling ball, frozen Butterball, which, according to Cooks Illustrated (the Consumer Reports of cooking magazines) delivered the best results short of those heirloom birds at 3 dollars a pound, plus shipping and handling. The food safety experts agree that you want a bird that was slaughtered and hard frozen a few months ago when the processing lines were slow and that those heirloom birds might be coming from farms whose hearts, but not food safety heads, are in the right place. No brining or salting a Butterball though.
Fabulous shoes and summer dresses from the 1942 Sears Catalog
The shoes!
The January 1942 McCall's
Susan's Little Black Dress
Evening gowns:
And... really, the British 1942 Vogue magazine. A woman wearing a rationed silk dress... with dinosaurs. It's Mary Anning Russell, except with dark hair, in a dress, and with a handbag
Correction -- those aren't dinosaurs. Those are large, prehistoric mammals. They are quadrupeds and that's definitely a mammalian head. I'd guess an indricothere or giant ground sloth. The smaller, four legged one may be an early equine. Errm... yeah
So that you too might share in the glory of Emma Peel,
Here's the show's intro -- the Avengers In Color!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0YOlU3SM
Peel the Reel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKKeVtWDE
And I found this hilarious remix of Mrs. Peel meets The Kinks, right down to her catsuits, nifty convertible, champagne, and boots. It doesn't give her delightful snarky dialogue, but the look is there.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ve9N9oaXU
There's oodles more, but I was so excited, I had to share. Emma Peel behind the couch doing goodness knows what with John Steed is just ever so much awesome.


If this picture appears in the section on preparation of game meat, this is how you know you've got the REAL Joy of Cooking , from page 468 of the 1962 edition (the cookbook itself goes back to at least a 1932 edition)

Gray squirrels are preferred, as the red are a bit scrawny and gamey.
This is the Cookbook I grew up with and when my mom's old copy finally fell apart, I got a new one as a Christmas gift, but insisted on the Old version, with, yes, the squirrel skinning included.
So, I'm going there. Again. In Chapter 7 of TQSiT.
"Nothing deceives like a document." A quote from the spymaster, Intrepid himself, William Stephenson.
There is some of this that is just plain outrageous. All documented, all true, completely outrageous, even in these days of Weapons of Mass Destruction.
To the point of going there or not, I've really tried to make the cultures of Narnia different from 1942 England in order to provide the basis for the Pevensies being so comfortable with people and cultural practices that are different. I've written of this so many times but in this chapter and the next, it really matters, or maybe that having laid the groundwork, we can leap with them the next step.
Not only has the culture of Narnia made them tolerant, they have also witnessed first hand the intolerance of dissent and differentness in the Witch and Miraz. They have come in, twice, at the end of reigns of terror. Their people have been brutalized for over a thousand years. This HAS to make them more sensitive to evidence of hatred, doesn't it?
So now to underscore the point, I've gone after another sacred cow of Narnia fandom in homosexuality with Queen Susan's withering criticism of Peridan for being an idiot about it. It's not slash, it's not incest, it's not any practice at all, whether Pevensie or someone else. It just is. Susan's reaction is a "so what, and what's it to you?" It's about belief, being slow to judgment that belongs to Aslan alone, empathy, gentleness, and minding one's own business.
So, why do I insert yet more gratuituous sex into the stories? First, does it make sense in the story? In this milleu, the answer has to be yes, for lots of reasons. It can be part of the English boys' public school experience in one way or another (Lewis writes of it, in fact), it's part of the intelligence community of the time, it's part of the animal and plant kingdom, and it's in the lusty mythology of satyrs and fauns.
Second, it's there because I'm preaching. (Sometimes, yes, it's in there because it's fun and funny and gratuituous, or not always.) It's showing that the racial, religious, ethnic and sexual prejudices and injustice that blind other people, that encourage people to look the other way and just not see it, these prejudices do not blind the Pevensies. And that's important in this vision. In this vision, being Narnian and bearing the charge from Aslan, means you cannot look the other way or treat others with contempt and condemnation because they are different.
Anyway, I'll hit send.
Thanks to all who weighed in on the Harold and Morgan things. It helped. It got the thing out of my system and released in a friendlier environment (ouch, slings and arrows of outrageous fortune).
Further, I'm thinking there are two undercurrents -- exploring a working partnership that isn't about the romance but with some real substance and intrigue behind it; and smutty humor. I had way more fun with Morgan's docu-philia than I thought would be possible. Just cutting and pasting a form contract for the provision of services into my word processor and then playing with that language gave me all sorts of ideas. For instance, there is this concept of sovereign immunity -- you can't sue the State, the government, or the King for normal wrongful acts, errors and omissions unless the sovereign agrees to be sued. I could see a very amusing discussion between them on the subject of whether Harold could be accountable for acts done to Morgan's person. Well, it would be amusing for me anyway.
In the future, I'll have to think also about whether to switch to a Harold or Morgan point of view. It's been a while since I've gone that far in writing. Been there, done that, got the t-shirt as the saying goes. Ah the follies of youth. In my old age, I am finding more enjoyment out of writing that relies on humor, salacious innuendo and the reader's imagination.
So, thanks again to those who checked it out.
Harold and Morgan
The Not-A-Romance between the Evil Banker and the Just King.
Right then. If you know the meaning of the title, you had one of two reactions. You groaned in despair, or you squealed realizing that I finally gave into my baser impulses.
If you are the sort of reader who was appalled by the bawdiness of By Royal Decree, this is not for you. ‘Cause it’s going to be worse. Turn around now. Really. This isn’t my children’s Narnia. This isn’t the Narnia of Christian allegory and the medieval cult of the Virgin. This is different.
Rather, this is for those of you (all five of you) who have been picking apart every sentence Harold utters and ever line I write in the many, many, many (many many many) pages I do write for hints of Evil Banker Morgan. Or, those of you who haven’t read anything else but for reasons I will not speculate upon, you are rather fond of the Harold and Morgan resolution.
To come clean, in The Stone Gryphon, Evil Banker Morgan is She Who Must Not Be Named (or thought about) Ever – a sort of Morgan-mort. You are dutifully persevering through everything else because you just want to read more of Evil Banker Morgan and Harold. So, this is for you.
You don't want to go here. I'm not just pushing the envelope. I've put it through the paper shredder.
Oddly, I'm not even sure if these first installments even merit a T. But, it is as I envision Evil Banker Morgan and Harold. Having done this, now, maybe, I can get back to QSiT.
Part 1 -- Revision to Dots, with added sticky tongue
Part 2 -- All New! The Party of the First and Second Part
The choice of cards was all the doing of
In answer to the question and assumption, I said that I was looking for a card for Asim, to represent for Susan, the guide to come, the Light on Dark Paths. She came up with the brilliant Chariot and Hierophant. The idea of a man of divinity who has harnessed both light and dark in the direction he wishes them to go was all hers.
For Lambert, I wrote out dialogue of the one who waits for Susan and again I received the lovely resting Knight of the Four of Swords and Temperance cards.
So, need to be sure that credit goes where credit is due!!
So fun links
The Rider-Waite Tarot Deck from which Agnes reads
The Astrologer that British Intelligence really regretted hiring
A little bit about Saint Agnes, patron saint of young girls, virgins and rape victims
A little bit about the Trickster, Anansi, and Aunt Nancy
Insofar as De Wohl is concerned, this is an example of the sort of time compression that I use in the story. He was actually most active in the U.S. through December 1941. I'm bumping up their use of him about 6 months cause how can you possible leave out astrologers and Rat and Crow rumormongering in Narnia story? Right?
In fact, the beginning of this chapter harkens back to Chapter of TSG, Part 1, in which Ed and Su are starting to figure some of this out.
( Excerpt from Chapter 8, Lions' Business, Part 1 TSG )
I wish I could say that I knew I was going to do what I just did here when I wrote that way back 6 months ago or whever I posted it. Nope.
As for the lengthy note at the end, yes, I'd like to know what you think. These things are an uncomfortable part of US history; to paint it as normal or ignore it would seem dishonest. Yet, maybe fan fic shouldn't go there at all. My solution was to show things that today would be denounced as stereotypical, yet align them with the positive connotation of Narnia. I do not align Narnia with the frivolity and class-based Washington society in which Susan is also moving.
So, thoughts? Fire away!
But, a burning question. Several reviewers asked as to the species of the physician. I have three characters floating around in these stories, with actual name and species unidentified:
The General
Cook
The Physician
We now know that Cook can lob cabbages with fair accuracy. We know the Physician is old and had an unhealthy fascination with primate mating and bonding systems. So, what species is the Physician? I figure he needs to have paws for grasping and that immediately limits us pretty much to mustelids, rodents, and a few others. My two top contenders:
A raccoon
A porcupine
Admit it, a porcupine physician is pretty darn amusing, yeah?
