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curiouswombatI have always wanted to know, with any book or film that I have really enjoyed, what happens next? What happened to that character who appeared in chapter six for a few pages and then went off somewhere else? If there was a banquet what would they have eaten? And so on. In effect I have always made up my own stories to cover these questions - I have always composed fan-fic. But I haven't always written it down and, sometimes, it has seemed to me that actually doing so is too much like hard work.
I commented when I posted the chapter of Brotherhood last week, that I realised why the ‘Return of the Key-verse’ stories are such a delight to write as I worked out the scene between Orophin (an elf) and a middle-aged lady of the court.
I realised that I like to write almost as if the point of view characters are social anthropologists… and with these stories I am always able to write from an outsider’s point of view. I can consider how they look to those who don’t really know exactly what is going on and both the character and I can ask questions that an insider wouldn’t need to ask. To me the everyday is fascinating, and occasionally very funny, when seen by an outsider.
So – Dawn trying to work out what is happening around her in Tolkien’s world is much more interesting than looking at it from, say, Frodo’s point of view, or to look at Sunnydale from Dawn’s point of view. Dawn’s discovery of the different races, the recognition that hobbits are driven more by mealtimes than elves, that the softly spoken, soft skinned, beardless elves keep getting chatted up by men even though they are fearless warriors, that Gimli fancies Lady Galadriel, and so on, is such fun to write.
I loved the idea of watching Aragorn’s coronation from an upstairs window, not really knowing who is who, and I love the way that there are unknowns within Tolkien’s world – we know there would be a feast, but we can decide for ourselves what might have been eaten, and so on.
But to look at any society from the outside is so much fun! How does Dawn cope with elves who happily all bathe together in rivers? How does she understand the Rohirrim when she gets to see them close up? Where would elves go on ‘dates’ when there are no movies, bars or clubs? What did the elves think of Sunnydale when they came to rescue Dawn from her rescuers?
In all but the last two chapters of the original story we only see even the Scoobies from Giles POV – he is something of an outsider and, by definition, a watcher. It was fun to then look at the elves and realise that he saw them as cold-blooded killers. Even more fun was to look at what was happening from the point of view of the ultimate, fascinated, outsider – Andrew. Andrew who wanted to record everything – but it was always filtered by his own interpretation of events.
In Brotherhood I have the whole puzzle of what the elves think of the humans in Middle Earth. That has been great fun to work out. For example what did Rumil think at his first formal Gondorian court function? (Answer - “They smell!” Then I could have Legolas explain, having had more to do with ‘men’, that it is more the heavy fabrics that smell as they are difficult to wash. This, of course, leads to the obvious question “But we, who do not sweat so much, wear fabrics that are less stifling and easier cleansed… why do the men not do that?”)
There is, still, the way others view the elves – and so, when Dawn/Tindómë is kidnapped, I realised that a really interesting view of events would be that of Éowyn – not an elf, or a Gondorian – but an outsider to both.
And then that scene with Orophin. How would an elf see a middle-aged lady who has invited him to her bed? He has no preconceptions of the effect of aging on bodies – it is neither a turn-on, or off. The whole thing is a pretty new experience – this is a woman not a female elf, but on the other hand he is well over 1,000 years old and has been ‘joining’ with females for most of that time. How would he think about this experience?
As soon as I began to consider it I found it real fun. I realised that he wouldn’t think ‘Oh her breasts are sagging’ but rather that he could see little benefit to the extra flesh but it was not displeasing.
(He found quickly that there are certain advantages to breasts that can be squeezed together…)
He doesn’t think ‘what a big bum,’ but rather Her buttocks were soft and white – like bread before it goes into the oven – he wanted to take them in his hands and knead them. Can you imagine what she would have thought if he had told her that?
It occurs to the woman that, as she is about 5’2” and he is 6’5” there may be some degree of disproportion – she comments that ”I fear it will hurt.”
Where a man might well be complimented by the suggestion that he was ‘well hung’, and probably tell her ‘the bigger the better’, Orophin is slightly perplexed – he is no bigger in that part of his body than the average elf – if it was smaller it would look weird on someone his height… And so on!
There are so many opportunities to look at things from outside still - how do Mirkwood elves look to Lothlórien elves, or vice versa? How does it feel to realise that, whilst you have not changed much at all in 20 years, someone else has lived a quarter or more of their life in that time, and changed a lot?
How will they fare if/when they sail West and find themselves in Valinor – which should, logically, be dominated by the Noldor culture – as different from the elven culture Dawn/Tindómë knows as that of the Indian subcontinent would be to the original, Californian girl, Dawn.
If they meet the re-bodied Haldir there, what is he going to make of the changes in his brothers, or of the ‘not-quite-an-elleth’ that Rumil has married?
The possibilities are still fairly endless. I have a feeling that, even if no-one were to read them (and very few people here seem to – but they are still read by a few hundred over at Twisting the Hellmouth), I would tell these stories to myself anyway.
When I talked about this to S2C he said he thought that many people enjoy writing cross-over stories to look at the familiar through new eyes. Works for me, anyway!
I commented when I posted the chapter of Brotherhood last week, that I realised why the ‘Return of the Key-verse’ stories are such a delight to write as I worked out the scene between Orophin (an elf) and a middle-aged lady of the court.
I realised that I like to write almost as if the point of view characters are social anthropologists… and with these stories I am always able to write from an outsider’s point of view. I can consider how they look to those who don’t really know exactly what is going on and both the character and I can ask questions that an insider wouldn’t need to ask. To me the everyday is fascinating, and occasionally very funny, when seen by an outsider.
So – Dawn trying to work out what is happening around her in Tolkien’s world is much more interesting than looking at it from, say, Frodo’s point of view, or to look at Sunnydale from Dawn’s point of view. Dawn’s discovery of the different races, the recognition that hobbits are driven more by mealtimes than elves, that the softly spoken, soft skinned, beardless elves keep getting chatted up by men even though they are fearless warriors, that Gimli fancies Lady Galadriel, and so on, is such fun to write.
I loved the idea of watching Aragorn’s coronation from an upstairs window, not really knowing who is who, and I love the way that there are unknowns within Tolkien’s world – we know there would be a feast, but we can decide for ourselves what might have been eaten, and so on.
But to look at any society from the outside is so much fun! How does Dawn cope with elves who happily all bathe together in rivers? How does she understand the Rohirrim when she gets to see them close up? Where would elves go on ‘dates’ when there are no movies, bars or clubs? What did the elves think of Sunnydale when they came to rescue Dawn from her rescuers?
In all but the last two chapters of the original story we only see even the Scoobies from Giles POV – he is something of an outsider and, by definition, a watcher. It was fun to then look at the elves and realise that he saw them as cold-blooded killers. Even more fun was to look at what was happening from the point of view of the ultimate, fascinated, outsider – Andrew. Andrew who wanted to record everything – but it was always filtered by his own interpretation of events.
In Brotherhood I have the whole puzzle of what the elves think of the humans in Middle Earth. That has been great fun to work out. For example what did Rumil think at his first formal Gondorian court function? (Answer - “They smell!” Then I could have Legolas explain, having had more to do with ‘men’, that it is more the heavy fabrics that smell as they are difficult to wash. This, of course, leads to the obvious question “But we, who do not sweat so much, wear fabrics that are less stifling and easier cleansed… why do the men not do that?”)
There is, still, the way others view the elves – and so, when Dawn/Tindómë is kidnapped, I realised that a really interesting view of events would be that of Éowyn – not an elf, or a Gondorian – but an outsider to both.
And then that scene with Orophin. How would an elf see a middle-aged lady who has invited him to her bed? He has no preconceptions of the effect of aging on bodies – it is neither a turn-on, or off. The whole thing is a pretty new experience – this is a woman not a female elf, but on the other hand he is well over 1,000 years old and has been ‘joining’ with females for most of that time. How would he think about this experience?
As soon as I began to consider it I found it real fun. I realised that he wouldn’t think ‘Oh her breasts are sagging’ but rather that he could see little benefit to the extra flesh but it was not displeasing.
(He found quickly that there are certain advantages to breasts that can be squeezed together…)
He doesn’t think ‘what a big bum,’ but rather Her buttocks were soft and white – like bread before it goes into the oven – he wanted to take them in his hands and knead them. Can you imagine what she would have thought if he had told her that?
It occurs to the woman that, as she is about 5’2” and he is 6’5” there may be some degree of disproportion – she comments that ”I fear it will hurt.”
Where a man might well be complimented by the suggestion that he was ‘well hung’, and probably tell her ‘the bigger the better’, Orophin is slightly perplexed – he is no bigger in that part of his body than the average elf – if it was smaller it would look weird on someone his height… And so on!
There are so many opportunities to look at things from outside still - how do Mirkwood elves look to Lothlórien elves, or vice versa? How does it feel to realise that, whilst you have not changed much at all in 20 years, someone else has lived a quarter or more of their life in that time, and changed a lot?
How will they fare if/when they sail West and find themselves in Valinor – which should, logically, be dominated by the Noldor culture – as different from the elven culture Dawn/Tindómë knows as that of the Indian subcontinent would be to the original, Californian girl, Dawn.
If they meet the re-bodied Haldir there, what is he going to make of the changes in his brothers, or of the ‘not-quite-an-elleth’ that Rumil has married?
The possibilities are still fairly endless. I have a feeling that, even if no-one were to read them (and very few people here seem to – but they are still read by a few hundred over at Twisting the Hellmouth), I would tell these stories to myself anyway.
When I talked about this to S2C he said he thought that many people enjoy writing cross-over stories to look at the familiar through new eyes. Works for me, anyway!
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no subject
Date: 04/02/2010 01:10 pm (UTC)Glad you are feeling better - all the moving house stress has doubtless left you open to illness. Well that's my theory and I'm sticking to it.
first Bilbo and then the 4 hobbits and also Strider have shifted their sphere so they are now rather larger than the space they had inhabited before the story began.
That's it exactly.
I have never quite felt the same about Sunnydale since you showed it to me through Tindome's returning eyes.
The bed's too small, the walls are too flat, the air is too stuffy! Jeans are too rough on the skin, there is too much light pollution, and the atmosphere reminds the twins of Mordor...
Mmm - perhaps not the most flattering of views!
I shall, like Mary, hold all your words to my heart. I shall cuddle them and come back and look at them when I need inspiration!