[narnia] fic rec; on edmund and lucy

[bantha_fodder]

Sloane wrote for me the most perfect fic ever. Behind.

It is about Edmund, and I do not even have to describe it, for the following excerpt will do:

“Oh, Edmund,” Lucy cries, throws herself into his arms, “you’ve been here, too! Now they’ll have to believe us.”

He wraps his arms around her, smells her shampoo, knows he will lie.

*

My very favourite pairing in the whole world is Edmund/Lucy, which will probably come as a surprise to you all. I love Edmund/Lucy more than any other pairing, although I never show it, not really. Well, I do, but you can only see it if you're looking. You can see it in the way Edmund laughs; in the way Lucy reaches first for Edmund; in the way Edmund dislikes Caspian but isn't quite sure why. Lucy is so kind and forgiving, and Edmund wounds her in the very worst way, but she loves him and forgives him and, more than Aslan's forgiveness, that means the world to Edmund. He holds her close and looks after her, and when the train crashes he wraps his arms around her and doesn't let go. When they are kings and queens she is so happy to see Tumnus alive and well after all the years inbetween, but she is happier still when she turns from the light, when she turns from where she is dancing with Tumnus to see Edmund scowling in the corner, because everything is fine if Edmund is scowling at her.

*

Okay. I'm actually going to be productive now. Sorry for spamming you all these last few days.

ETA: the comments contain discussion of incest, and Why I Read It.

Comments

[koalathebear.livejournal.com]

Dumb question. I read the story and it's beautifully written - but aren't they kind of related? :P

I started and had to give up reading the Song of Ice and Fire because of all the Sibling Love. I know incest is the new slash but given that I was never able to get into slash, I guess I'll always be the dorky dag, except I am now two steps behind the latest wave of fashion instead of just one :P

[bantha-fodder.livejournal.com]

I have often considered writing a post explaining why siblings being inappropriate interests me. It certainly doesn't in real life: I don't find my sister at all attractive, and stories in the news and such of siblings in love or whatever does not interest me.

However. After much introspection (because I genuinely wanted to know), I realised that the reason I am interested in siblings sexxing one another in fiction is BECAUSE it is inappropriate. Because the other pairings I am interested in are for example superior officer/whatever officer (eg Lee/Kara), or Very Rich Person/Not So Influential Person (eg Lex/Chloe). It's that power play, that sense of "uh, we probably shouldn't be doing this" that often interests me. I'm not interested when it is unwilling or forced, but when it is is that delicate balance of power play and "in this situation, am I completely autonomous?" and all that, then I am really interested in a story and its characters.

Does that make sense?

[hobviously.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, I think I like incest for completely different reasons than you do.

Not that I, at this moment, can articulate what my reasons are.

[bantha-fodder.livejournal.com]

Perhaps you could try? I would be very interested to hear your reasons.

[hobviously.livejournal.com]

Well, for almost every single pairing I love, there is an identifiable Gryffindor [Male]/Ravenclaw [Female] dynamic (Lee/Kara switch the genders, surprise!). So I would call that, and also the part where I am ever the canonwhore, the basis for 98% of my shipping, while every once in a while there's a fluke like Chloe/Lex (probably based mostly on their being the only two tolerable characters on Smallville, besides being hot and smouldery) or Sirius/Bellatrix (which I love purely from a "Bella terrorizes Sirius and makes him miserable by having so much power over him even though he thinks she is insane and evil" standpoint of fucked-up-ness) or Buffy/Faith who have a completely different dynamic anyway because they are girls and shadow doubles. Thus the inappropriate dynamic does not really enter into it — my version of the pilotlove, for example, occasionally has to deal with the rank issue, but is never because of it. I generally think of them as equals, anyway.

In fact, I generally dislike power imbalances in pairings. They have to both be capable of getting themselves in and out of the situation, and this is part of why I hate older man/younger woman pairings usually; a father figure taking advantage of a daughter figure squicks me enormously for the abuse of power. It may be why I'm not terribly interested in Simon/River, because as long as she's crazy, she can't assess the circumstances.

What I like in incestual, and pseudo-incestual, pairings, is a feeling of safety. That they come from the same place and maybe are the only people who can understand each other. That they have always been together and always will be. I also melt at the idea of somebody being so in love that they would break the taboo — a la the Duncan/Veronica fakeout. Other people find it creepy that he would sleep with her when he thought she was his sister, but I found it kind of awesome that he was into her enough to ignore society's reasons not to. Which is all ignoring the whole "he was drugged" issue, but yeah.

Plus, I ALWAYS love rejection of societal standards, and I always love angst in the face of said standards, and I just love the closeness involved.

Or...something like that. Yeah.

[liminalliz.livejournal.com]

[*makes a really incoherent comment of how much liz agrees with tris*]

[liminalliz.livejournal.com]

'cept i ship simon/river.

[hobviously.livejournal.com]

Well, I actually like Simon/River in canon a lot! It just has to be done in a very particular way. Ultimately while I LIKE it it is not something I get very excited over (which goes for every other Firefly pairing, too, that isn't Mal/Inara).

[koalathebear.livejournal.com]

It makes sense. Thank you for explaining. 不仅可爱也有自反的能力。真了不起。呵呵。

[queenofthorns.livejournal.com]

Heh! Well, sorry to bounce in bantha-fodder's journal - but I've seen you commenting in alexandra's so I feel like I sorta know you - I just wanted to say that in Song of Ice and Fire, the incest is not sexy or in any way a GOOD thing; it's a powerful, destructive and terrible thing that is one of the causes of a terrible civil war and warps the life of at least one of the participants in a direction that he might never have taken otherwise. You know, if that helps you keep reading ... ;)

[gobsmackit.livejournal.com]

I have no idea what you're talking about at all, but HEE.

[queenofthorns.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm persistent :p

[koalathebear.livejournal.com]

*laugh* actually I've already read all of your interesting posts on the character of Jaime Lannister. The book is well-written but I've decided to put it aside right now until I'm in a better frame of mind though.

Your posts about redemption were fascinating though and made me think a lot!

[queenofthorns.livejournal.com]

Hee! You're very sweet! And I'm a little afraid that my obsessiveness has now wandered well away into the ether and isn't just confined to my own friends' list ;)

[koalathebear.livejournal.com]

*chuckle* No don't worry, you are famous in LJ circles for far more than Jaime Lannister Love!

As said, I suspect I will get around to reading the series later - a recommendation from a fellow-Garth Nix fan (who else has heard of him!) is definitely worth following. :)

[queenofthorns.livejournal.com]

No don't worry, you are famous in LJ circles for far more than Jaime Lannister Love!

That only makes me even more nervous ;)

I ::heart:: Garth Nix so very much. I bought Ragwitch for my niece for Christmas and it looked so good I bought myself a copy too ;)

[liminalliz.livejournal.com]

My favorite incesty pairing is Edmund/Lucy. Absolutely. Peter/Susan is slightly interesting and has been made more interesting in fic, I think, but from the text, the subtext, the BBC films, and my own love of the characters.... yeah, favorite Narnia OTP after Shasta/Aravis (because Shasta/Aravis is almost the EXACT SAME PAIRING only without the incest and the guilt and some of the religion and with more of the sex).

*nods* and your little paragraph of love that turned into fic... oh Pen. OH PEN. *bounces with love*

[bantha-fodder.livejournal.com]

OMG REALLY?! I THOUGHT IT WAS ME, ALONE IN ALL THE COLD WORLD!

Remind me to write that plotbunny, when I get this Peter loses his virginity thing back from Claira.

I'm going to reread Horse and His Boy this week, just to learn about Shasta and Aravis because it has been fifteen years since I read it.

[liminalliz.livejournal.com]

OMG NO NEVER NO! *loves* *wraps you in blankets*

Write that plotbunny, Pen!

HHB is my favorite, absolute favorite - for many reasons but definitely for the OMG OTHER LANDS AND POLITICS OMG YAY and the Pevensies as FASCINATING minor characters (oh so fascinating). It's like LWW fanfiction by the author. *glees*

I need to write more Narnia fic. Yes. Mmm.

[gobsmackit.livejournal.com]

This is all quite fascinating. I do read twincest in the HP fandom, but I can't read twincest if it's boy/girl, just because...well, it's entirely too close to home. But I can read boy/girl incest (I haven't read a lot of it, but I don't avoid it) and apparently have no problem with it, it's just the twin thing that makes it squicky enough to stay away from.

I think both you and dearladydisdain have fascinating reasons for the incest interest, and I think I've enjoyed fic based upon both viewpoints in the past. And now, I really, really want to see Veronica Mars!

[hobviously.livejournal.com]

Ha! AWESOME.

Now is actually the perfect time to catch up, but I will refrain from vimping in Pen's journal.

[gobsmackit.livejournal.com]

Actually, I just got back from Best Buy, and bought Veronica Mars S1 because they were sold out of House. I'll probably have to wait until S2 for the incest scare, but it's a start! :D

[roz-mcclure.livejournal.com]

I'm just jumping in here because ahahahahahaha I can, but hmmmm, incest.

I'm not a whole big "WHEE INCEST YAY!" (but, um, if incest is the new slash? I'm totally on board with that) but I like it a lot in some fandoms and not at all in others. Incest in Harry Potter? UM, NO. Unless it's Blackcest, and even then I don't see/want anything closer than cousins. Incest in Arrested Development or Narnia? YEAH BABY! So I guess maybe one of the differences is that I don't like it in "normal" families (Weasleys and Malfoys are pretty standard English types, as far as I'm concerned) but do in crazy weird ones that sort of have their own community/culture? Like, no one else but another Bluth or another Pevensie can get what's going on. So I like that connection, that insularity.

I don't 'ship Simon/River, partly because I think Simon is too older-brother protective to ever let himself go there and partly because I think there isn't that insularity between them because Joss Whedon is all about constructed family and on Serenity there are people who understand/accept both of them.

Incest is also one of the few things I read in which the line between reality and fiction is VERY CLEARLY DRAWN.