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The Garuda, the Jambu Grove, and the Queen of the South Seas?
I mentioned to a couple of people that I'm fiddling around with a reinterpretation of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe using Southeast Asian folktales and a cosmology that focuses on cycles rather than linear trajectories and dichotomy. What I'm thinking is, it's still four kids, but instead of the crisis in this world being WW2, it's the 1997 Asian financial crisis. Instead of the kids being sent out of the countryside to escape the Blitz, the parents have to leave the country because there were no jobs in Indonesia. The kids have to stay with their weird uncle. Anyway, I started writing it.
Writing non-autobiographically about Indonesians in Indonesia weirded my brain out. It kept on switching to "speaking Indonesian*" mode (not my most articulate mode, lemme tell ya), and I found myself trying to remember Indonesian vocabulary and sentence structure before I remembered that OH YEAH I'm writing this in English. It was just that my brain was going, "Okay, time to deal with Indonesian people who have X mannerisms and Y ideologies. Adjust!" And then it does. So, I have a few pages written, but the writing's stiff and the diction is off, trying to stay in English but instinctually veering to Indonesian.
I found myself asking, "Are these Indonesian names too off-putting for a non-Indonesian reader?" Then I had RaceFail flashbacks and I was like, "D-:!" wtf. My real name has always been a source of contention for me. It's the typical long foreign name, and people would be like, "Say your name, dude!" like it's just entertainment. And one time, after performing my name, one girl was like, "Yeah, but what is it without the accent? Say your name without the accent." Bitch, that was my name without the accent! diaf :(
In college, I changed my nickname to something simpler - not a Western name, just something monosyllabic (and spelled with two letters, but it still gets misspelled all the damn time anyway I JUST CAN'T WIN) - and my buddy Asef from high school was like, "I can't call you that. You're not that." He says it's colonial mentality on my part, and he talks about how Kang Wook goes by Kevin in Indiana now, and Bilal goes by Billy in Oregon; he makes a face and shakes his head. I don't know if I should be flattered or ticked off at this attitude. On the one hand, I respect his intentions, sure, down with the global western hegemony etc. On the other hand, don't tell me what I should call myself. Who are you to tell me who I am and what my reasons should be?
I also found myself asking, "Who the hell wants to read about Indonesians and Indonesia anyway?" But then I remember that questions like that are why I wanted to write this in the first place.
* Can I just say it kind of SHITS ME OFF when people say "Do you speak Bahasa?" 'cos that just means 'language'. Indonesians don't say we speak Bahasa. Bahasa Indonesia means 'Indonesian language'. It grew out of Malaysian (Basa Melayu?).
And now for something completely meme-ish! Tell me in the comments something you think I'd never ever write, then I try to commentfic this thing I would supposedly never write.
Writing non-autobiographically about Indonesians in Indonesia weirded my brain out. It kept on switching to "speaking Indonesian*" mode (not my most articulate mode, lemme tell ya), and I found myself trying to remember Indonesian vocabulary and sentence structure before I remembered that OH YEAH I'm writing this in English. It was just that my brain was going, "Okay, time to deal with Indonesian people who have X mannerisms and Y ideologies. Adjust!" And then it does. So, I have a few pages written, but the writing's stiff and the diction is off, trying to stay in English but instinctually veering to Indonesian.
I found myself asking, "Are these Indonesian names too off-putting for a non-Indonesian reader?" Then I had RaceFail flashbacks and I was like, "D-:!" wtf. My real name has always been a source of contention for me. It's the typical long foreign name, and people would be like, "Say your name, dude!" like it's just entertainment. And one time, after performing my name, one girl was like, "Yeah, but what is it without the accent? Say your name without the accent." Bitch, that was my name without the accent! diaf :(
In college, I changed my nickname to something simpler - not a Western name, just something monosyllabic (and spelled with two letters, but it still gets misspelled all the damn time anyway I JUST CAN'T WIN) - and my buddy Asef from high school was like, "I can't call you that. You're not that." He says it's colonial mentality on my part, and he talks about how Kang Wook goes by Kevin in Indiana now, and Bilal goes by Billy in Oregon; he makes a face and shakes his head. I don't know if I should be flattered or ticked off at this attitude. On the one hand, I respect his intentions, sure, down with the global western hegemony etc. On the other hand, don't tell me what I should call myself. Who are you to tell me who I am and what my reasons should be?
I also found myself asking, "Who the hell wants to read about Indonesians and Indonesia anyway?" But then I remember that questions like that are why I wanted to write this in the first place.
* Can I just say it kind of SHITS ME OFF when people say "Do you speak Bahasa?" 'cos that just means 'language'. Indonesians don't say we speak Bahasa. Bahasa Indonesia means 'Indonesian language'. It grew out of Malaysian (Basa Melayu?).
And now for something completely meme-ish! Tell me in the comments something you think I'd never ever write, then I try to commentfic this thing I would supposedly never write.
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True story: my parents were going to name me Katarina or Katerina, then they decided it was too foreign and decided to name me Katrina instead. Because the extra vowel makes all the difference?
Honey, I cannot think of something you'd never ever write. I do not know what this says about us, but there it is. Um. Peter/White Witch?
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I cannot think of something you'd never ever write. I do not know what this says about us, but there it is.
Hahahahaha IKR! I think this meme is just my roundabout way of asking for crack-prompts. UMMM, this didn't turn out to be REALLY Peter/Jadis... but here you go anyway!
Peter raises his sword. "You are in no position to bargain, witch."
She laughs. "Oh Peter, I am not bargaining. I am simply laying down the terms."
+
When Peter heard word that Jadis is returned and mustering followers in the northwestern woods, he told Edmund to stay at Cair Paravel.
"Do you still think me under her spell?" Edmund spat out.
"No," Peter lied. "But the Calormene ambassadors are getting restless, and I need you to deal with them." Peter told Lucy to stay at Cair Paravel because she can mollify Edmund better than any of them. They argue with him, protest that he is treating them like children, but in the end he is their High King and they will do as he commands.
"Be careful," Susan said to him at the gates, the morning of departure.
He kissed her hand and said, "I'll be back before you notice I've gone."
+
Jadis says, "I swear on my sister's life that I will leave Narnia, never to return, if you will do for me one thing."
Peter doesn't say anything, doesn't move.
"Get me the White Stag," the Witch commands. "When it crosses into your kingdom, hunt it down and bring it to me, and tell no one I have asked this of you."
Peter raises his eyebrow. "And if I don't do as you say?"
Her gaze is impassive. "Then I will have your brother."
His jaw tightens. "Fine."
"You wear your weaknesses on your sleeve, your majesty," she smiles.
"You'll have your stag, Jadis," Peter says, "and then you will leave these lands forever."
"Swear on Aslan."
He does.
+
Tumnus announces the sighting of the Stag.
Peter is ready.
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OH PETER. Yes. That! SHE KNOWS.
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Nimueh/Jadis: STILL A GOOD IDEA
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JADIS. Really, I heart that scene in PC a lot. (One of these days I totally have to do my Peter-possessed-by-the-White-Witch story. When I remember how to write something that is not a massive revisionista epic WIP.)
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SKANDAR IS SO TINY. AND GEORGIE IS LIKE, MICROSCOPIC. And Susan has awesome hair (Peter has awful hair).