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| Keep Alive the Memory by Celeritas | 6 Review(s) |
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| Kara's Aunty | Reviewed Chapter: 13 on 1/13/2009 |
| Hello Celeritas, Kira does seem to be an unfortunate soul in matter's of health; trouble with her foot, wayward 'friends' who are jealous of her time spent with the Red Book causing her to almost drown, and now, the effects of grief at the loss of the Red Book's tale - poor lass. One point though: The expression 'sick up' and the seasonal reference 'fall' are Americanisms, not hobbitisms :) It's clear Penny worries for the effect Kira's demise would have on Rosemary, but her concern does seem a bit misguided at times. I'm beginning to suspect she has no regard, solely for her niece, at all; that her concern for the child's welfare is incidental to that for her sister's; but she IS trying to keep their family together in whatever way she can, I suppose. Her revelations about Kira's father were poignant and her love for her sister is indisputable. I just wish she loved her niece for her own sake and not Rosemary's, which seems to be the case (I don't think you wrote it like that though, it's just my interpretation). I'm a bit gutted to see I only have three chapters left after this. And there's no hope of a new chapter of Sharing Sam to look forward to either (I LOVED that story), sniff. You are too cruel... See you soon, M ;) Author Reply: Yeah, I've mentioned before that if Kira ever managed to meet me in real life she'd probably smack me a few good ones, and for good reason. I just did a "find word" on Chapter 13 and didn't find "sick up"; I think the phrase I used was "spit up"--if that is an Americanism, I'm sorry--I just couldn't think of any other phrase for "vomit" that didn't sound too scientific, too modern, or too crass. As far as "fall" goes, I did at one point do a "find/replace" with fall vs. autumn until I remembered that one of the Elvish names for autumn was "Lasselanta" or "leaf-fall." Since hobbits appear to have inherited, way back in the day, a good deal of their knowledge from elves (although not necessarily month-names), I decided to let it lie. Penny has been quite frustrated at Kira at times, often because she has a seeming lack of concern for her own health. This and Kira's growing bookishness have stood in the way of her really getting to know Kira for her own sake. But she does love the lass, and not just because she's so dear to her sister. Well, all good things, etc., etc. Here's the current queue-up for my writing: my beta currently has all of KAtM's sequel that I've written (well, almost all); as soon as he's fully acquainted with what I'm planning on doing I'll polish up the first few chapters and get them up, hopefully before this month is o'er. Once the second chapter of that is up I'll be clear to put the next bit of Sharing Sam up (chapter 2 mentions some details on hobbit courtship practices)--I do have at least five more stories in that series planned. But there may be a bit of a lull. Also, I have to apologize for the Great Reviewing Slump; I've been horribly slacking and the longer my list gets the less I want to get it done! Author Reply: Forgot to mention: if you really are starved for my writing I've got some relative frivolity up under the name "The Sandbox." And lurking on Livejournal some challenge fics and other such things. | |
| Virtuella | Reviewed Chapter: 13 on 12/17/2008 |
| What a very touching chapter. The mother's advice is well-meant, but entirely counterproductive, but at last the aunt begins to understand. I'm wondering, did you invent this mystery disease or does it correspond to some real-life medical condition? A form of epilepsy, maybe? Author Reply: Although I try to go for realism in all of my fiction, I dislike writing that's set in the past in which there are medical conditions which, even though the characters can't recognize it, the modern-day reader can. It always throws me out of the story. So when I write about any sort of uncommon illness I deliberately try to make it the Mysterious Victorian Illness which, when it was used by authors, served whatever purpose the plot demanded. So Kira's condition isn't directly based on any sort of disease as recognized by modern medical professionals. That doesn't mean I haven't tried to analyze it in any way, so here's the best information I can give you. Kira's condition is almost entirely psychosomatic. As the vivid dreams show, she has a very, very active imagination that was only unleashed by her reading. Now that the Book is gone there's all of this creative energy and nowhere to put it. So what started out as a fairly innocuous faint, brought about by the shock and grief of the book's loss (compare with Sam's faint when he first thinks Frodo is dead--if the parallels are obvious it's because when I was researching I was trying to look for comparable events of hobbits reacting to grievous dire news) turns into an entire little world in Kira's heart that, as she encounters it, becomes more and more real to her. It's a suitable method of coping at first (because it stops the nightmares), but the more she relies on it the more it hurts her. After a winter of this being the only way she can begin to come to terms with her grief, it resolves into a permanent condition. If you can recognize any real-world illnesses in the blackness, though, by all means go ahead and read it in there. I can't guarantee that it'll match up, of course! ^_^ | |
| Agape4Gondor | Reviewed Chapter: 13 on 12/16/2008 |
| Hmmm - interesting chapter. Author Reply: Interesting, and it should have some interesting implications down the road... I hope... | |
| Raksha The Demon | Reviewed Chapter: 13 on 12/15/2008 |
| Just as Kira has learned that reading is important to life; she has to learn that there are other things in life that are important, too. And she has to get some new friends! The story continues to engross; I'm wondering how you will end it. Author Reply: Kira definitely DOES need to get new friends, but she doesn't have much choice. Her area of the White Downs is underpopulated, she's naturally quite introverted, and in order for a new friend to be valuable to her, that friend would have to be literate. It's one of the grim realities of living in an era that had limited communication (though she will write letters to those bookish friends she has as she is able). So one of the harder things ahead of her is to make some sort of peace with those friends she has. Because Kira is facing a long-term problem now, the ending cannot by its own nature resolve all of the problems that she has, but hopefully it'll stop at a milestone. Then I've got a sequel planned and semi-drafted that moves the action ahead about twelve years or so and deals, among other things, with the very long-term consequences of the things that have happened in this story. | |
| Dreamflower | Reviewed Chapter: 13 on 12/15/2008 |
| Penny may mean well, but she has certainly put a huge burden on Kira's back! I liked the way you took the idea in Tolkien of his characters "fading" from grief and brought it in. It wasn't just confined to Elves, as we know. And I also liked the Doctor's caveat about the "soul" and that most people (meaning hobbits) did not think it existed. I am wondering what is going to happen if Kira does manage to recover enough to go out again. Author Reply: Penny has burdened Kira, but given her limited means (I often wonder how the winter would have gone if they'd allowed Kira's bookish friends in to talk with her) it was the most she could do to shake Kira out of her passive despair. The term "soul-hurts" was the best way I could try to talk about those medical ailments that aren't strictly physical. I imagine that since the Shire has its heart in the right place much more than any of the other branches of Men do, that such things would be rare. The aftermath of the War would probably bring some awareness of them (maybe this was when the term was invented?) but that would die quickly as those affected, and the Shire itself, healed. But the very inclusion of the term "soul" implies "we have no idea what's going on," because hobbits were agnostic about spiritual matters, just as they were about those ailments that we would now assign to psychology. For your last sentence--wait till next chapter! | |
| Larner | Reviewed Chapter: 13 on 12/15/2008 |
| I suspect this is as sacred a promise as she can make--not to give in to despair! Now, to live again, and to see to it the stories are told. She's inherited Frodo and Sam's own memories now! Now to pass them on. And just perhaps Tom will come around, too! Now, Daffy--come back so you can make up! Author Reply: Yes, it's about the best we can hope for from Kira at the moment. It'll be interesting to see how she manages to rejoin the world, so to speak, and still create a time and space for her learning--and for spreading the stories. You have a LOT more hope for Tom than I do at the moment, which isn't to say that you're wrong... | |