Well, this is horribly late in coming, but hey, I figure the B2MeM fics are waiting here like a good anthology of stories do on a bookshelf
I like this analogy enough to have used it in conversation with someone else about "late" reviews on B2MeM stories. :D I am quite far behind myself but hope to grab opportunities here and there to comment on B2MeM pieces (especially since I'm off from grad school till July). I personally like getting comments weeks/months/years after a story's initial posting.
it's your characterization of Indis that absolutely blows me away and how you used the aforementioned elements to show me, the reader, the depth of her character in her hands.
Thank you. That's really what I wanted to do, once the initial barrage of images that I got when listening to the song for the prompt had settled enough for the story to start to take shape in my mind. I hadn't ever paid much attention to Indis, and as I began to delve the HoMe for details about her character, I was struck with how, in the Silm, she seems so lacking in agency or even sincere reaction to what happens to her--she seems a complete blank to me, not at all a real human but something inert that is acted upon by others--but in the HoMe, we do see her taking initiative and get hints that she wasn't always pleased with what was done to her. Finwe's line in "The Statute of Finwe and Miriel" about how Indis doesn't really need him because she parted from him long ago and he was alone when he died sounds so bitter to me: a man used to getting his way, who assumed his obedient Vanyarin wife would unquestioningly do her duty by him, and she didn't.
Her son may be the one formally crowned, but we see in her - The Queen.
YES. That kind of power was always denied her until she married Finwe, who encouraged her to assume that role. She discovers she not only likes it but enough that she seeks it. She sees her potential to shape the future of the Noldor--who are headed in a direction she does not favor or think wise--and takes it.
That strikes me as so realistic. The Noldor who have followed Fëanor into exile of Formenos largely have no idea what hardship and horrors await them in the Outer Lands
I've been thinking a lot lately about how people, it seems, always have to believe in danger. For example, I recently overheard a conversation between my mom and mom-in-law in which they were going on about how one must always lock one's doors, "especially these days." They both live in upper-middle-class suburbs in Baltimore County. I pointed out that, in fact, "these days" the crime rate and especially the violent crime rate has dropped quite a bit from the exalted "good old days" when supposedly everyone went about with their doors unlocked. I've always seen the Noldor in the so-called Days of Bliss as suffering from boredom, a lack of meaning, and a feeling of inferiority beside ancestors--who, to add insult to injury, are still living--who accomplished something more meaningful (at least in the minds of people like Feanor, who want to make decisions that actually shapes the fate of his people). My Noldor crave that danger and so cook up what they imagine is the kind of excitement they are missing.
Thank you so much for reading and reviewing. :) I have to admit I've been looking forward to hearing your thoughts on this story ever since you told me you read it!
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2014-04-13 02:44 pm (UTC)I like this analogy enough to have used it in conversation with someone else about "late" reviews on B2MeM stories. :D I am quite far behind myself but hope to grab opportunities here and there to comment on B2MeM pieces (especially since I'm off from grad school till July). I personally like getting comments weeks/months/years after a story's initial posting.
it's your characterization of Indis that absolutely blows me away and how you used the aforementioned elements to show me, the reader, the depth of her character in her hands.
Thank you. That's really what I wanted to do, once the initial barrage of images that I got when listening to the song for the prompt had settled enough for the story to start to take shape in my mind. I hadn't ever paid much attention to Indis, and as I began to delve the HoMe for details about her character, I was struck with how, in the Silm, she seems so lacking in agency or even sincere reaction to what happens to her--she seems a complete blank to me, not at all a real human but something inert that is acted upon by others--but in the HoMe, we do see her taking initiative and get hints that she wasn't always pleased with what was done to her. Finwe's line in "The Statute of Finwe and Miriel" about how Indis doesn't really need him because she parted from him long ago and he was alone when he died sounds so bitter to me: a man used to getting his way, who assumed his obedient Vanyarin wife would unquestioningly do her duty by him, and she didn't.
Her son may be the one formally crowned, but we see in her - The Queen.
YES. That kind of power was always denied her until she married Finwe, who encouraged her to assume that role. She discovers she not only likes it but enough that she seeks it. She sees her potential to shape the future of the Noldor--who are headed in a direction she does not favor or think wise--and takes it.
That strikes me as so realistic. The Noldor who have followed Fëanor into exile of Formenos largely have no idea what hardship and horrors await them in the Outer Lands
I've been thinking a lot lately about how people, it seems, always have to believe in danger. For example, I recently overheard a conversation between my mom and mom-in-law in which they were going on about how one must always lock one's doors, "especially these days." They both live in upper-middle-class suburbs in Baltimore County. I pointed out that, in fact, "these days" the crime rate and especially the violent crime rate has dropped quite a bit from the exalted "good old days" when supposedly everyone went about with their doors unlocked. I've always seen the Noldor in the so-called Days of Bliss as suffering from boredom, a lack of meaning, and a feeling of inferiority beside ancestors--who, to add insult to injury, are still living--who accomplished something more meaningful (at least in the minds of people like Feanor, who want to make decisions that actually shapes the fate of his people). My Noldor crave that danger and so cook up what they imagine is the kind of excitement they are missing.
Thank you so much for reading and reviewing. :) I have to admit I've been looking forward to hearing your thoughts on this story ever since you told me you read it!