peta thoughts
Dec. 16th, 2008 03:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bedlamsbardIn the interest of procrastinating cleaning, folding laundry, and packing, I am reading genderflip meta -- specifically, on girl!Daniel Jackson from SG-1 and how his/her upbringing would have been influenced based on the time s/he grew up.
Obviously, as the chick who's written 50K+ of Peta Pevensie, this gets me thinking.
The thinking would be working somewhat better if I knew something more about how a teenage girl in 1930s England (before being evacuated) would have been raised. Especially as the oldest of four siblings.
I can extrapolate that Edmund, as the only boy, might have had more responsibility; I can also extrapolate that Peta was a hell of a lot more aggressive than Peter, and that she was also less willing to fit into your basic nice English schoolgirl niche, and that therefore she may have been a little bit (or a lot) of a tomboy before Narnia. She was probably a lot more isolated than Peter and she was probably a troublemaker, and she wasn't as close to her siblings even after Narnia. But getting into Narnia was probably even more of a lock into a key situation than for Peter: for the first time ever, she fit. (She also had a much toughter time being taken seriously in Narnia, so she has a lot of issues that are tied up in her gender, and also the fact that her siblings are very literally her second-in-commands; she says to Caspian that, "I very seldom trust my siblings with Narnia," which is something Peter would never say.)
But, in other words, I'm wondering just how screwed up Peta would have been before Narnia, as a fourteen, fifteen year old tomboy in WWII London, and why and how she would have become the kickass warrior, general, and High Queen that she is in Be Like Water. (And oh, lordy, but does she ever have issues in Water. I didn't actually figure this out until I was picking at the scene that immediately follows the last scene I wrote in NaNo, the one where Peta and Lucy scream at each other about Narnia and Aslan and responsibility. And she had issues before Narnia, she had issues during Narnia, and she had issues post-Narnia.)
Also, I know that this post won't make much sense until Be Like Water is actually completed and posted (I have dreams about this. Someday, oh, someday). But, well. *flaps hands*
Anyway, this came out of one of the last things I wrote in Water, where Peta and Caspian are talking and he asks her what she was like before Narnia.
ETA: Though to be fair, I don't know how much of this comes from writing juvenile delinquent!Peter with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lassiterfics.
Obviously, as the chick who's written 50K+ of Peta Pevensie, this gets me thinking.
The thinking would be working somewhat better if I knew something more about how a teenage girl in 1930s England (before being evacuated) would have been raised. Especially as the oldest of four siblings.
I can extrapolate that Edmund, as the only boy, might have had more responsibility; I can also extrapolate that Peta was a hell of a lot more aggressive than Peter, and that she was also less willing to fit into your basic nice English schoolgirl niche, and that therefore she may have been a little bit (or a lot) of a tomboy before Narnia. She was probably a lot more isolated than Peter and she was probably a troublemaker, and she wasn't as close to her siblings even after Narnia. But getting into Narnia was probably even more of a lock into a key situation than for Peter: for the first time ever, she fit. (She also had a much toughter time being taken seriously in Narnia, so she has a lot of issues that are tied up in her gender, and also the fact that her siblings are very literally her second-in-commands; she says to Caspian that, "I very seldom trust my siblings with Narnia," which is something Peter would never say.)
But, in other words, I'm wondering just how screwed up Peta would have been before Narnia, as a fourteen, fifteen year old tomboy in WWII London, and why and how she would have become the kickass warrior, general, and High Queen that she is in Be Like Water. (And oh, lordy, but does she ever have issues in Water. I didn't actually figure this out until I was picking at the scene that immediately follows the last scene I wrote in NaNo, the one where Peta and Lucy scream at each other about Narnia and Aslan and responsibility. And she had issues before Narnia, she had issues during Narnia, and she had issues post-Narnia.)
Also, I know that this post won't make much sense until Be Like Water is actually completed and posted (I have dreams about this. Someday, oh, someday). But, well. *flaps hands*
Anyway, this came out of one of the last things I wrote in Water, where Peta and Caspian are talking and he asks her what she was like before Narnia.
He hesitates before he actually says it, but says it anyway. “What were you like? Before Narnia.”
She winces, then raises a hand to her face, pinching the bridge of her nose between two fingers. After a moment she lets her hand fall back down to her lap and turns to look him in the eye. “I was a fuck-up,” she says.
“I’m sure you weren’t –” Caspian begins, automatically.
“No, I was a fuck-up,” Peta says. “I was a bad sister, I was a bad daughter, I wasn’t much fun to be around – I think there was a pool going on whether I’d get myself killed, arrested, or knocked up first. There probably still is, actually. The only thing that changed when I got back was that I actually had a clue how to fight, and that I could take on boys older than me and win. That doesn’t do much for a girl’s reputation back in England.” She grins a little, humorless. “Unless you happen to be one of the boys.”
ETA: Though to be fair, I don't know how much of this comes from writing juvenile delinquent!Peter with
lassiterfics.![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2008-12-16 11:13 pm (UTC)hmm, let me see. As the oldest, Peta would definitely have been made responsible for her younger siblings, expected to keep them in line, get them out of trouble, make sure they didn't kill each other, etc. Girls were usually assumed to be more ladylike in behaviour, though that wasn't always the case once out of parental/adult supervision! My gran was also a tomboy (up trees, damming streams, having fun) while the next sister down was the little girly-girl, with blond curls who actually ENJOYED SEWING! (they weren't very friendly - still aren't!)
Children back then were given much more freedom, literally out of the house after breakfast in the holidays, and not expected back till any sort of meals were due - left to their own resources for the most part, which would have let Peta develop the skills of leadership (try keeping your siblings occupied during very bad weather, or getting home when you're miles away & Lucy's feet hurt!), independence and working out situations. Imaginative games were popular - cowboys & Indians, pirates, Robin Hood, any kind of fighting (sticks for swords), acting out scenes from books.
Edmund would have been treated differently, being the boy, but in the sense that he was almost *expected* to come home dripping wet, with torn clothes & a bloody nose. Peta coming home like that... ye-es. Not the well behaved, gentle young woman she was probably supposed to be magically turning into at about 14/15. She would also be expected to help out in the house, learning how to *run* the house, deal with the maids (pre war, all middle and upper classes would have had at least one maid, and usually a cook. During the war though, these mostly all vanished to join the Land Girls, WAAF, WRENS etc), know enough maths to control the household budget; as well as sewing, embroidery, flower arranging and other dainty occupations like that. If you want any reason for Peta to be screwed up - being groomed to be the perfect society hostess is it! As well as being expected to defer to a man's judgement in just about everything. No wonder a teenaged girl, with an independant mind, and a strong sense of leadership would have felt like Narnia was coming home to a place where she *fitted in.*
Oh, and her mother would probably have had hysterics if she'd ever heard Peta use 'fuck' or anything more dramatic than 'ripping' or 'topping.' *snerk* Even men weren't supposed to swear around delicate lady ears. (I've read books where men say 'damn' or 'damned' - then apologise sincerely!)
Hope any of this helps, just ask if you need anything else specific. And if you can find any transcrips online for the 'William' books by Richmal Crompton - read them! She wrote about William Brown from the 20's through to the 50's, and perfectly describes the middle class behaviour & habits. I'm presuming that Peta was more like William & his gang of 'Outlaws, but that her mother wanted her to be his sister, Ethel - full of garden parties, playing tennis, polite conversation... or like Violet Elizabeth Bott, who got her own way by promising to 'thcream and thcream' until she was 'thick'. William, and Peta's mortal enemy! I'm shutting up now - promise!
(no subject)
Date: 2008-12-17 12:06 am (UTC)And she'd probably be even more screwed up post-Narnia, because how do you go back to that after you've been running a country and fighting wars and being High Queen after fifteen years? (Well, how do any of them, but worse for Peta, maybe?) Especially since she's been a warrior. Which is Not Done Ever, I'm sure.
I can't think of anything specific, since I'm mostly thinking of generalities because England is something that Peta wants to dwell on even less than Peter does -- seriously, it screwed her up post-LWW -- and it only came up because of how badly she's dealing. (Her issues in Water are completely different than Peter's in PC; it's fascinating. I mean, maybe not completely different; there are some basic similarities, but the cause is different. And curiously, age is less of an issue than gender, which is kind of interesting -- I mean, for Caspian and the Narnians and the Telmarines, here.)
(no subject)
Date: 2008-12-17 07:02 pm (UTC)As for the Telmarines being more hung up on the gender issue than the age issue - oh *totally* true. They'd have been at the stage where woman were barely recognised to have brains, let alone know how to use them properly! As for any kind of fighting prowess (bar a little genteel crossbow action) *snort*
(no subject)
Date: 2008-12-17 05:20 am (UTC)YANNO ever since the whole drugs of dust 7 thing, i have been more and more wanting to write about them tripping.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-12-17 05:25 am (UTC)mmm, something i read in all that meta today: aus are about defining characters in canon by who they didn't become.
there is an ep in farscape where the mc, john crichton, on some random alien planet of the week, gets invited to do shrooms: they grow in bunches of four, and "three gets you high, one gets you dead." and then he EATS ONE.
peter would totally do that.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-12-17 05:44 am (UTC)YA YA. probably switching back and forth between peter POV and tripsitter POV, whoever the tripsitter is. i can see any of the 3 of them tripsitting him. alternatively, any number of the other 3 trip and he tripsits. maybe he and, like, susan tripsit lucy i dunno! at this point, ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE. who?!