An Unfound Door, Chapter Thirteen
Apr. 5th, 2024 07:58 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rynlingAfter crossing the outdoor courtyard of the west wing of the castle, which is filled with bones, Fhiad and Agnes enter the main library of the former magic academy. It’s in disarray, but Agnes finds a reading room that’s still in good condition. While searching the shelves, Fhiad remembers how he was seduced and betrayed by Agatha, the princess of his era. Fhiad lashes out at Agnes, who weathers his emotional storm and tells him that she’s found a book with illustrations of the three keystones needed to open the door in the courtyard. Two of these stones are in Faloren, but the third is in Erdbhein. Agnes proposes that they travel there, revealing that she has experience fighting magically preserved corpses called husks.
.
This is the last chapter of the “Fun and Games” section of Act 3. In this chapter, Fhiad and Agnes visit the third library of the castle. This is my story, and I can have as many magical libraries as I want. Will Agnes and Fhiad visit more libraries before the end of the novel? Yes!! Yes they will!!!
What’s cool about this library is that it’s been partially exposed to the outside elements, so it has trees and mushrooms and bats and centipedes. All the books are rotting. Again: it’s my story, and I get to put in all of my favorite things.
There’s one smaller reading room that’s been preserved, and this is where Agnes does some detective work while Fhiad has a minor breakdown. Since this chapter is written from Fhiad’s perspective, the reader gets to follow his mental state as he progressively becomes more upset and unnerved. Agnes is generally fairly observant, but she’s having so much fun going on the magical adventure she’s wanted all her life that she doesn’t pick up on what’s going on with Fhiad until it’s too late.
As someone who has been trained by comments on AO3 to know that even sympathetic readers will get upset about real-world power imbalances if a fictional character behaves poorly, I’m afraid that this might be the chapter that gets me cancelled. Fhiad loses himself for a moment and threatens physical violence in a burst of anger that’s partially fueled by his confused attraction. Agnes responds to this as she always responds to adversity, by coldly insisting on getting back to business. Neither of them looks great in this scene.
Still, the characters need room to grow, and there also needs to be an inciting incident that moves the story forward. We don’t get Agnes’s perspective on what happened, but hopefully the reader knows her well enough by now to understand that she cares for Fhiad, and that she’s gotten the message that she needs to get him out of the castle.
Are Agnes and Fhiad going to a second ruined castle filled with terrible things? Yes!! Yes they are!!!
.
This is the last chapter of the “Fun and Games” section of Act 3. In this chapter, Fhiad and Agnes visit the third library of the castle. This is my story, and I can have as many magical libraries as I want. Will Agnes and Fhiad visit more libraries before the end of the novel? Yes!! Yes they will!!!
What’s cool about this library is that it’s been partially exposed to the outside elements, so it has trees and mushrooms and bats and centipedes. All the books are rotting. Again: it’s my story, and I get to put in all of my favorite things.
There’s one smaller reading room that’s been preserved, and this is where Agnes does some detective work while Fhiad has a minor breakdown. Since this chapter is written from Fhiad’s perspective, the reader gets to follow his mental state as he progressively becomes more upset and unnerved. Agnes is generally fairly observant, but she’s having so much fun going on the magical adventure she’s wanted all her life that she doesn’t pick up on what’s going on with Fhiad until it’s too late.
As someone who has been trained by comments on AO3 to know that even sympathetic readers will get upset about real-world power imbalances if a fictional character behaves poorly, I’m afraid that this might be the chapter that gets me cancelled. Fhiad loses himself for a moment and threatens physical violence in a burst of anger that’s partially fueled by his confused attraction. Agnes responds to this as she always responds to adversity, by coldly insisting on getting back to business. Neither of them looks great in this scene.
Still, the characters need room to grow, and there also needs to be an inciting incident that moves the story forward. We don’t get Agnes’s perspective on what happened, but hopefully the reader knows her well enough by now to understand that she cares for Fhiad, and that she’s gotten the message that she needs to get him out of the castle.
Are Agnes and Fhiad going to a second ruined castle filled with terrible things? Yes!! Yes they are!!!
no subject
Date: 2024-04-12 05:32 pm (UTC).....why do people get upset if fictional people behave poorly. I don't understand. sigh.
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Date: 2024-04-21 11:41 am (UTC)This semester, I taught a class about "Demon Women in Japanese Literature." The readings were fairly diverse, as were the students. The one thing that surprised me is how, in their written responses, almost everyone admitted to a personal connection with one of the stories. Either their parents were evil, or a romantic partner was evil, or they had a frenemy who did them dirty. When a story resonated with them on a personal level, they tended to blame the writer for not being sensitive.
On one hand, I don't think Fumiko Enchi cared about misbehavior on TikTok when she was writing in postwar Japan in 1954. On the other hand, I remember what it felt like to be young and have everything feel so raw. On the third hand growing directly from my bile-choked liver, I still can't help but wonder why the first impulse is to get angry at the writer.
no subject
Date: 2024-04-22 09:38 pm (UTC)