further exchange with WishingDreamer5 of Critics United

Yeah, yeah, dead horse. I know. But WishingDreamer5 (despite the "I have no other choice but to report you" thing in their original review -- what, someone was holding a gun to your head?) is at least willing to ask me what I mean instead of assuming that my viewpoint is automatically irrelevant. So I am attempting to explain. And I am also making my explanation public "in order for others to see it, just like teachers do at school," because that is indeed a good idea. :-)

A message I received at 8:06am, Eastern Daylight Time, on October 23, 2012

( continuing conversation in response to WishingDreamer5's review )

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I am blurring the point on where use of second person slides from "a character's point of view expressed in an unorthodox technique" to "an author directly addressing the reader," but that's somewhat unavoidable since there is no hard and fast line in the sand between those extremes. It gets even blurrier if you use second person to tell the story of an original character in a work of fanfiction -- in practice, it can be made clear through a distinctive voice and a solid POV that "you" refers to a specific character rather than to a generalized/idealized reader, but I am pretty sure any rule I tried to lay down would have at least a dozen exceptions. *sigh*

...

Tangentially, it's frustrating to get messages about complicated issues while I am at work (or checking email on my way to work). I can read email and do a surprising amount of websurfing via my phone during my lunch break or slow periods in the evening, but typing more than a couple short sentences in response is next to impossible. Basically, after I disconnect from my upstairs neighbors' wireless router I am incommunicado until I get home from work the next day, because I don't leave any slack time in my morning routine to get online at all, let alone type up thoughtful comments.

(Which is, of course, another reason not to get into fights. There is no way in the world I could moderate anything in a responsible fashion.)

writing, blah blah blah

I finished the fourth section of "The Corners of the World" tonight, which leaves only one before the story is complete. :-) Of course, the final section is the trickiest, because I need to figure out how to deal with "Little Sister" -- I have to summarize and skim the events of that story somehow, to get Jadis into Narnia, but I'm not quite sure how to manage the compression. *sigh*

But anyway, North, East, South, and West are done! I stalled on West for a bit because it kept being weirdly short compared to the other three sections and yet there was no way to extend it; I'd reached the logical ending of the plot movement. What turned out to be missing was the text of the Deep Magic that Jadis discovers written on the World Ash Tree in the uttermost west. That text is never given directly in LWW -- it's always paraphrased, by both Jadis and Aslan -- but the bits we do hear have a vaguely King James Old Testament feel to them, so I went for something vaguely in that vein. And also connected it back to Charn, because why not! Jadis had to bring something into the Narnian world, to balance the way the humans brought English, so why not some of Charn's harsh laws?

I also want to revise the bit about building a magical tower -- I should link that to her stone wand, which I kind of forgot that she owns -- but that can wait for tomorrow.

(6,000 words now, give or take a hundred. Which is a terrible progress rate, considering I started writing this story in the summer of 2009, but whatever, I will conquer it in the end.)

my grandfather, the physicist :-)

An email I got from my dad on Monday:

Liz & Vicky - FYI -

The American Physical Society has a program called Historic Physics Sites. They recognize places where major things were done and who did them in the history of physics in the US. A nice plaque is affixed in or on the selected structure giving a short statement about who did what there and why it was and is important. The physics building on the main campus of the U of Minn. is about to be designated in this way because of the work Pop did there designing, making, and using mass spectrometers. (The building is named the Tate Laboratory of Physics in honor of another, earlier important physicist there - who happened to be Pop's thesis advisor.) There will be a short ceremonial dedication of the plaque this coming Wed. afternoon at the U in Minneapolis.

Both Jan and I plan to be there and as part of it I am supposed to say a VERY few words, taking about 2 minutes, after 8 other people talk for 3 to 5 minutes each. Jan has not decided whether she wants to say something too. The whole thing is supposed to be over in an hour, after which most of the other speakers are supposed to show up promptly at a colloquium elsewhere on campus.

Since I am still in the midst of writing and editing, I can't let this take up too much time, so I will fly to Minnesota Wed. morning and return that evening. Jan will go the day before and return the day after.

love,
Dad

("Jan" is my dad's older sister, FYI.)

Dad also sent a picture of the plaque in question, which says:

( token effort to observe name privacy )

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In other news, today I paid a bunch of bills, bought stamps, transfered money from my savings account to my checking account (to cover the bill for the ambulance from a few weeks back -- ambulances are EXPENSIVE, who knew?), and took a brief detour on my way home to visit Ithaca Falls, where I then spent about ten minutes breaking branches off a tree that had fallen across the path from the street to the waterfall. There wasn't much I could do about the tree itself (I am ashamed to admit that I do not carry a saw around with me on casual errands *gasp shock horror*), but I could at least clear away the most obstructive smaller branches. So I did.

I suspect trail maintenance becomes something of an automatic reaction for people who grow up spending summers on Star Island. :-)