igenlode: The pirate sloop 'Horizon' from "Treasures of the Indies" (Default)
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Having typed up Chapter 26 of Arctic Raoul in a spasm of almost unprecedented activity, I find myself unfortunately very much less happy about it than I was when I originally wrote it over a couple of weeks in August 2019 :-(
Scenes completed
Second half-chapter

I remember enjoying writing this immensely, especially in comparison with my months-long struggle with the voyage of the Résurgence immediately preceding. But looking back at it now, I'm not sure I even managed to convey all the Raoul/Lancard 'feels' that I thought I had in the course of that Paris half-scene, let alone the central plot point... and then my 'second half-chapter' is pretty much entirely a self-indulgent rehash of canon.

A bit more explanation of Perros-Guirec probably doesn't hurt (although this might be both a little too much, given the duplication of earlier references, and yet not enough to clarify what actually happened). However, all the business about Raoul's being ill afterwards doesn't really have *anything* to do with the plot of this story (other, I suppose, than the fact that Raoul does mention it briefly in the context of trying to nurse Lancard...), and I suspect that introducing references to it at this late point is simply confusing. It's a clever-clever fandom explanation for why Christine might have 'dried up' on seeing Raoul in the opera box, which is a very minor detail in Leroux, but -- given that Leroux himself apparently forgets all about Raoul's illness immediately after that chapter and has the Vicomte rushing round making enquiries after Christine's disappearance -- so far as I can see it is only going to puzzle people as to the subsequent outcome of this apparently life-threatening episode in his backstory :-(

Also, can I deprecatingly refer to Christine in her own thoughts as "a little Swedish singer" when she has pretty much resolved that she isn't going to sing any more?

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igenlode: The pirate sloop 'Horizon' from "Treasures of the Indies" (Default)
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