By coincidence I happened to catch a programme on Radio 4 this week where the author was talking about her book and the writing of it, and ended up with less of an uncomfortable feel -- apparently rather than writing a deliberate self-insert Real Person Fic, she started off by writing as generic and self-effacing a protagonist as possible for her original fanfic purposes (presumably, although that she didn't say, so that the reader could self-insert!)
And then she made an active decision to develop the idea of the experimental subjects being 'refugees' in time, and chose to draw on her own family background because that was the material she had available in terms of displaced persons. So there was at least a reasoned literary rationale behind it rather than pure self-indulgence (and, though she doesn't say so, the idea that her heroine's Cambodian facial structure reminds Commander Gore of the Eskimos with whom he has been dealing -- this being his only point of reference -- makes for an interesting parallel).
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2025-03-11 11:37 am (UTC)And then she made an active decision to develop the idea of the experimental subjects being 'refugees' in time, and chose to draw on her own family background because that was the material she had available in terms of displaced persons. So there was at least a reasoned literary rationale behind it rather than pure self-indulgence (and, though she doesn't say so, the idea that her heroine's Cambodian facial structure reminds Commander Gore of the Eskimos with whom he has been dealing -- this being his only point of reference -- makes for an interesting parallel).