#but anyway if i decide to do something with the original version of 'shadowstruck' | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

bookshelf-in-progress · 1 month ago

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Maybe the truth at the heart of Shadowstruck is the importance of family. Because the most compelling stories in this universe are about what happens when you tell parents that some of their children have no right to their love, care, and protection. It destroys what should be the strongest and most natural bonds of love, and that simple horrible thing leads to all the complicated problems in their oppressive society.

#adventures in writing #shadowstruck #got to thinking about this yesterday while reading something talking about the family's importance to society #maybe something about how a child is under a family's loving care until they can take care of themself #and it made me think about how both of the main story ideas that have sprung from this universe #are about someone who suffers when a father deems them unworthy of love #and that got me thinking about how 'uncle tom's cabin' turned people against slavery #largely because victorians valued the family and the book showed how slavery tore families apart #so maybe i should read 'uncle tom's cabin' just as background #but anyway if i decide to do something with the original version of 'shadowstruck'#the compelling thing is not whatever political intrigue was going to happen (which I never defined)#but the possibility that rinna would cross paths with the family that sold her into slavery #meet the younger sister who was given her name #literally her replacement #meet the father who made the decision not to kill her #but also sold her away from the house to avoid the shame that would have come #from people recognizing her as his child #i can't decide if he'd meet her in a slavery context #and have to live with seeing the life he condemned her to #or if she'd be involved with activists at this point #in a position of at least some level of freedom and safety #and he would see her as a woman with thoughts and feelings #(who looks so much like her mother)#and on some level recognize that he did a horrible thing to her #but how do you begin to go about apologizing or helping her #or in any way mending this horrible unforgivable thing that tore you apart?#the trouble about this universe (like so many of my other ones)#is that there's the potential for so many little stories and characters #that don't necessarily want to resolve themselves into full coherent novels #it gives me so many thoughts that it's hard to settle on a complete story

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