In which Janet and Thomas discover they are in the wrong fairy tale

[stakebait]

A fanficlet based on Pamela Dean's Tam Lin, inspired by this quote from suricattus: The thing about Tam Lin that always fascinated me was the “stand-fast” aspect. And I wanted to explore that outside the relatively narrow grounds of True Love-what does it mean to stand fast for someone you might not always love, who might not be your True Love, or your Love

Comments

[coyotegoth]

I really need to read this someday.

[stakebait]

I love that book and highly recommend it, with the slight caveat that it is a novel about college that I first read in college, and I wonder if it's quite the same if you first encounter it later.

[batyatoon]

I like this. I love how they're clearly still important to each other, or maybe it's that their connectedness is still important to each of them, even when they can't stand each other.

It is also putting me in mind, a little, of Vienna Teng's "Antebellum."

[stakebait]

That song is beautiful, though I can't make out all the words.

I think it's both. And neither of them has the knack of eliding or overwriting that, even if they sometimes wish they could, because it would be simpler.

Janet, I think, would say that the right (or maybe, the ability) to do that was what she gave up when she made that decision, all those years ago.

And she'd be afraid, this version of Janet, that he's there out of gratitude and obligation, but he isn't. He's there because she never could have saved him if they weren't in some way anchored in each other, and whether that was a precondition or a result is something he has changed his mind about a dozen times and now thinks maybe it no longer matters.

[batyatoon]

The lyrics are in the "About" section on that youtube video, if you want to read them.

And yeah; Janet would believe that once she used that bond to save his life, she doesn't get to get rid of it. Like the [spoiler].

[wordsofastory]

This is really, really good. I love the idea of it, and it's written very lovely.

[stakebait]

Thank you so much!

I'm glad most people weren't mad at me for making a world where Janet and Thomas didn't live happily ever after. :)

[eac]

I loved this book, and I loved being able to revisit them, here. Thank you.

[stakebait]

You're welcome! Glad you liked it. It's making me want to reread the book too, and maybe look for other fanfic about what happened after.

[ladymondegreen]

Oh, ow. I really like this. It reminds me a lot of a similar 'feeding the ducks' scene I wrote for my novel. I should send you that.

I love the bit about the store-bought bread.

[stakebait]

Thanks! And I would love to see it.