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Dear Yulegoat 2023
I'm also Quillori on AO3.
All fandoms are definitely equally wanted - some of my older requests have longer prompts, because I work them over every year, adding a bit here and a bit there, but that doesn't mean I'm not equally keen on the more recent ones.
Requested fandoms (links go directly to the relevant portion of the letter):
In General
Ancient Egyptian Religion
Hypnerotomachia Poliphili
The Reluctant Widow - Georgette Heyer
كتاب ألف ليلة وليلة | Kitaab 'alf layla wa-layla | One Thousand and One Nights
Liao Zhai Zhi Yi | Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio - Pu Songling
Tang Dynasty RPF
In General
I really would prefer you to write the best story you can, and one you're happy with, rather than trying unsuccessfully to do something that doesn't suit you to fit what I asked for. I'm most interested in what you, dear writer, make of the source material.
Things I like (provided only as indicative of my taste, not in any way as particular requirements of your story):
established relationships
clever and competent characters
slash (incl. femslash)
political intrigue
moral ambiguity
apparently simple conversations with a great deal going on under the surface
angst if done with restraint
clever use of literary allusions
relationships where each party thinks the other has all the power
fierce loyalty (particularly the tear the world apart for you variety, not the sit here passively putting up with anything variety)
complicated love/hate relationships with lots of backstory
unflappable characters
arrogance if the party concerned has the requisite ability to back it up
relationships between people who see the world at the same angle (even if they aren't always on the same side) ...
IF is always welcome.
Things I’d prefer you avoided: stories heavily focused on pregnancy or children; humiliation; or stories told in the 2nd person (except for IF, or worldbuilding containing the type of fictional non-fiction where it would be appropriate, eg a fictional set of instructions or a fictional guide book). I’m interested in exploring the cultures presented or implied in the canons I’ve requested rather than in seeing modern standards and ways of thinking imposed on them. I also don't tend to like issuefic, but I'm not sure that's something people generally set out to write - one person's issuefic is another's searingly honest portrayal.
Having said that, specific DNWs are characters explicitly identifying themselves as asexual, aromantic or demisexual, or stories heavily focused on those subjects; trans* or genderqueer headcanons; unrequested genderswaps; setting change AUs unless specifically requested; characters suffering from dementia; characters suffering from permanent and significant memory loss (things like a character forgetting where they put their keys, or being generally rather forgetful, or permanently not remembering a brief period such as the events just before a concussion are all fine: definitely irreversible memory loss covering significant relationships, achievements etc, without at least the possibility of eventually recovering them is not.)
(With regard to names in translated works: where I've made some vague attempt to balance consistency, AO3's spellings, and what are the most commonly found spellings, do not feel you need to follow my example! Use whatever romanisation seems good to you.)
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Ancient Egyptian Religion Imhotep, Set (feel free to write about just one or the other - no need at all to include both)
Something dealing with Imhotep's role as god of science and magic, or with his position as a god who was once a man. Or perhaps one of the less well known stories about Set? Or something about his relationship with his worshippers. Or a hymn, or a story made up from fragments, ... whatever you like.
I've written for this fandom myself with anything from a cult hymn to a philosophical text to a modern story tinged with horror, so you can see I like a very wide range of approaches, and you should feel free to write anything you please. I've put some suggestions and prompts below, because that's what I like to get as a writer, but if you already have an idea, you should go ahead and write that. Just because I didn't think to ask for it doesn't mean I don't want to read it!
Imhotep
Pharaohs became gods automatically, but not important gods with lasting and individual characters. Than you have Imhotep, who was not a pharaoh, not supposedly already semi-divine, who nonetheless becomes a god. What is it like to become such a god? How did it happen? Was it something to do with how intensely he lived, or his curiosity, or his determination, or what he achieved? (Obviously, I'm not asking for a socio-political explanation of how he really came to worshipped!) Admittedly, there are later versions in which he was half divine after all, whether on his mother or his father's side, which could also have potential - someone semi-divine but not in the usual and expected role of king.
In a way, Imhotep is a god concerned with right order, and the world working correctly: science and religion are the study of the underpinnings of the world, of the way it functions and can be made to keep functioning correctly. Even medicine is, when you think about it, the study of how things can malfunction, and how to make them right again. (It's also an interesting field for a god who was once human: how does he feel about the suffering and death of people who will not, as he did, have a glorious and powerful afterlife awaiting them?)
Set
Set has a number of aspects I find fascinating. He's god of the desert and the margins, of boundaries and liminal places, and not only physical boundaries but theological ones also: a god associated with chaos and disorder, he is nonetheless the adversary of true chaos (as symbolised by Apophis/Apep); a god closely associated with death, he is also noted for his long life and indestructiblity, putting him at the boundary of the transitory and the everlasting; his very threats to good order are in some sense necessary, for complete unity would be a return to the primordial nothingness, and it is only with the advent of duality and potential conflict that anything could exist at all. (I have always liked that he is not only the god of the desert, but also of the desert oases.) Then, too, for all he is Egyptian, he is god of foreigners (and his worship increased markedly as Egypt became more cosmopolitan, with extensive trade links and successful foreign conquests) - one notes that despite being the god of foreigners (and frequently portrayed as the adversary of good), Set was held to support Egyptians in battle.
Then there is the imagery potentially associated with him: the red of the desert, the savage storms that sink ships at sea or whip up the desert sands, the enduring grey iron ('the bones of Set').
If you want more specific prompts: you could flesh out the fragmentary Astarte Papyrus, or give me anything at all about Set and Astarte (and Anat, if you like), or Set battling Yamm (or Apophis/Apep).
Thuthmose III called himself at times 'Beloved of Set'. What sort of relationship might a mortal man have had with Set? Or, given that Set is in at least some versions portrayed as cunning and intelligent, and is associated both with skilled labour (e.g. ironwork) and with magic, and is also a god set apart from the rest, associated with foreignness and with things out of the normal order: how might he relate to Imhotep?
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Hypnerotomachia Poliphili - Worldbuilding (Hypnerotomchia Poliphili)
Any world building expanding on the dream worlds would be very welcome, whether exploring them further, or explaining part of them, or imagining how they might seem to a different dreamer.
The Hypnerotomachia Poliphili is an incredibly strange work. Much of it is a dream within a dream, and the shifting panoply of superbly detailed but also wildly improbable architecture, languages and dream logic is both striking and unique. Everything, the architecture, landscapes, processions, rites, is described with a lush, excessive detail that makes the narrator truly a lover of everything. But what I really want more of the dream worlds described, their strange logic and fantastic detail, the beauty (and occasionally terror) that fills them, the way in which a garden, or a goblet, is described with much the same depth of feeling as a nymph or a goddess, the antique ruins that coexist with a mythology still active and present… Any worldbuilding about the dream worlds as described would be welcome, as would how it might be experienced by a dreamer with different cultural touchstones (although I would prefer the dreamer not be modern). (For this prompt feel free to disregard my 'no setting change AU' DNW - I will be perfectly happy with a similar dreamworld but derived from a different historical period and different cultural traditions.)
Some useful links:
Modern borrowable Internet Archive English translation by Joscelyn Godwin
Summary and all the woodcut illustrations
Hypnerotomachia Poliphili and the Architecture of Dreams
Untranslated original work
Wikipedia
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The Reluctant Widow - Georgette Heyer - Francis Cheviot
More Francis Cheviot! Going to his tailor, playing cards, spying, seducing French agents … anything at all.
I was amazed and saddened when I realised there were people who didn’t like Francis. How could you not? (I mean, as a reader. I can quite see why a number of people in the book might dislike him rather a lot.) But he’s one of my favourite character types: you have the surface appearance, and you have the reality, and the two are quite different, and yet still part of a seamless whole, so that you can’t quite tell what is acting alone, and what is acting based on truth, or acting that deceives only by showing the truth at an angle.1 You have the ruthlessness; the competence; the principle (possibly)2; the sense of humour (you won’t convince me he doesn’t take a good deal of satirical pleasure in many of his interactions in the book); the cultivation of his appearance and behaviour into almost an art form, at least in part for his own private amusement.
What is his life like? Did he get involved in recovering the stolen memorandum only out of self-interest, because he didn’t want to go down with his father, or was he merely not mentioning he has some sort of intelligence job (he does after all say he comes to hear many things he shouldn't)? Or is he involved with something else dangerous? It seems unlikely that even the most efficient and cold-blooded of men would spring quite so quickly to calmly and competently executing a close friend, with no training or experience. (Though if he did, that would be interesting to read too.) How does he normally spend his time - how much on fashion and socialising, on cards, on associating with attractive young men of good family? Who are his friends, and how much of him do they know? How does his world look, seen through his eyes?
(Louis de Castres was nominated too. I didn’t ask for him, because there are so many things I’d like to know just about Francis Cheviot, but if you want to write him, please do. Maybe Cheviot/de Castres back in happier times, before the whole spying for Napoleon bit, or when Francis comes to suspect him (if indeed he didn’t set out to deepen their acquaintance because he already suspected). To what extent does he kill Louis to avoid a scandal (undesirable to both himself personally and to England), and to what extent does he consider it a better death than arrest, disgrace and execution? Or even something from Louis’ point of view, both what he thinks of Francis, and what he thinks of England.)
1 For example, if he is as high stakes a gambler as John claims, it should be obvious he can’t actually be the mess of nerves he presents himself as, but that doesn't occur to John - he just takes the gambling as further evidence of Francis's frippery, worthless nature. Likewise, his tendency to comment on the appropriateness of his own behaviour undercuts any suggestion he really is overcome by any emotion at all, including fear or distress, but again, somehow this just makes him that much easier to dismiss - even his claims of nervous prostration aren’t to be taken seriously. Mostly it doesn't occur to people that if his nerves and frequent collapses aren't believable, you now don't have a reason not to take the rest of him seriously: somehow things which should point up the truth about him, instead further the illusion.
2 Though what exactly it is he believes would be interesting to know - he denies patriotism, but is he telling the truth? And if he is in his way a patriot, is even that partially an act - a pose he considers elegant and appropriate to live up to in his private life, as he publicly lives up to the fine points of fashion? Or see it as just another form of gambling, with lives at stake? Or does he truly act only from self interest, as he says?
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كتاب ألف ليلة وليلة | Kitaab 'alf layla wa-layla | One Thousand and One Nights - جعفر بن یحیی برمکی | Ja'far ibn Yahya al-Barmaki
Famous for his power and wealth, and the favour of his Caliph, famed too for his eloquence and liberality, but led suddenly away to death in the midst of all his prosperity by that same Caliph. What sort of man was Ja'far, and did he live always with the knowledge he might fall, or was it an unthinkable betrayal?
Before we get to the character I'm actually asking for, which is Ja'far, I want to talk for a moment about Hârûn al-Rashîd. He appears within the Nights as the exemplary figure of the supreme ruler: his curiosity and love of learning and the arts, his ready friendship and generosity, his sense of justice, the unparalleled luxury of his court ... and also his cruelty. Often he is shadowed not only by Ja'far but by his executioner also, a reminder of the dark side of absolute power. Perhaps in a sense Ja'far and and Masrûr reflect two sides of their sovereign. In another sense, Hârûn reflects Shahriyâr himself, turning with arbitrary violence on those who should be closest to him, leaving Ja'far dead as Shahriyâr leaves his nameless wives. (I've always been inclined to see an accidental real life foreshadowing also, of Suleiman the Magnificent and Ibrahim Pasha.)
So, what is the relationship between Hârûn and Ja'far, and in particular, what sort of man is Ja'far to live with it? Is he a fatalist, who thinks if he is destined to fall, there is no escape from it, so he should make the most of his life while he has it? Does he trust Hârûn not to turn on him? Does he, famed as he is for his kindness and generosity, see Hârûn's dark side and think it his duty to temper it? Does he take pride in his place and his family, and see everything he does, from serving Hârûn to his legendary generosity, as the duties and obligations of his position, duties that don't include worrying about the future?
Which isn't to say I want you to write about Hârûn - you needn't even mention him - I just can't think of a better way to explain what particularly interests me about Ja'far's character except by reference to him. But Hârûn definitely doesn't need to appear in the story: Ja'far being introspective in a courtyard! Ja'far with a lover, or with his family! Ja'far with some of Hârûn's other companions - the poets and the singers (this would be fascinating). Ja'far helping someone out! (Think of the stories set after his death, where those whom he helped continue to mourn him despite the risk, e.g. Ja'far and the Bean Seller.) Ja'far going about his duties as vizier (it's easy to forget at times he wasn't just a boon companion). Backstory about Ja'far as a young man! I just want to know what sort of person you see Ja'far as being.
If you do want to include Hârûn in your story, I'm inclined to slash him with Ja'far myself, if you want to go that way, but any other close and longstanding relationship would be just as interesting, if you prefer. If you want 'Abbâsa in some sort of triangle with the two of them, that's fine,* if you'd prefer not to, that is also fine - even within the Nights, there are various different accounts of what leads to his death, and e.g. envy of his wealth and fame works perfectly well - Hârûn wouldn't be the first or the last ruler turn on his friends for just that reason.
(I do prefer competent characters, so if you want to include the whole three apples story, I'd be happier with a reading that accepts there was no practical way for him to solve the mystery, other than trusting to god, rather than focusing on him failing to do anything useful.)
* Incest isn't a kink of mine, so I'm unlikely to find it hot for its own sake, but it isn't a squick either, so if you want a proper triangle rather than a V, it's a perfectly reasonable reading, and I shan't mind it all. Just, if you mean to make it hot rather than (or as well as) messed up, it's more likely to work for me if you include extra reasons for its hotness other than the mere fact of its incestuousness.
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Liao Zhai Zhi Yi | Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio - Pu Songling - Worldbuilding (Strange Tales - Pu Songling)
I'm interested to see whatever you choose to make of this. Expand on one of Pu Songling's stories or tell one of your own. You could do something with the ever present fox spirits - they're viewed in such a range of ways, from meriting death through to the ambivalence of stories such as Cut Sleeve to admirable heroines (e.g. in Lotus Fragrance). Or you could do something with the relation of dreams to reality, or the extent to which stories are a type of dream. Make your language as densely allusive or as simple as you please, your tone as light or as dramatic as you want. Gen, slash, het; light-hearted, bitingly satirical, restrained or sly or melancholy ... anything that strikes your fancy.
Liaozhai is a collection of short tales of the bizarre, the supernatural and the out-of-place; they're playful, occasionally satirical, boundlessly interested in the world and at times melancholy. It has something for everyone: canon gen, het, slash, poly, gender swap, genderqueer, platonic friendship ... well, alright, it doesn't actually have canon femslash, but there are plenty of relationships you could take in that direction. The original is a masterpiece of classical (as opposed to vernacular) Chinese, both elegant and difficult. English translations generally don't attempt to reproduce the style and are content to be simple and straightforward - which happily licenses you to write in whatever style you prefer.
I’m interested in anything that expands and deepens (or just explores further) the world of these stories.
You can approach many of the tales purely as ghost stories or horror stories, and several modern writers and filmmakers have done so, but that's by no means the only approach you can take. A number of the tales play with the line between dream and reality, sometimes to comment on the nature of fiction itself, other times from a religious perspective from which reality itself is a kind of dream. Some tales are about obsession (by no means always sexual), and thus by extension about what counts as valuable and whether it's worth suffering or dying for.
I will be delighted with anything, but if you’re feeling a little overwhelmed and unsure of where to start, I’ve included below a few suggestions of starting places for different things you might want to write. These are only meant to be helpful starting points! If you already have some other idea, that is what I want to read about.
World as Illusion: There are hints of this in many of the tales, but if you want a sampling of ones where it’s a particular theme, try Flowers of Illusion (aka Taoist Miracles) or The Painted Wall; also, at least by implication, Friendship Beyond the Grave and Twenty Years a Dream.
Fox Spirits: These turn up in many of the tales, sometimes as admirable figures, such as in Grace and Pine (aka Miss Chiao-No) and Lotus Fragrance, sometimes more ambiguous and dangerous, as in The Laughing Girl and Cut-Sleeve, sometimes as evil creatures to be killed with impunity, as in Bird, Fox Enchantment and The Merchant's Son|The Trader's Son (although only in the last is there no trace of sympathy at all for the foxes).
Penguin Classics has a selected translation by John Minford. Also available to borrow from the Internet Archive. A much earlier translation by Herbert Giles is available online, but keep in mind it’s from 1880 and is heavily bowdlerised. There's also the recent six volume complete translation by Sondergard. Judith T. Zeitlin translates a number of tales of particular interest in Historian of the Strange (which I very much recommend).
You may, depending where you are, be able to read a couple of pages on Google books about The Painted Wall, a small selection of stories translated by Arthur Zhu in The Painted Skin, Lotus Fragrance and Grace & Pine. Elsewhere there's a discussion of Twenty Years a Dream, and of Grace and Pine among others in an article about scholar's studios. If you belong to a library with access to Literature Online, I think you may be able to get e versions of a number of tales, possibly in the Minford translation.
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Tang Dynasty RPF - Li He | Li Changji (Tang Dynasty RPF)
I'm fascinated by the imagery of Li He’s | Li Ho’s poems, and what I would really love is a story where that imagery is real - where Li He’s | Li Ho’s life follows much the course it did in reality, but he truly saw a world of ghosts and demons and almost unutterably strange things.
the blue raccoon weeps blood, and the cold fox dies
A Piece for Magic Strings Li Ho, trans A.C. Graham
I certainly don't mean this prompt to detract from Li He’s | Li Ho’s genius and originality - I'm envisioning him recounting what he sees with the same striking poetic skill. Just. He really is seeing things others can't see. Not, I imagine, that that makes his story turn out any better.
Please do not be put of writing this by thinking you aren't a scholar of the period, and can't write it with perfect accuracy! Anything at all with Li He | Li Ho and the wonderful imagery and metaphors of his poetry will be wonderful. And, to assist anyone who might be tempted by this prompt, I am linking a few helpful resources: the introduction to Li Ho's section in Graham's Poems of the Late T'ang, selections from the preface and introduction to Frodsham's Collected Poems of Li He, and some poems in translation.
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All fandoms are definitely equally wanted - some of my older requests have longer prompts, because I work them over every year, adding a bit here and a bit there, but that doesn't mean I'm not equally keen on the more recent ones.
Requested fandoms (links go directly to the relevant portion of the letter):
In General
Ancient Egyptian Religion
Hypnerotomachia Poliphili
The Reluctant Widow - Georgette Heyer
كتاب ألف ليلة وليلة | Kitaab 'alf layla wa-layla | One Thousand and One Nights
Liao Zhai Zhi Yi | Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio - Pu Songling
Tang Dynasty RPF
In General
I really would prefer you to write the best story you can, and one you're happy with, rather than trying unsuccessfully to do something that doesn't suit you to fit what I asked for. I'm most interested in what you, dear writer, make of the source material.
Things I like (provided only as indicative of my taste, not in any way as particular requirements of your story):
established relationships
clever and competent characters
slash (incl. femslash)
political intrigue
moral ambiguity
apparently simple conversations with a great deal going on under the surface
angst if done with restraint
clever use of literary allusions
relationships where each party thinks the other has all the power
fierce loyalty (particularly the tear the world apart for you variety, not the sit here passively putting up with anything variety)
complicated love/hate relationships with lots of backstory
unflappable characters
arrogance if the party concerned has the requisite ability to back it up
relationships between people who see the world at the same angle (even if they aren't always on the same side) ...
IF is always welcome.
Things I’d prefer you avoided: stories heavily focused on pregnancy or children; humiliation; or stories told in the 2nd person (except for IF, or worldbuilding containing the type of fictional non-fiction where it would be appropriate, eg a fictional set of instructions or a fictional guide book). I’m interested in exploring the cultures presented or implied in the canons I’ve requested rather than in seeing modern standards and ways of thinking imposed on them. I also don't tend to like issuefic, but I'm not sure that's something people generally set out to write - one person's issuefic is another's searingly honest portrayal.
Having said that, specific DNWs are characters explicitly identifying themselves as asexual, aromantic or demisexual, or stories heavily focused on those subjects; trans* or genderqueer headcanons; unrequested genderswaps; setting change AUs unless specifically requested; characters suffering from dementia; characters suffering from permanent and significant memory loss (things like a character forgetting where they put their keys, or being generally rather forgetful, or permanently not remembering a brief period such as the events just before a concussion are all fine: definitely irreversible memory loss covering significant relationships, achievements etc, without at least the possibility of eventually recovering them is not.)
(With regard to names in translated works: where I've made some vague attempt to balance consistency, AO3's spellings, and what are the most commonly found spellings, do not feel you need to follow my example! Use whatever romanisation seems good to you.)
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Ancient Egyptian Religion Imhotep, Set (feel free to write about just one or the other - no need at all to include both)
Something dealing with Imhotep's role as god of science and magic, or with his position as a god who was once a man. Or perhaps one of the less well known stories about Set? Or something about his relationship with his worshippers. Or a hymn, or a story made up from fragments, ... whatever you like.
I've written for this fandom myself with anything from a cult hymn to a philosophical text to a modern story tinged with horror, so you can see I like a very wide range of approaches, and you should feel free to write anything you please. I've put some suggestions and prompts below, because that's what I like to get as a writer, but if you already have an idea, you should go ahead and write that. Just because I didn't think to ask for it doesn't mean I don't want to read it!
Imhotep
Pharaohs became gods automatically, but not important gods with lasting and individual characters. Than you have Imhotep, who was not a pharaoh, not supposedly already semi-divine, who nonetheless becomes a god. What is it like to become such a god? How did it happen? Was it something to do with how intensely he lived, or his curiosity, or his determination, or what he achieved? (Obviously, I'm not asking for a socio-political explanation of how he really came to worshipped!) Admittedly, there are later versions in which he was half divine after all, whether on his mother or his father's side, which could also have potential - someone semi-divine but not in the usual and expected role of king.
In a way, Imhotep is a god concerned with right order, and the world working correctly: science and religion are the study of the underpinnings of the world, of the way it functions and can be made to keep functioning correctly. Even medicine is, when you think about it, the study of how things can malfunction, and how to make them right again. (It's also an interesting field for a god who was once human: how does he feel about the suffering and death of people who will not, as he did, have a glorious and powerful afterlife awaiting them?)
Set
Set has a number of aspects I find fascinating. He's god of the desert and the margins, of boundaries and liminal places, and not only physical boundaries but theological ones also: a god associated with chaos and disorder, he is nonetheless the adversary of true chaos (as symbolised by Apophis/Apep); a god closely associated with death, he is also noted for his long life and indestructiblity, putting him at the boundary of the transitory and the everlasting; his very threats to good order are in some sense necessary, for complete unity would be a return to the primordial nothingness, and it is only with the advent of duality and potential conflict that anything could exist at all. (I have always liked that he is not only the god of the desert, but also of the desert oases.) Then, too, for all he is Egyptian, he is god of foreigners (and his worship increased markedly as Egypt became more cosmopolitan, with extensive trade links and successful foreign conquests) - one notes that despite being the god of foreigners (and frequently portrayed as the adversary of good), Set was held to support Egyptians in battle.
Then there is the imagery potentially associated with him: the red of the desert, the savage storms that sink ships at sea or whip up the desert sands, the enduring grey iron ('the bones of Set').
If you want more specific prompts: you could flesh out the fragmentary Astarte Papyrus, or give me anything at all about Set and Astarte (and Anat, if you like), or Set battling Yamm (or Apophis/Apep).
Thuthmose III called himself at times 'Beloved of Set'. What sort of relationship might a mortal man have had with Set? Or, given that Set is in at least some versions portrayed as cunning and intelligent, and is associated both with skilled labour (e.g. ironwork) and with magic, and is also a god set apart from the rest, associated with foreignness and with things out of the normal order: how might he relate to Imhotep?
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Hypnerotomachia Poliphili - Worldbuilding (Hypnerotomchia Poliphili)
Any world building expanding on the dream worlds would be very welcome, whether exploring them further, or explaining part of them, or imagining how they might seem to a different dreamer.
The Hypnerotomachia Poliphili is an incredibly strange work. Much of it is a dream within a dream, and the shifting panoply of superbly detailed but also wildly improbable architecture, languages and dream logic is both striking and unique. Everything, the architecture, landscapes, processions, rites, is described with a lush, excessive detail that makes the narrator truly a lover of everything. But what I really want more of the dream worlds described, their strange logic and fantastic detail, the beauty (and occasionally terror) that fills them, the way in which a garden, or a goblet, is described with much the same depth of feeling as a nymph or a goddess, the antique ruins that coexist with a mythology still active and present… Any worldbuilding about the dream worlds as described would be welcome, as would how it might be experienced by a dreamer with different cultural touchstones (although I would prefer the dreamer not be modern). (For this prompt feel free to disregard my 'no setting change AU' DNW - I will be perfectly happy with a similar dreamworld but derived from a different historical period and different cultural traditions.)
Some useful links:
Modern borrowable Internet Archive English translation by Joscelyn Godwin
Summary and all the woodcut illustrations
Hypnerotomachia Poliphili and the Architecture of Dreams
Untranslated original work
Wikipedia
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The Reluctant Widow - Georgette Heyer - Francis Cheviot
More Francis Cheviot! Going to his tailor, playing cards, spying, seducing French agents … anything at all.
I was amazed and saddened when I realised there were people who didn’t like Francis. How could you not? (I mean, as a reader. I can quite see why a number of people in the book might dislike him rather a lot.) But he’s one of my favourite character types: you have the surface appearance, and you have the reality, and the two are quite different, and yet still part of a seamless whole, so that you can’t quite tell what is acting alone, and what is acting based on truth, or acting that deceives only by showing the truth at an angle.1 You have the ruthlessness; the competence; the principle (possibly)2; the sense of humour (you won’t convince me he doesn’t take a good deal of satirical pleasure in many of his interactions in the book); the cultivation of his appearance and behaviour into almost an art form, at least in part for his own private amusement.
What is his life like? Did he get involved in recovering the stolen memorandum only out of self-interest, because he didn’t want to go down with his father, or was he merely not mentioning he has some sort of intelligence job (he does after all say he comes to hear many things he shouldn't)? Or is he involved with something else dangerous? It seems unlikely that even the most efficient and cold-blooded of men would spring quite so quickly to calmly and competently executing a close friend, with no training or experience. (Though if he did, that would be interesting to read too.) How does he normally spend his time - how much on fashion and socialising, on cards, on associating with attractive young men of good family? Who are his friends, and how much of him do they know? How does his world look, seen through his eyes?
(Louis de Castres was nominated too. I didn’t ask for him, because there are so many things I’d like to know just about Francis Cheviot, but if you want to write him, please do. Maybe Cheviot/de Castres back in happier times, before the whole spying for Napoleon bit, or when Francis comes to suspect him (if indeed he didn’t set out to deepen their acquaintance because he already suspected). To what extent does he kill Louis to avoid a scandal (undesirable to both himself personally and to England), and to what extent does he consider it a better death than arrest, disgrace and execution? Or even something from Louis’ point of view, both what he thinks of Francis, and what he thinks of England.)
1 For example, if he is as high stakes a gambler as John claims, it should be obvious he can’t actually be the mess of nerves he presents himself as, but that doesn't occur to John - he just takes the gambling as further evidence of Francis's frippery, worthless nature. Likewise, his tendency to comment on the appropriateness of his own behaviour undercuts any suggestion he really is overcome by any emotion at all, including fear or distress, but again, somehow this just makes him that much easier to dismiss - even his claims of nervous prostration aren’t to be taken seriously. Mostly it doesn't occur to people that if his nerves and frequent collapses aren't believable, you now don't have a reason not to take the rest of him seriously: somehow things which should point up the truth about him, instead further the illusion.
2 Though what exactly it is he believes would be interesting to know - he denies patriotism, but is he telling the truth? And if he is in his way a patriot, is even that partially an act - a pose he considers elegant and appropriate to live up to in his private life, as he publicly lives up to the fine points of fashion? Or see it as just another form of gambling, with lives at stake? Or does he truly act only from self interest, as he says?
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كتاب ألف ليلة وليلة | Kitaab 'alf layla wa-layla | One Thousand and One Nights - جعفر بن یحیی برمکی | Ja'far ibn Yahya al-Barmaki
Famous for his power and wealth, and the favour of his Caliph, famed too for his eloquence and liberality, but led suddenly away to death in the midst of all his prosperity by that same Caliph. What sort of man was Ja'far, and did he live always with the knowledge he might fall, or was it an unthinkable betrayal?
Before we get to the character I'm actually asking for, which is Ja'far, I want to talk for a moment about Hârûn al-Rashîd. He appears within the Nights as the exemplary figure of the supreme ruler: his curiosity and love of learning and the arts, his ready friendship and generosity, his sense of justice, the unparalleled luxury of his court ... and also his cruelty. Often he is shadowed not only by Ja'far but by his executioner also, a reminder of the dark side of absolute power. Perhaps in a sense Ja'far and and Masrûr reflect two sides of their sovereign. In another sense, Hârûn reflects Shahriyâr himself, turning with arbitrary violence on those who should be closest to him, leaving Ja'far dead as Shahriyâr leaves his nameless wives. (I've always been inclined to see an accidental real life foreshadowing also, of Suleiman the Magnificent and Ibrahim Pasha.)
So, what is the relationship between Hârûn and Ja'far, and in particular, what sort of man is Ja'far to live with it? Is he a fatalist, who thinks if he is destined to fall, there is no escape from it, so he should make the most of his life while he has it? Does he trust Hârûn not to turn on him? Does he, famed as he is for his kindness and generosity, see Hârûn's dark side and think it his duty to temper it? Does he take pride in his place and his family, and see everything he does, from serving Hârûn to his legendary generosity, as the duties and obligations of his position, duties that don't include worrying about the future?
Which isn't to say I want you to write about Hârûn - you needn't even mention him - I just can't think of a better way to explain what particularly interests me about Ja'far's character except by reference to him. But Hârûn definitely doesn't need to appear in the story: Ja'far being introspective in a courtyard! Ja'far with a lover, or with his family! Ja'far with some of Hârûn's other companions - the poets and the singers (this would be fascinating). Ja'far helping someone out! (Think of the stories set after his death, where those whom he helped continue to mourn him despite the risk, e.g. Ja'far and the Bean Seller.) Ja'far going about his duties as vizier (it's easy to forget at times he wasn't just a boon companion). Backstory about Ja'far as a young man! I just want to know what sort of person you see Ja'far as being.
If you do want to include Hârûn in your story, I'm inclined to slash him with Ja'far myself, if you want to go that way, but any other close and longstanding relationship would be just as interesting, if you prefer. If you want 'Abbâsa in some sort of triangle with the two of them, that's fine,* if you'd prefer not to, that is also fine - even within the Nights, there are various different accounts of what leads to his death, and e.g. envy of his wealth and fame works perfectly well - Hârûn wouldn't be the first or the last ruler turn on his friends for just that reason.
(I do prefer competent characters, so if you want to include the whole three apples story, I'd be happier with a reading that accepts there was no practical way for him to solve the mystery, other than trusting to god, rather than focusing on him failing to do anything useful.)
* Incest isn't a kink of mine, so I'm unlikely to find it hot for its own sake, but it isn't a squick either, so if you want a proper triangle rather than a V, it's a perfectly reasonable reading, and I shan't mind it all. Just, if you mean to make it hot rather than (or as well as) messed up, it's more likely to work for me if you include extra reasons for its hotness other than the mere fact of its incestuousness.
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Liao Zhai Zhi Yi | Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio - Pu Songling - Worldbuilding (Strange Tales - Pu Songling)
I'm interested to see whatever you choose to make of this. Expand on one of Pu Songling's stories or tell one of your own. You could do something with the ever present fox spirits - they're viewed in such a range of ways, from meriting death through to the ambivalence of stories such as Cut Sleeve to admirable heroines (e.g. in Lotus Fragrance). Or you could do something with the relation of dreams to reality, or the extent to which stories are a type of dream. Make your language as densely allusive or as simple as you please, your tone as light or as dramatic as you want. Gen, slash, het; light-hearted, bitingly satirical, restrained or sly or melancholy ... anything that strikes your fancy.
Liaozhai is a collection of short tales of the bizarre, the supernatural and the out-of-place; they're playful, occasionally satirical, boundlessly interested in the world and at times melancholy. It has something for everyone: canon gen, het, slash, poly, gender swap, genderqueer, platonic friendship ... well, alright, it doesn't actually have canon femslash, but there are plenty of relationships you could take in that direction. The original is a masterpiece of classical (as opposed to vernacular) Chinese, both elegant and difficult. English translations generally don't attempt to reproduce the style and are content to be simple and straightforward - which happily licenses you to write in whatever style you prefer.
I’m interested in anything that expands and deepens (or just explores further) the world of these stories.
You can approach many of the tales purely as ghost stories or horror stories, and several modern writers and filmmakers have done so, but that's by no means the only approach you can take. A number of the tales play with the line between dream and reality, sometimes to comment on the nature of fiction itself, other times from a religious perspective from which reality itself is a kind of dream. Some tales are about obsession (by no means always sexual), and thus by extension about what counts as valuable and whether it's worth suffering or dying for.
I will be delighted with anything, but if you’re feeling a little overwhelmed and unsure of where to start, I’ve included below a few suggestions of starting places for different things you might want to write. These are only meant to be helpful starting points! If you already have some other idea, that is what I want to read about.
World as Illusion: There are hints of this in many of the tales, but if you want a sampling of ones where it’s a particular theme, try Flowers of Illusion (aka Taoist Miracles) or The Painted Wall; also, at least by implication, Friendship Beyond the Grave and Twenty Years a Dream.
Fox Spirits: These turn up in many of the tales, sometimes as admirable figures, such as in Grace and Pine (aka Miss Chiao-No) and Lotus Fragrance, sometimes more ambiguous and dangerous, as in The Laughing Girl and Cut-Sleeve, sometimes as evil creatures to be killed with impunity, as in Bird, Fox Enchantment and The Merchant's Son|The Trader's Son (although only in the last is there no trace of sympathy at all for the foxes).
Penguin Classics has a selected translation by John Minford. Also available to borrow from the Internet Archive. A much earlier translation by Herbert Giles is available online, but keep in mind it’s from 1880 and is heavily bowdlerised. There's also the recent six volume complete translation by Sondergard. Judith T. Zeitlin translates a number of tales of particular interest in Historian of the Strange (which I very much recommend).
You may, depending where you are, be able to read a couple of pages on Google books about The Painted Wall, a small selection of stories translated by Arthur Zhu in The Painted Skin, Lotus Fragrance and Grace & Pine. Elsewhere there's a discussion of Twenty Years a Dream, and of Grace and Pine among others in an article about scholar's studios. If you belong to a library with access to Literature Online, I think you may be able to get e versions of a number of tales, possibly in the Minford translation.
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Tang Dynasty RPF - Li He | Li Changji (Tang Dynasty RPF)
I'm fascinated by the imagery of Li He’s | Li Ho’s poems, and what I would really love is a story where that imagery is real - where Li He’s | Li Ho’s life follows much the course it did in reality, but he truly saw a world of ghosts and demons and almost unutterably strange things.
the blue raccoon weeps blood, and the cold fox dies
A Piece for Magic Strings Li Ho, trans A.C. Graham
I certainly don't mean this prompt to detract from Li He’s | Li Ho’s genius and originality - I'm envisioning him recounting what he sees with the same striking poetic skill. Just. He really is seeing things others can't see. Not, I imagine, that that makes his story turn out any better.
Please do not be put of writing this by thinking you aren't a scholar of the period, and can't write it with perfect accuracy! Anything at all with Li He | Li Ho and the wonderful imagery and metaphors of his poetry will be wonderful. And, to assist anyone who might be tempted by this prompt, I am linking a few helpful resources: the introduction to Li Ho's section in Graham's Poems of the Late T'ang, selections from the preface and introduction to Frodsham's Collected Poems of Li He, and some poems in translation.
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