Of Flying and Fic and Stuff...

[byslantedlight]

Oh! I have slipped these surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air...
Up, up the long delirious burning blue
I've topped the wind swept heights with easy grace,
Where never lark, or even eagle flew -
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
- John Magee (1941)
Just before bed last night, I looked out my window and saw clear, sharp starry skies - and strangely enough there were aeroplanes everywhere. Well, three or four to start with, and rather close and a couple heading towards us, as if they were flying together - it turned out they were circling around, and then a couple of others flew into flashing-light view to join the stack, and then... then a falling star swept down amongst them all too! I did wonder if they'd moved Stansted a dozen miles or so to the north though - pretty, but very odd, it was!

Just before that I'd watched First Light, which was about Geoffrey Wellum, a Spitfire pilot in World War II. How much do we worry about 18 year old over-confident lads in fast cars these days - and 70 years ago they were being given fast aeroplanes and sent off into the skies to shoot at other fast aeroplanes full of other 18 year old boys... Today is Battle of Britain Day - the 70th anniversary of "The most decisive confrontation of the Battle of Britain", 15th September 1940, and it seems worth thinking about...

If nothing else, I want to get back to my WWII fic now (although the lads are in bombers, not fighters *g*) and I even brought in one of my reference books to catch up on some half-abandoned and so slightly-hazy detail... Wish I'd been able to watch the Dambusters documentary with MS...

I've been reading Prosfic too - Of Angels and Angles by SarahK, which I thoroughly enjoyed. It's an SF AU story, which is a good start, and it's nicely written though Doyle seems very hesitant and looking-to-Bodie-for-instruction to me, considering he's Doyle. I wasn't quite stretched to disbelief though, cos there were a few mitigating circumstances which I won't spoil for you here... Anyway, I liked that one!

I also read Painted Angels by Angelfish, which I went into with some trepidation cos although I adored Angelfish's first couple of Prosfics, I've found her last couple a bit too over the top as far as lads-being-traumatised goes - I just couldn't believe that they could function when riddled with epilepsy and narcolepsy and broken backs and dead children and childhood trauma and... just all at once! Luckily Painted Angels brought them back to reality again - there was trauma but not so much that I ended up rolling my eyes. So yeay, because I do like Angelfish's writing very much indeed. Again I had to stretch my belief a bit to see Bodie as quite the cold-blooded merc (and again with some weird non-sleeping/sleeps-with-his-eyes-open thing), but the story's set pre-canon which meant I could go with it. And Doyle was not-as-tough-as-Bodie but that was kind of turned around as Bodie's perspective rather than truth too, so... Oh, and there were (oddly, cos unless people have been fibbing Angelfish is a Brit!) Americanisms that threw me - adverbial endings! We still used them back then, over here! Slowly, quickly... dropping them in the way that they were dropped is totally American/modernism! (/rant *g*) But yes - another one I enjoyed very much, lovely thick writing, but not too "thick" for me to live with this time! *g*

ETA - Just been to download another fic for printing and reading in the comfort of a comfy chair - but despite squinting my eyes through the big fat enormous headers including the big fat enormous warning signs to get to the E-reader files which have so far usually been safe to look at, what happens? Big bloody warning/spoiler at the top of the story on the Word file too. Grrrrr. Now the question is - since I know what's going to happen, do I even still bother to read it? Grrrrrr. How hard is it to compromise for people who don't want to know the story before they read the story? It's just... thoughtless and mean, is what it is. And it detracts from your story too - it takes away impact and insight and atmosphere, because you've introduced something completely else - waiting, back-of-my-head wondering: how's it going to happen?, expectation and potential disappointment/let-down as well - a lessening of the actual impact, because I've been busy coming up with all sorts of scenarios to explain your warning myself. And really - anyone who wants the warnings/spoilers has already read them in your bloody header, so why repeat them where they can't be avoided at all? I work really hard to avoid the spoilers included as a matter of course at the Boxoftricks comm - but apparently no, I've got to be forced into seeing them... And I'm not the only one who doesn't like them, I'm just the one who'll say so out loud./grump /ETA

Aaaand - yeah. Now, a couple of jobs to do, and then I'll see if I can figure out exactly where in their training the lads are going to meet up... After preliminary training, after aircrew training and probably after preliminary ground training as pilots at their first OTU... probably around operational training I think... but before crewing up... *g* I think. *g*

Oh, and red wine - tonight I'm feeling the need for red wine, even though I can't afford it and have far better things I should be spending money on (and worse) and... just too many stoopid insurance phone calls. Red wine.

Comments

[constant-muse.livejournal.com]

I love your decription of the planes out last night, and that poem - sigh.

RE the Dambusters documentary, there are two different versions available via the_safehouse. I hope one of them works for you.

I'm so glad the current commemorations have re-inspired your WWII fic. I didn't realise they were both going to be flying bombers, probably I assumed one or both would be fighter pilots.

My father flew in Liberators as a flight engineer in Coastal Command (luckily for him), having joined the RAF when he turned 18 in 1942. Just recently he wrote an account of his war so he could give a talk about it somewhere. I got Mum to email the text to me, but for months I've been sort of reluctant to read it.

I just did, and it was amazing - about 90% of it he'd never told me. He was hugely excited to be working with aeroplanes and then actually flying, in contrast to the matter-of-factness about the dangers and tribulations. I'm so glad now he wrote it all down.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

It is a rather lovely poem, isn't it...

I've tried to download via the SH link, but it's "temporarily unavailable". It's not just me, Rosie can't get it either - waah! If it keeps failing then I'll watch the YouTube version, but YT is rarely such good quality... I might try and wait until it's on telly here unless it turns out to be good YT quality, cos I'm sure it must be beautifully shot - and I do hate missing the subtle nuances!

How fab about your dad, and I'm so glad you read his story! There is alot of information out there, but those times must have been so intense, and in ways that we just can't conceive now because it was such a different world to begin with... things they just "got on with" that we consider sooo traumatic (like Wellsley not suffering a nervous breakdown until he'd flown upteen extra Spitfire missions when for many kids now just being expected to fly a Spit would be overwhelming - too cold, too scary, never mind in the rain!) If your dad is ever up for going a bit more public, then I'd love to read such a personal account!

[constant-muse.livejournal.com]

I just checked BBC iPlayer - to my surprise, it's there!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00trb2g/Dambusters_Declassified/

I'd love to read such a personal account That could be arranged, I'm sure.

(late-night MS icon - you'll be well into the red wine by now *g*)

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Oh wow - it didn't occur to me to check iPlayer, since they said they'd show it elsewhere later, I thought they'd not include it!

Oh and yeay reading - thank you! *g*

Hee for late-night MS icon too! (I was very good and only had a couple of glasses of wine, too!) *g*

[miwahni.livejournal.com]

My pile of books to be read includes Voice From the Stars - A Pathfinder Story by Tom Scotland, who flew Halifaxes in the Pathfinder squadrons. I'm really looking forward to reading that when I get to it.
I saw the Battle of Britain memorial just out of Dover when I was over there - would be awesome to be there today.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Oh, nice title - and nice name too - Tom Scotland! Must look him up!

I didn't see any actual real-life memorials on the 15th, but there must have been some - it would have been good to go, you're right...