*facepalm*

[kaydeefalls]

Yeah, I just signed up for tardis_bigbang. Because lord knows the obscenely plotty Rose!fic I'm working on isn't enough; no, I have a burning desire to write another 20,000+ words in the Whoniverse.

But hey, the plotbunny bit hard.

So: In 1919, at the start of the Irish War of Independence, Harriet Derbyshire was killed while investigating Torchwood 4, which went AWOL after the Easter Rising. In 2009, UNIT pulls a dying man out of the Irish Sea with a one-word message: Torchwood. Martha joins up with Jack's team in Cardiff to track down the errant branch of the organization at last -- and its mysterious leader, who's a bit too familiar with wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey stuff herself. Also known as Oh Dear God What Am I Getting Myself Into Now.

740 words down, 19,260+ words to go. Featuring post-"Exit Wounds" Torchwood + Martha (+ possibly Mickey), the Doctor may well make an appearance (as he is wont to do), and I'm trying to figure out a way to work Donna in somehow as well. Plus, um, the leader of Torchwood 4, who is NOT an OC. But come ON, you totally know Torchwood Dublin would have gone all Sinn Fein after 1916, and then the Irish War of Independence happened, and then it went underground NEVER TO BE HEARD FROM AGAIN (UNTIL NOW).

I think I'm gonna have fun with this. Or possibly die. One or the other.

Comments

[skywaterblue.livejournal.com]

SOUNDS EPIC, DO WANT.

[talulahk.livejournal.com]

I just REALLY want to read this fic! offering myself up as a "first reader"/ little beta.

Srsly this sounds veryvery interesting.


edited because LJ hates me

[tardis-stowaway.livejournal.com]

This sounds epic in all the best ways. Go, bunny, go! Bite hard with those sharp, pointy teeth!

[siria]

I came across this on friendsfriends, and I've been wrestling with how to reply to it, but... as an Irish person, I find this entire idea incredibly offensive and hurtful. This may be a 'fun' plotbunny for you, but neither the War of Independence nor the Civil War nor the Troubles should be regarded as merely an entertaining backdrop to your fanfic. They're the reason why part of my family had to flee their homes; they're the reason why I'm regularly told I'm not 'Irish' enough; they're the reason why today an innocent man has had to take his family and flee the country because the Provos have said they'll kill him because he's a Catholic who dared to join the PSNI; they're the reason why today is the anniversary of a bomb tearing apart Canary Wharf. Your synopsis betrays little understanding of modern Irish history, or comprehension of how it has shaped and effected contemporary Irish people on both sides of the border. People died. People are still living with the hurt and fear and pain of it all, and your post doesn't show much by way of empathy for them. I would strongly urge you to reconsider writing this fic.

[kaydeefalls.livejournal.com]

Okay. Obviously I touched a nerve here, and I've spent the past few hours thinking over your comments. I'm going to try to respond.

First: I apologize for offending you. I have the utmost respect for your history and heritage, and had no idea that my admittedly slaphappy post would appear so callous and hurtful.

I won't take your remarks as a personal attack, because I'm sure you didn't intend them as such. I don't know you at all, and vice-versa; we're both judging each other solely based on a few lines of text posted in relative anonymity on the internet. So: I'm going to try to contextualize myself a little. I'm clearly not Irish. I lived a year in Dublin, studying Irish Drama at Trinity College; I primarily learned modern Irish history through its theatre. I studied the War of Independence via Yeats and Lady Gregory, the Troubles through Sean O'Casey, post-WWII politics from Brian Friel and Tom Murphy, and on through the 20th century with Marina Carr and Frank McGuinness and Martin McDonough. So there is validity in your accusation that I'm appropriating Irish history as an "entertaining backdrop" -- but I have no desire to cheapen your cultural and political heritage. It's more that I see all history as the truest form of theatre (and "theatre", for me, is not some frivolous form of mindless entertainment; it's pure storytelling, in its most personal and affecting form); it fascinates me because it is so powerful and relevant to us even today -- as evidenced by your strong reaction.

It's not because I think the Irish Civil War or the Provos or Derry on 30 January 1972 would add some sort of bullshit exotic flavor to my fluffy little fanfic. And I'm not interested in painting Irish history in black and white for the sake of a few fun, sexy villains. No. NO. I'm horrified if that was the impression I gave you, because you're right, that would imply an utter and appalling level of disrespect. What I am interested in is exploring how the political and cultural forces of a very particular time and place might have shaped these fictional people and their organization, which is in canon very driven by social mores/events. What draws me to Torchwood is its exploration of moral ambiguity, of blurred lines between a "right" or "wrong" side -- that both sides of an issue are equally right, and equally wrong. This isn't going to be Black & Tans vs. IRA, or some bullshit glorification of revolution; the history's nowhere near that straightforward, and that's what fascinates me. And most importantly, I care about the characters -- the people who, as you said, are "still living with the hurt and fear and pain of it all," who are irrefutably changed by the events of their lives, both on the grand historical scale and much more intensely and personally. What did the Easter Rising mean for a lower-class man of English descent raised in Cork, working for a government organization? Or a Protestant woman of means whose family has lived in Dublin for generations? How can I try to contextualize fictional characters -- who, let's face it, fight aliens for a living -- in a decidedly non-fictional world?

In my slaphappy, sleep-deprived post late last night, I clearly summarized this in very broad and insensitive terms, which I regret. And I'm well aware that you still may think I'm completely wrong, and that this fic (man, I can't believe I've stirred up controversy over an unwritten fanfic; this is slightly surreal) probably will never be to your tastes at all. There's a larger debate about cultural appropriation that's been going on in certain areas of fandom lately, and I think this discussion could become an extension of that; as a white Jewish girl from New York, maybe the only history I can use as "backdrop" should be my own, whatever that may be. Is "The Lieutenant of Inishmore" less offensive because it's written by an Irishman? I can't make that call.

But I am very glad you commented, because you challenged me to take a good long hard look inward at what story, precisely, I'm trying to tell here. So thank you. Am I the best person to write this? Probably not. But does that mean I shouldn't try?