Some of the people reading ‘The Other Side of the Wire,’ are becoming concerned and more than a little disturbed by where I am taking the protagonist. In writing this story I am going to extremes to make sure the characterizations and the way the characters respond to each other as well as events is as near pitch perfect as possible and are based on the reality of their time and circumstances as I can make them. In preparing to write scenes I draw on first person accounts of participants and witnesses, stories that defy the imagination, stories that make the most gruesome fiction of zombies, vampires and cruel evil doers come across as lame, for the stories I am drawing upon are true.
In addition to dealing with a subject matter that is at times disturbing even to someone such as myself, I find writing about the events of the time from the view point of a child at ages nine, twelve, fourteen and sixteen to be quite challenging. It would be wrong, in my opinion to use words, to graft thoughts and perspectives appropriate to adult into the character. Nor would the story ring true if I gifted Hanna a superior sense of morality and a prescience even our present day leaders, with all the history that has gone on before, do not possess. Like so many of us, Hanna sees what she wishes to see and will continue to do so until it is no longer possible to deny the truth.
At present Hanna is being seduced, as so many young Germans were by the allure of a vibrant and exciting new movement, one that provided them with an opportunity to break out of the dull, monotonous grind of day to day life that so characterized depression era Weimar Republic. So what if you had to march in step, raise your right hand to eye level and give a salutation to a funny looking man who made long, bombastic speeches. Being able to spend time out in the countryside with your friends, going to summer camps, learning new sports and games is worth all that other fuss, isn’t it? And belonging. Don’t forget being able to belong to something bigger then yourself, belonging to an organization that makes you feel as if you have value and rewards you with pride and confidence. What child could resist? Could you? I know I didn’t when I was old enough to be a scout. I stood with people I thought were my peers and help up my right hand up, pledging on my honor to do my duty to God and my country. How many of you did as well?
In discussing this effort with my dear Anglo-Saxon/Irish co-conspirator, I find myself having to reject some very good ideas and sound advice from her, wishing to keep the story tightly focused on the world Hanna lives in, the one she sees at various points in her life and the one good fortune had allowed her to live in. I know where she is going and I know exactly how this story will end, for that is already written. The adventure for me, as well as the reader is the journey Hanna must take in order to go from here to there. And though Hanna is fictional, the path she is traveling is one real people have traveled. Some of those people were our very own parents and grandparents. It is my desire to do their memories justice that causes me to press on as I have been and with great care. I hope those who join me on this journey will understand and bear with me.
Nancy Cole
www.nancycole.org
Given the time frame
Given the time frame - I expect the story to become "difficult". I agree with you that this IS the right way for it to be. Thank you for taking the time/effort to put as much realism into the story as you do.
Anne
OSW, There, but for the grace of God....
The story that Nancy is so beautifully crafting is (and should be) emotionally painful, but very necessary.
We have all heard the facts and figures about the atrocities committed by people who were in so many regards no different from ourselves. In January 2005 the Daily Telegraph in the UK published the following figures of the estimated death toll of 'the final solution' and it's precursors:
However, for people to truly understand such awful destructive,industrialised atrocity at an emotional level we need a human conduit, a character with whom we can engage and worry about. In Hanna Nancy has created just such a character. The seduction of German youth is a perfect description of what happened, along with the seduction of their parents with the promise of escape from the humiliation of 1918 and the austerity of the Great Depression.
The phrase "There, but for the grace of God, go I." is one many of us, if we are honest, should relate to. Like Nancy, I have seen what ardent nationalism and unscrupulous leadership will lead decent normal people to do. The memory of watching a Catholic priest blessing a group of Croat fighters about to 'ethnically cleanse' a Muslim village in 1993 will haunt me for a long time.
Stories like this, although demanding and emotional, are essential to helping us remember never to slip so quiescently into such an abomination again. The fact that it is written so beautifully helps.
Thank you Nancy
Thank you...
...for providing me with a much needed perspective. I know that wherever Nancy takes her girls (or do they take her?) I can be sure they will be alright in the end, no matter what 'fate' they undergo. Thanks to Nancy once again for her craft, which is, as Persephone states, is written so beautifully!
Dio vi benedica tutti
Con grande amore e di affetto
Andrea Lena
and then you still have to decide what to do. ― C.S. Lewis
Love, Andrea Lena
Understand
that history is history. Feel you represent in a factual manner.
Hugs, Fran
Hugs, Fran
A difficult time in recent history - and the consequences
I am addressing this comment more at the detractors and supporters of Nancy than at Nancy herself.
As Nancy has stated in her blog post, the subject matter and timeframe of OSW is a very disturbing part of recent world history, that at the time was clouded in deep secrecy. As a matter of fact, some people who lived through those times have been unwilling to admit to and accept the wrongs and attrocities commited by the Nazi regime even up to this day.
Being a member of a cultural minority with strong cultural ties to Germany, I know people who are in their 70's, 80's and 90's, who still hold on to the concept of the Nazi doctrine of a superior arian race and ethnic purity. There are still a lot of hard feelings for the loss of the war. Though the younger generation (born mostly in the 1960's and 1970's) is trying to make sense of the past and reconcile with it.
The late 1930's and early 1940's were very difficult times for my grandparents, who had fleed from the communists in the Soviet Union and droped into the middle of nowhere in the heart of South America. With german cultural roots going back to the 16th and 17th century, and a life full of economic deprivations, many where anxious to return to "the Fatherland" after Hitler managed to stop the hyperinflation and economic depression in Germany. Unfortunately the outbreak of the war put a stop to that dream.
During the late 1970's and the 1980's history lessons in school tried to promote awareness, healing and closure over the events of Nazi-Germany during WW2. Unfortunately the cause of WW2 - mainly the hard-line position against Germany in the "peace treaties" after WW1, but also the Bismark policies of 19th century - have been ignored by the history classes. I am very sad that the school reforms of the 1990's has pretty much erased the period of the late 1860's to the 1980's from the curriculum. Not only regarding world history, but also regarding the national history.
Some famous personality is purported to have said: "If we are unwilling to learn from the past, we are apt to repeat the same errors our ancestors have commited."
As a history buff, I am very glad that Nancy is rising to the challenge of presenting historical events as acurately as possible through the point of view of a fictional character. The fact of having a TG element in each of these stories makes it an even greater challenge. Unfortunately the history curriculum in many (if not most) american and western european countries seems to have dropped and abandoned world history of the 19th and 20th centuries. Many even have dropped world history all together, and just teach a few gloriuos events of their own national history.
We need more authors like Nancy, who are willing and able to present History in an accurate and engaging style that allows the younger generation (with an atrociously short atention span) to learn from the past in order to not repeat history.
I am very thankfull for the novels that Nancy has published here on BCTS (as far as I know, since she may have published/unpublished others before I was able to find and read them):
* "Waltzing Mathilda" set in and around Singapore during WW2. Unfortunately unpublished because of unkind comments.
* "No Greater Love" set in german-ocupied France during WW2. Also unpublished because of unkind comments.
* "The World turned Upside Down" set in the caribean and New York prior to and during the war of indepence of the United States of America. Taken down because of unkind comments before it was finished. Now being reposted again.
* "Caitlin" set in France, England and Ireland during WW1. Posting is still ongoing.
* "The Other Side of the Wire" set in Nazi Germany just before (and posibly during) WW2. A new novel being posted here on BCTS.
Hopefully we can encourage and convince Nancy to re-post and/or re-publish her previous novels after she has finished posting/publishing "The World turned Upside Down" and "Caitlin".
Jessica
I am one of those who is
I am one of those who is disturbed by how Hanna is being seduced by this "great new movement" and how she has embraced those who would turn on her if they knew her secret.
That doesn't mean that the story is not engaging or compelling. In fact, it is just the exact opposite. Good stories provoke strong emotional reactions, and I applaud Nancy's courage in staying true to the history and living up to the role of a genuine storyteller, a messenger who brings us the story in all its glory and horror.
I would love this to continue, despite how terrifying it is to read it.
Please keep OSW here!
Nancy -- As someone who's had more than her fair share of reading the history of Germany leading into WW2 and the propaganda films of the era, I can honestly say I am NOT in any way, shape of form offended by the story, or where you've been taking it.
This is a time where millions were going hungry, inflation was wildly out of control, and along comes this charismatic psychopath who had this delusion of him becoming ruler of the world.
People didn't know that Hitler was coached extensively by actors and other advisers who taught him how to hold a mass audience spellbound through broad gestures and the way he spoke.
This story as far as *I'm* concerned belongs here at BCTS, and had I lived in Germany at the time, I would've been one of those put in extermination/concentration camps wearing a uniform with either a pink or black triangle on it -- maybe even both.
So what if people are disturbed about where you're taking little Hannah? That's what this story is supposed to do! This story is no different that watching one of the most disturbing horror movies of all time -- Jesus Camp, even though it's a documentary!
When I saw OSW Chapter 9 disappear, I was worried I had somehow offended you with my critique regarding the pagan traditions of the winter solstice being stolen by the early Christian church. If this was part of the reason why you pulled it, I deeply and humbly apologize, because that wasn't my intention whatsoever.
OSW belongs here
IMHO, the book is true to its historical background. Although none of us can know that exactly, I see no lack of 'fit' to what I know. Further, over the years, I have come to trust Nancy's diligence in her research for her historical backgrounds.
The story complies with the declared mission of this site "A friendly place to read, write and discuss Transgender Fiction." The subject may be 'unfriendly' to some tastes but the writer is assuredly not. I counsel those who would "discuss", to be the same.
OSW - like all the Nancy's work - is not just fiction , but very well written fiction. I hesitate to add that particular argument, because it risks appearing judgmental and under-rating others' work; I believe that this site has an important role in 'growing' writers and unleashing their potential. I merely want to point out that Nancy is already 'there' as a writr, and her work is fully 'Fiction' in the broader literary sense, as well as in the literal.
As always, those who do not like the opus are under no mandate to read it. There are subjects, stories based on which I choose not to read; that is my decision and the detail I keep to myself. If I do not read a story, I should (and do) refrain from taking any public stance on it, and my private stance is that attributed (wrongly) to Voltaire. (see Evelyn Beatrice Hall 'not quoting' Voltaire in The Friends of Voltaire 1906)
Xi