Beside the Wells

[Lee Burwasser]

Unless you're planning to cut it loose entirely and sell it as an
independent story, you might think twice about archiving it. It is,
after all, a striking story, and *impressions* of it are going to be
around, perhaps turning up again after you thought everyone had
forgotten. The best thing to counter such impressions is the story
itself.

The archaism almost works. If (this being a send-up) you meant to evoke
"mighod, another one of THOSE stories" then it does work.

Idle curiosity: did you have any particular parallel in mind for your
narrator? He reminded me a bit of the usurper in Poul Anderson's
rendition of the _Hrolfs Saga Kraki_, who (as near as I can recall)
"tamed the queen, not by blows, which would have roused opposition, but
by skilled lust and unbending will." (Except that at the end she and her
sons kill him, she dying too for the sake of her own good name.)
Of course, he also parallels Kirk's own siege of Spock; a good
demonstration of the vital significance of context.

--
Lee Burwasser lburw...@crs.loc.gov
Landover MD USA
*working stiff -- don't blame me for policy*