Welcome to Part 2 of the novel: The Castle. It’s 2-for-1 on this episode as well, because Chapter 05 is pretty short.
CWs: rot-related peril, non-graphic rabbit hunting and butchery, suicide ideation
Chapter 05: The Wanderer – Yelena narrowly evades the rot in the forest and finds the castle.
Chapter 06: Yelen – Yelena meets Yelen, who doesn’t realise he’s been alone for ~90 years.
I was heavily influenced by Nicholas Stuart Grey’s play, Beauty and the Beast, for this version of Yelen and his time-blindness, but also the ways in which his mental health has declined due to his years of isolation and loneliness.
Nicholas Stuart Grey (1912-1981) was a British actor, novelist, and playwright, and should by rights be a British trans icon, who underwent a medical transition in 1959 but had been presenting as male since the 1930s. Most of his books can be purchased second-hand, but some may be available as print-on-demand. His work has influenced a lot of SFF writers working in the genre today.
Beauty and the Beast (1961) is a play for children in which a forgetful wizard curses an arrogant prince into a bestial form, only meaning to do this for a few days until the prince learns his lesson. Unfortunately, the wizard completely forgets all about him, and only remembers many years later, by which time the Beast has gone mad with loneliness. Fortunately, Beauty is able to help out there, and her experiences in the castle also develop her character arc.
The play came across to me as a cautionary tale of how you can mess someone else up by accident, regardless of intent, and the need to take responsibility for that. This isn’t my favourite Grey play/novel. He has much more interesting ones, and much better ones, but this is still something I credit with the development of Yelen & Yelena, so I definitely have a soft spot for it.
It also made me think about the Beast’s mental state, and how someone who had been alone for about 90s years would cope with company, and how he would think about his past as a man, now centuries ago. This was the kernel of the idea for Yelen & Yelena, in fact, and the whole book grew organically from this point.
We are finally introduced to Yelen in this episode, so please enjoy the 2 chapters available here for you!
Support the podcast at ko-fi.com/cmrosens, and get early access to the episodes, mp3 files, and eBooks. Join the Eldritch Seekers/Eldritch Family tier for monthly fiction and more goodies!
Music Credits:
Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Intro/Outro:
Quinns Dream: The Dance Begins
Other Music (Kevin MacLeod):
Quinn’s Song: First Night;
Moonlight Hall;
Magic Forest;
Giant Wyrm;
Midnight Tale;
Bittersweet
Sound Effects:
BBC Sound Effects Library
Floraphonic – Pixabay
Leave a Reply