writing about Brexit from the other side of the Atlantic

[lotesse]

One of the reasons why it took me several years to produce the followup to my 2015 yuletide TDiR fic -- in addition to computer-related mishaps -- was that, just as I'd finished my research and felt up-to-snuff on 1980s Welsh devolution politics, the Brexit referendum vote split the UK's political firmament. And, all of a sudden, writing about the adulthood of a contemporary son of Arthur felt different. Now that Brexit is imminent, of course, I'm right back to it. It really is peculiar, going head-down in the Matter of Britain while the last vengeance of Imperial madness threatens to wreck the islands.

I was thinking about how fitting it is, really, that Arthur is based on no real figure of history. A fictional king. Charlemagne was real, and so was Hector; but Camelot does not appear to have been a place. I'm interested in stories of history that have calcified into legend, but also really interested in pseudohistories that manage to gain almost-factual status. I was sure, as a kid, that there would be a historical Arthur, same as there was a historical Jesus. Turns out, he's more like Moses, leading the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt when according to archaeological records they were not enslaved there in large numbers to begin with.

Would it have been better, in a long view, to lay aside fantasies of a British uniter? Though I know my own independence politics have undergone a revision in the last five years; before, I always would have supported a body seeking independence, but after seeing the degree of Russian ratfucking involved in referendums in ie Catalonia I'm no longer sure it's in the best interests of the world for us to be subdividing.

Comments

[anghraine]

It's definitely complex (as the situation in Catalonia was!—the Spanish government fucked that up plenty all on their own, tbh). And it's definitely hard to know in retrospect how narratives exactly impacted reality. I'm pretty ???????? about it.

[lotesse]

Right -- it's not like colony status is necessarily any better.

My sense is that it's almost *all* narratives driving UK pol, not reality in any direct sense, and thus the mess. I'm massively curious, in a dreadful and morbid sort of way, to see how the impact of inevitable reality works out there.

[starshipfox]

I think the narrative of one country gaining independence from another is always treated as positive, and we don't always see the nuances of the situation. At least, I think about this in regards to my country (Ireland), because while I'm glad now that we're independent, directly after independence people lost a lot of their social freedoms, such as the right to divorce, and the church and state became horribly intertwined. Also, the economy was destroyed. We don't talk about things like this when we talk about independence, and I think it means we don't approach subdivisions of countries with enough critically enough.

[lotesse]

Are you terribly worried about the situation in Ireland, there on the ground? I've been reading about the GFA/backstop situation, but no one seems to have any idea what's going to happen if the UK crashes out next month.

In the US, I know I was taught to oppose southern secession on the grounds that it would harm the women, children, and all people of color living in those states to lose the protection of liberal Federal laws, and be left to the mercy of their conservative state governments.

[starshipfox]

Tbh, I'm so worried about the environment and environmental policy (or the lack thereof) that I don't seem to have a lot of room left over to worry about Brexit. I guess in a month I may have to make room for worrying about that too! I am a little concerned about my medication, as it seems like there may be issues with medication supplies.

[lotesse]

... sometimes I think I follow electoral politics to keep from falling into existential despair over climate change, tbh.