You've captured the gap between opposing narratives. It's so long since I read any Chaucer that I can't remember the Prioress' tale enough to see the connection.

Arion wasn't thinking clearly. His guilt (deserved or not) obscured his vision. There's a reason the 1967 borders are known to Israelis as "Auschwitz borders". They are quite indefensible, as they are overlooked by hills or higher ground at almost every point, and they narrow the waist of Israel to less than 20 km, allowing an enemy army that breaks through to reach the coast and cut north from south in less than an hour.

BTW, you wrote that "in France, several synagogues were vandalised". The outbreak of intifada war in 20 (3 zeroes there if ffnet cuts them out) and the photos that circled the globe resulted in attacks on Jews and Jewish buildings all around the world. For example, between Sept that year and the end of 2004, more than 100 UK synagogues had been vandalised, and here in Australia very few schools and synagogues have escaped attack, including firebombings (occasionally even with congregants inside). We've been abused in the street, friends have been egged or assaulted and - more publicly - the anti-Iraq War protesters vandalised a cathedral in mistake for our oldest mainland synagogue. All because the Palestinian narrative is given more credence by the media...

I am speechless. There are no words in any of the languages I know to describe how this captured me and is not letting me go.

You are truly a Storyteller. Bravissima!

This is AMAZING! I love the concept of gaps between stories, and your beginning and ending words are so eloquent. Beautiful. You are a wonderful writer, a writer with humanity and heart. I feel so lucky to have found this story. It's a gem. I think I am compelled now to read your other work... take care! Assalamu alaikum (peace be with you).

Sorry. This one scares me. Account it a promise to read it more closely.

Obsidian Fox - not, this is NOT an original fic. As the summary tells you, it is a fanfiction of one of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, the Prioress's.

I used to have a whole separate chapter explaining the original story and what I've done with it, but ffnet doesn;t allow that anymore, so at some point I'll have to repost this with the explanatory essay as footnotes.

nice. I've read a few Egyptian books in my Socialism class... this reminded me of those. The flavor is very distinct.

So, is this fanfiction, or are you reporting stories?

M - I do not write 'notes for dummies'; I write notes for the intellectually curious. There is no way I can know whether the references made will be recognised by all readers, half the readers or none of them. What I *do* know is that if I didn't acknowledge my sources I'd be plagiarising, and if I didn't explain the references, readers who don't happen to have read exactly the same books as I have (and why should they? They'll have read loads and loads that I haven't) would say I was being elitist.
The notes on Chaucer's Prioress' Tale are wholly justified here - and not just because they swere demanded by the BBC competition I entered. The Prioress' Tale is little known compared to the other Canterbury Tales - and for good reason. I suggest you go and look at the version of this tale they shortlisted by the way, at the BBC Get Writing site, and then come back and tell me I'm being didactic!

I liked this tale much more than the Snape/Hermione fic. I still hate your "notes to the dummies" (I am not cultivated, however, maybe they are not so bad).

It is very odd your ability to think about a two sided worlds and your attitude towards JKR world. Hr one, maybe is bidimensional, but yours one has the same flaws, in reverse ;P

I would have liked to write a longer review explaining exactly what I liked and didn't like about the spin off, but I discovered too late that only one review per chapter is allowed ;P
I am sorry.
I'll try to be quick and concise, even if my grasp on your idiom is not strong enough to eplain everything well and politely.
Your fic is odd because you do to JKR universe, the same thing Severus is doing to Hermione.
Inserted into a novel, this part could deserve a honest review. This way you are taken in a trap: if the reader loves your writing, loves it because it is yours and possesses your peculiar style. But it would be an acritical acceptance of a work.
On the other side I see that if you dislike it there's a negative judgement slapping you at once: you don't like it because you don't understand. Or worse: beacuse you are "bad" (antifeminist point of view and so on)
Probably your views on JKR universe were fully developed in your conversations with other auhors, I don't know. A reader stumbling on your fanfiction has more troubles.
Another thing that makes me smile are your notes: you wish to close the door to every different interpretation of your text! It is like you are a fan of post structuralism when you are a reader, so you can be in charge and overwhelm the writer, and give him/her inner intentions the author would deny, but you know better (please don't jump at my throat ;P).
But when you "do" the writer, you are for a self-annotated version of your own work. I noticed it especially with the Letter: you use McGonagall remarks as your personal note inside the text, explaining to the reader in a non arguable (is this the right word?) way what you intended to mean.
It doeens't matter you role: you must be in charge. And the reader feels forced to look exactly in the direction you wish. And sometimes he /she doesn't like it.
Another thing I noticed, it is that you have the same feeling towards JKR world that Severus has against Griffindor. They trespass the Bildung, more than your characters.
I cant say I don't understand Clarice Sterling feeling: from a certain point of view you wish to rewrite JKR universe explaining her everything she didn't understand, from another point of view you appear to need her.
You obviously dislike the way she treated her characters, and probably you wished a stronger Hermione, but, on the other side, your Hermione has less power than the original one.
So, I didn't like it? Taken out of a novel not too much, I must confess: next time use original characters ;P But it is nice, logical, and has your interesting style.

Just finished reading A Decoding of the Heart on Schoogle (under the name buonissima), and somehow ended up here, reading this. A hell of a story, to put is shortly. Intelligent.Ethical. Polemic, and yet at the same time its somehow laconically emotional narrative style makes it beautifully not-overly-argumentative (hm...could have found better words for that...). Thank you.

Very touching, Sphinx. So glad I read it! Will go rethink my (rather biased) opinons of The Conflict forthwith. :)

That was an awesome fanfic of something so serious and classical. I was actually on the verge of angry tears because personally, me being a muslim, made me feel what Ahmed was feeling. Truly, the oppression for those poor kids is daunting. I like the moral of this, I hope more people read it, even though you are mostly known for the Potterverse-fics.

Having never read Chaucer, I really don't know how true your story is to its essence. Nonetheless, the Deathsong of Ahmed AlGara is a chilling tale of perspective. What made the story even more compelling is the modernity and ring of truth that the story is set in. The media's tale, the same story as seen on different levels, accusations, guilt, and the overarching sense of loss... it is truly an amazing fic, but not one I'd usually read. *smiles*