The Tale Of Sophia Renee

If a movie were made of "Sophia Renee," I just had an inspiration for who could play Duncan: Sean "Boromir" Bean! The role of Sophia should go to a new, unknown actress. Major Jack should be played by our own Badger.
 
There actually STILL IS one more alternate ending. But to write it properly would require substantial research into the Royal Navy as it was in the First World War, and I simply HAVE NOT HAD TIME to do that. Still, I can tell you the essence, completing the set of diverse epilogues.

This last and final alternate space-time path declares that Sophia actually came to her senses, and came running back to Duncan, LESS THAN TWO WEEKS after the end of the poem. Duncan did NOT die before his time; in fact, he and Sophia are still alive during World War One, and still outrageously happy with each other. They have THREE natural-born children, but their adopted boy Nick remains their only son.

One way or another, this version ALSO shows, in passing, that Elspeth Yardley finds the true love and happiness that SHE so thoroughly deserves.

This version doesn't need to have Duncan and Sophia "onstage" much, precisely because everything HAS turned out happily for them. Instead, it follows Nick Landon MacBrae as a grown man -- serving as the engineering officer of a British warship on the Atlantic, trying to protect convoys against German submarines. He survives frightful emergencies at sea, in which he naturally conducts himself with both noble courage and quick thinking. At last, when the war ends, Nick returns to his parents and sisters, AND to the wife whom he had already married eight or ten years before the war began. I think this wife would be the younger daughter of Doctor Jerroll and his wife Gladys from the poem.

 
At the Lafayette Festival of Faerie, I had some good conversations with adults -- who, since this was in Boulder County, were mostly politically-correct fashionable neo-pagans. One lady was praising Buddhism -- which, if you really study it, proves to be _hostile_ to love, because it is hostile to _every_ human desire and aspiration. But she showed interest when I spoke of my Chinese-rooted novel "Flying Girl and Iron Merchant." So I dared another step, and told her also about "Sophia Renee," since both stories can be ordered online.

Who knows, maybe that lady will find herself _liking_ the idea of individuals _being_ individuals, not interchangeable droplets in the all-ness of the everything-ness.
 
I did in fact make those teens aware of "The Tale." Still awaiting feedback. Meanwhile, I believe that Hugh Jackman is a bit younger than Sean Bean. Therefore, just in case no movie studio grabs my story within the next year or two, I could resort to Mr. Jackman to play the role of Mr. MacBrae.

It remains true that I would have to be very cautious about who directed the movie. If the execrable Andrew Adamson or the overrated Joss Whedon got hold of it, they inevitably would change Sophia into an unbeatable superwoman leaping over tall buildings at a single bound, and make Duncan into a useless dweeb.
 
In view of what happens to poor Duncan at the end of the "canonical" Tale of Sophia Renee, I have just had an inspiration to post necessary news here. And if someone replies, I'll know that people do still visit my long-existing Writing Club threads.

I am now in a position somewhat like my Scottish hero. Forsaken.

When I first courted the Finnish-American woman who has been on this forum under the name of Karoliina Aleksandra, she warned me that her decades of living all alone were deeply ingrained in her psyche. Once married to me, Carol did give it a serious effort, showing me all sorts of tender consideration and kindness. But now, it appears that even she did not realize in 2012 just how persistent her go-it-alone emotional pattern would prove to be.

Three and one-quarter years after our wedding, and without being able to point to any major offense on my part, Carol has presented me with a divorce summons. She simply doesn't want to be a married woman, and our pastor could not change her mind. So there is no point in my contesting it. ("If you love something, set it free.") In acknowledgement of the fact that only she wanted a divorce, she is leaving our church, though friends of hers there will still see her outside of church, which is well and good.

One well-meaning Roman Catholic friend of mine was naive enough to imagine that at this late date, I would be able to persuade Carol to switch the "regular" divorce to an annulment of some revised type. I gently assured my friend (not a T.D.L. member) that Carol was not about to be bothered with any such complexities when she is so close to her desired singleness. Useless advice from good-hearted friends is one of the extra pains attendant on a situation like mine. (I note here that our EveningStar has shared helpful insights with me; he is the Magister, after all.)

It's a situation I never expected to be in.

This is the only direct reference I plan to make on T.D.L. to my tragedy. I did not manage to be a good enough husband to enable Carol to discard her solitary instincts, if indeed that was ever possible. But by way of the pastor, she has received a note from me, which concludes like this:

"For the rest of my life, I will pray that someday you and I can meet in Heaven, with everything healed and made right between us."

Carol has not rejected God; she has only rejected me, deciding that her long-troubled state of mind constitutes legitimate grounds for divorcing me. Whatever anyone else thinks of her justification (don't bother asking me what I think of it), she has not acted out of any desire to go against God Himself. Therefore, I can hold on to the belief that, with Carol still having a faith in Jesus, the better day will come; she and I will meet again with every injury undone. ("Is everything sad going to come untrue?" "In this case, yes!")

There, in Aslan's Country, it will no longer be necessary for me to think of my Karoliina as an "EX-wife." She will simply be the third of the three women I was married to on Earth, and seeing each other in Heaven will be a glad thing for us both.

While I still have the earthly journey to complete, one good thing may be emerging from this calamity. My adult daughter Annemarie has been divorced, and the new common ground between us (albeit involuntary on my part) does appear to be drawing us closer together.

I will appreciate anyone praying that what has happened to me by no desire of mine will not somehow be thrown up in my face by someone wanting to discredit me as a Christian.
 
Now that I am becoming single against my will, as if to taunt me, desirable BUT UNAVAILABLE women seem to pop up all around me. (The fact that I would still take Carol back without regret if she changed her mind has not changed, but her mind seems mighty made up.) Still, even a woman who is not a possible fourth wife may nonetheless become A READER OF MY STORIES. Thus, I am not letting dear Sophia Renee disappear.


Copperfox said:
In view of what happens to poor Duncan at the end of the "canonical" Tale of Sophia Renee, I have just had an inspiration to post necessary news here. And if someone replies, I'll know that people do still visit my long-existing Writing Club threads.

I am now in a position somewhat like my Scottish hero. Forsaken.

When I first courted the Finnish-American woman who has been on this forum under the name of Karoliina Aleksandra, she warned me that her decades of living all alone were deeply ingrained in her psyche. Once married to me, Carol did give it a serious effort, showing me all sorts of tender consideration and kindness. But now, it appears that even she did not realize in 2012 just how persistent her go-it-alone emotional pattern would prove to be.

Three and one-quarter years after our wedding, and without being able to point to any major offense on my part, Carol has presented me with a divorce summons. She simply doesn't want to be a married woman, and our pastor could not change her mind. So there is no point in my contesting it. ("If you love something, set it free.") In acknowledgement of the fact that only she wanted a divorce, she is leaving our church, though friends of hers there will still see her outside of church, which is well and good.

One well-meaning Roman Catholic friend of mine was naive enough to imagine that at this late date, I would be able to persuade Carol to switch the "regular" divorce to an annulment of some revised type. I gently assured my friend (not a T.D.L. member) that Carol was not about to be bothered with any such complexities when she is so close to her desired singleness. Useless advice from good-hearted friends is one of the extra pains attendant on a situation like mine. (I note here that our EveningStar has shared helpful insights with me; he is the Magister, after all.)

It's a situation I never expected to be in.

This is the only direct reference I plan to make on T.D.L. to my tragedy. I did not manage to be a good enough husband to enable Carol to discard her solitary instincts, if indeed that was ever possible. But by way of the pastor, she has received a note from me, which concludes like this:

"For the rest of my life, I will pray that someday you and I can meet in Heaven, with everything healed and made right between us."

Carol has not rejected God; she has only rejected me, deciding that her long-troubled state of mind constitutes legitimate grounds for divorcing me. Whatever anyone else thinks of her justification (don't bother asking me what I think of it), she has not acted out of any desire to go against God Himself. Therefore, I can hold on to the belief that, with Carol still having a faith in Jesus, the better day will come; she and I will meet again with every injury undone. ("Is everything sad going to come untrue?" "In this case, yes!")

There, in Aslan's Country, it will no longer be necessary for me to think of my Karoliina as an "EX-wife." She will simply be the third of the three women I was married to on Earth, and seeing each other in Heaven will be a glad thing for us both.

While I still have the earthly journey to complete, one good thing may be emerging from this calamity. My adult daughter Annemarie has been divorced, and the new common ground between us (albeit involuntary on my part) does appear to be drawing us closer together.

I will appreciate anyone praying that what has happened to me by no desire of mine will not somehow be thrown up in my face by someone wanting to discredit me as a Christian.
Click to expand...
 
Of course, after the success of the Disney girl-power movies "Pocahontas," "Mulan," "Brave," "Tangled" and "Frozen," poor Sophia may find herself out of date because she ISN'T a superwoman.
 
By now, Ewan McGregor may be old enough that he could portray Duncan in a movie adaptation. Of course, in a movie, I couldn't have the actors speaking in the exact rhymed verses; only some portions of my poetry could be retained, as voice-over narrative.
 
Bringing this out of the cellar for new members to find. And by now, Ewan McGregor FOR SURE could be Duncan McBrae in a movie.
 
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