Application
Sep. 4th, 2006 09:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
everyinchbutoneIt is difficult to love in a world where you are feared. More difficult yet when you live in fear, or in despair.
Valerie (Valerie Page, according to V's memorial in the Shadow Gallery) managed it, somehow.
Valerie's life began in Nottingham, in 1985, and ended in the Larkhill Detention Facility, in about 2018, at the age of 33. She was arrested for the crime -- the sin, in that England of Strength Through Unity, Unity Through Faith -- of lesbianism. In those thirty-three years, Valerie learned that society is often not accepting of the different; she also enjoyed moderate success as a movie actress.
Her last act after her arrest was to write her autobiography on the toilet paper in her cell, and slip it through the wall to the next cell. It was, in part, an act of defiance -- she would not let herself be erased, as her jailors wanted her to be; and it was an act of integrity, to remind herself that they could not take everything from her; and it was an act of love towards the stranger in the next cell, to remind them that they could not take everything from him, either.
That act sums up Valerie pretty well -- her integrity, her absolute refusal to back down, and her love, even for someone she had never and probably would never meet.
If ever someone encountering Milliways-as-afterlife needed the break, Valerie does. After those last few months at Larkhill, she could really use a drink.
The people she will have the opportunity to meet in the bar -- including the two recepients of her autobiography -- will hopefully also help her find some closure. Valerie isn't inclined towards bitterness, but the manner of her death leaves some deep emotional scars that need healing. I hope that whoever you are, you escape from this place. I hope that the world turns and things get better. She deserves to know that her hopes were fulfilled.
Although Valerie's canon is V for Vendetta, the somewhat different book and movie, her real canon is her autobiography, which is largely unchanged from one medium to another. Other V pups are being played primarily from the movie, however; Valerie will be the same, so that no one has to try and hold two different sequences of political machinations in their head.
Valerie (Valerie Page, according to V's memorial in the Shadow Gallery) managed it, somehow.
Valerie's life began in Nottingham, in 1985, and ended in the Larkhill Detention Facility, in about 2018, at the age of 33. She was arrested for the crime -- the sin, in that England of Strength Through Unity, Unity Through Faith -- of lesbianism. In those thirty-three years, Valerie learned that society is often not accepting of the different; she also enjoyed moderate success as a movie actress.
Her last act after her arrest was to write her autobiography on the toilet paper in her cell, and slip it through the wall to the next cell. It was, in part, an act of defiance -- she would not let herself be erased, as her jailors wanted her to be; and it was an act of integrity, to remind herself that they could not take everything from her; and it was an act of love towards the stranger in the next cell, to remind them that they could not take everything from him, either.
That act sums up Valerie pretty well -- her integrity, her absolute refusal to back down, and her love, even for someone she had never and probably would never meet.
If ever someone encountering Milliways-as-afterlife needed the break, Valerie does. After those last few months at Larkhill, she could really use a drink.
The people she will have the opportunity to meet in the bar -- including the two recepients of her autobiography -- will hopefully also help her find some closure. Valerie isn't inclined towards bitterness, but the manner of her death leaves some deep emotional scars that need healing. I hope that whoever you are, you escape from this place. I hope that the world turns and things get better. She deserves to know that her hopes were fulfilled.
Although Valerie's canon is V for Vendetta, the somewhat different book and movie, her real canon is her autobiography, which is largely unchanged from one medium to another. Other V pups are being played primarily from the movie, however; Valerie will be the same, so that no one has to try and hold two different sequences of political machinations in their head.
