birthdays in Carry On
Let’s talk Carry On.
Let’s talk birthdays.
So we know that Simon’s is the summer solstice in 1997. So, June 21st. (Did I look this up specifically for the year? Ahem. Shh.)
But Baz’s? Penelope’s? Agatha’s?
If the cutoff for starting school is “birthday before September first” (and assuming that none of them started school a year early or late) then that means they would have been born between September 1996 and August 1997.
PENELOPE
Penelope is younger than Simon – she says her mom was pregnant with her when the first dead spot appeared (ch 46, p 251) – so her birthday is some time between June and September of 1997. And she says she was 11 when Simon first went off. (“Most magicians can remember exactly where they were that day. (I can’t. But I was only 11.)” ch 23, p 131) Which was in August of 2008.
So her birthday is sometime between June 21st and the middle or end of August, in 1997.
BAZ
He was five when the Watford tragedy happened, on August 12, 2002. So he was born sometimes before August 12th, 1997. (Probably, I would guess, not in the week or two before, or he might have said something like, it was just after my birthday. Seems like something a five year old might remember.)
So – sometime between September 1996 and August 12th 1997.
Also, it seems logical that if Baz’s birthday were at the beginning of school/pre-Christmas (especially while he was missing) that Simon would’ve mentioned it. (In fact, I would venture that it is CERTAIN, Mr. I-mention-Baz-literally-773-times, thank you @thepessimisticasshole for your work collating those numbers. Though I suppose it’s possible that Simon just isn’t very good with dates.)
So I’m guessing sometime between late December/January and August 1st/12th, 1997.
AGATHA
For Agatha we don’t know anything more specific, I don’t think, than “between September 1st 1996 and August 31st 1997.” (Again, unless she started school a year early, or a year late, for some reason.)
But the same goes for Agatha – surely if her birthday were between September 1st and Christmas, we would’ve heard SOMETHING about it, because it would’ve happened during the story. So, I’ll guess sometime between January and August 1997. (Then again, maybe it did happen between Sept-Dec, and no one paid any attention. There’s a fic for you.)
If I’m missing any text references, fellow Snowflakes, please please tell me!
And @rainbowrowell – can you tell us? What are Baz, Penelope, and Agatha’s birthdays?
Whoa! This is a lot of excellent deductive work.
I’ve been getting a lot of questions like this on Twitter, and I have to admit – I usually don’t solve problems or define things like this until I need them for the page. Simon’s birthday – and his conception – were relevant so I figured those dates out. But I never really thought about Penelope and Baz.
(If you’re watching closely, you’ll see that future printings of Carry On have a few small changes to make Simon’s age/birthday consistent throughout the years/book.)
And if something isn’t spelled out in a book, it stays undefined for me.
For example, in Eleanor & Park, I know what I think the three words are. But until/unless I write a sequel, I don’t feel like those words are definite.
A number of people have asked how vampirism works in Carry On. The truth is, I don’t know. I have some ideas. But my ideas aren’t set in stone, and if I were to write a prequel/sequel/space AU, I’d look at what I’ve established so far and then work it out as I needed to.
There are so many decisions that you make when you’re writing a book. Thousands. You’re building a world and creating people as you tell their stories. A book like Carry On is even more complex because you have to decide how almost everything works. And you don’t want to write yourself into a corner. You don’t want to hastily define something that will limit your storytelling later.
Your brain becomes swollen with details.
By the time a book goes to press, I feel so full of it, I can hardly think about anything else. I feel like the keeper of these characters. Like their stories are so heavy in my head, I can’t keep track of my own.
It really is so much like having a baby: It grows inside of you, leeches all your resources, gets too big for you to manage on your own – and then you let it go. One day the book is born, and it’s still yours, but it’s not part of you anymore. It has to live on its own.
Setting that metaphor aside …
Something very strange happens after a book is published. Suddenly (if you’re lucky!), there are thousands of eyes – and roughly half as many brains – all focused on your story. On all the decisions you’ve made.
If you’re really, really lucky, people will read your book more than once. They’ll talk about it and take it apart …
The collective attention and focus is more than you could ever muster on your own.
Readers regularly stump me. So often when someone asks for more details, my answer is “I’ve never really thought about that” or “I haven’t decided” or “Describe that scene to me again?”
So …
If I haven’t explained or defined something, please feel free to fill in the details – actually, please feel free to imagine and reimagine whatever you want!
(All that said: Here is one thing I can be concrete about – in my head, Simon was about 5-foot-10, and Baz was about 6-foot-1. Hopefully I didn’t write something in Carry On to contradict myself.)
BAZ IS SIX FOOT ONE OH MY GOD
CAN WE PLEASE HAVE A SPACE AU
This is fantastic! I just adore the way Rainbow responds like this and I love learning a little more about her writing process *big heart eyes*
kimdaily