strange and random happenstance

Death in St. Petersburg by Tasha Alexander
Published by: Minotaur Books
Publication Date: October 10th, 2017
Format: Hardcover, 304 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

Emily is a little put out that her husband Colin keeps getting to go to Russia. Yes, it's for his work, yes, it's for the crown, but she longs to travel there herself. To stroll along Nevsky Prospekt, to gaze across the Neva, to attend a performance of the Imperial Ballet at the Mariinsky Theatre, these are Emily's dreams. Luckily life has a way of working out. Just after Colin is called once again to St. Petersburg Emily's dear friend Cecile asks if Emily would like to accompany her to that same city to visit her dear friend Masha and take in the New Year's festivities. At first Emily is worried her harried husband will be displeased she has followed him to Russia, thankfully the warm welcome she receives on arriving makes her concerns disappear like a snowflake in front of a roaring blaze. Colin's busy schedule means he can only occasionally accompany his wife, but Emily and Cecile take in the sites of the city and are charmed by it's beauty until the night of the ballet. For the first time ever the prima ballerina assoluta Legnani isn't staring in Swan Lake and has chosen Irina Semenova Nemetseva as her successor. Only Nemetseva never finished her performance.

Ekaterina Petrovna, Nemetseva's understudy, finished the show and made everyone forget about the original ballerina, until they exited the theater and found Nemetseva's body face down in the snow. The blood spatter looked like rose petals around her corpse. Emily being Emily wants to get to the bottom of the crime but it's only when Prince Vasilii Ruslanovich approaches her that she is given a sanction to do so. Prince Vasilii was Nemetseva's secret lover. He doesn't want to draw any attention to this and therefore asks Emily to discreetly make inquiries. What Emily discovers is friends and lovers that admired Nemetseva. Ever her understudy, Ekaterina Petrovna, loved her like a sister and at one time hoped Nemetseva would marry her brother Lev so they would indeed be sisters. Lev though has some radical tendencies. Could the murder be politically motivated? One thing is sure, St. Petersburg loves to gossip and soon there is a development in Nemetseva's murder that has everyone talking. A ballerina keeps appearing throughout the city with a red silk scarf who disappears whenever anyone gets near. Could this be Nemetseva's ghost seeking justice? Emily doesn't believe in ghosts but she does believe in finding justice for the slain ballerina no matter what the cost.

Russia! Finally! I was almost as excited as Emily to find that we'd finally be going to St. Petersburg. Tasha had dropped enough hints in the previous volumes, even going so far as to have Emily state that were she to run away from all the chaos in her life during the events of A Terrible Beauty that she would go to St. Petersburg. Thankfully Colin was aware of this and would have followed her north. Now I know that Russia might not be everyone's cup of tea, or podstakannik as the case may be, but I was born and bred with a love of Russia in my bones thus making this book a perfect read for a long winter's night. My mother was actually a Russian major in college, a rather questionable major during the height of the cold war as evidenced by the fact the government kept tabs on her; but she adored Russian literature, in particular Pushkin, even if Tolstoy's War and Peace wins out as her favorite book. My parent's first date was going to see Doctor Zhivago at the Hilldale Theater, and the rest is history. From rather creepy Imperial Ballet paper dolls to oversized art books showing the treasures of the Hermitage to watching Gorbachev step down, my upbringing had Russia always present. I don't even know how young I was when I was sat down and forced to watch Doctor Zhivago, but I'm sure my parents didn't appreciate me rooting for Geraldine Chaplin as Tonya.

But for all my love of Russia I am very lukewarm on the whole Imperial Ballet. The truth is ballet is one of those things that you have to fall for very young. There are the horse girls, the ballet girls, the sporty girls, and then there was me. I didn't really fit or want to fit in any category. I have a vivid memory of going to the mall once with my mom and asking if I could buy some ballet shoes, because I thought they would be cool to wear. She said unless I took ballet that wasn't happening. My love of the shoes wasn't that great. But she also painted a very bleak picture of ballet, I'm not sure if that was from her Russian studies or from the fact she didn't want to drive me to lessons, but if I hadn't given up the dream of the shoes so easily I'm sure there would have been an even longer lecture. Ballet continues to be one of those artistic mediums I just don't connect to. It's not that I don't get what they are going for, for my theater degree we had to watch the Imperial Ballet to see the groundbreaking work they did in costume and stage design, but it never drew me in. I'm just not a fan of dance in any form. No matter how many shows I've seen I just don't get it.

Perhaps if I was lucky enough to have a mentor like Tasha did I wouldn't be indifferent. But I can't go back in time and change what happened. Thankfully Death in St. Petersburg works on many levels. I'm sure if you're a devotee of the ballet there is even more for you than if you're just in it for the human drama surrounding the ballerinas. Personally I was very glad for the drama surrounding the ballerinas. It's not just their friendships and allegiances that drew me in, but the level of intrigue surrounding the patronage system. Patronage isn't something unheard of in the arts, in fact I often lament that the days of individual patronage are over because I could do with some money to make art for a wealthy robber baron. Yet in the physical art world you give them art for their patronage. In the visual art world, particularity women, have other things to give... This is just another way you can sleep your way to the top. By aligning yourself as the mistress of a well-to-do noble, you get a better life and a better career. But at the same time this patronage system is creepy. You're being pimped out by the ballet to the richest bidder. I feel that this perfectly underscores why the revolution in Russia eventually happened. The rich used their influence to get the best mistresses, whether they wanted to be despoiled or not.

While the Russian Revolutions didn't start until 1905 with them culminating with the abdication of the Tsar in 1917 and the execution of the royal family in 1918 Death in St. Petersburg really felt like it was on the cusp of this big historical event. Tasha clearly depicts the disparity between the poor and the rich ending with the whiff of revolution in the air. While the other books with Lady Emily don't shy away from politics or historical events for some reason this book just felt more specific. This book made history more alive with Emily in the center of it. Therefore I couldn't help thinking of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. Seriously, people stop doubting me about the show's genius, which are many of my friends. The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles was a formative show for me for many reasons and is probably why I love historical fiction so much. The series was created by George Lucas as an offshoot from the Indiana Jones film franchise as a way to engage children with history. I myself was very much engaged, and not just because of Sean Patrick Flanery, though he didn't hurt. The episode "Petrograd, July 1917" made the Russian Revolution more real to me than anything had before until now. To my mind there is a direct link from that episode to this book in making this era of Russian history more alive and vibrant than anything else I've ever read or watched. Therefore if Russian history is your podstakannik of tea don't miss this book.

With revolution in the air and the dawning of a new century, Emily is really coming into her own. While Emily thinks that the Russians not questioning a female's capability of being an investigator as societal progress I think that is only half the story. If you look to the ballerinas she is interviewing as part of her inquiries she is operating in a female dominated field. To these women, who many be forced to work within the patronage system, they still see that it's their own skill and drive that makes them succeed in the end. No matter how wealthy or high up their patron without the skill they could never succeed. So why can't a woman succeed in another field if she sets her mind to it? Ekaterina Petrovna and her love Mitya both shock Emily with their easy acceptance of her investigative role. While this does signify the bigger sea change I think it is also specific to the mindset in Russia. Revolutionaries didn't distinguish between male and female, they were all comrades, where women could effect as much change as men. I know it's odd to think of Russia as more progressive, but the revolution that was coming forever changed world history so it makes sense that they would be willing to see Emily as what she is and not dismiss her. That isn't to say her investigation was completely smooth sailing, but that there were less bumps in the road, less explanations than previously, and for this series going forward, it will be wonderful to see Emily embrace all the changes that are in store.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: A Terrible Beauty, Alexander Autumn, Ballet, Death in St. Petersburg, Doctor Zhivago, Murder, Russia, Sean Patrick Flanery, St. Petersburg, Tasha Alexander, The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, War and Peace

Mata Hari's Last Dance by Michelle Moran
Published by: Touchstone
Publication Date: July 19th, 2016
Format: Hardcover, 272 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

The woman formerly known as Lady Margaretha MacLeod has come to Paris to reinvent herself. Styled as Mata Hari, the "Eye of the Dawn," she has been trying to get work in the various dance halls. But she is too exotic, too foreign. Little do they know she's just a girl from the Netherlands who can spin a tale. At the last place she auditions, the disreputable L'Ete, she is once again turned away, but her luck is about to change. Edouard Clunet, a respectable and successful lawyer saw her dance and wants to act as her agent. The dance halls aren't the place for Mata Hari, she needs a select and refined audience, one Edouard can introduce her to. Her first production is for Clunet's client, Guimet, who has built a library to house his extensive collections and wants to have a ceremony with two hundred guests to open his Place d'Iena. Mata Hari's dance is a sensation. Her storytelling, her risque dances, they electrify the audience and soon she is coveted by all of Paris to perform at their function. But Clunet is clever, he only chooses the best venues with the best hosts, concerned just as much with Mata Hari's image as with her abilities.

Soon Mata Hari is performing one of a kind shows for the Rothschilds, Jeanne de Loynes, and Givenchy. Her habit to also occupy her host's bed lets Mata Hari accumulate beautiful possessions and living quarters, those that her pricey performance fees don't quite stretch to. She is the name on everyone's lips, so of course she is given opportunities beyond Paris which she jumps at. Madrid, Berlin, never did she think she'd play such lavish locations! But now that she has everything she could ever have wanted she realizes what she misses most, that which she ran away from. Her daughter, Jeanne Louise, whom she left behind with her husband when she fled after the death of their son. She has spent so much of her life telling tales and reinventing herself that to open up to Edouard, to tell him a truth, raw and painful, is a revelation. Her success will continue longer than she ever imagined, but it's her past she can never recapture that she wants most. As time goes on her habits with her lovers and her ability to spin a yarn will catch up to her with the most dire of consequences. Everyone has to face the music in the end.

When I was younger I didn't quite know who Mata Hari was. But then again, being told of a great courtesan doesn't seem like the kind of tale you'd tell as a bedside story to a child. So I had these wild ideas about who she was. A seductress, a storyteller, and a spy, all with the most amazing outfits. Someone out of The Arabian Nights like Scheherazade. Someone from antiquity when Gods walked among the deserts. A grand heroine of myth. The truth is she'd probably like the myth in my mind. It wasn't until much later that I learned the truth of her tragic life. Ironically I didn't learn about Mata Hari in any history class but in the episode of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles that was written by Carrie Fisher, which should have been subtitled "Indy Gets His Groove On." Here was the beginning of the truth I never knew. The woman I thought relegated to dusty tomes was a "spy" during the first world war! While there are those who'd argue that this is old, to me, if a person was alive in the same century I was born that's pretty recent news. Gone were The Arabian Nights delusions and in their place was this woman who defied convention and died for the greater good.

I think where my erroneous impressions of Mata Hari came from was the fact she was a courtesan. Courtesans seem of an older era, when Kings walked through Versailles and a Maharajah took a woman to bed bedecked with jewels. When you think of the turn of the past century when a woman slept around or had a lover she was a mistress or worse. But mistress doesn't do Mata Hari justice. Neither does any of the more derogatory slurs that could be mentioned. She was a true courtesan. She was well educated, skilled, and able to tell the most intoxicating stories. So she accepted gifts of jewels and property, these were never payment, they weren't even really a transaction of any kind, more a thank you for a good seduction. She lived outside the expectations of society. Or at least the expectations of a woman in society. She acted more like a man when it came to whom she took to bed. It was all about desire, hers and theirs, and if they happened to look really fabulous in a uniform, all the better.

By living outside of the proscribed norms it was interesting in how I related to Mata Hari. As in, I didn't relate to her AT ALL. I mean, sure spending a night on your back or a day dancing to be draped in jewels might be some people's ideal life, just not mine. The truth is, she's not the most likable person. It's not just that her morals don't jive with mine, it's something more, something deep down that while I can be fascinated by her I would never like her. In fact, I found it interesting that Mata Hari kind of reminded me of Linda Radlett from Nancy Mitford's The Pursuit of Love. They are both very acquisitive beings who like the finer things in life and don't scruple when it comes to what they want to do. While I like to view myself as carving out my own life, I'd never go for such a drastic trailblazing method. But that is what makes Mata Hari so interesting. She goes big or goes home. More than that though she really knows how to craft a tale. Her lies are so intoxicating and fascinating, that while you might balk at her life choices, you have to admire her style.

Where Moran's storytelling surpasses Mata Hari's is in showing the real purpose of all Mata Hari's storytelling, to mask her pain. Mata Hari's life growing up as Margaretha Zelle, later MacLeod, wasn't the smoothest of journeys to be sure. The situations that she was forced into by the abandonment of her family at a young age eventually resulting in her early marriage would be events best forgotten. When this is compounded by the death of her beloved son you can see why she ran away and rewrote her own story. Many people would give anything to be able to rewrite their past, even pasts not nearly as traumatic as that lived by Mata Hari. A new city, a new name, a new past. She did a marvelous job reinventing herself and creating a legend. But legends are rarely relatable. Through her writing Moran lets us see behind the veil and while you might never quite come to terms with and like Mata Hari, you really feel for her. Her struggles, her pains, her decisions, even the atrocious ones, you just get it, and that's what historical fiction is about, connecting to another person in another place and time.

As for whether Mata Hari was killed because she was a spy? Well, I'm not of the harsh opinion Wikipedia holds that she was too naive and stupid to be a double agent. Because if anything her reinvention shows that she was a clever woman who knew what she wanted and got it. I agree with Moran's inference that Mata Hari's downfall was a judgment on her as a person versus any knowledge or secrets she might have held. Mata Hari didn't fit into the standard mold. She was a woman who lived her life as she wished. Certain men in power couldn't handle this. The world was at war and people were expected to toe the line and behave or all would be lost. Mata Hari went from being a juicy topic of conversation used to titillate to a wanton woman who was out to steal your husband. She was judged for what she did and paid the ultimate price. So what if men did what she did all the time, she was a woman and therefore her death was for the greater good. Yes, her ability to spin stories did come back to bite her on the ass, because she had a honeyed tongue and could make anything sound like truth so how could you believe a word she said? But what this book made me realize is that her story still resonates. She was a woman who lived her life outside of societies expectations and paid for it. Therefore I give you Mata Hari, a true feminist icon! She died for the cause, and can that be said about Isadora Duncan?

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: A Fall of Poppies, Carrie Fisher, Courtesan, Dancer, Feminist, Mata Hari, Mata Hari's Last Dance, Michelle Moran, Nancy Mitford, Paris, Storytelling, The Pursuit of Love, The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles

Blackadder Goes Forth
Starring: Rowan Atkinson, Tony Robinson, Hugh Laurie, Tim McInnerny, Stephen Fry, Stephen Frost, Gabrielle Glaister, Rik Mayall, Adrian Edmondson, Miranda Richardson, and Geoffrey Palmer
Release Date: September 28th, 1989 - November 2nd, 1989
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

When Edmund Blackadder decided on a career as a solider it was made when the most dangerous fighting he could expect to see was a native with a sharpened mango. He didn't expect the Germans and their war machine, no one did. He would never have signed up if it meant spending all his time in the mud with two dimwits praying that his baaahing mad General, Sir Anthony Cecil Hogmanay Melchett, KCB, doesn't decide for them to go over the top or pay for the death of his beloved pigeon, Speckled Jim. All Blackadder's time is spent trying to conceive of ways to get as far away from the front and the trenches as possible, though hopefully not by being removed and placed in front of a firing squad as the Flanders Pigeon Murderer. Blackadder is forever hindered by General Melchett's nefarious adjutant Captain Darling. Combine Darling's antipathy with Blackadders two disastrously dysfunctional "friends," Baldrick and Lieutenant George, and if they survive the war it will be a miracle. If only they could put on the best music hall showcase and decamp to London. Or perhaps a stay in hospital is needed. Then there's the flying corps. So many schemes, can one of them save them?

One Christmas my friend Sara gave me the first half of Blackadder the Third on VHS and we promptly sat down and watched all three episodes. I immediately had to have the second half of the season and over the years I have rewatched those tapes so many times that I wore them out. Sara grew up with a love of all things relating to British Comedy thanks to her older brother Paul. Once they became a part of my life my British Comedy horizons expanded. Paul was forever searching for the elusive Blackadder: The Cavalier Years. It just so happens that I was the one who found it on eBay. I remember as we watched the grainy bootleg tape Paul's disbelief that this young girl who was rapidly gaining in British Comedy knowledge had somehow beat him to the punch. It was an odd little tape made up of Comic Relief Sketches and a music video of Cliff Richard singing "Living Doll" with The Young Ones. But it also had one episode of Blackadder on there that I hadn't seen. I was very strapped for cash at the time and most of my money was going towards my Red Dwarf purchases so I hadn't yet gotten Blackadder Goes Forth. Figuring I knew enough about Blackadder I watched "Goodbyeee" and was just floored by the episode.

The episode is so poignant as I watched these characters die. Sure, we'd seen certain characters bite the big one before on previous seasons, but this was just so much more. This was the final goodbye. Blackadder Goes Forth was the final of four series and we had come to know and love these characters over many years and here they were leaving us forever. How could the writers give the perfect send off while also doing right by their creations? At the time when it was revealed that this final season was to be set during World War I it was criticized for being inappropriate. But I defy you to find any show that shows the horrors of the Great War so heartrendingly. When the show fades to black and white and then the field turns into a field of poppies, I dare anyone not to cry. It does justice to the war by showing how these characters we love reacted to it. It makes so much sense to end the show when the world forever changed. Each season was a different epoch, but I don't think anything quite got the point across to me that history was forever changed by the advent of World War I than a single episode of a rather silly British Comedy.

While people were initially concerned that this series would trivialize the war it not only forged a closer connection and understanding to the war with viewers but it continued the honorable tradition of using humor to shine a light on the truth. Yes, who would have thought that a show based on sarcastic put-downs and sex jokes would show the true horrors of the war? It's not like there was precedence? Oh wait says 'Allo 'Allo, Dad's Army, F Troop, Hogan's Heroes, M*A*S*H*, McHale's Navy and others. Comedy is, in my opinion, the best way to understand a situation but also to make it bearable. Humor is healing. Just as I said when I read Nancy Mitford's Nazis satire, Wigs on the Green, by taking something scary and laughing at it we take away it's power. We memorialize while putting the pain in it's place. But Blackadder Goes Forth does so much more. I remember when I first watched this last episode I couldn't believe that a show that had made me laugh so hard could also make me cry so much. Could make me really care about the Great War. For all those history books I read and even for my love of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles for some reason I never got the human element, it was all larger than life. It was the humor that revealed the humans.

But it's the asides, the throwaway jokes that shed a light on what World War I was really like. You might laugh at Baldrick saying he's grateful for the new trench ladders because they had kindling for the first time in months, or how rat is what is on the menu, cooked in a variety of fashions that are all eerily similar, or drinking coffee that is actually just mud, but the truth was the war was full of privations and attrition. We may think of it now as beautiful fields of poppies and heroic men and women who gave their lives, but it was mud and diseases these heroes faced. Plus, the humor used doesn't just aid in understanding the war but in understanding how the soldiers probably survived. If they couldn't think like Blackadder and use a little dark humor now and again how could they survive without all going wooble? Just look at the terrifying thought of the flying squadron? The 'Twenty Minuters.' Called such not because of the length of a mission but because that was the average life expectancy of a new pilot. While this might be stretching the truth a little, it's not by much. Remember, the planes they fought in were mostly made of canvas!

The show also tackles the problem of the "old boys club" that was the military at the time. World War I was the last war where rank was almost solely decided by social ranking. The upper classes taking on the more senior leadership roles, no matter how inept they were. I mean, how messed up was it that you could buy your commission? Pompous, childish, incompetent, and rather dim we see this "club" in the interactions between George and Melchett who speak in their own weird language at the top of the ladder. George is even given a "get out of jail free card" when Melchett offers him the chance to leave the trench before the big push. George though isn't just of the "old boys club" he also embodies the idealistic young men who joined up in a group thinking they'd all be home for Christmas. George is in fact the last one left of the tiddlywinking leapfroggers. When he talks about all the others he joined up with, and their ludicrous nicknames, you see the idealism that was the start of the war. The fact that George has been able to hang onto that throughout is something of a miracle. That he didn't turn into a cynic like Blackadder just goes to show that the war was made up of many good men, of all different kinds, that did what had to be done, even if it seemed contrary to just walk at the guns, they did it for liberty and their loss will be forever felt.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: A Fall of Poppies, Blackadder, Blackadder Goes Forth, British Comedy, Hugh Laurie, Nancy Mitford, Red Dwarf, Rowan Atkinson, Stephen Fry, The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, VHS, Wigs on the Green, WWI

Mata Hari's Last Dance by Michelle Moran
Published by: Touchstone
Publication Date: July 19th, 2016
Format: Hardcover, 272 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

The woman formerly known as Lady Margaretha MacLeod has come to Paris to reinvent herself. Styled as Mata Hari, the "Eye of the Dawn," she has been trying to get work in the various dance halls. But she is too exotic, too foreign. Little do they know she's just a girl from the Netherlands who can spin a tale. At the last place she auditions, the disreputable L'Ete, she is once again turned away, but her luck is about to change. Edouard Clunet, a respectable and successful lawyer saw her dance and wants to act as her agent. The dance halls aren't the place for Mata Hari, she needs a select and refined audience, one Edouard can introduce her to. Her first production is for Clunet's client, Guimet, who has built a library to house his extensive collections and wants to have a ceremony with two hundred guests to open his Place d'Iena. Mata Hari's dance is a sensation. Her storytelling, her risque dances, they electrify the audience and soon she is coveted by all of Paris to perform at their function. But Clunet is clever, he only chooses the best venues with the best hosts, concerned just as much with Mata Hari's image as with her abilities.

Soon Mata Hari is performing one of a kind shows for the Rothschilds, Jeanne de Loynes, and Givenchy. Her habit to also occupy her host's bed lets Mata Hari accumulate beautiful possessions and living quarters, those that her pricey performance fees don't quite stretch to. She is the name on everyone's lips, so of course she is given opportunities beyond Paris which she jumps at. Madrid, Berlin, never did she think she'd play such lavish locations! But now that she has everything she could ever have wanted she realizes what she misses most, that which she ran away from. Her daughter, Jeanne Louise, whom she left behind with her husband when she fled after the death of their son. She has spent so much of her life telling tales and reinventing herself that to open up to Edouard, to tell him a truth, raw and painful, is a revelation. Her success will continue longer than she ever imagined, but it's her past she can never recapture that she wants most. As time goes on her habits with her lovers and her ability to spin a yarn will catch up to her with the most dire of consequences. Everyone has to face the music in the end.

When I was younger I didn't quite know who Mata Hari was. But then again, being told of a great courtesan doesn't seem like the kind of tale you'd tell as a bedside story to a child. So I had these wild ideas about who she was. A seductress, a storyteller, and a spy, all with the most amazing outfits. Someone out of The Arabian Nights like Scheherazade. Someone from antiquity when Gods walked among the deserts. A grand heroine of myth. The truth is she'd probably like the myth in my mind. It wasn't until much later that I learned the truth of her tragic life. Ironically I didn't learn about Mata Hari in any history class but in the episode of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles that was written by Carrie Fisher, which should have been subtitled "Indy Gets His Groove On." Here was the beginning of the truth I never knew. The woman I thought relegated to dusty tomes was a "spy" during the first world war! While there are those who'd argue that this is old, to me, if a person was alive in the same century I was born that's pretty recent news. Gone were The Arabian Nights delusions and in their place was this woman who defied convention and died for the greater good.

I think where my erroneous impressions of Mata Hari came from was the fact she was a courtesan. Courtesans seem of an older era, when Kings walked through Versailles and a Maharajah took a woman to bed bedecked with jewels. When you think of the turn of the past century when a woman slept around or had a lover she was a mistress or worse. But mistress doesn't do Mata Hari justice. Neither does any of the more derogatory slurs that could be mentioned. She was a true courtesan. She was well educated, skilled, and able to tell the most intoxicating stories. So she accepted gifts of jewels and property, these were never payment, they weren't even really a transaction of any kind, more a thank you for a good seduction. She lived outside the expectations of society. Or at least the expectations of a woman in society. She acted more like a man when it came to whom she took to bed. It was all about desire, hers and theirs, and if they happened to look really fabulous in a uniform, all the better.

By living outside of the proscribed norms it was interesting in how I related to Mata Hari. As in, I didn't relate to her AT ALL. I mean, sure spending a night on your back or a day dancing to be draped in jewels might be some people's ideal life, just not mine. The truth is, she's not the most likable person. It's not just that her morals don't jive with mine, it's something more, something deep down that while I can be fascinated by her I would never like her. In fact, I found it interesting that Mata Hari kind of reminded me of Linda Radlett from Nancy Mitford's The Pursuit of Love. They are both very acquisitive beings who like the finer things in life and don't scruple when it comes to what they want to do. While I like to view myself as carving out my own life, I'd never go for such a drastic trailblazing method. But that is what makes Mata Hari so interesting. She goes big or goes home. More than that though she really knows how to craft a tale. Her lies are so intoxicating and fascinating, that while you might balk at her life choices, you have to admire her style.

Where Moran's storytelling surpasses Mata Hari's is in showing the real purpose of all Mata Hari's storytelling, to mask her pain. Mata Hari's life growing up as Margaretha Zelle, later MacLeod, wasn't the smoothest of journeys to be sure. The situations that she was forced into by the abandonment of her family at a young age eventually resulting in her early marriage would be events best forgotten. When this is compounded by the death of her beloved son you can see why she ran away and rewrote her own story. Many people would give anything to be able to rewrite their past, even pasts not nearly as traumatic as that lived by Mata Hari. A new city, a new name, a new past. She did a marvelous job reinventing herself and creating a legend. But legends are rarely relatable. Through her writing Moran lets us see behind the veil and while you might never quite come to terms with and like Mata Hari, you really feel for her. Her struggles, her pains, her decisions, even the atrocious ones, you just get it, and that's what historical fiction is about, connecting to another person in another place and time.

As for whether Mata Hari was killed because she was a spy? Well, I'm not of the harsh opinion Wikipedia holds that she was too naive and stupid to be a double agent. Because if anything her reinvention shows that she was a clever woman who knew what she wanted and got it. I agree with Moran's inference that Mata Hari's downfall was a judgment on her as a person versus any knowledge or secrets she might have held. Mata Hari didn't fit into the standard mold. She was a woman who lived her life as she wished. Certain men in power couldn't handle this. The world was at war and people were expected to toe the line and behave or all would be lost. Mata Hari went from being a juicy topic of conversation used to titillate to a wanton woman who was out to steal your husband. She was judged for what she did and paid the ultimate price. So what if men did what she did all the time, she was a woman and therefore her death was for the greater good. Yes, her ability to spin stories did come back to bite her on the ass, because she had a honeyed tongue and could make anything sound like truth so how could you believe a word she said? But what this book made me realize is that her story still resonates. She was a woman who lived her life outside of societies expectations and paid for it. Therefore I give you Mata Hari, a true feminist icon! She died for the cause, and can that be said about Isadora Duncan?

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: A Fall of Poppies, Carrie Fisher, Courtesan, Dancer, Feminist, Mata Hari, Mata Hari's Last Dance, Michelle Moran, Nancy Mitford, Paris, Storytelling, The Pursuit of Love, The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles

The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Tales of Innocence
Starring: Sean Patrick Flanery, Jay Underwood, Veronica Logan, Pernilla August, Renato Scarpa, Anna Lelio, Selina Giles, Clare Higgins, Evan Richards, David Haig, and Roshan Seth
Release Date: July 14th, 1999
Rating: ★★★★
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Indy is stationed in Northern Italy. While his work has him arranging the dangerous defection of German troops to the allied forces, he spends all his time thinking of getting back to Guiletta. Guiletta, the girl of his dreams. Sure, her parents don't approve, but what does that have to do with love? All is well until he realizes he has a mysterious rival for the affections of Guiletta. He spills his guts out to a fellow American who drives an ambulance that night in the local cantena. Ernest Hemingway seems full of great ideas to one-up this upstart, that is until Indy realizes that Ernest is his rival! The two friends quickly become bitter enemies trying to win the heart of Guiletta while still doing their duty in the war. And war being war, anything could happen. Ernest and Indy are both injured in an air raid. While Indy is recuperating in Venice, his body and his heart start to heal. Though once healed he will be back in action, stealing hearts and saving the world. He only wishes his new assignment were more exciting. Trying to find out the culprits behind the transferring of arms in Morocco seems dull compared to fighting on the front lines. Yet his companion, the novelist Edith Wharton, turns what would be a boring mission into the journey of a lifetime.

Right before I started high school The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles premiered. Despite being such a short lived series it will forever hold a place in my heart. In fact, starting high school it was a good way to weed out prospective friends, if they watched the show and loved Sean Patrick Flanery as much as I did, well, friends for life. Literally. I fell hard for Young Indy and Sean Patrick Flanery, River Phoenix in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade was long forgotten. I even have the premiere issue of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles Magazine that I ordered through Scholastic signed by Sean Patrick Flanery, who was the nicest person you could hope to meet and I had so much fun talking about the show with him at Wizard World Chicago. Yes, I fully admit to fangirling all over this series and Sean but luckily not to his face. I was so caught up in the stories and the romance and the action, and let's not omit the Sean angle, that I didn't realize how sneaky George Lucas was being. George Lucas was making me learn history! Designed as an educational program for children and teenagers, historical figures and important events were showcased through these prequels to the films.

I learned much of my history through the life of Indiana Jones. While I was more into the romantic travails of Indy fending off a young Ernest Hemingway, the Easter Rebellion wormed it's way into my brain. Pancho Villa worked his way in while I was admiring Indy's horsemanship. Damn that boy can ride! George Lucas had secretly succeeded in teaching me where my teachers failed. To be fair though, in grade school, it was the fault of the teachers not of history. The film franchise with Harrison Ford was very much centered on the Nazis and World War II. Therefore, due to Indy's age, it only made sense for "Young" Indy to be involved in World War I. From enlisting in the Belgian Army because of his young age, to fighting at the Somme and Verdun, to transporting weaponry across German East Africa and the Congo, to escaping from a prisoner of war camp, to escorting Austrian Princes, to even being seduced by Mata Hari, Henry Jones Junior encapsulated all of the Great War in his escapades in a way that was memorable and entertaining. I can't help but think that if my high school English teacher had combined A Farewell to Arms with Indy's adventures in Northern Italy in June of 1918 I might not have taken such a strong dislike to Hemingway.

Watching the first half of this episode twenty-three years after it first aired I'm amazed that it still holds up. It's not just for the Sean Patrick Flanery devotees, there's a good solid plot, lots of zany and goofy humor, in particular one scene involving the mass consumption of pasta, as well as some nice jabs at Hemingway. And yes, I still don't like Hemingway all these years later, so I take great amusement in his suffering. But what really struck me this time around was the influence of E.M. Forster on the look and feel of the Italian storyline. Yes, there's probably a part of me nostalgic for all his books and movies I devoured just last fall, yet there's this lovely innocence to Indy and Hemingway vying for the love of Guiletta, even if they get a little debauched at the bar after wooing hours... this story does have Hemingway in it so it was inevitable. I also think the fact that Howard's End coming out a year before this episode aired isn't a coincidence, even though this story is more reminiscent of A Room with a View in my opinion. When Indy goes on a walk with Guiletta with Granny as guardian, the beauty of the countryside is almost overwhelming. The show might have ended because it cost so much to make, but just watching it again, they did it right, and isn't that what matters?

What I love though about this storyline is that it shows that the Great War wasn't just in trenches in France with Germany bombarding them. This was the smallest section of the "European Theater" yet the war effected quite literally the entire world. With Indy traveling around we see how the war was fought from North Africa to Russia. Here we get a glimpse of the work being done in Northern Italy, with German forces successfully defecting, as well as the importance of non-active troops, such as ambulance drivers, which is how Hemingway served during the war. We also see that not every second of every day was devoted to battle. They have down time to drink, to think of the future, to love. Just because there is a war doesn't mean that we stop being human. I think that is what comes across most with the adventures of Indy, these famous people were actually people. Sometimes we look on celebrities as a different breed, people apart. But in the end they're just like us. They have hopes and dreams, like Hemingway wanting to be a writer, even if Indy shuns his idea of a love letter, which is hilariously literal. Humanizing history is what this show does, and perhaps that's why I became a lover of historical fiction.

Though while the first half is forever one of my favorite sections, the second section with Edith Wharton, which was never aired, I think is the most eye opening. To me Edith Wharton is so of a different time that I have never really connected her to the fact that she was around during World War I. She seems somehow of the past yet unmoored from historical events. Yet she tirelessly helped the war effort in France throughout the conflict. All that she did is amazing if you read about it, heck she even wrote several books on it herself. She was even appointed to the Legion of Honour for her work! And while the continuity doesn't quite work with her actual travels in Morocco, it's interesting to see Indy, not just solving a mystery, but having a relationship with a woman that is more about conversation and mutual understanding than about infatuation or seduction. Indy is, after all, a ladies' man, but Wharton here has the power. In an obvious mirroring of Wharton's own work, I mean just look to the title of this episode, Indy is relegated to the weaker role, that of Newland Archer, where Wharton holds all the cards of a intelligent and irresistible Countess Olenska. It's great fun to see Indy wrong-footed, but also to appreciate a woman for something more than just her looks. Which is why I knew he always HAD to end up with Marion Ravenwood. Always.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: A Fall of Poppies, A Farewell to Arms, E.M. Forster, Edith Wharton, Ernest Hemingway, George Lucas, Indiana Jones, Sean Patrick Flanery, The Age of Innocence, The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, WWI