Expat Scribe's Blog: Scribbles of an Eternal Expatriate - Posts Tagged "prejudice"
The Place Where Heresy, Superstition, and Witchcraft Meet
On the last day of International Women's Month, I chose to review
From the Drop of Heaven: Legends, Prejudice, and Revenge
by
Juliette Godot
.
Fascinating in its gruesomeness but with a tinge of melancholy. That’s one phrase I’d definitely use to describe this book, whose genre is historical fiction.
History has always been a draw for many people of a certain age, but it should be studied by the younger generations, the well-off, the depressed, and the constantly annoyed. Why? It will knock some sense into our privileged heads—mainly how easy we have it in life. These days, many folks (including yours truly) complain about our wretched existence, yet we don’t realize we’ve been given a free pass many times over. If you hate your life, I suggest you read this book. You’ll learn to appreciate what little you’ve got.
The author, an ex-software engineer with a passion for genealogy, has woven the lives of her characters into grisly events in the past, including milestones in the history of France, the home of her ancestors. I salute her unabashed rhetoric because she did not whitewash occurrences. She wasn’t ashamed to say her great (13x) grandma was burned at the stake for sorcery. She stated this in the back matter of her book in the section, “Underlying Facts.”
Granted, this is not a memoir, she did not glorify her characters in her portrayal of them. Although this is a work of fiction, she based it on people who actually lived in that era... primarily her ancestors. She wrote about a time when women were second-class citizens. They were traded like cattle, treated as prime commodities from the spoils of war, denied basic education... and, at the slightest hint of eccentricity, burned alive for heresy or witchcraft.
What’s so sad about this epic narrative of families with intertwined lives was that their experiences with racism, bigotry, gross misunderstanding, misogyny, human trafficking, and religious persecution are still happening today. Although not as blatant, since we now have human rights laws protecting us in progressive regions, these issues still afflict millions of people in the developing world today. Worse, these will persist into the next century and will affect succeeding generations if we don’t do something.
This book delivers a multi-faceted portrayal of French pastoral life from the 1500s to the 1600s (ironically dubbed the “Early Modern Era”). It references serious topics, such as plagues, religious intolerance, the conflict between Protestants and Catholics, the Inquisition, forced alliances with former enemies (mainly among the royalty), abuse of power, and the dire consequences (mainly to the peasant population) of the constant change of rulers.
On the bright side, this novel isn’t all mayhem and devastation. It’s also interspersed with stories of loyalty and love—romantic, familial, and friendship-related.
But back to its historical significance... why does this novel matter? What’s the point of history? Why study ancient civilizations, dinosaur skeletons, dead people, circumstances long-forgotten, disasters that wiped out entire populations, and scandals best swept under the carpet? The past is vital to the future of humankind because it compels us to take stock of how far we‘ve come. But have we really evolved? We have to periodically look back at the past to learn from our predecessors’ mistakes. That’s how we move forward in society and ensure succeeding generations don’t kill each other... which we’re doing now, by the way, with the never-ending global conflicts.
I’ve observed that many people—usually tyrants and leaders whose ancestors were accused of enforcing slavery, carrying out massacres, incarcerating political opponents, and other human rights violations—always give this rebuttal when these actions are repeatedly brought up (usually by investigative journalists and human rights advocates): “Why dredge the past? That was a long time ago! Let’s move on!”
These were the same words uttered by the top official in the French town of Mazan, the scene of a recently exposed sex scandal. He was commenting on the case of Gisele Pelicot, a resident of that suburb, as she was preparing to sue her tormentors in court. She claimed she was raped while drugged unconscious by 51 men (including her husband) over the course of 10 years. As that wasn’t horrendous enough, police discovered her husband instigated those crimes, as he was the one who drugged her and invited those monsters into their home. In his interview with a television news network, that official expressed his surprise at the public furor, wondering what the fuss was all about because “no one died, anyway.” This abject disregard for the humanity of women was prevalent hundreds of years ago—as testified by the author, but his wanton utterance is proof that it’s still in malevolent force today.
We HAVE to unearth the past, folks! At least in some instances, however unsavory. We have to examine where we’ve gone horribly wrong, especially when it comes to heinous crimes against humanity. This is necessary if we are to evolve as a species.
I‘ve rated this publication 4.5 stars, despite its focus on one region, due to its importance as a record of our tumultuous past from which we can garner some useful insights.
Fascinating in its gruesomeness but with a tinge of melancholy. That’s one phrase I’d definitely use to describe this book, whose genre is historical fiction.
History has always been a draw for many people of a certain age, but it should be studied by the younger generations, the well-off, the depressed, and the constantly annoyed. Why? It will knock some sense into our privileged heads—mainly how easy we have it in life. These days, many folks (including yours truly) complain about our wretched existence, yet we don’t realize we’ve been given a free pass many times over. If you hate your life, I suggest you read this book. You’ll learn to appreciate what little you’ve got.
The author, an ex-software engineer with a passion for genealogy, has woven the lives of her characters into grisly events in the past, including milestones in the history of France, the home of her ancestors. I salute her unabashed rhetoric because she did not whitewash occurrences. She wasn’t ashamed to say her great (13x) grandma was burned at the stake for sorcery. She stated this in the back matter of her book in the section, “Underlying Facts.”
Granted, this is not a memoir, she did not glorify her characters in her portrayal of them. Although this is a work of fiction, she based it on people who actually lived in that era... primarily her ancestors. She wrote about a time when women were second-class citizens. They were traded like cattle, treated as prime commodities from the spoils of war, denied basic education... and, at the slightest hint of eccentricity, burned alive for heresy or witchcraft.
What’s so sad about this epic narrative of families with intertwined lives was that their experiences with racism, bigotry, gross misunderstanding, misogyny, human trafficking, and religious persecution are still happening today. Although not as blatant, since we now have human rights laws protecting us in progressive regions, these issues still afflict millions of people in the developing world today. Worse, these will persist into the next century and will affect succeeding generations if we don’t do something.
This book delivers a multi-faceted portrayal of French pastoral life from the 1500s to the 1600s (ironically dubbed the “Early Modern Era”). It references serious topics, such as plagues, religious intolerance, the conflict between Protestants and Catholics, the Inquisition, forced alliances with former enemies (mainly among the royalty), abuse of power, and the dire consequences (mainly to the peasant population) of the constant change of rulers.
On the bright side, this novel isn’t all mayhem and devastation. It’s also interspersed with stories of loyalty and love—romantic, familial, and friendship-related.
But back to its historical significance... why does this novel matter? What’s the point of history? Why study ancient civilizations, dinosaur skeletons, dead people, circumstances long-forgotten, disasters that wiped out entire populations, and scandals best swept under the carpet? The past is vital to the future of humankind because it compels us to take stock of how far we‘ve come. But have we really evolved? We have to periodically look back at the past to learn from our predecessors’ mistakes. That’s how we move forward in society and ensure succeeding generations don’t kill each other... which we’re doing now, by the way, with the never-ending global conflicts.
I’ve observed that many people—usually tyrants and leaders whose ancestors were accused of enforcing slavery, carrying out massacres, incarcerating political opponents, and other human rights violations—always give this rebuttal when these actions are repeatedly brought up (usually by investigative journalists and human rights advocates): “Why dredge the past? That was a long time ago! Let’s move on!”
These were the same words uttered by the top official in the French town of Mazan, the scene of a recently exposed sex scandal. He was commenting on the case of Gisele Pelicot, a resident of that suburb, as she was preparing to sue her tormentors in court. She claimed she was raped while drugged unconscious by 51 men (including her husband) over the course of 10 years. As that wasn’t horrendous enough, police discovered her husband instigated those crimes, as he was the one who drugged her and invited those monsters into their home. In his interview with a television news network, that official expressed his surprise at the public furor, wondering what the fuss was all about because “no one died, anyway.” This abject disregard for the humanity of women was prevalent hundreds of years ago—as testified by the author, but his wanton utterance is proof that it’s still in malevolent force today.
We HAVE to unearth the past, folks! At least in some instances, however unsavory. We have to examine where we’ve gone horribly wrong, especially when it comes to heinous crimes against humanity. This is necessary if we are to evolve as a species.
I‘ve rated this publication 4.5 stars, despite its focus on one region, due to its importance as a record of our tumultuous past from which we can garner some useful insights.
Scribbles of an Eternal Expatriate
These are excerpts from blog posts I’ve published in the past. Each blog entry has a link to the entire article.
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