#and its especially annoying because in other episodes Margaret takes more responsibility for how she feels isolated

[youngpettyqueen]

I wish we got more episodes that explored Margaret and the nurses and their relationships that were like. written well

[jadelotusflower]

October Roundup

Happy Halloween!

It’s been another unproductive writing month for which I don’t have an excuse other than laziness not feeling it - I ended up getting an ultrasound on my shoulder and, as expected, tendonitis/bursitis and while that’s an excuse not to do certain kinds of cardio, it’s not really an excuse not to write. But it is what it is.

I’m still undecided whether to do Nano this year - the plan was to bash out some fic this month and then focus on my (poor, neglected) novel in November, but that didn’t happen, and I’m not sure I want to stress myself out over it. So I might do an informal nano and just try and get as many words done on whatever project I’m feeling and see how we go.

Anyway, on to what I did do while I wasn’t writing.

Katheryn: The Tainted Queen by Alison Weir - I’ve enjoyed all of the “Six Queens” novels so far; Weir’s prose style isn’t exactly poetic and she does have that annoying tendency to conflate her historian credentials and fictional narrative, but its detailed as to the day to day life in the Tudor court and is engaging enough for that alone. I’ve always felt Kathryn Howard’s story to be one of the more tragic of Henry’s wives, not only because she was so young (in this novel 21 at the time of her death, although her true birthdate is unknown), but because her life seemed to have been played at the whims of various older men eager to take advantage of her. All but abandoned by a disinterested father to the home of her grandmother, the Dowager Duchess of Norfolk, coerced into relationships with Henry Mannox and Francis Durham while still a teenager, pushed into Henry’s orbit by her scheming uncle, and pressured into an affair by Tom Culpepper. Weir’s Katheryn is naive and flighty, in and out of love with each of her abusers, but it’s not an unsympathetic portrayal. 

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett - this has been on my to read pile for years and I was finally in the mood for it. I was expecting it to be interesting, but I was surprised at how engrossing I found this book, knowing nothing about it going in other than it was about building a cathedral during The Anarchy. But I was drawn in by the interweaving narrative of Tom the Builder, Prior Philip, Lady Aliena, and the impact the tussle of power between King Stephen and Empress Maude has on their lives. 

The writing is a bit male-gazey - especially Tom’s lust for Ellen, William Hamleigh’s vile inner monologue (the rape scenes in particular are unnecessarily described), and did not need to hear (many times!) about Aliena’s huge breasts and pubic hair. That said, Aliena is a wonderful female character and along with Philip the most sympathetic and engaging. Jack seems a bit like Follet’s self insert and didn’t find the romance with Aliena that convincing, but overall I really enjoyed this book and will seek out the sequel/prequel.

Gutsy Women by Hillary and Chelsea Clinton - So, I am not the biggest fan of Clinton, but this was a gift and I am a fan of the subject matter, so... It is a nice introduction to some awesomeladies, and had certainly introduced me to a few I’d never heard of before and may seek our some full biographies.

Lucifer (seasons 3-5a) - I like this show, although I do wish they’d lean into the mythology side a bit more over the procedural/relationship angst. I really enjoyed seeing Tricia Helfer as the Supreme Goddess and Tom Welling as Cain, but both the latter and Eve are lost in plotlines that seem aimless rather than deliberate, and the show seems to take more delight in namechecking biblical figures than actually developing them as characters. Similarly, Michael is more an irritant than Big Bad (and Ellis’ American accent is terrible); he never seems truly threatening and the writing for Maze is just all over the place. I do continue however to appreciate the writers resisting the urge to pit the female characters against one another and it’s overall rather entertaining.

The Trial of the Chicago 7 (dir. Aaron Sorkin) - I have a love/hate relationship to most of Sorkin’s work - on the one hand I (mostly) find them engaging and eminently watchable, on the other hand he tends to veer into jingoistic cringe, sexism, and you can always pinpoint the exact moment the character stops speaking and Sorkin starts (the scene where Tom Hayden berates Abbie Hoffman’s activism as the reason why Democrats lose elections today is very yikes.) It’s important with any film based on true story not to take the filmmaker’s word for the events portrayed, as it’s always coloured by perspective and agenda, and Sorkin definitely has one. This is an interesting article about the real women excised from this film.

The Spanish Princess (Part 2, episodes 1-3) - Sigh. This show is definitely the “I don’t know what I was expecting” meme, but you know what, I was not expecting a bizarre Margaret Pole/Thomas More romance I ( mean, wtf?). But that’s not where the bullshit ends, we have the show, unintentionally or not, depicting Katherine as at least partly responsible for the death of her children, the first by leaving baby Henry on the cold floor all night why she prays for God’s favour (subtle, this show is not), and then (maybe) triggering a stillbirth by riding out into battle at Flodden complete with pregnancy armour.

This is what really annoys me with these shows that purport to tell history from a feminist perspective, is that they go for the nth degree and just make it ridiculous. It’s enough that Katherine was an excellent regent raising the army and rallying the troops, we doesn’t need to see her actually participating in the battle WHILE HEAVILY PREGNANT. It doesn’t make her look badass, it just makes her look moronic. They actually make Henry seem somewhat justified in his frustration with her! 

This is a hit piece on Katherine of Aragon in yass kween coating and I’m hate watching at this point.They also seem to be careening towards The Great Matter which seems to defeat the show’s purpose, to explore Katherine’s life as queen and marriage to Henry before all of that. There was enough drama in the years before Anne Boleyn came along, there’s no need for Katherine to stomp around in armor and Henry to declare he wants a “wife, not a solider”.

The death of Henry, Duke of Cornwall is one of those great “what if” moments, as if he had lived to adulthood there would likely have been no Great Matter, no English Reformation (at least in the way it happened), no Elizabeth I. For a while I’ve been mulling over an idea of an alternative history where Henry lived, which I know has been done before, but I’m more interested in Mary Tudor and how different her life would have been. Add it to all the other ideas for novels I think about a lot but will probably never write!