Revolution in the Muslim World

It's not what you think. Professor and author Philip Jenkins makes some fascinating observations. (Via The Marriage Debate) To quote:

In just the last thirty years or so, those very Middle Eastern countries that used to teem with children and adolescents have gone through a startling demographic transformation. Since the mid-1970s, Algeria's fertility rate has collapsed from over 7 to 1.75, Tunisia's from 6 to 2.03, Morocco's from 6.5 to 2.21, Libya's from 7.5 to 2.96. Today, Algeria's rate is roughly equivalent to that of Denmark or Norway; Tunisia's is comparable to France. Counter-intuitively, that remark about "the closer to Rome" also holds good on the southern, Muslim, side of the Mediterranean.

Just what is happening here? Everything depends on the changing attitudes and expectation of the women in these once highly-traditional societies. Across the region, women have become increasingly involved in higher education, and have moreover moved into full-time employment. That sea-change simply makes it unthinkable for women to manage a rampaging tribe of seven or eight children. Often, too, images of women's proper role in life have been upended by extended contacts with Europe. Migrants to France or Italy return home with changed attitudes, while families who stay at home find it hard to avoid the media portrayals of Western lives they see via cable and satellite dish. Maybe Europe and the Middle East are merging into one common Eurabia - but it's far from clear which side is doing a better job of imposing its opinions on the other. Presently, it looks as if the Maghreb is becoming European.

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Song of Renewal

Emily Sue Harvey's debut novel Song of Renewal was difficult for me to read at first. The family portrayed was so perfect that it was almost cloying. However, when the only daughter, a blonde cheerleader and All-American princess, sneaks away to make herself vomit up her supper, it becomes obvious that the perfection is only a brittle veneer. Eliza (the mother) defies (the father) Garrison's wish that Angel (the daughter) stay safely at home on a dark and stormy night. With Eliza's blessing, Angel and her boyfriend go for a drive in the storm; a terrible car accident ensues. The family shatters like glass.

Not only is Angel in a coma, but her boyfriend Troy dies in the accident. The hopes of two families are destroyed, although Troy's family does not come into the story much. Liza, who had a traumatic childhood, is thrust into maelstrom of past guilt and old wounds as she waits to discover whether her daughter will survive. Garrison is confronted with his own past demons. I thought it was annoying of Liza to blame Garrison for everything but I suppose she was speaking from her own guilt, since she was the one who encouraged the young people to go out in the rain. I found her a little spoiled and narcissistic in spite of (or maybe because of) her dysfunctional childhood.

While the tragedy is of the kind anyone would find heartbreaking to read about, I had trouble relating to the characters' ways of dealing with the ordeal. Of course, people have different ways of coping with pain and I suppose becoming more self-absorbed is one way of feeling better. The character I liked the best was Charlcy, Liza's older sister. Charlcy is the one who protected Liza from the abuse of their seriously deranged mother while growing up. Charlcy is the opposite of Eliza in that her life is openly a mess; she does not mince words and lets everyone know what she thinks. The most pathetic character is Angel, who even while she was healthy lived a life of many layers of deception. It is interesting that Charlcy, who bore the brunt of physical and psychological abuse, has it more together than Angel of the perfect family and perfect childhood. Perhaps it is because Angel's parents were trying to work out their unresolved issues through her rather than parenting her in a mature manner. At any rate, Angel's long hospitalization becomes a catalyst for self-examination and the renewal of relationships.

Anyone who enjoys novels with a great deal of psychological introspection will find Song of Renewal to be a rewarding read. I think it would make a fine made-for-television movie on the Lifetime Movie Channel or the Gospel Music Channel.  It is a story of ordinary people getting through extraordinary circumstances with grace and grit, finding courage they did not know they had. Most especially it is about how God can bring good out of anything, a truth of which I for one need to be reminded over and over again.

(*NOTE: Song of Renewal was sent to me by the publisher in exchange for my honest opinion.) Share

Civil War Fantasies

Thomas DiLorenzo reviews a frivolous piece on the War Between the States by Paul Krugman. To quote:

Krugman said he has always been infatuated by the "symbolism" of Lee’s surrender at Appomattox, with "Lee the patrician in his dress uniform," compared to General Grant, who was "still muddy and disheveled from hard riding." Krugman is apparently unaware that by the late 1850s, on the eve of the war, Robert E. Lee was in his thirtieth year as an officer in the United States Army, performing mostly as a military engineer. He was hardly a "patrician" or member of a ruling class. Grant, by contrast, was the overseer of an 850-acre slave plantation owned by his wealthy father-in-law. The plantation, located near St. Louis, was known as "White Haven" (which sounds like it could have been named by the KKK) and is today a national park. (On the "White Haven" Web site the National Park Service euphemistically calls Grant the "manager" of the slave plantation rather than the more historically-accurate word "overseer"). 

In 1862 Lee freed the slaves that his wife had inherited, in compliance with his father in-law’s will. Grant’s White Haven slaves were not freed until an 1865 Missouri emancipation law forced Grant and his father-in-law to do so. The fact that Lee changed clothes before formally surrendering did not instantly turn the 36-year army veteran into a "patrician," contrary to the "all-knowing" Krugman’s assertion....

The North waged war on Southern civilians for four long years, murdering at least 50,000 of them according to historian Jeffrey Rogers Hummel. It bombed cities like Atlanta for days at a time when they were occupied by no one but civilians, and U.S. Army soldiers looted, ransacked, and raped their way all throughout the South. The "arts of peace" indeed.

As for the war being a victory of "manners," as Krugman says, consider this: When the women of New Orleans refused to genuflect to U.S. Army troops who were occupying their city and killing their husbands, sons and brothers, General Benjamin "Beast" Butler issued an order that all the women of that city were to henceforth be treated as prostitutes. "As the officers and soldiers of the United States have been subject to repeated insults from the women . . . of New Orleans," Butler wrote in his General Order Number 28 on May 15, 1862, "it is ordered that thereafter when any female shall, by word, gesture, or movement, insult or show contempt for any officer or soldier of the United States, she shall be regarded and held liable to be treated as a woman of the town plying her avocation." Butler’s order was widely construed as a license for rape, and he was condemned by the whole world. Ah, those Yankee "manners."

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Gone With the Wind (1939)

It is one of my favorite films, although I can no longer bring myself to watch the sad ending. Many today criticize GWTW for being racist or for showing too flowery a picture of the Old South. However, the story is told from Scarlett's point of view; there would be many things about the dark side of life that as a sheltered young lady she would not know about. As far as racism goes, what we now call racist is just how it was back then. If the film had not shown it that way, then it would have been too sanitized and completely unrealistic. I do think the character of Mammy is one of the strongest female film personalities of all time. Even though Mammy has no civil rights for most of the film, she is a person of impeachable character and dignity, a pillar of strength for Scarlett and for the rest of the family. While she herself is a woman of honor, maintaining very high standards for herself (and for those whom she loves), she is nevertheless the only person besides Rhett who sees Scarlett for what she really is but loves her anyway. Mammy is the last word in class as far as I am concerned. Women like her held everything together after the War or at least tried to. At any rate, Gareth Russell has a spot on review. To quote:

For me, Gone with the Wind is really a story about survival. There are moments in the movie which are heart-breakingly beautiful to look at, the casting of every part is near-perfect, especially the four leads - Scarlett O'Hara, smuggler and ladies' man Rhett Butler (played by Clark Gable), book-loving Southern aristocrat Ashley Wilkes (another British actor, Leslie Howard) and the demure, gentle and devout Melanie Hamilton, Ashley's wife (Olivia de Havilland.) Gone with the Wind is a wonderful, epic movie about a  lead character whose actions are often thoroughly worthy of condemnation, but who somehow always manages to be admirable. Even, weirdly, likeable. It is a fantastic love story, a great war movie, one of the most magnificent costume dramas of all time, a flawless adaptation of a bestselling novel and a moment of cinema history. I can still remember the first time I saw it, by accident, on TCM late one night, whilst channel hopping. I knew it had been my late grandmother's favourite movie but I was definitely under the impression it was campy, melodramatic, long and boring. Not that they're words that usually leave my mouth - but, I was wrong. Take an afternoon and a massive amount of popcorn and it's unlikely that Gone with the Wind will disappoint.

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Antal Szerb's Marie-Antoinette

The 6th Floor of The New York Times has an interesting quote from Antal Szerb's book called The Queen's necklace. Szerb was a Hungarian Catholic Jew who perished in the Holocaust. His criticism of Marie-Antoinette is different from the usual clichés. Szerb maintains that instead of being aloof and remote from the people the Queen was too close to the people, writing:

When a ruling class starts to show understanding and pity for the lower orders, idealizing them in verse, arguing over plans for reform and how to better their lot, it is a fine thing, history tells us, and a sign of genuine nobility. But on the one hand it does very little for these same lower orders, and on the other, it augurs very badly for the ruling class. It is a sign that it has lost its self-belief, lost faith in its own divinely ordered superiority: in short, it has lost its raison d’être….

The same applies to Marie Antoinette. It was all very fine, thoroughly human and extremely worthy of her that she should love nature, the people, and the whole romantic ideal that would bring the Revolution to a triumphant head. That she hated stiff Spanish formality and wanted to be just one person among others was deeply sympathetic in her. But it is not the business of a Queen to be human.

I do not completely agree; I think that Marie-Antoinette was quite aware of the dignity of her position. Nevertheless, it is an interesting point. More about Szerb's book, HERE.

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The Cause of Empress Zita

From the Mad Monarchist:

God our Father, you redeemed the world by the self-abasement of your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. He who was King became the Servant of all and gave his life as a ransom for many, therefore you have exalted him. 

We ask you that your servant Zita, Empress and Queen, will be raised upon the altars of your Church. In her, you have given us a great example of faith and hope in the face of trials, and of unshakeable trust in your Divine Providence.

We beseech you that alongside her husband, the Blessed Emperor Charles, Zita will become for couples a model of married love and fidelity, and for families a guide in the ways of a truly Christian upbringing. May she who in all circumstances opened her heart to the needs of others, especially the poor and needy, be for us all an example of service and love of neighbour.

Through her intercession, grant our petition (mention here the graces you are asking for). Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

For more info check out the Association for the Beatification of Empress Zita

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The Bestiary in Medieval illumination

An interpretation. Share

André Michaux

André Michaux was a botanist sent by Louis XVI to America to study the plant life there. According to the St. Augustine Record:

About this time of year 322 years ago, French botanist Andre Michaux was visiting in St. Augustine. King Louis XVI sent him to America in 1785 to look for trees to rebuild the forests of France and to collect specimens for the royal gardens and parks. During the 11 years that followed, Michaux would record numerous plants, introduce some of the staples of Southern gardens -- including the camellia -- and nearly get nailed as a spy.

In 1788 he made his way to Spanish East Florida, probably intrigued by the observations and descriptions made by his friend and fellow scientist William Bartram, the leading American botanist of the day....

Michaux was born near the French palace of Versailles, but into a farming family, not the aristocracy. His skill with plants eventually drew recognition from officials in the government of King Louis XVI, but it was the death of his wife while giving birth and his subsequent grief that caused him to accept an opportunity to study botany. While his son was raised by his family, Michaux learned from some of the leading scientists of the day.

In 1782 he was part of a group sent with a new consul to Persia (now Iran). It was a life of adventure, including capture by a hostile tribe. But what thrilled Michaux was the chance to collect new species of plants. He did so well there that he was appointed king's botanist and sent to New York in 1785.

France was desperately in need of new species of trees to rebuild the country's forests, devastated by a series of wars with England. Michaux brought his 15-year-old son with him and quickly went to digging, collecting and sending specimens back to France. He first set up a garden in Hackensack, N.J., and then in 1786, he founded another, larger garden in Charleston. He met with some of the leading citizens of the new United States, including Benjamin Franklin and George Washington.

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The Greatest Urban Legend

A critique of the Liv Ullman film Pope Joan.

With this coming out in the 1970s and all, I'm sure Joan was intended to be a feminist icon. But the ideology of that age couldn't celebrate women without putting down men . . . and there was a point when I wondered whether the movie's theme is that men are responsible for all the problems in the world the Catholic Church every woman's life.

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