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MADNESS ACROSS TIME
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MADNESS ACROSS TIME |
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miscellanea Member Elite
since 2004-06-24
Posts 4060OH |
The image of Juana la Loca, daughter of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, comes forward when thinking of Marissa, a twentieth century mother. Although, Marissa would never experience the dangerous month at sea or the fleet of twenty-two thousand persons, she would experience as great a loss as Joan would upon the death of her prince, Philip the Handsome. If Joan would have been more aware, she may have seen the signs that foretold her to retreat. She may have viewed her seasickness and the loss of three sunken ships as an indicator. Perhaps, she would have felt a void when being unable to communicate with Philip in her native language or even in Latin. Despite the language barrier, they fell silent, full of lustful energy. Immediately, Philip summoned the nearest cleric to wed them before taking her to his bed. The next day, they were “officially” married within the Church to complete the union of the two and the joining of Spanish and Austrian ambitions. Unlike Juana, Marissa hadn’t fallen within the benefits of an aristocratic family, nor did she have the opportunities of private teachers such as Antonio and Alessandro Gerandino. Even though she had earned her schooling in the small town of Limpston, Indiana, Marissa’s achievements were noteworthy. She, too, had been hard working, artistic, and intelligent, and consequently, had been awarded a full university scholarship. However, at seventeen, the beautiful, young Marissa wore her passion on her sleeve, just as her fifteenth century counterpart, Juana, had worn hers. As youth, they both had married, both crazy about their man, eager to fill any need, to give fully of self. For Juana, it was the sacrifice of her soul, yearning to fill every need of her magnificent Philip, who had commenced drinking, resuming his well-known flirtations, and dalliances elsewhere. The more flagrantly unfaithful he was, the more madly in love and jealous she became, with her moods ranging from hot tempered to depressed. Things grew worse after that September of his twenty-eighth year when he suffered from chills and a fever. Philip the Handsome died. Upon her pregnancy and his death, she could barely separate herself from corpse of her beloved husband, caressing it and kissing its feet. “Had she gone mad?” Had Marissa, too, gone mad, in the turn of her life’s events? Happiness was once at her doorstep with its afternoon greetings of her husband and two little girls, one six years old, and the other eight. Within an instant, a time when she was aloof…a time she did not read the signs, or hear the rhythmic clicking of the wheels in motion on the track… Within that moment, life left her mangled and limp with the Jaws of Life peeling away the dead skin of the auto. Her babies, dead. It was years later when I met Marissa. She was a shabby looking woman, with unkempt skin, and dirty hair. It was matted like I had imagined the hair of the alleged mad woman,a queen held prisoner in the castle of Tordesillas. I wanted to reach out to her with just the right words, but I didn’t know her language, and, as sad as her language was, hoped I never would know it. ~miscellanea~ *author’s note: Although this is basically all non-fiction, I changed the ages of Marissa's children and, of course, gave her a false name. I have had the pleasure of being acquainted with the real “Marissa” and her surviving daughter. Their beauty is far beyond cloth and bubble baths. I remembered some information about Juana la Loca from High School Spanish, but I relied on the following website to refresh my memory and provide detail: www.xs4all.nl/`kvenjb/madmonarchs/juana/juana_tekst.htm [This message has been edited by miscellanea (09-20-2004 09:47 PM).] |
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| © Copyright 2004 Cathy Farmer - All Rights Reserved | |||
Larry C
since 2001-09-10
Posts 10286United States |
You do well weaving history into the present. I wouldn't know where to begin and yet you make it look so easy. Liked everything about this Cathy.  If tears could build a stairway and memories a lane, I'd walk right up to heaven and bring you home again. |
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miscellanea Member Elite
since 2004-06-24
Posts 4060OH |
Larry, Now to me, it's a story like you write that seems so easy for you, and would be difficult for me! You manage to say just the right words in the right space! Glad you liked it. Regardless of the appearance, writing doesn't come easy for me. It takes a lot of thinking time. This piece took all day. I know I should make outlines or webs to help the process, but I don't know what will happen until the words fill in and erase by themselves. There is one spot here that didn't erase that should have, but I'll leave it due to eagerness to publish! Thanks for taking the time to read and comment. I really appreciate it. Cathy |
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merlynh Member
since 1999-09-26
Posts 411deer park, wa |
Since I find you also are realistic about you’re writing process. I thought you might value some of my favorite writing quotes. I find a certain about of comfort with the things I am dealing with while looking for answers. You are not alone in being realistic. “Writing is easy. All you do is stare at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead.”—Gene Fowler. I have found your cake delightful, and see beyond the icing. “To expect some people to learn to write by showing them a published essay or book is like expecting novice bakers to learn to make a wedding cake from looking at the completed confection, resplendent with icing and decorations . . . no matter how hard you look, it's almost impossible to detect . . . much about the process by which it was composed - the numerous visions and revisions . . . the effort, frustration, even exhilaration.” -- Lynn Z. Bloom, The Essay Connection. It is obvious down inside you know good writing. "Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader -- not the fact that it is raining, but the feeling of being rained upon." -- E.L. Doctorow: Most of all I’d like to share what is real about your efforts, which a writer gets in return. It is a delicious thing to write, to be no longer yourself but to move in an entire universe of your own creating. Today, for instance, as a man and woman, both lover and mistress, I rode in a forest on an autumn afternoon under the yellow leaves, and I was also the horses, the leaves, the wind, the words my people uttered, even the red sun that made them almost close their love-drowned eyes. When I brood over these marvelous pleasures I have enjoyed, I would be tempted to offer God a prayer of thanks if I knew he could hear me. Praised may he be for not creating me a cotton merchant, a vaudevillian, or a wit.—Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880) |
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wllz.on.ice Junior Member
since 2004-09-07
Posts 35the united kingdom. |
I wish i knew how to reply in a more fruitful fasion than i like it :P but here goes: i liked it. good writing mis |
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Larry C
since 2001-09-10
Posts 10286United States |
Cathy, It just proves your commitment to your craft. If I can't get it cranked out in five or ten minutes I put it away. And may or may not look at it again. If it flows later in a matter of minutes it gets written. Lazy at heart...  If tears could build a stairway and memories a lane, I'd walk right up to heaven and bring you home again. [This message has been edited by Larry C (09-21-2004 10:35 PM).] |
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Skyfire
since 2000-12-27
Posts 3381Riding |
Wow. This is just brilliant and then He created the horse... |
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miscellanea Member Elite
since 2004-06-24
Posts 4060OH |
Merlyn, I find your those quotes very entertaining and valuable, especially the first and last, but the in-between ones were great, too. I appreciate your encouragement. I'm usually a flitter, flitting from one interest to another. It will be hard for me to maintain the desire or find the time to write, I imagine, when I go back to work. I wish I didn't have to return and could begin a novel of some sort. My sister, "iliana", who writes poetry on Piptalk, wants me to write historical fiction or nonfiction for kids in the 10-13 year old range. I don't know. Does it take a long time to write a novel? How long does it take before an author can find himself within the story, perceiving it as it happens, in detail? Questions, questions! Thanks for stopping back. Have a good week, merlyn. cathy |
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miscellanea Member Elite
since 2004-06-24
Posts 4060OH |
wllz.on.ice, Your reply was fine and much appreciated! I get all tongue-tied and can't say anything when I reply to others work, poetry especially. Everything I say seems trite or stilted! Thanks for taking the time to read and reply! Incidently, welcome to Passions! It is nice to have you aboard! cathy/mis |
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miscellanea Member Elite
since 2004-06-24
Posts 4060OH |
Larry, Have you got a timer? We'll see how long this commitment lasts! I'm like you on my poetry in the fact that I want to write it in just a few minutes. Usually I do, but...the product may be questionable! Take care, Larry. cathy/misc. |
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miscellanea Member Elite
since 2004-06-24
Posts 4060OH |
Larry, Have you got a timer? We'll see how long this commitment lasts! I'm like you on my poetry in the fact that I want to write it in just a few minutes. Usually I do, but...the product may be questionable! Take care, Larry. cathy/misc'a |
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miscellanea Member Elite
since 2004-06-24
Posts 4060OH |
Skyfire, Jeepers, I didn't expect that! Thank you. I find most of my best thinking and planning come around 3:ish in the morning when I'm mostly asleep! At that time, things don't have to make sense, a good time for creativity to seep in. If I got a decent night's sleep, I probably couldn't even write my name, let alone a prose! Thank you, again for your kind reply. Cathy/misc'e |
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iliana Member Patricius
since 2003-12-05
Posts 13434USA |
This was good, Misc'e. Quite a large story in the short write! Love you, jo |
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merlynh Member
since 1999-09-26
Posts 411deer park, wa |
A question to how a person writes comes in time. It took many years of writing nonsense before I even realized it didn’t have much value. Poetry turned into short stories and when I found a desire to have a clearer meaning in a longer form. I lost the deeper feelings I had in poetry and the short stories were no longer as cute in a longer form. After many years I discovered that a different type of writing was required to accomplish the task. Ergo came the desire to be a novelist, which I had no idea would be the outcome in the first place. Does it take a long time to write a novel? I’ve read a novelist writes eighty pages a day and it does seem to take that much persistent desire to write a publishable novel. I’ve found this to be true for myself. One story I’ve been working on for a year I’ve decided to chalk up for experience though I know parts of it will end up as part of another. Sometimes I work three days straight without sleeping because I get so involved in the work. The fooling around with the idea of being a writer becomes a serious matter when you get so much time into a piece and the whole idea of the writing process changes. I’ve found the type of writing required for the task has to be very persistent without an end in sight; composing without the knowledge whether it’s the middle, end, or beginning until the story is finished. Until a large amount of information has to come about by the telling of the story, the author does not have any idea of what the whole picture my look like, and then is only able to understand the larger scope of what really has be accomplished. It’s not really has hard as I’ve made it sound. It’s like putting together several short stories, which become a larger more beautiful one that can not be told in a short form to give it justice. I’ve read that most novelists can write a book every three months while others take years. How long does it take before an author can find himself within the story, perceiving it as it happens, in detail? I’m sure Gustave Flaubert realized this while working on his novel Madame Bovary, which he wrote in 1857. I imagine it is what accredited him for his precise literary style. I had a character I created in short story, a toothless dragon, clowning around I told someone the story I added, the dragon has been asking me for a larger roll in the story. After rewriting the story several times trying to make it into a longer format for some reason I was lead to make him a more important character, which I hadn’t given any thought to what he may look like. But when I found myself describing him I actually saw him in my mind and he become real. I don’t know whether or not you’ve heard that the characters write the story. Well it’s true mine do; all the time, only I never had one come to life before in my mind. It’s odd I guess but when writing becomes you whole life in a serious way things do happen in a strange sort of way that can not be explained. "Characters are not created by writers. They preexist and have to be found." --Elizabeth Bowen Perhaps I found a character, but the more that I think about this one he seems to be different than all the other I’ve created. Anyway he wants to go for a walk and show me around this enchanted forest before he gets into telling his story. Seems like I got the whole thing wrong in the other one. I figure I’ll give him a chance. “But I’m gong to tell you from the start guy. I don’t write in a short format anymore. So this better be good!” He looks back in a toothless grin like some old man who forgot to put his teeth in his mouth. “Oh? It will be,” he assures me, while stepping on a fern which becomes part of the smashed grass as he lifts his foot. I think to myself, who knows he be able to tell a story better than I can? Noticing his laugh and a small puff of black smoke. “I’ve been meaning to ask you about that,” as his eyebrows widen. “I know. Lets just stick to the telling part right now. We’ll get into the rest of the stuff later.” © 2004 by Merlyn Hearn |
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miscellanea Member Elite
since 2004-06-24
Posts 4060OH |
Fascinating, Merlyn. You've been extremely helpful. I appreciate it and your motivation! This expounds upon the conversation iliana (my sister and a poetic PIP poster here) had the other day. I've got an idea, but I didn't know where to go with it. She told me to look at all my acquaintenances and friends and pick out the mischievious parts, perhaps, bulking them into one character (for this particular writing). I need to work harder on this! I have question after question to ask. For example, I'd like to use a famous place around here as a setting, a place where I knew people were losing their homes. I want to write a fiction around that non fiction setting without opening a can of worms because of the distortion I would cause. For what age group do you write? Have you published? Offhand, I think, Yes! Thanks, Merlyn. I'll brainstorm with my half of a character and see what we can come up with. I won't be publishing this on the web, but perhaps I can e-mail you bits and pieces? cathy |
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merlynh Member
since 1999-09-26
Posts 411deer park, wa |
Drop me an email so we can corespond. merlyn007@email.com |
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JamesMichael Member Empyrean
since 1999-11-16
Posts 33336Kapolei, Hawaii, USA |
Enjoyed...James |
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