I read it recently in Greek. (I still don’t believe how many books are out there that I can’t find in English.) It was my first by Karen Branson and I was surprised by her voice. Readers who love Phantom of the Opera but not necessarily Christine should read Professor Klenow and a whole new world will open for them. A genius in Philosophy, a cynic in his core and most of all--mainly because of the impact it has on him--an extremely ugly man, Professor Klenow is the first to ridicule his appearance. More than that, his imminent blindness urges the reader to feel sorry for him and wish Elise (the woman he saved from suicide at first and then from her awful--yet three-dimensional-- villainous father) returned his “love”. Everything seems familiar, isn’t it? I read a review where Professor Klenow was compared to Quasimodo but Erik --and his genius-- was instantly brought to mind. Especially when young, beautiful Elize falls for the young, handsome sculptor. But is “Love” was the Professor feels? Branson dissects the feelings that other writers cover under the huge umbrella called “love”. Possessiveness --real, ugly possessiveness-- the need to control the other, manipulation, lies, emotional blackmail, use of intellect to rule the less…cunning. The ruthless use of the pity one induces to others. Everything that in subtle, small doses defines human relationships is there, until Professor Klenow slowly yet gradually comes out as a sadistic, merciless man, using every power he has to keep a woman captured in a way that brings to mind John Fowles and The Collector. Imagine that according to a quick search I did, Karen Bramson wrote this in 1923, 13 years after Leroux’s Phantom of the Opera and 40 years before The Collector.
I’m an avid fan of POTO but I find Branson’s play almost modern in its economy (the medium of course helps) and fresh in its feminist view. I also managed to appreciate more Leroux’s final scene --the redemption of his main character. (If you read “Professor Klenow” you might get an idea what would have happened in one of the most common “what if” questions most fans have.) I admit there are spoilers in my review but since this is a rare book I hope this becomes a reason for one to read it in case there’s a copy forgotten in a library…somewhere. (Darn! I feel as one of Ray Bradury’s characters in Fahrenheit 451. My memory keeps books alive...) Anyway, Karen Branson's play is short and certainly worth the reading rollercoaster for someone who has read POTO. In the end, Professor Klenow ends up a victor in his battle with Beauty, revealing a struggle that had nothing to do with Love and everything to do with conquering and possessing...a war with strategies, victims and casualties that as all wars leaves a bitter taste in the mouth. PS: According to Wikipedia the book could be written in 1902 with its first title being “The Strongest” something that makes it written before Leroux’s Phantom AND brings all interesting Freudian and Darwinian thoughts in mind.
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Étienne and Eliane Bertillon are certainly not Romeo and Juliet -- I’m so glad for that and I bet they are, too! -- but the way we “hear” a hero’s name in a story is something quite serious and very, very personal. I felt a rather unsettling feeling when I realized that on some occasions (and there were a lot!) the way I heard some characters’ names in my head was completely different than what the author intended. After the initial shock, I concluded that these heroes were even closer to my heart and more part of me than the rest I pronounced right. Other times it was a matter of decision. For example, the first edition of Michael Strogoff is this: I couldn’t cope with that Michel Strogoff so I turned it to Michael Strogoff (the way any English speaker would find the book in order to read it.) Still, in my mind he’ll always be Michail Strogoff as I first read his name (in a Greek translation of the book.) After all, the "indeed a man" according to the Czar himself lived in 19th century Russia. (Anyone knowing Russian here?) Anyway, I got more than a couple of readers who were wondering about the way Étienne’s and Eliane’s names in Time Not Wasted are pronounced--or to be more accurate… how I hear their names in my head because as I found out there are plenty of ways to pronounce them. At first I searched online (of course!) and found this YouTube video. It sounds a bit robotic, isn't it?
There is a video where the accent in "Eliane" is on the first syllable but I don't like that at all! "Eliane" is pronounced ehL-iy-AE-N while for "Étienne" the best I found were "et-ee-N" and "Ate-T-ann". Something between these two is what I hear. We should not forget that the people live in France (in another universe, late 19th cent Southern France which still exists just for our sake’s--isn’t Fiction a blast?) so I prefer the intonation to be on the last syllables. I think this is a reason I stayed away from an audiobook conversion. French accents tend to sound ridiculous when tried by actors. And after all, I don’t hear a French accent when I read their inner thoughts. They think in their mind’s language and if that happens to be in French but we listen to it in English… this is another one of Fiction’s little miracles. Finally, the video I found for "Bertillon" was awful! For starters, it had a very clear-sounding "LL" and an "R" that could pierce my ears. (I'm not embedding it here to save you!) Again: this is French! I wish I had native speaker to help me but I never heard such a clear “R” in any of the French movies I watched--and they are a lot! Please don’t get discouraged if what you hear while reading the story is totally different than what it's “supposed to be”. That only makes the reading experience more personal. In the end, a name does not really affect who one is, “that which we call a rose by any other word would smell as sweet” as even that silly girl who died due to a misunderstanding --a.k.a. Juliet-- knew very well. Useless trivia: did you know that Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet based on another story written earlier with a very-very-very similar plot? I don’t recall the author’s name at the moment but I have read it. Let me tell you: the mastery of the craftsmanship makes ALL the difference! In that earlier version Juliet dies by … holding her breath. And useless trivia No2: I picked the name “Bertillon” after Alphonse Bertillon, the Frenchman who introduced the "Bertillonage", a system of criminal identification that was named after him. It was based on the finding that several measures of physical features, such as the dimensions of bony structures in the body remain fairly constant throughout adult life. Still, as disclaimers say “Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.” After all, my Bertillon is a convicted murderer. ;-) Inside the Story: Time Not Wasted /chapter 22 or “the advantages of being a non-world famous writer”23/3/2018 I’ve heard that there are writers who pay other people to do the research for them. I guess that goes for well-known, international bestselling writers who have a tight -- writing -- schedule (believe me! I have a tight schedule, too.) My feelings are ambiguous. Doing research in hackers and bank scandals for another story was tedious at times but more than once research led me into unfamiliar paths, added depth and extra layers that I couldn’t have imagined possible before. You can bet I didn’t know of “push daggers” before Time Not Wasted. I didn’t know of poisonous mushrooms, too, but that’s another chapter’s post. I researched for daggers for Bertillon’s tattoo and that alone was a treasure hunt. (more about it below…) This is the best push dagger image I found and it pretty much says it all. I wonder… did you get that image when you read Étienne’s description? (Of course the dagger in his case was not professionally made and not so sturdy or he would be dead.) Anyway, reading about life in prison was not the merriest subject -- sometimes research can be depressing. Other times, it brought a smile on my face-- I couldn’t help it when I read that Jean Valjean could NOT have worked as a galley slave as is implied in the book because the galleys at Toulon didn’t operate after 1748. They were shut down before his time there. The Gorden Age of reform for French prisons was in the years 1820-1840 where significant changes happened (for example they stopped taking the property of convicted criminals -- a policy that allowed Étienne much later -- late 19th cent.-- to return rich to his village.) Still, reading that riots in prisons were very few because prisoners most common fate was break down or suicide... It was hard. Money and the intimidation of rape were ruling in prison life and prisoners more than words used their bodies to convey their stories, their preferences, their identity. And then I discovered Mauvais Garcon: Portraits de tatoués (1890-1930). In English it’s freely translated “Bad Boys: Tattoos' Portraits”. I don’t know about the origin and authenticity of all the photos there -- there is one in particular that feels new to me, the stare of the man almost familiar, haunting -- but if you Google it, you’ll be amazed. And then there is the story of Dr. Vilette.
I honestly don’t remember whether I thought about a man collecting human skins first, then searched for it and found that it actually existed (I was doing a research on skin and grafts at the time) or researched about prisons tattoos and read about it but the mere fact that a man collecting human skins actually existed gave me confidence in writing. Of course, Dr. Villette in real life is supposed to be a surgeon that carefully extracted tattoos from autopsies of French soldiers and preserved them. He acquired more that 300 skins for the Wellcome Collection. (Extracted tattoos are on display at the Wellcome Library in London and I only now connect dots about the way the mind works regarding another “Library” for my other graft-related story.) Of course in my story I didn’t use his name. Not only is there no point in this but I had the freedom to have the collector visit the prison and work with the guards. If one is a collector of something so unique and rare would he wait for dead soldiers or go to his own, personal “Garden of Eden” where all kinds of tattoos were at his reach? In conclusion, research for a story equals inspiration (and it’s the best recipe for writer’s block if ever anyone suffers from one… says knocking wood.) How about you? How do you feel about tattoos? Well, when I realized that what drew me more to India was books like A Passage to India by E.M. Forster and films like "Gandhi" I turned to my real love, books and films! Anyway, that belongs to another post because today the formatting Odyssey is finally over! (The formatting Odyssey also belongs to another post --any writer that is interested feel free to contact me-- I took all the wrong paths before taking the right ones!) I was thinking how Time Not Wasted started and in a way it was inspired by the other story I was writing at the time. That one was so dark at times that I needed to let my mind wander elsewhere. In a sort of a fairy tale land. Not that in Time Not Wasted people are dancing in the fields collecting roses (even though some gathering the fruits of love IS mentioned) but that was the best I could do for not having too much angst. After all, fairy tales are not angst-free! Another inspiration was a Start Up/Young Entrepreneur course I took years ago.
It’s Greece, you know, the crisis has hit us full force and we all try to reinvent ourselves. No need to say that I’m not an entrepreneur material and marketing is NOT my strong suit but what I learned is that writers and entrepreneurs are not so different. They both think about their ideas all day long and they both have very few possibilities to succeed! Anyway, one day a lecturer said that time is very important and delegating was the best solution when one could use this earned time to do more productive things. I looked around at all those people who heard the lecture with hungry eyes, dreaming of money and success -- the immediate solution to most of their problems -- and I realized how important time really is. One can make money but can he make time? When Odysseus met Achilles in Hades in Odyssey Achilles told him that he’d exchange all his fame and glory for a simple, long life. I don’t know what your relationship with time is (even though I’d like to know!) and surely the point is not living our lives worried that we waste time. The point is to make every moment count, to make it “not wasted” and reading was always one of the activities I never regretted or considered a waste of time. It’s been years since I read Milan Koundera’s (The Unbearable Lightness of Being, The Joke etc) Laughable Loves but when I read something about a certain character of his I knew this is it! Don’t get me wrong! I have little in common with the womanizer Dr. Havel (a secondary character in the book) but when it comes to his attitude towards women… it’s the exact same as my attitude towards books. To make a long story short there is a scene in the book where Dr. Havel shows his indifference -- to say it politely -- to a nurse who openly expresses her desire for him. A colleague asks him why on earth he denies Nurse Elisabet. After all, Dr. Havel Is Like Death; He Takes Everything. At this Dr. Havel (and Kundera) replies with the exceptional dialogue: "Chief, don't get mad at me for that. It's not because she isn't pretty and is getting on in years. Believe me, I've had women still uglier and far older." "Yes, it's a well-known fact about you: you're like death; you take everything. But if you take everything, why don't you take Elisabet?" "Maybe," said Havel, "it's because she shows her desire so conspicuously that it resembles an order. You say that I am like death in relation to women. But not even death likes to be given an order." Well, this describes my situation with books to a tee. I read everything! (and I don't like orders.) From experimental literature (no comment) to the lowest forms of printed material-- the ones where the ink stains your fingers and the paper is so thin that it‘s almost see-through. I can’t help myself. I think it’s a disease (or a secret power) where every written text works like a beacon for me. When I see written text it’s as if I see an image, a neon sign trying to lure me with its hypnotizing, subconscious “Read Me” message. I’ve been a victim of my vulnerability more times than I can count. I’ve enjoyed Dostoyevsky and Austen and then a trashy novel the way a bulimic eats a fine Mont Blanc -- the dessert... and then devours a greasy burger. My saving grace is that I enjoy both type of readings enormously! For different reasons. In different ways. (To be honest, bad stories are more inspiring than good ones but that’s another post…) So, Gabriel Garcia Marquez? Hemingway? Rowling? King? Tolstoy? Mary Webb? Dumas? Verne? Vonnegut? Meyers? Susan Elizabeth Philips? Balogh? Kleypas? Gaskell? Dürrenmatt? Green? They’re all there, very much alive, partying inside my head. No discriminations. No prejudices. Just Pride. I can’t say that I enjoy them all the same. I haven’t read and reread all of their stories. But I’ve been richer because of them. Wealthier and believe me… healthier. I have even read shifters stories (I’m still waiting for a good one in this genre and I‘m certain that it CAN BE DONE because in a way this could a be a new Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde crossroads with Lady Chatterley‘s Lover -- you know the “uncivilized side” of man etc etc.) *At this point I have a ridiculous confession to make: I was relieved to find out that this kind of stories had heroes who can shift into animals. I guess this is a Twilight side effect along with a Game of Thrones influence (how many dragons are out there?) Anyway, at first and getting used to the awful Cover-Language (another post needed for that) that has nothing but men with abs on the covers -- turning reading a book into a public disgrace-- I had made some instant connections: A man with a naked torso = A romance. A man and a woman in a semi-clothed state = erotica (more or less). Two men = gay novel. According to that logic what a man and a bear or a man and a wolf means? (You get the point.) Okay, the misunderstanding lasted seconds (until I read the first summary) but you can bet my eyes popped out. Anyway, that leads us to the soul-searching question: What kind of reader are you? Which is the best and the worst book you’ve read? Okay, maybe not the absolute best and the absolute worst --that’s a tough question-- but you get the point. Don’t be shy to share... * Purist (plural purists) n believer in traditional standards: somebody who insists on maintaining something in its traditional form Searching online for the perfect “My Favorite Things” video for my “About” page I wondered… How much of a purist I really am? (I thought I wasn’t. At all! I swear! ) But I’m also a Libra so indecision is in my DNA, in my blood (as Étienne of my Time Not Wasted would say.) So what is it going to be? Julie Andrews or Youn Sun Nah? Kelly Clarkson or Sarah Vaughan? How about Al Jarreau? And why even though I like many different versions and I love it when singers and composers experiment with the original version adding their flavor, why did I pick Julie Andrews? Am I a purist? What about you? Jane Austen is not to be messed with or you’re more open-minded as long as there’s the main concept and a decent Mr. Darcy? I’ve read my share of P&P variations, alternative universes and alternate histories to the point my eyes bled (I draw a line on Pride and Prejudice and Zombies-- masochism has its limits.) I never complained. A good story is a good story. If the characters are not developed well, well then it’s not a good story. And “variations”-- is fanfiction a bad word?-- is not an excuse for the lazy writer. I’m not a snob either. (There IS a post about the kind of reader I am!) If fanfiction is good I’ll throw a party --it’s free!-- and read it! Still, why Julie Andrews? After all, highbrow contemporary Art and Postproduction are good old buddies for years. No bad blood between them. Why can’t I get past the “The Sound of Music” version? Is it Christmas? Have I connected the song with long TV nights watching musicals and movies in black and white? I’m puzzled because my mind is totally in favor of revisiting old songs, old heroes, old stories. In Greek the word for “Tradition” means also “Rendition”, “Surrender”. Is “surrendering” the liberty to get interpreted in whatever way and by whoever sees it fit the only way for the Old to stay alive, the only way for the Young to produce something new? Because --it’s no news-- creativity follows the steps of others and takes the path a little bit further. That's all. There would be no Herlock Sholmes without Sherlock Holms but also without Maurice Leblanc, the author of the amazing gentleman-thief Arsène Lupin. (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle objected to Leblanc using his Sherlock Holms hero so Herlock Sholmes was created.) No! I need Arsène Lupin in my life! If Conan Doyle had a problem with it at the time, that time was so long ago that there is no much point in thinking about it now. He should be flattered! He should have "surrendered". (But then Herlock Sholmes would not have been alive… hmm…) Conclusion: I’m not a purist. I’m indecisive. I’m a Libra. What can I do if it’s in the stars? How can I fight the stars? (Well, maybe there is an answer after all…) What do you think? |
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