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think.com update
Aug. 20th, 2005 12:47 pmWendy J Dunn posted a message to the outside world - I am going to paste it in its entirety, because it says a lot of interesting things. It follows on from earlier conversation, so if you get tangled, just look at earlier blog entries. If anyone wants a bit of info on what sort of work these writers publish, give me a hoy and I will dedicate a post to little biographies and bibliographies and you can work out which books you need to get hold of now and which can wait a few days. Or whatever:
"You know. I think I do understand where Stewart Ross’s is coming from; Tudor History, my particular period of interest has so many people grabbing onto a particular marker for the ending of the Middle Ages: the death of Richard III, the death of Henry VII, the dissolution of the monasteries (I suppose, yet another kind of death), the rise of humanism come to mind tonight. It seems to boil down to your own viewpoint and where you decide to take your stand. Time is like a river winding its way through history – to me, it doesn’t stay still enough to lay claim to definitive markers. ...” The medieval era ended without the sudden fall of the axe, with great variation from one locality to another, one country to another. And like you say so well, Gillian, “the Middle Ages got called the Middle Ages 'cos a bunch of guys in the Renaissance were ... a bit up themselves.” But having said that, I acknowledge I too love the term the Middle Ages. It magically brings to my mind a huge tapestry, intertwining threads of luscious colour and harshness, a symbol and myth all in one.
I utterly love chocolate too and consider that reason enough to give thanks for my physical life here and now. But my mental life is doing a lot of “Middle Ages” world building and it sometimes persuades me that perhaps life in the Middle Ages nourished better those “springs within,” so important to us all. Generally, people then seemed to live more deeply and completely, less obfuscated to what life is all about. But then I remember I do a disservice to people here and now. I know many people who understand what’s really important in life.
The cold of winter has left me a little slower in the morning than my wont, but I am very much a dawn person. I always pause by our large kitchen window on my way to my first coffee (another thing that leaves me thankful to be part of 2005 and not 1400), and watch the gradual build up of light until it streams into my home, listening to all the birds joyously ode to yet another new morn. Writing about the Middle Ages makes me remember that people from earlier times generally rose with the birds too, and I reflect how important this moment is for our spirits; indeed, for the rest of our day.
Being very content in my female gender – I am also grateful that my time and place allows me the freedoms generally not allowed to women of the Middle Ages. I married by choice; my husband is my life partner who does not regard me as his property. I gained an education while raising my first three children (far more difficult in today’s world), taught my daughter to take pride in her gender and speak her mind. That is one lesson she learnt very well, having honed it very well at home and school!
Of course, there are places in our present world where women still live under similar constrictions prevailing in the Middle Ages. The title of Brian Wainwright’s wonderful book uses the metaphor of the fetterlock to convey the subject of his novel. It is a very, very apt description of the reality of women’s lives – then, as well as now, in still too many places and cultures. An important thread of my first novel and my current work is also this fetterlock. If an innocent woman with a ‘stout heart,’ words of Henry VIII himself concerning Anne Boleyn, can end up executed then we see the true state of affairs of their world. Women possessed power only upon the terms allowed to them by their patriarchal society.
But what I really get from my Middle Ages world building is a far better appreciation of the strength and tenacity of women. Then and now – it always make me proud!"
PS from Gillian: There was coffee in 1400 - just not in Europe. I have the right bean type at this very instant, for all those who have forgotten they really wanted to taste it. Shortly it will be gone and then all hints will be in vain.
"You know. I think I do understand where Stewart Ross’s is coming from; Tudor History, my particular period of interest has so many people grabbing onto a particular marker for the ending of the Middle Ages: the death of Richard III, the death of Henry VII, the dissolution of the monasteries (I suppose, yet another kind of death), the rise of humanism come to mind tonight. It seems to boil down to your own viewpoint and where you decide to take your stand. Time is like a river winding its way through history – to me, it doesn’t stay still enough to lay claim to definitive markers. ...” The medieval era ended without the sudden fall of the axe, with great variation from one locality to another, one country to another. And like you say so well, Gillian, “the Middle Ages got called the Middle Ages 'cos a bunch of guys in the Renaissance were ... a bit up themselves.” But having said that, I acknowledge I too love the term the Middle Ages. It magically brings to my mind a huge tapestry, intertwining threads of luscious colour and harshness, a symbol and myth all in one.
I utterly love chocolate too and consider that reason enough to give thanks for my physical life here and now. But my mental life is doing a lot of “Middle Ages” world building and it sometimes persuades me that perhaps life in the Middle Ages nourished better those “springs within,” so important to us all. Generally, people then seemed to live more deeply and completely, less obfuscated to what life is all about. But then I remember I do a disservice to people here and now. I know many people who understand what’s really important in life.
The cold of winter has left me a little slower in the morning than my wont, but I am very much a dawn person. I always pause by our large kitchen window on my way to my first coffee (another thing that leaves me thankful to be part of 2005 and not 1400), and watch the gradual build up of light until it streams into my home, listening to all the birds joyously ode to yet another new morn. Writing about the Middle Ages makes me remember that people from earlier times generally rose with the birds too, and I reflect how important this moment is for our spirits; indeed, for the rest of our day.
Being very content in my female gender – I am also grateful that my time and place allows me the freedoms generally not allowed to women of the Middle Ages. I married by choice; my husband is my life partner who does not regard me as his property. I gained an education while raising my first three children (far more difficult in today’s world), taught my daughter to take pride in her gender and speak her mind. That is one lesson she learnt very well, having honed it very well at home and school!
Of course, there are places in our present world where women still live under similar constrictions prevailing in the Middle Ages. The title of Brian Wainwright’s wonderful book uses the metaphor of the fetterlock to convey the subject of his novel. It is a very, very apt description of the reality of women’s lives – then, as well as now, in still too many places and cultures. An important thread of my first novel and my current work is also this fetterlock. If an innocent woman with a ‘stout heart,’ words of Henry VIII himself concerning Anne Boleyn, can end up executed then we see the true state of affairs of their world. Women possessed power only upon the terms allowed to them by their patriarchal society.
But what I really get from my Middle Ages world building is a far better appreciation of the strength and tenacity of women. Then and now – it always make me proud!"
PS from Gillian: There was coffee in 1400 - just not in Europe. I have the right bean type at this very instant, for all those who have forgotten they really wanted to taste it. Shortly it will be gone and then all hints will be in vain.