(no subject)

[skygiants]

schiarire recommended me Letters from a Peruvian Woman, which I was shocked to never have even heard of - it's an eighteenth-century epistolary novel about an Incan princess who is taken as a prisoner of war and ends up in France, mostly so that the authoress can use her to point out how superficial and hypocritical French society is. Of course the book conveniently blames all the actual damage on the Spanish, and, I mean, if you want a nuanced discussion of colonization, this is not going to be it. This is "where can I find an idealized princess to contrast against all the stuff in French culture I don't like right now?" Zilia might as well come from Rivendell for all it matters to Francoise de Graffigny.

That said, the treatment of a South American protagonist in a novel from the 1700s and the commentary on French culture are pretty interesting from a sociological standpoint - and more interesting, from an English-major standpoint, is the emphasis on women's writing and letters as a lifeline to selfhood - but what actually made the book most entertaining to me is the glorious eighteenth-century smackdown of the Nice Guy. (What follows may be spoilers if anyone cares, but it's spoilers that appeared in the introduction of my copy, so whatever.)

Some highlights from the "courtship" of Zilia and That French Guy Deterville:

ZILIA: So this strange guy keeps coming into my room on board ship and trying to teach me French, which I guess is useful!
DETERVILLE: The first words I am going to teach you are "I love you, I am yours."
ZILIA: "I love you, I am yours . . .?"
DETERVILLE: :D!
(BECCA: Deterville, I really hope you're aware of how pathetic this is.)

DETERVILLE: So Zilia, I have introduced you to the French court - sorry about the way they keep staring and laughing at you - and I got you a new wardrobe, and a bunch of jewels, and a house, and also a friend to help you learn French, here is my sister!
ZILIA: Yay, a friend! Now that I know French, I can tell you all about my fiance back home -
DETERVILLE'S SISTER: FIANCE BACK HOME??? We are no longer friends!
ZILIA: ????

DETERVILLE: Zilia, my sister says you don't love me. :(
ZILIA: Oh, no, how could she ever say that? You've been such a good friend! I totally love you!
DETERVILLE: WAIT. Seriously? You love me?
ZILIA: Totally!
DETERVILLE: But what about your boyfriend back home?
ZILIA: Yes! I love him in a totally different and much sexier kind of way that has nothing to do with what we're talking about.
(BECCA: At this point I pretty much just started cracking up on the subway.)
DETERVILLE: . . . Zilia, I love you in the sexy kind of way.
ZILIA: Oh, don't be silly, that is impossible, I couldn't even speak French until like three days ago! How could you fall in love with me when you don't know anything about my culture or personality?
DETERVILLE: Uh, well, you're really pretty and seemed very sweet . . . while you were crying all the time about being torn away from your home . . .
ZILIA: That does not seem like a very good basis for a relationship to me! Sorry to have confused you though, I have no interest in you that way.

DETERVILLE: Well, it's the end of the book and your boyfriend back home turned out by a cray coincidence to be a.) reachable and b.) a jerk, LIKE I THOUGHT HE WOULD, given that this is a French novel and I am the hero! Which means you are into me now, right?
ZILIA: Okay, while I am disappointed that my boyfriend back home turned out to be a jerk, that still does not mean I am interested in you that way! We will end the book as Just Friends and it will be awesome. :D

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FRENCH FANDOM: Predictaby, we will act exactly like contemporary fandom and rant and rage about poor woobie Deterville and how he deserved to get the girl! GRAFFIGNY, CHANGE THE ENDING.
FRANCOISE DE GRAFFIGNY: Sorry, guys, this is not a love story, this is a story about everything that is wrong with French culture today and why ladies need to get educated. Also, she just does not love him in that way!

Comments

[furikku.livejournal.com]

I want to see more relationships that go that way in fiction.

[skygiants]

ME TOO. Smack down that entitlement, Zilia!

[furikku.livejournal.com]

But seriously

"I love you, I am yours."

THAT IS NOT ISSUES. THAT IS THE ENTIRE PRINT RUN PLUS REPRINTS PLUS MAKING PHOTOCOPIES OF QUOTES IN REVIEWS.

AND PASTING IT UP ON WALLS.

[skygiants]

Hahahahaha yeah, that was a shrieking "WHAT. WHAT. WHO DOES THAT???" moment for me. WAY TO ABUSE THAT POWER RELATIONSHIP, DETERVILLE.

[furikku.livejournal.com]

Especially with her probably not even knowing what it MEANS at that point.

That's a step DOWN from teaching someone lewd words and not explaining it to them.

[skygiants]

Oh, she explicitly has NO IDEA what it means. At one point she's like "so now we're on land, still don't understand what's going on, but when I saw him again I said those words he taught me! Figured it'd be a nice greeting! And . . . he flipped out and ran across the room and started flailing about "self-control" and "virtue", DUNNO WHAT'S UP WITH THAT BUT IT WAS A WEIRD MOMENT."

(And bear in mind that at this point, this is all in the form of letters written to her fiance.)

[furikku.livejournal.com]

ffffAHAHAHA that guy...

[izilen]

While I make endless :SSS faces at the possible treatment of Incan culture and colonization and whatnot, I AM VERY AMUSED AT YOUR ACCOUNT OF THE 'NICE GUY' SMACKDOWN, and I am delighted at LANGUAGE LEARNING. Go Zilia!(...where did Françoise de Graffigny get that name, I wonder)

[skygiants]

Yeah, the treatment of Incan culture was - actually much better than I was expecting from an eighteenth-century French novel (Zilia ends the book impressed with certain aspects of French technology, but still feeling an overall much stronger attachment to her own religion and cultural mores, and the book respects and backs up that choice!) but that does not make it any less clueless.

. . . also, I mean, I am sure it was great for French readers to think "oh, well, the colonized princess doesn't have it so bad, she gets picked up by a nice French dudes and given a fancy house!" Hahahaha not so much. BUT ANYWAY. THAT ASIDE, I still loved Zilia's constant smackdowns of the Nice Guy. SHE DOESN'T OWE HIM ANYTHING. Yes, he gave her a lot of jewels, but they were HER JEWELS FROM HER COUNTRY ANYWAY. And that is said in the text too! (Hahaha I have no idea. But my suspicion is FROM HER BRAIN.)

[izilen]

Well, that's a lot better than I would have expected, too. The acknowledgement that her own Incan values might be better for her, and the recognition that THOSE WERE HER JEWELS!! That is pretty cool. I can excuse her much more easily for her cluelessness (It's not easy to find very detailed things on the Incans, and I can't imagine it would be any easier in 18th century France, WHEN THERE WAS NO INTERNET), than I could excuse anybody for being terrible jerks, which it seems de Graffigny wasn't. SO THAT IS GOOD.

And what was that about her 1700s fandom you mentioned?! I am curious.

Ahh, and now you've gone and made me intrigued and want to read this. I wonder if it's on the Gutenberg Project.

[skygiants]

No, she was much less of a jerk than might have been expected, all things considered! (And part of the boyfriend's jerkiness is that he converts to Catholicism, and Zilia is just like ". . . what. I DON'T EVEN.")

Haha, I found out about the 18th-century fandom thing in the introduction, which just spoiled me straight-up (much . . . as I have just spoiled everyone else) by explaining that Zilia/Deterville shippers wrote HORDES of letters to Graffigny trying to get her to change the end! BUT SHE STUCK TO HER GUNS.

I bet it is up on Project Gutenberg somewhere! You might even be able to read it in the original. :O

[izilen]

...Really? That is considered as jerkiness in a novel presumably written by a Christian woman in the 18th Century? AMAZING.


(WELL, THEY DON'T HAVE IT. Jerks.)

[skygiants]

Hahaha, there is a whole scene where a priest comes to try and convert her, and she listens politely and is like "Interesting! I can see the appeal. Now I will explain to you my religious views!" and the priest is like "lol no" and she is all, "well I am not going to convert to a religion that cannot even be bothered to have a polite discussion on the matter!" I LOVED IT.

(>:| PROJECT GUTENBERG, I AM DISAPPOINT.)

[e-mily.livejournal.com]

THAT IS AWESOME.

[skygiants]

IT WAS SURPRISING AND SATISFYING.

[rymenhild.livejournal.com]

That is a very interesting take of the exotic princess motif. It is also more than relevant to my interests. Huh.

[skygiants]

I was wondering if you had read it! I think it would indeed be relevant to your interests.

[elle-white.livejournal.com]

OMG, eighteenth-century smackdown of the Nice Guy sounds awesome! This made me morning, my day ... perhaps my week! I want to read it ... when I've finished Middlemarch!

[skygiants]

>:D I AM GLAD. *giggling* (I am still so pleased you are reading Middlemarch! Except now I want to reread it, and I don't have tiiiiime.)

[kd7sov]

...Okay, what was that? I wasn't aware that alt-tab twice would post my comment before I finished writing it.

Anyway.

I think I'll have to look into that. I have something of a soft spot for epistolary novels, and I'd like to see how that relationship thing turns out outside of Beccalogue. (Which is highly awesome, but usually not the original form.)

[skygiants]

I report the truth fully as I see it! *laughing* But yes, it is very interesting and I hope you will enjoy.