King Arthur's Cry Of The Heart - A Song From Catherine Lara's Musical

The Legendary Blade
by ourlak aka Tierno Beauregard

I am in the last throes of editing Curse of the Fey, the last entry in my Morgana Trilogy. I have to say, being a writer is not always *cough*never*cough* easy--especially when some passages still seem so far from good despite going through dozens of edits (and sometimes total revamps). It is also very solitary work that's a killer on my joints and mental fortitude.

So I find encouragement and inspiration to keep on going where I can (and hearing from people who've enjoyed my story thus far is THE best). One of these sources is listening to the album Graal by Catherine Lara.

Graal is a French/Canadian musical that, unfortunately, never made it to the stage (though I'd probably have missed the presentations since at the time the music came out I was still living in the States). It is beautifully composed and written, and the songs are performed by an amazing cast (troupe?) of singers.

One of the songs that always raises goose bumps down my arms, is that of King Arthur (performed by a fellow Belgian, Pablo Villafranca). I know that the song's in French, but one need not necessarily understand the lyrics to feel what it's telling us.

Arthur sings it at the very end when love, jealousy and betrayal have ripped his kingdom and heart to pieces...and yet he finds the strength in him to forgive.

 I'm sorry, I couldn't find the original MV for this song

Memory Of The Vanquished

DISCLAIMER:
Although I do not speak of this fabulous Disney cartoon, turns out Zootopia does, in a way, exemplify some of this post's themes. Also, have I mentioned how much I like this animated feature?

I've been reading a truly fascinating book on and off since the beginning of the year. It is Bernard Werber's Encyclopédie du Savoir Relatif et Absolu--basically, an encyclopedia of interesting facts and tidbits that cover everything from science to religion, philosophy to chocolate cake recipes. It is a cookbook for ideas and creativity, a generator of food for thoughts*.

Thomas More’s Utopia designed in 1516

One of these I shall translate for you here (from French), as it brings up an interesting philosophical point, and ensuing questions:

Of the past we only know the winners' version. Thus we only know of Troy what Greek historians told. We know of Gaul only through Julius Caesar's Memoirs. We only know of the Aztecs or the Incas through the tales of the conquistadors and missionaries who had gone there to convert their people by force.

And in each case, the few talents attributed to those defeated are there only to glorify the merits of those who managed to annihilate them.

Who will dare speak of the "memory of the vanquished"? History books condition us to the idea that, according to the Darwin principle, if civilizations have disappeared it is because they were ill-adapted. But when investigating the events, we finally understand that, more often than not, the more civilized populations were destroyed by the more brutal ones. Their only unsuitability consisted of believing in peace treatises, as with the Carthaginians, or presents, as was the case with the Trojans (ah, the apology of Ulysses's ruse which was but treachery that lead to a nocturnal massacre)...

The worst is perhaps that, not only do the winners destroy their victims' history books and memorabilia, but that they also insult them. 

Theseus against the Minotaur

The Greeks invented the legend of Theseus vanquishing a bull-headed monster who ate virgins to legitimize the invasion of Crete and the destruction of the superb Minoan civilization. The Romans pretended that the Carthaginians made sacrifices to their god Moloch, which, we now know, was entirely false.

Who will ever dare speak of the victims' splendor? The gods, perhaps, who know the beauty and subtlety of those civilizations that were destroyed by fire and sword...


My first and foremost question, then, is this:
How likely is it for a civilization to have truly been pacifist? War, after all, even if with "rudimentary" weapons, is a staple of humanity (how can it not, when our animal instincts are all about marking our territory--and the limited resources it contains--and the spreading of our own genes?).

I rather believe that, instead, most populations (from empires all the way down to the smallest tribe) who were pacifists, were mostly so either because they were completely isolated (no fear of the invaders), or had been repeatedly cowed by stronger enemies (read the excellent article on the subject by William Buckner, linked below)...or had developed a mutually-beneficent trading market instead.

Mohenjo-daro street and drains
(Mortimer Wheeler, 1959)
Mohenjo-daro was one of the Harappan
Society's largest cities.

But the latter, the basis behind the European vision (amongst other examples), cannot last unless it continues to be mutually advantageous to all involved parties (at least more so than a war between them), and said parties are strong enough to fend off outside warring parties (please read the interesting Q&A on the Harappan civilization linked below).

So, perhaps Darwin's idea of the survival of the fittest isn't that far off, as history invariably gives preference to the strongest and/or most conniving (of course, in this Werber is right, that history is written by the victors).

In the process, those who dream only of peace without having the means to properly defend themselves against invaders (or don't keep up with the required technology to do so), will be destroyed, and their knowledge either absorbed by the conquerors, or otherwise wiped out of history books.

At least for as long as we are human.

However, being human also means we all aspire, to some degree or another, to a nobler state. How can any of us live properly if we don't see ourselves as being good and/or right in some shape or form? And Werber hits the nail on the head when he mentions the tendencies of the victors to vilify their victims (oh my, what an alliteration!).

Because, as briefly explored  in another article on false accusations during WWI, such horrible lies are sometimes the only way to "allow" us, even condone us, to perform what is essentially fratricide (aren't we all brothers and sisters, after all?).

And that should give us hope.

Hope and Butterflies by Jean Plout

Additional Sources:
The sad and violent history of 'peaceful societies', by William Buckner
Mayan human sacrifices
Child sacrifice in pre-Columbian cultures
Algonquins of Ontario history
How peaceful was Harappan Civilization

*Although many of the entries are still valid, some of the items are dated (it combines books the author's written since the nineties), but one can't fault Werber for that. The encyclopedia is a testament to the (mostly) western world's knowledge at the turn of the century, and is still a great source for further studies (at which point we can discover any appropriate update to the subject at heart).

Romance And Glamour

Romance is the glamour which turns the dust of everyday life into a golden haze.

~ Elinor Glyn

Elinor was a British writer who became known for her scandalous romantic fiction (novels, short stories, articles, and screenplays).

Scandalous, because at the time (turn of the twentieth century), good women were meant to rear children and not enjoy the act of sex (a terribly sinful idea that was reserved for prostitutes instead).

Happy Saint Valentine's everyone :)

All Creative People Want To Do The Unexpected - Hedy Lamar

Hedy Lamarr once said: "Any girl can be glamorous. All you have to do is stand still and look stupid."

But this actress, born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler, was far from being stupid. In fact, quite the opposite.

Born in 1914, and an only child, Hedy Lamarr received all the time and love she needed from her parents. Her father, a highly cultured and curious person himself, cultivated in her a thirst for knowledge, and later in her life, Lamarr stated that she'd never love a man as much as she loved her father.

Lamarr began her acting career between both World Wars. But it wasn't until her fifth movie, Ecstasy (which has a slight Madame Bovary feel to it), that she rose to true international fame.  In it, and long before When Harry Met Sally, Hedy Lamarr simulates an orgasm. This caused the Vatican itself to condemn the movie...and everyone else to state that she was, in fact, the most beautiful woman in the world.

Her first husband, Friedrich Mandl, was a really big fan of hers. But he also turned out to be a fascist arms dealer,  who did business with Mussolini and Hitler. He was jealous, and possessive, and had her under lock and key at all times. Hedy Lamarr, not one to be tied down, decided then to take her destiny into her own hands--she drugged her guard, put his clothes on, and fled to the States, where she got a contract with Metro Goldwin Mayer.

She was an immediate success there as well, conquering hearts both on and off the screen.

But outside of Hollywood, Hedy Lamarr continued to entertain her passion for learning and discovery. And it's thanks to her friend and lover Howard Hughes, that she first got to explore this side of hers, designing sleeker and faster planes for him.

Concerned with events in Europe, and since she was familiar with weapons thanks to her first husband, Hedy Lamarr decided to team up with a friend, George Antheil, to develop a form of radio communication that would be difficult to jam. The idea being that these signals could be used to guide underwater missiles without them being detectable by the enemy (a technology known as Spread Spectrum).

And though they did get this invention patented, it's not until the Cold War that their technology was finally used and improved upon by the US on its missiles. Later, it became clear that their invention could have many other uses as well. It's therefore thanks to Hedy Lamarr that we now have technologies such as mobile phones, the GPS, military encryption, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, etc.

It isn't until her last days (Hedy Lamarr died in 2000) that her genius was publicly recognized, and she received the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Pioneer Award.

In 2014, she was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

The world isn't getting any easier. With all these new inventions, I believe

that people are hurried more and pushed more... The hurried way

is not the right way; you need time for everything - 

time to work, time to play, time to rest.

~Hedy Lamarr

A Futuristic Tale Inspired By Spartacus

"Society has three stages: Savagery, Ascendance, Decadence.

The great rise because of Savagery. They rule in Ascendance.

They fall because of their own Decadence."

~ArchGovernor of Mars Nero au Augustus

I've read, and re-read a few times already Pierce Brown's brilliant (to my humble opinion) Red Rising Trilogy (which has since been further developed into a saga, but the initial trilogy is a complete story in and of itself).

The story of Darrow starts with Red Rising. It is a tale of a slave, a Red, the lowest of the low--though his status as such was not known to him at first--who rises through the caste system of this futuristic society to become Gold (thanks to technology and lots of pain and suffering). For the Gold are the elite, the top of the food chain, and the most precious metal of this highly hierarchical society where your place is determined by your color (and according metal: rusty iron, copper, silver, bronze, etc.).


And only as a Gold could Darrow, if he can pass all the tests and constant life-threatening challenges, hope to make a difference. He is Spartacus against the Roman empire. David against a solar system Goliath. But he's got his wits (and his unorthodox approach to the Society's highly structure life), his love of his friends and family, and a rebel alliance to help with this most Draconian of enterprises.

"Men are not created equal; we all know this.

There are averages. There are outliers.

There are the ugly. There are the beautiful.

This would not be if we were all equal.

A Red can no more command a starship than a Green can serve as a doctor!"

~ArchGovernor of Mars Nero au Augustus

The Red Rising Trilogy (as I keep calling it, with books 2 and 3 being Golden Sun, and Morning Star, respectively) is a fantastic read, and I highly recommend it to anyone into high adventure, and Sci-Fi. It's colorful, vivid, poignant, action-packed, highly imaginative, and full of twists and turns that will keep you entertained from start to finish!