The Portrait of a Lady and Donald Trump

The Portrait of a Lady – Henry James

This is the book I just finished today and am still digesting my impressions and tidying up my thoughts. The book made a very strong impression on me. I was transfixed by it. I did not have any problems with concentration turning page after page for many hours not noticing the passing time.

I must say that there were parts at the beginning of the book that irritated me. I found the dialogues of two young American ladies annoying. The girls, Isabel Archer and Henrietta Stackpole, are so confident that they have answers to most life issues while in fact having too little experience and knowledge as they are so young. At the same time ignorance makes the young err with confidence.

It was interesting that people with much more knowledge and experience were in awe of this ignorance expressed so confidently by the two charming dilatants. On reflection, the girls were beautiful and fresh. I can see that their energy was appealing to the old English aristocracy, so the attention and admiration of the men was directed to their external beauty and unusual boldness in expressing their views rather than their beautiful souls.

This was just the beginning of the book, and as I liked the descriptions of the beautiful old English houses and the gracious living of the old gentry I continued reading, and with passing pages, I got enchanted by the story, then intrigued and finally fascinated. I started to see that the book is still very current being concerned with the timeless subjects still important in the XXI century even if the book was written in 1880.

The story of Isabel Archer, who is loved by three good men and then falls for one who marries her for her money and through his cruelty breaks her spirit, happens all the time in current times as well. Has it happened to me? Maybe not, but I know that one can not recognise a real value of a person and chase glitter instead. Isabel’s choice was based on admiration of intelligence of her man and his seeming lack of interest in opinions of the society. She saw him strong and independent. It is again the story of projecting one’s own values on others and resulting disappointments. Isabel rejecting her two suitors to protect her independence lands up under control of a devious and unscrupulous man. Here my feministic streak woke up again. The times of Henry James were the times when the order of societies put men on top of a social pyramid. Isabel accepted that as a fact of life and was obedient once she married Osmond. Her life shows the transition from buoyant independence and self-reliance through puzzling realisation of sad life truth to final sad acceptance of fate and resignation.

The story is mainly told through dialogues and the thought process of the book characters. It is not exactly a stream of consciousness type of book, but it inspired other writers to write in such a manner. Virginia Woolf, one of my literary fascinations, was one of the disciples of Henry James.

I said that my feministic streak awakened while reading The Portrait of a Lady. We live in the times when equality of women is severely threatened by the new political winds.  Conservatives of many countries come to power and demand that the social order with men of top is returned. Mr Trump is one powerful example of that. Yesterday was his inauguration in Washington, and it was also the time to conduct women marches organised against through the world. There was also such a rally in Sydney, and I decided that it is time for me to get involved. I went to The Sydney Hyde Park to see what was going on. There were crowds of women of all ages; groups of friends and the single ladies. I walked around and listened to the speeches. Those I found uninspiring and missing the point. The old story of Australia belonging to the Aborigines, while important to some, diverted the attention from current women issues and new threats coming from America and its new president. I also heard the emotional speech of a Muslim woman who called herself an Australian. Yes, I agree, she is an Australian as well as I am. Was it important to talk about it on the day? Not so sure. I have to make a disclaimer here - I have not listened to all the speeches so my views may not reflect the whole situation.

I did not take part in the march and elected to go and see The Nudes exhibition in The New South Wales Gallery. Lunch was good and the exhibition disappointing. One Modigliani and The Kiss of Rodin made it worthwhile for me. 

George Sand – a strong woman

I am not sure how well known George Sand is beyond France and Poland. I never talked about her with anyone but Poles. However, I hope she is known as she deserves to be. She was as important in intellectual and artistic circles of Paris in the middle of XIXth century as Virginia Woolf and Ottoline Morrell together were important for the Bloomsbury group almost one hundred years later.

                                          

She was a writer like Virginia Woolf. Maybe not of the same magnitude, but she was respected and admired as a writer by her contemporary literary circles of France.  Gustave Flaubert and Victor Hugo were admirers of her writing and they knew the writer's métier rather well. Flaubert addressed letters to her “Cher Maitre”. My attempt to write that in English was not very successful. Dear Master? It somehow does not sound right.  

                                                

George Sand was also a society hostess similarly to Ottoline Morrell and they both were famous of having many lovers. The most known lover of ten years was Frederic Chopin. Possibly because of this particular liaison most of Poles know her name and some facts from her life. Chopin lived many years under George Sand roof and was close to her children particularly her daughter, Solange.

                                   

George Sand love affairs were known, widely publicised and often critically judged. I must say that for many years I also disapproved of her conduct. And then I heard somebody say: “Nothing wrong with having many relationships. If love is important to a person, then the person searches for this true love and this close person”. Since one of the most famous quotes of George Sand says - There is only one happiness in this life, to love and be loved – no wonder she kept searching. Hmm… I thought and changed my mind about her love conduct.

George Sand is really a pseudonym of Aurore Dupin. Aurore rightly thought that signing her work with a man’s name will be beneficial to be treated seriously. She went much further than just signing her work as George Sand. She also dressed as a man and she did not behave in a girlish manner. She even smoked cigars!  All together a scandalous woman and I admire her courage to be so very much controversial herself.

                                                          

As I am out from the closet and shamelessly admit to be a feminist, my admiration for George Sand is only natural.

One of her quotes I especially identify with is:

Guard well within yourself that treasure, kindness. Know how to give without hesitation, how to lose without regret, how to acquire without meanness.

This is not scandalous woman saying, this is a wise human being saying.  

What prompted me to think and write about George Sand is news of recently published diaries of her in Polish translation. I heard that it is a beautiful edition and I would love to have it. If I read it all I am not sure. It consists of five books. On pictures they look so beautiful! There is big part of the diaries that is dedicated to Chopin as a composer and the author’s views about his talent would be most interesting to read. She observed him composing for so many years that I would like to know her insight. I have asked my dear Polish friend and my literary guide Raf to buy the books and hope to read some of them when I go again to Poland. Hope it will be soon.

                                   

Emma Watson, I salute you

I must confess that I am up to date on Polish and European affairs, but not so much on Australian. I feel a bit guilty about it.  My excuse is that a lot is happening in Poland at the moment and even if I know I cannot do much to change it, I am drawn to Polish news hoping that maybe I will get some reassuring news one day. This day has not come yet. So, I read and I listen in hope. I would like to offload my frustration and fear caused by the situation by writing about it, but not now. I may do in a future post. Today I am going to write as a feminist. By coincident, I found today an article about Emma Watson and her speech her speech at HeForShe movement in the United Nations. I had to check when it actually happened and it was around March this year. Tony Abbott apparently joined the campaign, good on you Tony! I can see even more reasons to extend my interests to Australian news; this is my home country, after all.

                                                                                            

I want to write about the Emma’s speech and my impressions. I was moved to tears by the speech. Emma Watson is a wizard not only in Harry Potter but in social/political life as well. And I felt ashamed. I have always been convinced about women’s rights to be treated as equal to men. I always have been, but I never was inclined to be vocal about it. I perhaps did not like potential confrontations… I am not sure but this is neither the time nor the place for self-analysis. In my braver moments I called myself a feminist giving quickly my definition – feminist is the person who helps women to live life their way. Emma Watson talks about general understanding of the word “feminist” as to be a person hating men. This is perhaps what I subconsciously had in mind when I was hesitant to call myself a feminist. I do not hate men, far from it. I just think that in work force women should have even chances as men to succeed if they have the same ability to do the job.

Recently I heard a man saying – women are cleverer than men. I was supposed to be flattered, I believe. But I find such generalization silly and untrue. I would agree, however, with somewhat altered statement - women are cleverer than men generally think women are. I have met many clever, capable women and men and I came across many silly and incompetent people regardless the gender.

Listening to this moving and inspirational speech of the young actress, I decided to get out of the closet and confess – I AM A FEMINIST. My life has been of a woman working together with men in similar roles to my male colleagues.  I even studied mathematics not realizing that women were not supposed to understand such things. Thanks God, I did not know that it was not for me.

When I came to Australia, my earlier indoctrination served me well. Hearing sexist comments I thought – “Wow, this Australians have strange sense of humour”. I did not get offended by what I thought were silly jokes and I did not harp. This saved me a lot of grief, I believe. When I eventually got the message, I was on my way to succeed as an IT professional in IBM. I had some women colleagues, but I was frequently in situations when meeting were opened with words: Good morning gentlemen and Anna. I still think it was fun.

Inspired by Emma Watson, I will investigate how to become an active feminist and become a SheForShe.

Feministic Observations

There are a couple of reasons why I intend to write about feminism and explore my own feelings and thoughts about the subject.

For some reasons, not that clear to me any more I read many books about Bloomsbury group and books created by its representatives. Virginia Woolf is my main object of attention. I say that the reason of my interest is not even clear to me. It has lost allure in my eyes some time ago but I still read Virginia Woolf’s letters, stories, novels and diaries. There was a time and this was some years ago when I was fascinated by the people belonging to Bloomsbury literary circle. It all stared with the film about Dora Carrington and her love for Lytton Strachey.  It was 1995. I still think that the film was very good and Jonathan Pryce who played Lytton Strachey even got a British Best Actor Award for the role. Then I read a book about Carrington and Virginia Woolf’s name came to my attention. I recalled reading To the Light House in my early Polish times and after seeing the film I decided to read more. At that time I was not particularly interested in her feministic bias. I was too busy working away in the men’s world with no thought that I may have been professionally different to my male colleagues or disadvantaged by being a woman.

Lytton Strachey and Virginia Woolf. Maybe this was the time when they were engaged, as surprisingly they were for a while.

                                                             

I was brought up in communist Poland and one positive aspect of the political system was that it considered everybody equal. Women were riding tractors, worked as bricklayers and moved up in business hierarchies with the same speed as men did. When I moved into the Western world, I was married to a Swedish person and this nationality also considered women equal to men. I did not have any idea that I may be disadvantaged being a woman or considered being a lesser person. Some sexist comments, I heard in my corporate environment, I considered to be jokes in bad taste and did not get disturbed by them. I was a bit surprised when joining a golf club I was called an associate and my husband was called a member of the club. Somebody said, this is just a tradition, so I let it go without feeling put down. On reflection, this naïve approach of mine might have helped me in my career. I felt more confident than I would have if a thought of not being equal came to my mind.

                                                            

                                         

Then in my corporate world, quotas became a subject of discussions. I felt offended by the idea. I wanted to be assessed on merit, not be patronized by being considered somebody who needs help. You need to help weaker, disadvantaged people and I did not consider women in general as such. Now, I look at it a bit differently. I think quotas are a good idea until such a time when the mindset of societies at large           changes. Women need to catch up at least in some countries and they do need help of quotas.

When, after some years I came back to Poland I realized that women stopped to be equal. They are patronized and considered a second class citizens particularly by the church. Of course, they have their role to play, but it does not involve contribution in the business world. In spite of that there are many successful women in Poland, I am pleased to notice.

With my history and experience, I do not have any doubts that we are all equal even if we have our stronger and weaker points. This however is not related to a gender. There are clever and silly men, there are women geniuses and very silly ones as well.

Reading newly bought Virginia Woolf’s short stories it came to be how recent it was when women were subjected to will of their parents who had “their best interest at heart” when they pushed them out of their homes sending them to a home of a stranger. I know that in some cultures many marriages are still arranged and I even know some very happy ones. But if I could not decide about my life, I would see it as a tragic situation.

                                              

Few days ago, I read a post of Personal Reflections about the Australian Archibald competition winner. An interesting painting even if a bit morbid. The mother of Charles Milsom, the awarded painter, made a remark that it reminds her of Halloween. It was my first impression as well, but the painting is good, especially the straight lines of the face are striking as is the sitter, famous  Sydney barrister Charles Waterstreet. 

All three of them

The post has a link to video with montage of all winners of the Archibald competition.  I watched the video with full attention as the changes of paintings are very fast, maybe even too fast. After a while I started to feel surprise followed by irritation. Majority of the winners depicted men. I mean a serious majority. I asked myself why? Wrote my comment and that triggered off an interesting discussion in which I played a role of a feminist. I never considered myself as such, but I better start thinking of myself as one.  It might explain this rather long post on the subject of equality.