Rue de la Paix

We have a minimalist but romantic collage for this week's Rue de la Paix. It sort of reminds me of Rhett and Scarlett on a European honeymoon. 

Gone With the Wind by εemy♥ on Polyvore.com

The Quotable Rhett Butler: Down with Popery!

What better time to shout "Down with Popery!" than in the week we bragged about that most pious set of Gone with the Wind fans, the Catholic nuns? You see, we're all about denominational impartiality here, at How We Do Run On. So, as you probably already guessed, our (somewhat belated) Rhett quote for the week is this:

"Sometimes the rallying cry is 'Save the Tomb of Christ from the Heathen!' Sometimes it's 'Down with Popery!' and sometimes 'Liberty!' and sometimes 'Cotton, Slavery and States' Rights!'" --Gone with the Wind, Chapter XII

It is this line, uttered at Mrs. Elsing's silver musicale, that signs Rhett's exclusion from Atlanta's society. His stand in the entire speech is that of the perfect cynic, and as such is both hard to dismantle and extremely insulting for his idealistic countrymen. The current war is not sacred,  Rhett says, simply because no war is sacred. All wars are fought for money. All other reasons men go to war are just false reasons, pretexts and empty words fed to them by stay at home orators.

For years I believed this theory to be true. I think I know better now. I will try to explain, though, why this was such an appealing world view for me at one time, and why I now consider it to be flawed.

What Rhett is basically saying is what progressive historians say: economy precedes and dictates ideology. But then Rhett Butler (or should I say Margaret Mitchell?) makes this  significantly more appealing than any historian could. I don't know which one you'd rather be, the dashing cynical captain that harbors no illusions, or one of his compatriots that MM portraits as naive at best, but for me the choice was simple. *cue music* Enter Bugsie, the jaded 7-year-old (and yes, my parents were insane, but hey, MM's nephew had it read to him at age 5!).

For a long time my view of history was colored by this stance. With the exception of WW2,  I pretty much thought any war a "money squabble." It's not the worst way to be introduced to history either, I hasten to add. There are indeed economical patterns in history. Let's take Rhett's quote for example. First, admire its sneakiness, since the first rallying cries he chose are both from religious conflicts. And if one tried to find an ideological driving force for a war, religion would be the most obvious choice, so Rhett's mining the main counterargument to his theory right from the beginning. Let's see what events he's alluding to, and what economic causes lie beneath each of them.

• Catholics against the world - 'Save the Tomb of Christ from the Heathen!': First we have the famous Crusades, the campaigns Western Europe waged to recapture the territories occupied by the Muslims. Did the Crusades have an underlying economic reason? More than one. Perhaps control over the Tomb of Christ was the first thing the Christians wanted to extract from the Muslims, but control over the sea ports at the Mediterranean definitely ranked a comfortable second. Not to mention the fact that a crusade was a fine way to occupy some of the warriors the medieval society was so good at producing and so bad at employing in a constructive fashion.


• The world against Catholics - 'Down with Popery!': This a trickier one, since there are few things the world has enjoyed shouting more from the times of Henry VIII forth. One could link a multitude of violent conflicts to this cry, partially the English Civil War and definitely the Gordon Riots of 1780. Its echoes were still very much alive in the 19th century, even across the ocean. Economic reasons? Aplenty, from the larger scale ones related to the monarchs ascertaining political and implicitly economic control over their territories by rejecting the meddling of the Catholic Church, to the particular set of conditions that led to the Gordon Riots and that were only marginally related to the Catholics receiving rights (hint: poverty, low wages, inflation, unemployment. That sort of thing).


• The world against Catholics & friends - 'Liberty': Again a pretty general cry, but I am going to assume it refers to that most celebrated of revolutionary mottoes (Liberté, égalité, fraternité), especially since Rhett will later compare the Southern aristocrats to the French ones, unaware of the fate lying before them before they climbed into the tumbrils. Again, one can trace multiple economic reasons for the French Revolution, like the financial crisis that preceded it, or simply see it all as passing the power and money from one group of people to another. The same idea applies if he's talking about the American Revolution.

So all three of these events can be (and have been) explained as "money squabbles." But here's the trick: while the economic cause is undeniably at work, it is not the only driving force behind these conflicts. It is very comfortable to reduce everything to money. But it is also terribly simplistic. Just as simplistic as reducing everything to some other cause, be it religion, wish for freedom etc. Took me a while to get it but a) history is complicated, b) cynic is not the definition of "right" and c) cynic is not the definition of "cool." (Okay, the jury is still out on that last one. ) In any case, enter Bugsie, less jaded twenty-something.

Rhett's position effaces some lines that I would like to keep and, in this particular case, serves as a subtle defense of a system I don't want to see either rationalized or defended. If everything is about economy, and nothing about ideology, then there are no moral issues to discuss about in a war. There is no right and wrong. And while that might hold true for some wars, I can't bring myself to say it holds true for all of them.

In any case, I think Rhett employs some dose of bravado when he exposes his views here, just like when he tells Scarlett at the bazaar that money can buy everything. And we know from him enlisting in the Confederate army and failing quite spectacularly in buying his wife's affection that both these stands were quite inaccurate.

Margaret Mitchell's Lost 50 (Confederate) Dollars

Quick and last post of the Margaret Mitchell letters series, for tomorrow we have something different for you. Keeping in line with the modesty/self deprecation theme (hmm... want to know exactly what she's doing? Here it is. I knew there oughta be a German word for that! ) we bring you a letter from October 22, 1936, addressed to Herschel Brickell. Brickell had just written an article for the New York Evening Post, discussing among other thing the possibility of Gone with the Wind's sales reaching one million copies before 1936 was over (the millionth copy was printed on December 15th), and this was Margaret Mitchell's reply:

"Dear Herschel:

"No, I will not bet you on any figures for "Gone With the Wind." You got me licked on it. However, I will bet you $50.00 (Confederate) with the poem "Lines on the Back of a Confederate Note" upon it that I do not win the Pulitzer prize. I think I am very safe in making this bet. I do not think I am safe in making any bets on sales. I am completely floored by what has happened..."

--excerpted from Margaret Mitchell's 'Gone with the Wind Letters edited by R. Harwell.

This post is part of our series A Week in August: The Margaret Mitchell Tribute. Be sure to check out the other posts (here and here) and leave your comments either here or on the Margaret Mitchell thread. 

Poster of the Week

Let me preface this week's Poster of the Week with a disclaimer. I'm a proud Polish-American and love my cultural heritage. That being said, I have to be honest and admit that this week's poster from my Motherland (date unknown) is perhaps one of the oddest Gone with the Wind posters I have ever seen.  I'm not sure what to make of it.

 Image from movieposterdb.com

Of course, I must defend Poland's GWTW honor and present you with a nicer image to end our post. This lovely picture of Rhett and Scarlett graces Polish copies of the 70th anniversary edition of the movie. Well done, Polska! And regardless of whatever GWTW images you produce, I love you still.  

Image from amazonka.pl

The Scenery and Greenery of Gone with the Wind (2)

"Spring had come early that year, with warm quick rains and sudden frothing of pink peach blossoms and dogwood dappling with white stars the dark river swamp and far-off hills."

--Gone with the Wind, Chapter I

"Through the window Scarlett could see the bright riot of the twin lanes of daffodils bordering the graveled driveway and the golden masses of yellow jessamine spreading flowery sprangles modestly to the earth like crinolines.  The mockingbirds and the jays, engaged in their old feud for possession of the magnolia tree beneath her window, were bickering, the jays strident, acrimonious, the mockers sweet voiced and plaintive."

--Gone with the Wind, Chapter V

Well, dear readers, it's time for another edition of the Scenery and Greenery of Gone with the Wind, where we offer you a look at the flora and foliage mentioned in GWTW. As I'm sure you've all guessed, the two quotes above serve as the inspiration for this week's bouquet of Southern blooms.  Well, the inspiration with one small caveat--since we already featured dogwood in our first post, we thus won't re-list it here.

Like last time, our main source for plant info and description is the very long-titled Southern wild flowers and trees, together with shrubs, vines and various forms of growth found through the mountains, the middle district and the low country of the South (1901). Sadly, several plants this week (the peach tree and the daffodil) are sans description, as the book with the endless title doesn't include record of them. But as long as they are good enough for MM and GWTW, they are, of course, good enough for a photo spread here. Enjoy!

Peach Tree 

Family: Rose          Color: Pink          Blooms: March-April, with fruit starting in July

Daffodil

 Family: Amaryllis         Color: White, Yellow         Blooms: February-May           

Jessamine

 Family: Logania         Color: Yellow         Blooms: February-November       

"As interwoven, it seems, with the beauty and sentiment of southern lowlands is the “Jasamer,” as it is called by the natives, as is the velvety edelweiss with the history of snow-clad peaks. Early-laden indeed is the warm air of spring with its delicious perfume while, basking himself on its intensely yellow petals, the sly chameleon drowsily opens his rounded eyes. Through woods and thickets it wends its way vigorously and gleams as brightly as does later the Cherokee rose. It is one of the joys of the season, instilling impressions long remembered by those who know it well."

Southern Magnolia  (Laurel Magnolia)

Family: Magnolia         Color: Cream-White         Blooms: April-June

"Laurel magnolia or sweet bay, is a small member of the genus and perhaps the one most generally known; for while mainly found east of the Alleghanies to Florida and Texas, it is hardy, indeed indigenous, as far northward as eastern Massachusetts. As long ago as 1584 the tree was brought into prominence by some navigators who found it on Roanoke Island, N. C. ... In comparison with other flowers of the genus these are quite small, but there is still a charm about them. They are so waxy, so well modelled and exhale a strong fragrance very like that of Fraser's magnolia."
 

"A Comfort--and a Disillusionment"

Today we bring you another selection from Margaret Mitchell's letters, a selection that should be an inspiration to slow, self-critical and meticulous writers everywhere. Of course, we here at How We Do Run On plead total ignorance to the phenomenon of which MM speaks, being only the swiftest of swift writers in all matters. (Inside joke. Unless you're familiar with our other Gone with the Wind projects, or willing to dig deep enough through the links on the sidebar to find them. Then it's just the sad truth.)

All jokes aside, the excerpted paragraphs below come from Margaret Mitchell's letter of September 29, 1936 to Stark Young, a drama critic at The New Republic and the author of the Civil War epic So Red The Rose, published two years earlier in 1934. Mitchell was an admirer of her fellow Southern writer and his novel, and her esteem for Young's writing, along with her trademark self-deprecation, is on display in her charming letter. 

"My dear Mr. Young:

"Your letter was both a comfort—and a disillusionment. I am referring to the part of the letter where you disclaimed the 'ease in writing' which I attributed to you. You see, I had believed that established writers, writers who really knew how to write, had no difficulty at all in writing. I had thought that only luckless beginners like myself had to rewrite endlessly, tear up and throw away whole chapters, start afresh, rewrite and throw away again.

"I knew nothing about other writers and their working habits and I thought I was the only writer in the world who went through such goings-on. After I had rewritten a chapter ten or twelve times and had what I thought was a workable 'first draft,' I'd put it away for a month. When I dug it out again I'd beat on my breast and snatch out my hair, because it was so lousy. Then the chapter would be thrown away, because the content of it had not been reduced to the complete simplicity I wanted. Simplicity of ideas, of construction, of words. Then there would be another awful month of substituting Anglo-Saxon derivatives for Latin ones, simple sentence constructions for the more cumbersome Latin constructions.

"Then before I went to press I snatched out double hands full of copy, whole chapters. Snatched them out under such pressure that I didn't have time to tie up the severed arteries. In my eyes the book will bleed endlessly and reproachfully.

"But I had thought that people who knew how to write just breezed along. Now your letter arrives and disillusions me. Doesn't ease ever come?—However, there is comfort in the knowledge that the author of so many grand books as you didn't just sit down and bang them out. I know that's an Unchristian kind of comfort—the misery loves company kind of comfort—and I should feel guilty about feeling that way but I cannot prod my emotions into a sense of guilt."

--excerpted from Margaret Mitchell's 'Gone with the Wind Letters edited by R. Harwell. 

This post is part of our series A Week in August: The Margaret Mitchell Tribute. Be sure to check out the other posts (yesterday's can be found here) and leave your comments either here or on the Margaret Mitchell thread.

Fresh Off the Press

Check out this article from the Los Angeles Times. Ann Rutherford talks about how she got permission from MGM to star in Gone with the Wind and about how cool Clark Gable was.  Those are our highlights, of course, but there's interesting stuff in there about her other movies as well. Enjoy!

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-classic-hollywood-20100818,0,7360895.story

There will be more coming at some point today (the Margaret Mitchell daily stuff and probably the Quotable as well), so stay tuned!