#sainte foy

[q-posts]

gates cont'd.

Hi everyone. I asked Ron about the gate that got so much attention yesterday he sent me pictures from the area, the big Abbaye de Sainte Foy draws a lot of tourists, The door I used last time, let me see if I can find it… was in that Abby but he wasn’t allowed to take pictures beyond the door, due to the treasures within. now we know, what lies beyond this door, and what it is a part of. Bom…

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[unetealombre]

[mariopenit]

[recherchestetique]

Medieval humor in Abbey of Sainte Foy, France c. 1050

[mich-bois]

LABOUR DE PRINTEMPS.

Sainte Foy.

[slowspinningredemption]

Hi! So I just finished reading The Secret History after putting it off for ages (I put it down for nearly a year, but your blog helped me follow through). I was wondering if you could talk about why you like it? And just generally what your take is on it? (Particularly re. Julian??? Like he is such a significant figure that looms over everything yet he is actually in it less than random secondary characters and it blows my mind coz I haven't seen that done effectively before in other books)

[rubs hands together] I hope you’re prepared for something very disorganised but my god I have a lot of thoughts.

what I like about it is simple enough. I love the way it’s written, I love all the descriptions and the settings, I love all the characters even if they’re all absolutely insufferable, I think the moral questions the plot forces you to ask yourself are pretty intense. like deadass by the time they killed Bunny I was happy to see his ass go, but then Richard’s realisations at the funeral, where it really sunk in that they had actually honest to god killed a man? fucking harrowing tbh. I also loved how extra the book was, and how it didn’t take itself too seriously in a lot of places (it reads quite pretentiously, but under the veneer of classical studies and champagne in fine china teapots there’s like... snorting cocaine in a Burger King parking lot, and smoking weed at a wake -- not to mention its narrator is a character within the story who literally admits right away that his fatal flaw is that he romanticises absolutely everything). it’s just raw college student chaos, but like. taken to the extreme, and absolutely horrific. it really is an impossibly fun read, and the aesthetics are on point. I see a lot of people talk about how it apparently encourages people to think murder and drugs and alcoholism are cool or whatever, but I think that’s just Tumblr being Tumblr -- i.e., people clutching their pearls every time somebody likes a character or story that isn’t pure and 100% good. all the people I know who have been influenced by The Secret History’s totally extra aesthetic have just started dressing cooler and throwing themselves into deeper and more varied studies, which is only a good thing. I know it’s made me a lot more productive and really helped me just commit to being a little over the top here, a little dramatique there... and all with absolutely no drug abuse or murder!

my general take on the novel differs from most people’s. I’ve seen near everyone say (usually while ridiculing those who like the aesthetics of the book) that The Secret History is a satire... I disagree. I don’t think it’s satirising anything. I think it’s just a straightforward “here’s what would happen if...”, and the fact that it’s set at a rich, prestigious college isn’t because Tartt is trying to show how awful rich people are but rather because Tartt herself attended such a place, and the college is directly based on Bennington College right down to the layout and the surrounding grounds and the social atmosphere at the time. I mean, it’s literally the same place with the serial numbers filed off. she based all the characters on people she knew, and then I imagine she just went nuts with the plot. same as most authors, really -- I know many who say they think of a what if question and then just run with it. of course people are going to disagree and say it’s a deconstruction of how rich people get away with everything, blah blah blah, but really the fact that so many of the characters are rich is necessary to the setting. if I was going to write a story set in 1980s Cambridge University, most of my characters would be rich as well -- they’d have to be, or they wouldn’t even be there to begin with. then it’s just convenient to the plot, because they have money to make things happen, and you can’t murder people and throw a bacchanal if you have to do backshift at Burger King, you know? even if it was meant to read as a satire and Tartt herself was like “bro I literally wrote it as a satire” I’d have to say she didn’t do a very good job, because the only satire I saw was perhaps regarding the social climate and atmosphere at Bennington while she was there, and not a deconstruction of class and wealth. it’s just... a good story. with interesting, flawed characters. it doesn’t have to be any deeper than that, and to be honest I don’t read it as such.

as for Julian... oh man. Julian. this is another place where I differ from 90% of the opinions I see. a not-insignificant amount of people seem to think that Julian is this evil mastermind who’s pulling the strings and leading the group towards their doom, and then they seem undecided when it comes to Henry. some people think he’s just another person caught up in Julian’s manipulation; others seem to think he’s Julian’s man on the ground, working with him in order to ensure his dastardly plan comes to fruition. I, however, am of the opinion that Julian is an idealistic dumbass, who allowed himself to be caught up in the romantic, idealised version of things and did not realise half of what was going on. I think he’s a man in love with the image of himself -- self-centred, slightly narcissistic, and very charming as he is, he’s in love with being the centre of the show. The Secret History’s alternative title was something along the lines of The Master of Illusions (I believe that’s still its title in the French translation), which of course refers to Dionysus but could also refer to one of the characters. many people think Henry, but to me it’s quite clear it’s Julian. when is he ever not putting on a show? everything he does, from his elite classes to his strange stories about his past to his lavish dinners... it’s all a show that he’s the master of. he’s curating the image he gives to other people and he loves doing it. everything he does is carefully selected to fit into his idealised version of himself and his life, including surrounding himself with brilliant students who share the same passion as him -- and who lack any real parental figures for various reasons. is it appropriate behaviour? absolutely not. but is it malicious? I don’t think so. at times Julian can seem almost childishly naive -- he’s stuck in this pretend game and he’s quite happy to be there... so long as he’s in control. the second he’s no longer in control, he bolts. he was on board with the idea of the bacchanal because I sincerely think he didn’t believe it would actually work; he probably thought there would be some kind of strange experience, but I don’t think he thought it would summon a god/induce psychosis (whichever you believe happened during that scene). he encouraged Henry a) because he didn’t think there was a risk and b) because how cool that his students are trying to throw a bacchanal! that’s the exact kind of thing he loves! that commitment, that throwing oneself into one’s studies, that academic fervour -- he loves it. and he saw this as just part of that. then someone ends up dead and then another person ends up dead and Julian has to face real life consequences, and he’s scared. he never planned for this because he never saw it coming. and above all he’s a coward, and a vain one at that. all of these qualities that he so loved teaching about in his classes -- stoicism, responsibility, honour -- fall by the wayside, and he runs. and that’s why Henry kills himself -- because he has been let down by his mentor, and he feels like someone should uphold those values so lovingly, apparently sincerely taught to them over the last few years. without this interpretation of Julian, I wonder how anyone made sense of Henry’s death.

in some respects, I think people are trying to look a little too deeply into this book. perhaps its subject matter -- being all about dedicated, talented scholars -- makes people think they’re reading a highly intellectual book, but while it’s wonderfully written and absolutely captivating, it’s not difficult to interpret. at least in my opinion it seems straightforward -- it’s just a story about a lot of things going wrong because of a lot of decisions; it’s about how things can so quickly get out of control no matter how much a person tries to control themselves. a man has no influence over the world around him, and things are rarely what they seem.

[slowspinningredemption]

oh man. i just read your creepy trail story. sounds very otherworldly. what do you think was going on there?

I have no idea! I was very young when it happened, so this is a few years ago now. all I can really remember about the place was that it really was in the middle of nowhere, predating the camp easily. I got the impression it was ancient, and this being rural Britain it could have easily been several centuries old. looking back now, I think it might have been some kind of ritualistic area, because it was loaded with the same kind of heavy, “do not disturb” energy I’ve experienced at other places (though not always with the accompanying malice), but at the same time, who knows? we were surrounded by old forests and untamed countryside. anything could have been living out there, undisturbed, until we crashed through the trees.

another option is perhaps some kind of glitch, or an area where the veil is thin, I suppose. such places often hum with the same kind of heavy energy, and often feel malicious or dangerous. they might not be, necessarily, but they’re so other that all our brains know to do is panic, because we simply can’t comprehend them.

[arthistorycq]

Saints aren’t always kind and generous off the bat. Sainte Foy is a fine example of a mischievous saint who enjoyed playing practical jokes on worshippers and demanded tribute before performing any kind of miracles. (Girl is lookin’ out for herself first) 

Our newest edition to the writing team, Sydney Gobin, takes us in depth into Sainte Foy’s life, behavior, her home at Conques Abbey and more in our latest issue of The Medieval Magazine.

Read individual issue here: Hagiography - The Medieval Magazine

Subscribe monthly or yearly here: Full subscription to The Medieval Magazine