Change the World by Reading

Posted on February 26, 2022 by Art for Housewives

Nancy Drew was my mentor. The 16 year old sleuth was everything I wanted to be—smart, independent, bold, and living life as an adventure. Because of Nancy, it was easy to imagine myself riding around in a blue roadster searching for clues to solve enigmatic crimes. Nancy expanded female awareness by proving that girls were just as capable as males in terms of affronting a problem and resolving it. So there was no need to be passive or subservient to patriarchal taboos. Nancy was a source of inspiration for many ex-little girls now successful women such as Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Barbara Walters, Sandra Day O’Connor, and Ellen Barkin.

Nancy had many talents—she could pick a lock with a hair pin, tap Morse code with her high heels, and use bright lipstick to write SOS messages. Nancy, using her wits and resourcefulness to solve mysteries, searched for lost wills, hidden heirlooms, missing people, etc.—anything necessary to right a wrong or find the truth. Because that’s what female sleuths do.

For years it was believed that Nancy Drew stories had been written by author Carolyn Keene until it was discovered that Carolyn Keene was not a person but a group of ghost writers. One such writer was Mildred Wirt Benson (1905-2002).

Mildred, born in a rural farming community in Iowa, was an avid reader as a child but noticed that books written for boys were by far more exciting and adventurous than those written for girls. In contrast to her other girlfriends, Mildred’s parents encouraged her to go to university. After graduating, she moved to NYC to pursue a career as a journalist where she met Edward Stratemeyer, a prolific writer and publisher. Already having created popular series such as The Hardy Boys and The Bobbsey Twins, Stratemeyer asked Mildred to help develop a female character who was “an up-to-date American girl at her best, bright, clever, resourceful, and full of energy.” The result? Nancy Drew.

Mildred wrote 23 of the first 30 Nancy Drew books leaving much of her personality imprinted on that of Nancy. For more than 50 years, Mildred help contribute to the success of the Nancy Drew series as well as developing her own independent novels. But she wanted to do more than just write about adventure, she wanted to experience it as well. So in the 1960s, she trained to be a pilot.

Mildred enjoyed travelling. She also enjoyed exploring archeological sites such as those of the Maya as well as canoeing in Central America’s crocodile infested rivers. Once in Guatemala, Mildred was locked in a room by Guatemalan drug traffickers.

Stratemeyer didn’t live long enough to see just how successful Nancy would become despite his belief that she was much too flippant. When he died, his daughters took over the Stratemeyer Syndicate and continued the tradition of hiring ghost writers, paying them a flat rate for each book and keeping the copyrights for themselves.

At the height of the Depression, Mildred was informed by Stratemeyer‘s daughter, Harriet Adams, that her wages would be lowered. Not pleased, Mildred took a hiatus from Nancy to concentrate on her own independent work (such as her Penny Parker Mysteries).

By the late 1950s, the Stratemeyer Syndicate transformed the strong willed Nancy into a “namby pamby” and diluted personality so much so that she no longer resembled the original Nancy. Harriet claimed that she had written all the Nancy Drew stories even though it is well established that Wirt and 28 other authors, following the Stratemeyer formula, did the actual writing. What Harriet did do was give Nancy a make-over by editing down Nancy’s persona and having her conform to the 1950s standards invented for women by men.

Harriet Stratemeyer Adams, age 89, died of a fatal heart attack while watching The Wizard of Oz. Mildred continued to work as a journalist by writing obituaries before dying herself at the age of 97.

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Related: Nancy Drew’s Flashlight + The Traveller    Fellow Readers (favorite paintings of women reading) + Reading paintings on pinterest + LALI, blog with women reading books + The Mysterious Mildred Wirt Benson + The Millie Benson Biography + Mildred Wirt Benson + Mildred Wirt Benson,The Ghost of Ladora + The Tale of the Ghost Writer + The Adventurous Writer Who Brought Nancy Drew To Life + Nancy Drew and the Mystery of Her Enduring Relevance  + Penny Parker + The secret book sweatshop behind Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys +

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A Gentleman in Moscow

Posted on February 20, 2022 by Art for Housewives

When Darwin wrote about the survival of the fittest, he wasn’t talking about working out in the gym. What he meant was:  “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent; it is the one most adaptable to change.” In order to survive, one must be able to adapt to the changes that are constantly occurring around us.

something to read

Amor Towles’ A Gentleman in Moscow is a story that begins in Russia during the 1920s when the country was dominated by chaos and uncertainty following the Bolshevik Revolution.

The gentleman referred to in the title is Count Rostov, an aristocrat residing at the Hotel Metropol in Moscow. The count, for the sole reason that he’s an aristocrat, is arrested and placed upon house arrest. Thus, for the next 30+ years, the story is continually set within the context of the Metropol.

Count Rostov, despite having to continually adapt to an ever changing, ever repressing political reality, remains a gentleman. Although he has to make many compromises in order to survive, he never lets the external situation take him far away from his core. Because without integrity and honor, it’s easy to crumble.

In Greek there is a word for this love of honor: philotimo. Philotimo, the belief that it is one’s duty to do what is right, is considered the highest of all virtues.

My mother used to have a plaque in her kitchen with the saying “Virtue is its own reward.” As a child it sounded pretty cryptic but now it’s perfectly clear–if you behave like a jerk, you will feel like a jerk. So if you want to feel good, you have to be good.

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Related: The entire story, 1922-1954, takes place with the structure of the Metropol Hotel. Amor Towles’ A Gentleman in Moscow can be found on archive HERE.

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My Ubiquitous Cat

Posted on February 18, 2022 by Art for Housewives
Volver the Cat, art critic
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The Torlonia Marbles

Posted on February 4, 2022 by Art for Housewives

Marino Tourlonias (1725-1785) was from Auvergne, a mountainous region in central France splattered with dormant volcanoes just waiting to wake up. Although Tourlonias’ origins were humble, his ambition was not. He moved the family to Rome where he changed their name to Torlonia and began accumulating a huge fortune thanks to his role in administering Vatican finances.

Before Ferraris, yachts, and Rolex watches, rich men used to show off their wealth by creating huge art collections. And since they were very very rich, the Torlonias collected a lot. Today their collection is immense and includes 620 catalogued marbles. The marbles, for years in storage in need of restoration, were made available to the public last summer. That’s why, on a hot, sweaty day in July, Chloè and I scootered to Capitoline Hill anxious to see the newly exposed marbles.

Hercules carries a club.

The problem with visiting major exhibitions, I’ve learned, is that there’s only so much I can observe before my eyes start drowning and transforming everything into a big blur. It’s best if I just waltz around attentively observing everything until something captures my attention. And, at the Torlonia exhibit, that special attention was captured by a statue near the exit. Even without looking at the object label it was easy to recognize Hercules thanks to his identikit– a club in one hand, quinces in the other, and a lion skin hanging on his arm.

But this is not what attracted me to the statue. What attracted me to this Hercules was his highly mended body (that looked as if a Praxiteles had been mugged by Frankenstein). I have a fascination for things that have been mended because:

Mending is a philosophy. And a measurement of value.  If something must be mended, it means it has been used, thus is useful. 

But mending a statue such as the one above takes much more than a bottle of glue and a couple of clamps. It takes years of preparation, experience, and, above all, patience.

There is a big difference between creating something ex-novo as opposed to repairing something made by another. An artist creates according to his own needs and ideals. Whereas a restorer, that is, an artisan, is subservient to the artist’s intent and does not create for himself but for the artwork’s posterity.

Take a beautiful broken statue and an artisan capable of repairing it and you have an excellent example of the need for interconnectedness.

It doesn’t matter how wonderful the statue was when intact, had it not been for the artisan, Hercules would still be a broken man.

So viva l’artista but long live the artisan.

Related: COLLEZIONE TORLONIA + Torlonia + Capitoline Museums, in Villa Caffarelli + Torlonia Collection   + The Torlonia Marbles Uncovered with Olga Cuckovic + The Aesthetics of Mending. + Bulgari Continues Its Epic Roman Patronage with the Priceless “Torlonia Marbles”

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Appropriations for AI will be jinxed.

p.s. The Torlonia Collection began at a public auction where the statue collection of famed restorer, Bartolomeo Cavaceppi (1717-1799), were sold.

Related: Villa Caffarelli Day

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Weltanschauung

Posted on February 1, 2022 by Art for Housewives

Why do people behave the way they do? Could it be that their Weltanschauung needs restyling?

Weltanschauung, minimally speaking,is one’s interpretation of life based on their own personal experiences and the perception of these experiences. I only know about this term because I live with a philosopher. He’s always talking about Weltanschauung, his favorite leitmotif. And, in an attempt to transform his monologues into diaglogues, I did some research of my own.

Wikipedia tells me that it was German historian and hermeneutic professor Wilhelm  Dilthey who, around 1911, came up with the term Weltanschauung that became popular with so many psychologists such as Freud and William James. But not everyone speaks German so “Weltanschauung“ had to be translated. The Anglo-Saxons translate it as “worldview” whereas Italians as “immagine del mondo” (image of the world). And here we find a big difference…is your Weltanschauung a view or an image?

A view means you are looking at something outside of yourself from a specific view point. But an image is a representation of something that’s not there. One Weltanschauung comes from looking out wherea the other comes from looking in.

So, in my mind’s eye, am I on the inside or outside of myself?

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References: World view by Michael Kearney on archive.org HERE + Dilthey, philosopher of the human studies by Rudolf Makkreel on archive.org HERE

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