The book added juice to the story of Elizabeth Bathory, the evil 16th century Hungarian bitch countess who (allegedly!) tortured her maids for fun before she drained their bodies of blood for her bath. In the story, her equally perverse husband gifted her a witchy maid from foreign lands, Darvulia, who shared all of her strange cures, potions and beliefs with Elizabeth (er, Erzsebet as she was called then). One of those cures was that to bathe in virgin girl blood would reverse the aging process, something the vain Countess was obsessed with.
We know now that she was put on trial and imprisoned in her early 30s, by the way. 30 was a much harder age in 1590 than it is now, but come on y'all. Labeled as a disgusting old witch thirsting after the flowing blood of pretty young things, hoping to turn herself into a sexy baby nymphet because she was a wretched 32? I'm offended for her.
For reasons totally unrelated to my own life, I've becoming increasingly aware of Woman's (capital W Woman the Legion) inability to accept aging. I know exactly why it happens and I am not surprised by the outcomes it creates, but I am forever shocked by the ease with which humans acquire dysmorphia. It's not just for trans kids and eating disorders!
I think the toxic trends will change eventually, especially with the great wokening happening in western culture. Talk of beauty standards is still localized and kind of quiet, but all sands are shifting and that'll come up eventually. Ok, last last thing I'll say about Tori is remember all of the edgy photoshoots she took for Pele, like suckling a pig on a lonely splintered cabin porch? Ugh, she was cool and weird.
In the accepted history, the local townspeople started to protest that their daughters never returned from the castle, so Elizabeth was put on trial by the horrified magistrates and found guilty, then imprisoned for life. She wasn't put to death in the usual European public BDSM display because of her high status; the other titled people wouldn't want to create a precedent.
She lived another 40 years in incarceration before dying an ignominious death in a dank cell.
Except she apparently didn't do it. Or not like we think. As historians have combed through the law records of the time, there isn't a recorded incident of her crimes. Obviously there wouldn't be perfect documentation, but it's considered suspect that there's none when she allegedly killed hundreds of people, while there was plenty of documentation of other crimes by others from the day.
As we look back on the story with modern eyes, an emerging narrative is that this kind of treatment and conspiracy was typical when it came to women in power. Think of the shocking and unfounded rumors that still cling to Catherine the Great of Russia to present day. No horse! (By the way, the show "The Great" is a hilarious and delightfully ahistorical show about Catherine available on Hulu now. One of the Fanning children plays Catherine and she is as etherial and pretty as you'd expect a little 16th c Polish princess to be.) When Elizabeth's status as controller of her castle and desirable lands, as the sole inheriting child of her family, is considered in the context of the time, you realize how incentivized the local relatives and powers that be may have been to jailing her and taking her property.
She lived another 40 years in incarceration before dying an ignominious death in a dank cell.
Except she apparently didn't do it. Or not like we think. As historians have combed through the law records of the time, there isn't a recorded incident of her crimes. Obviously there wouldn't be perfect documentation, but it's considered suspect that there's none when she allegedly killed hundreds of people, while there was plenty of documentation of other crimes by others from the day.
As we look back on the story with modern eyes, an emerging narrative is that this kind of treatment and conspiracy was typical when it came to women in power. Think of the shocking and unfounded rumors that still cling to Catherine the Great of Russia to present day. No horse! (By the way, the show "The Great" is a hilarious and delightfully ahistorical show about Catherine available on Hulu now. One of the Fanning children plays Catherine and she is as etherial and pretty as you'd expect a little 16th c Polish princess to be.) When Elizabeth's status as controller of her castle and desirable lands, as the sole inheriting child of her family, is considered in the context of the time, you realize how incentivized the local relatives and powers that be may have been to jailing her and taking her property.
But that's guessing! There's no way to prove her innocent today, but it is interesting to think about now. There's no reason to think she wouldn't have been as brutal toward her servants as any Countess of the time was, but stories like Codrescu's only help to perpetuate the myths of spinning iron-spiked cages, torture parties and a practice of using a pair of massive scissors to slap young girls in the face. What mind comes up with these punishments? I guess any mind that's read history and knows what people were doing to their enemies then. It was a troubled time. All times were troubled times.
I'd love to hear what Codrescu would think with this new information. I can't find any evidence that he's revisited the topic in the last 20 years. Not that I hold it against him. But what if she was innocent? A then middle-aged woman being saddled with the most hysterical and extreme accusations imaginable, branded as a sick and perverted sadist, and taken away to live in the dark for the rest of her life. Except they wouldn't have called her sadist, as de Sade wasn't even born for a hundred years. Did he read about her as a young man? Those French elites loved a nasty story. Speaking of historical pieces that play with fact, watch Quills! As much as I want to edit the bad writing in that 2010 post, I won't. Seems like cheating (myself, out of seeing what a badly-written wang I was).
I'd love to hear what Codrescu would think with this new information. I can't find any evidence that he's revisited the topic in the last 20 years. Not that I hold it against him. But what if she was innocent? A then middle-aged woman being saddled with the most hysterical and extreme accusations imaginable, branded as a sick and perverted sadist, and taken away to live in the dark for the rest of her life. Except they wouldn't have called her sadist, as de Sade wasn't even born for a hundred years. Did he read about her as a young man? Those French elites loved a nasty story. Speaking of historical pieces that play with fact, watch Quills! As much as I want to edit the bad writing in that 2010 post, I won't. Seems like cheating (myself, out of seeing what a badly-written wang I was).
We know now that she was put on trial and imprisoned in her early 30s, by the way. 30 was a much harder age in 1590 than it is now, but come on y'all. Labeled as a disgusting old witch thirsting after the flowing blood of pretty young things, hoping to turn herself into a sexy baby nymphet because she was a wretched 32? I'm offended for her.
For reasons totally unrelated to my own life, I've becoming increasingly aware of Woman's (capital W Woman the Legion) inability to accept aging. I know exactly why it happens and I am not surprised by the outcomes it creates, but I am forever shocked by the ease with which humans acquire dysmorphia. It's not just for trans kids and eating disorders!
I spent half a morning drinking coffee in bed and looking at pictures of Madonna the other weekend, shocked by how swollen and distorted her face has become. Is looking like a drag version of yourself and inciting uncanny valley really better than having a few lines on your face? Madonna is a naturally beautiful person and you know she would have aged gracefully had she allowed herself to.
I take no issue with her continued presentation of herself as a sex cat. Madge can keep wearing pleather bodysuits forever, but I wish she knew that her frozen Priscilla Presley face contrasts less than she thinks with her body, which is becoming taughtly old ladyish in subtle ways that wouldn't be an issue if she wasn't trying to hide it. See: Angelina Jolie. Something about working out too much and becoming ropey. It even affects younger women when they do too much.
I watched The Unforgivable with Sandra Bullock recently. I don't recommend it (there is an unseen twist, though), but all I could focus on were her Real Housewives slightly overfilled duck lips. I'm supposed to believe this woman just got out of a 20 year prison stint? They have that shit in the joint? Her case isn't even extreme, but it's still immediately recognizable and made her unbelievable as her character. It's all I could see.
And there are a million other examples, far more extreme than the two I mention. Even Tori Amos has greatly changed her face to the point that it instantly stands out to me, but I do enjoy that she has somehow become more elfin than ever before. Was that intentional, or just the result of inflating her cheeks, forehead and chin (filler, filler everywhere)? We'll never know. But she has pointy ears and crazy red hair still and I guess that's something. Last person I expected, though. Look at her in 1992. No one expected that person to stay forever, but come on. I also prefer when she let her hair be a wild frazzled mess. As long as we're "normalizing" everything, normalize banshee hair.
Speaking of Tori, check out videos of her recording songs from Boys for Pele in ancient Anglo churches in 1994 (you could start at 10:30 if you care about harpsichord). She was literally high AF and it shows, and it may help to explain why that album was so brain-melting and etherial. Tori talking about the ancient grounds that exist below churches, oh, fucking a. Get me a harpsichord at once. Also, google her Cielo Drive story with Trent Reznor.
I take no issue with her continued presentation of herself as a sex cat. Madge can keep wearing pleather bodysuits forever, but I wish she knew that her frozen Priscilla Presley face contrasts less than she thinks with her body, which is becoming taughtly old ladyish in subtle ways that wouldn't be an issue if she wasn't trying to hide it. See: Angelina Jolie. Something about working out too much and becoming ropey. It even affects younger women when they do too much.
I watched The Unforgivable with Sandra Bullock recently. I don't recommend it (there is an unseen twist, though), but all I could focus on were her Real Housewives slightly overfilled duck lips. I'm supposed to believe this woman just got out of a 20 year prison stint? They have that shit in the joint? Her case isn't even extreme, but it's still immediately recognizable and made her unbelievable as her character. It's all I could see.
And there are a million other examples, far more extreme than the two I mention. Even Tori Amos has greatly changed her face to the point that it instantly stands out to me, but I do enjoy that she has somehow become more elfin than ever before. Was that intentional, or just the result of inflating her cheeks, forehead and chin (filler, filler everywhere)? We'll never know. But she has pointy ears and crazy red hair still and I guess that's something. Last person I expected, though. Look at her in 1992. No one expected that person to stay forever, but come on. I also prefer when she let her hair be a wild frazzled mess. As long as we're "normalizing" everything, normalize banshee hair.
Speaking of Tori, check out videos of her recording songs from Boys for Pele in ancient Anglo churches in 1994 (you could start at 10:30 if you care about harpsichord). She was literally high AF and it shows, and it may help to explain why that album was so brain-melting and etherial. Tori talking about the ancient grounds that exist below churches, oh, fucking a. Get me a harpsichord at once. Also, google her Cielo Drive story with Trent Reznor.
I think the toxic trends will change eventually, especially with the great wokening happening in western culture. Talk of beauty standards is still localized and kind of quiet, but all sands are shifting and that'll come up eventually. Ok, last last thing I'll say about Tori is remember all of the edgy photoshoots she took for Pele, like suckling a pig on a lonely splintered cabin porch? Ugh, she was cool and weird.
Should have led with this.
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