Chapter 12 A - Curiosities

Cassandra and her mixed up language introduces the curiosities today.

When talking to the doctor she says that she needs to make clarity in her feelings. Usually clarity is used for ideas, not feelings. In the Italian version of the comic she uses a similar word which is "schiarisco" also used for ideas, not feelings.

Did you know? A lot of the concepts that are linked to emotions, passions, feelings and stuff that is heart related - in short "romantic" stuff - belongs to Romanticism and developed a lot from that era through the XIX century and the XX century. Very recent stuff.


Wait, Deda, are you saying that before that people did not fall in love? They did but starting from the fact that each culture and historical period lived love in a different way... love was not related to intimacy or emotions in a relationship for veeeery long time.
It was: spiritual, philosophical, religious... just look how complicated this wikipedia page is and how many external links it comes with.
A lot of things were born in contemporary societies... terms of endearment? XIX century mostly. Before that it was standard poetry, literary convention, words. Real life experience attached to it? Very little.

The other thing to take into consideration is that love was to be sought outside of marriage, especially for higher classes people.

At this point Cassandra is very confused. Emotions and Ideas are not different for her; her heart and her brain are the same thing: in fact everything resides just in one place.
Her dilemma is atrocious: she likes her husband a lot.

The wedding thingy was not there to get society approval (society approval is what she will seek for with her aunties and uncles while defending her choice for a husband)... the wedding was there so she could get in his pants (XD - because Wes is very traditional and likes to do things the traditional way, it's the XVII century guys, let's not question that! You'd be surprised to know how strict and traditional some pirates could be)... but they also had a private/personal rite, just for themselves and exchanged an everlasting promise.
That is something you want to clear your ideas about.

Getting an "I love you" from your husband, in public it's a big deal. By the way... somebody noticed that the kiss looked like Hayez'... mh, although the hand might be misleading I was actually trying to echo V-J Day! XDDD

Here this lady is forgetting her manners and showing skin.

It's the pirates' fault, clearly, she was more bashful at the beginning of the story, if you remember... or maybe she is just too passionate about her plea.

Skin is something you didn't get to see everyday. I'm afraid the poor Swiss Spearmen didn't see much of it either!





I talked about this topic once before... in this post about love and marriage in the XVII century.

Now it was about time we at least touched the topic in the comic itself.
Cassandra spills the beans: Wes was right the first time he spoke to her and called her a spinster (then rescued her from spinsterhood, how ironic could life be!).
I made up the name of the religious order... but of course it goes so well with the aunties' names! XD

I was actually a bit surprised to see people asking me: when did he say he was a Jew? (I guess Ivanhoe is not a popular read anymore. They should make a movie out of it, dang, it's a cool story! Go Sir Walter Scott!)

Probably the word used by Westley is only very common in Latin rooted languages (and yes, English is not Latin rooted but 75% of its lexicon comes from Latin languages <--- I am not making this up, you study it when you take "history of the English language" in college! XDDD) and I mistakenly took for granted that most people would know it.

Also, gentile is a tricky word and can be read as gentle if you read very fast. So sorry ^^"!

Gentile: means not Jew. (apparently it can also be applied to not Mormons, nowadays, but Joseph Smith came way after our storyline... so I applied it traditionally to Christians). I used this word once already as joke that was also a play on word, I don't know if you remember but it happened when Kes had fallen in the laundry tank.

Here, in short, he is saying that Jews are not allowed to marry Christian girls, and shouldn't even look at them! So she is not the one who scored big (by marrying a doctor) he's the one who got lucky!

Ain't that sweet! :D

P.s.
I would like to remind everybody that this woman is still part of the gossip society.

Sliding in to fill the aunties with bits of info about Kane is part of her evil (LOL) nature.


No, love doesn't change people it makes them happy (or sad) but their true colors will always shine through.
Remember my words when your best friend will be stolen away by a new love relationship... they were never your best friend to begin with! Muahaha ah sob sob sigh.
(even near death experience will only change your view on things but not your nature. The only thing that could change your nature is becoming a parent - and it usually works mostly on women because of the way pregnancy changes your chemical balance too).

Does this man take things personally or what?

Apply what he says to him, to his past and his life... his speech takes a whole new meaning.

Nothing can really save him from how trapped he is, I'm afraid, but a few things could ease his pain.


Wilson Kane is definitely not a happy person.


Martin. Do not underestimate the man.
He is very honest and straightforward but there might be a streak of sarcasm in what he says.
He is not a malicious person but let's get real... can you really become a captain of a ship if you are a complete idiot?

Judgmental, he is not. But he fights back in his own personal way.

At this point the display of generosity, falling on a girl who treated him like crap up until that moment... is a lesson of humility.
Pea must be feeling the weigh of the unfairness she inflicted... pretty heavily and it burns.

This blond man, who never thinks before he acts (that's what she says) is putting this lady like, devilish minded, Papadopulos to a test: if you are accomplished, you can fix them.
If she fixes them she will show that she is used to hard work (we are talking about sewing leather here) and that will surely not make her lady like at all. Pretty tricky, eh!
What will Pea do?

The Papadopulos looked back, all of them but Lio.
But first of all, the line quoted in the last caption is by Claude Debussy (translated and adapted like poop by yours truly ^^").



Lio is looking at the future: she is the kind of girl who's afraid of nothing because she knows she'll always find a way around things.
Castalia is waving bye bye: well, she couldn't wait to get out of her past, we know that!
Callista and Pifo have unresolved situations and feelings: acceptance is something they won't get from the past but it's still sad to leave for a future of acceptance thinking "why couldn't it work for the ones I loved?"
Kes and Pea are looking back at a past that could have led them to an unwanted future: they could have been like the aunties. You know out of all the girls these two are the ones who followed rules in order to get married and a "regular" life. Even if they are escaping toward a better chance they do feel sorry for the aunties. They never had any chance at all.

At this point Pea still does not spare a single thought for Martin and their relationship is still on a platonic level, actual she is indifferent and he is curious, but that's mostly it. But do look forward to their next meeting :D some things will be changed by then.

Some of you have noticed that aunt Defrauded was looking at somebody with pretty eyes at the end of this Independence War... look better, she did look at somebody once already in the earlier pages. Remember what I said about Independence Wars? (I said many things so I'll leave you to speculate on this emblematic sentence, now).
We'll see the aunties again... do look forward to the next encounter as well! ;D