About Isabel Rosario Cooper, etc.

[rthstewart]

Lhanae had mentioned this in her review and post, so I thought I'd post a few more thoughts about this about men, women, and information in the story

As to the exchange that occurs in Chapter 14, there is no evidence of such exchanges at all, except... The Irregulars specifically discusses both Dahl's friendship with Drew Pearson, the muckraker, who stores up all this loathsome stuff about people. Dahl was under orders to cultivate the friendship precisely for the purpose of exchanging information.

Further, the British were very, very concerned about Wallace, and the uncomfortable correspondence with “Brother Harmony” and the trip to Galma/Soviet Union were certainly part of why he was dropped from the 1944 Presidential ticket.  Wallace hugely promoted the ideas of a peaceful, free, one world sort of Utopia– a lovely ideal, to be sure, but one that American’s thought was just weird and the British, who were still clinging to their colonial past, rightly feared.   

As to poor Ms. Cooper, the incidents described in the story actually occurred much earlier – the late 1930s, I think.  General MacArthur threatened to sue Pearson for libel and Pearson added Cooper to the list of witnesses.  Cooper, at age 16 (though there is some ambiguity about her age) became MacArthur's mistress when he was stationed in the Philippines.  He is a very controversial figure in Filipino history as Lhanae's points out.   MacArthur brought Cooper to the U.S., put her up in an apartment, dressed her "tea gowns" and bedded her as convenient.  When he wanted to dump her, reportedly, an aide, Dwight Eisenhower (who would become General and President), brought a bag of money to the apartment to get her to leave the U.S., which she never did.    

The story of the young, immigrant mistress so casually brushed aside is a poignant one, and though I don't explore it, it underscores other things at work in the story -- including the Colonel's concern for Agnes and his protection of Susan.  I don't address it, but the Colonel's concerns for Susan and Agnes are very, very real.    

The Irregulars also discusses the cavalier way in which men, including Dahl, treated the women around them.  Women among powerful men were toys and playthings, and were not and did not get in the way of the important things men did together.  Women were a commodity, like a cigar or bottle of Scotch.     

Charles Marsh, the newspaper man (the mentioned but unshown Tarkaan Kidrash in the story) divorced his wife to take up with a 16 year old goddess, Alice.  Marsh promoted and was the mentor to a young Congressman from Texas, Lyndon Johnson, who became Kennedy's Vice President and later President.  Johnson returned Marsh's favor by taking Alice Marsh as his mistress.  The men apparently patched things up, because great men would never let women get in the way of their accomplishment of great things, but the affair also continued.  

I've been a little bit divided about showing the sexual voracious women in the story, and their poaching upon poor Tebbitt.  Tebbitt is based on Dahl and Dahl was, bluntly, a ruinous cad to women.  Tebbitt is a much kinder person than his inspiration, logical because I just didn’t want to write someone so close to Susan who was a true ass, and I figured you didn’t want to read it either.  It actually occurred to me recently, that poor sick Dr. Richard Russell, back in Part 1, is a closer counterpart to Dahl than Tebbitt is in his treatment of women, including his wife.  I adore Richard, but I would never have wanted to be romantically involved with him.  

But, given the milieu, in which Generals take 16 year olds as mistresses and send their aides with bags of money to pay them off, and women are as facelessly unimportant as mass produced baseball cards, I do find my own feelings a bit – divided, I suppose.  I’ve not shown the male counterpart to Lasaraleen, but they are there, and more prevalent and prominent than the women and the Colonel is justifiably concerned for the women in his circle.      In 1942 these powerful, predatory women were outliers, and their morality aside, were accomplished, successful, and doing it in a man’s world.  Politicians like Claire Luce and newspaper women like Cissy Patterson are disturbing, especially when put through the story’s lens of Tashbaan.  But, as an old woman and a feminist who knows what bias looks and feels like, I feel grudging admiration for women who took some for themselves in a male world.  Though in the story I do, in real life, I would not judge them by their sexual appetites alone which are certainly no more extreme than those of the men around them.  I’m not fair to these substantial and complex women in this presentation.  They do prey upon Tebbitt, but for every Tebbitt, they are dozens, hundreds, of girls like Cooper, Susan, and Agnes.

Comments

[ilysia-039.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Now I feel a bit of a cad for mouthing off about Cissy Patterson's alter-ego/cover/persona in my review. True, what she's doing isn't what most people would call nice or right, but I have, like so many do, forgotten to look at the big picture. I must try to do better in the future and remember that in stories (particularly yours!) things are more complex than they appear.

The issue of women in society is one that just keeps resurfacing recently. But your discussion has got to be one of the most interesting. I shall now go to think...

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

Oh goodness, no need to feel the cad. Your comments certainly didn't prompt it. Lasaraleen is despicable as presented in the story and her real life inspiration was a very troubled woman. While I thought this was really bigger than life in the story, I don't think it was that far from the truth either. Lasaraleen's inspiration DID have sex with her best friend's husband on the floor of the bathroom during a dinner party. She was very boastful of her sexual escapades. She was an alcoholic with a very strange history of personal relationships. She was also, apparently, a huge admirer of Eleanor Roosevelt, which I find odd given how much she hated FDR. She did run a major newspaper -- a journalism school in Chicago bears her family's name.

It's that in spite of these disturbing exploits, I find something grudgingly admirable that these women were able to do these things at all, including taking control of their lives sexually. It's not right, but it is equalizing.

Back with the Congresswoman, Tarkheena Masikah, Susan even reflects on some of that grudging admiration she feels. Susan is channeling my conflict as well. I'm conflicted about it, especially given how broadly I painted the brush here. We are not supposed to like this character and we are suppose to feel admiration for Susan dealing with her, sympathy for Tebbitt, and a sort ambivalent feeling with the Colonel's use of the people under his command in pursuit of The Greater Good.

This is Susan's perception and she's not thinking of the broader issue of female empowerment in the context of her time. She's got a job to do and she's going to do it. However, I think exploring this issue later in Part 3 is probably warranted and I'm going to add this to the list of Big Issues For Part 3.

[min023.livejournal.com]

Well that's interesting. To be honest, I hadn't really thought about this aspect of chapter 14. Perhaps it's because I've read The Irregulars (and a few other, similar, works) a number of times now.

If I stop and really give it some thought, yes, it's all moderately revolting (and that's all around, not just the women), but knowing that the truth really was stranger than fiction, and this stuff really went on throughout WWII, I just more-or-less accepted it. Interesting how different stuff jumps out and bites people, isn't it?