The Man in the Iron Mask by Roger MacDonald

I finally finished reading the book The Man in the Iron Mask by Roger MacDonald. Two days ago I woke up from a dream about Louis XIV. Most people in the USA do not really know who Louis XIV is. In fact, I am under the impression now that even the people of France do not really know who he is.

I will try to sum up the book that MacDonald wrote quickly as it is not a good book for those who consider themselves friends of the King to read. It is intended to make his many enemies very happy. It is frankly offensive, disgusting, unreliable, and a new word I learned from it, a gasconnade, meaning a tall tale. The men from Gascony loved to tell tales and spin them larger and larger which is what Roger MacDonald is doing with this book.

On that note, I will drop the topic of the book to that of the Sun King, Louis XIV.

My dream was very strange and very undesirable in many ways, as I am still trying to make it out to my own self satisfaction.

Years ago, I had the temerity to ask myself to learn who I had been in a past life, and underwent self hypnosis to get an answer. At that time, I knew nothing about the man known as the Sun King, and so simply accepted my inner knowledge as being that is who I am. Since then, I have made a long study to learn whether any of my inner information does have confirmation, and even went to Paris, and the Chateau to see for myself all that I had learned through what is soul memory.

Thanks to MacDonald I do see that many people hated me a lot, and I know now why.

I just read a facebook article about John Lennon who claims to have been visited by buglike aliens so I know how crazy strange stories can seem to people, even when the person uttering them thinks them to be true.

After reading MacDonald's book, I am happy that the life of Louis is past and that I am in the present time simply putting all this information together, coming to grips with it. So for me, the bloodlines don't mean a thing as it is soul that is important to me, and I am willing to accept that this lifetime has blessed me by discovering these past lifetimes. (God's will be done.)

It is naturally influencing how I write my novel on Alexander the Great, for I believe very much in Alexander and in the gods of his day and age, as that is the basic premise of the book, that Alexander does what he does with the help of his own personal gods and goddesses.

Likewise, Louis XIV trusted in the faith of his age, and while he does appear to have broken many rules of the tenets of the faith, he still remained a devout practitioner...what his own internal beliefs are is irrelevant in this day and age, but it is safe to say that his decisions were also influenced by his belief in God's will that he be the ruler and the Christian king.

When I write his book, I will also use religion as a basis for understanding his life as well since it all comes to me as when I was being so honest with myself at Kent State University in a philosophy class proving that religious beliefs shape our lives.

In my opinion, Louis XIV is a very personable man with a very important position in life. Once I learned of him,I realized why it was that a fellow teacher at GHS had made a statement to me that I found peculiar at the time. Now I wonder about it as it was not my choice then to do it the way it was perceived, but I did realize that people had a misconception about me. I was both advisor to the school newspaper (because few wanted the job) and also to the cheerleaders and songleaders (again for the same reason, nobody wanted it) but it seemed to appear that I was a glutton for punishment.

Being a teacher is a thankless position in itself, but being an advisor, especially to the school newspaper, is even more thankless. All it gets is criticism, just or unjust.

So it had to be with the position of King. Damned if you do and damned if you don't.

MacDonald's main emphasis is upon the scandals, the women, and the problem of a single prisoner who is made to wear a mask to hide his identity. It is one of those lame stories that is blown all out of proportion so that in the end it does make ridicule of the state and of the king to place so much importance upon a single prisoner.

I found the entire premise false from start to finish as I am a defender of the King and his family but I did enjoy learning all the tidbits of gossip that make everyone look ridiculous, difficult, and certainly probably overdue for reform and change. However, when one studies the era seriously enough, one realizes that the times produced a France that gives all the ministers and the King a kind of credibility that makes them admirable rather than otherwise.

In all fairness to myself, as I am still always able to recall in a second many of the events that I enjoyed while reliving a life as Louis XIV, I really believe that as King, Louis XIV did an extraordinary job using the people in his court to their best advantage. In the end, most of the work of that period speaks for itself, and the King is justified for his obstinant attitude towards not only his building programs, but also his wars, and his chapel. Once he made his decision, he stood by it.

So for me, Roger MacDonald who claims to be a historian insulted himself with his book.

Enough said for now.