This writing thing

Years ago in southern California I had one of those creative writing classes that leaves one speechless and wondering...but one thing I learned from this class conducted by a woman named Shanley is that there are such things as archetypes. Archetypes are things in common shared by many. An example of an archetype in childhood is the business of being thrown high into the air and falling into the arms of a loving parent, brother, sister, nephew, cousin, grandparent, etc.etc.etc. I mention this because I am naturally thinking about my book on the childhood of Alexander in which I have him thrown into the air many times by his daring handsome father, Philip, king of Macedon.

So when I read a recent book by a current author who did the same thing to Queen Elizabeth I as a child I felt a bit awed by the fact that there are two of us who have experienced that in our own lives to use it in a book about a subject dear and close to our hearts. I always love throwing babies in the air myself and did it many times, and probably had it done to me too but alas I have forgotten all that infant stuff as memories of infancy have not stayed with me.

However, I have never forgotten childhood dreams...funny, isn't it, the things that we remember.

I am watching movies this week again. I checked out Sarah's Key, a movie about W.W.II during the rise of Hitler's Nazi regime, and this particular story takes place in Paris. It shows how the French handled the problem of rounding up Jews to send to The camps. Very interesting to imagine how the writers and directors were able to find this kind of material for a story. Whether true or not, it is a touching story which made me wonder at how many stories similar to this now about Gaza could be made. Why does not Israel learn its own lesson of the do unto them as you want done unto you?

Basically, the story is about a journalist whose marriage to a Frenchman is falling apart due to her becoming pregnant and wanting the child while he does not want the problem of childrearing one more time as they already have a teenage daughter. She learns of the story of a family who were forcibly taken from their home, while leaving one child behind to suffer tragedy in a closet due to his sister's Sarah's advice. Sarah as the sister who loves her brother suffers the rest of her life due to the events that take place causing her mother and father to be wrenched away from her. Some nice crusty Frenchmen help the poor child to escape the camp and find a home while a fellow deserter unfortunately dies from diphtheria so Sarah is left alone without family due to the war. She does meet a man, has a child, and that child plays a minor role in the story in which the journalist finds Sarah's only child and his father. The journalist leaves her husband to have her own child who she then names for the poor little Jewish girl whose love for her brother cost her dearly. It is a farfetched story but a Hollywood type film intending to show the trauma and dilemma the French average citizen faced while watching the Jews be treated inhumanely and dreadfully. A film in which one should be prepared and have kleenex handy. Hollywood fantasy in which the French have a heart, help the child at intervals, and also plead their own case for their part in the travesty of that evil war.