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Gertrude Bell and Grace Vatta
Mar. 10th, 2008 01:42 pmI finished reading Desert Queen
, this weekend. It's the biography of Gertrude Bell, who, along with her understudy Thomas Edward Lawrence (AKA "Lawrence of Arabia") essentially drew the maps of the modern states of Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. I also finished Elizabeth Moon's newest, Victory Conditions.
The biography was only so-so, but the information imparted was fascinating. For example, Lebanon is a French creation, and under all previous regimes had been a part of Syria. Ibn Saud, who founded Saudi Arabia, was not the favorite of the British, and the current Hashemite king of Jordan has a decent dynastic claim to that territory.
What was most interesting to me was learning about the problems of creating Iraq. Sunni vs. Shia, tribe vs. city, and the Kurds off in the north wanting nothing to do with either. It all read like it was lifted from recent news reports. Even some of the same families are involved; for example, Muctada Al-Sadr's grandfather was one of Bell's allies. Can anybody say "those who fail to remember history are condemned to repeat it?"
Ms. Bell herself was an interesting character, reminding me of Grace Vatta, one of the characters in Elizabeth Moon's (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
e_moon60) book Victory Conditions. They are both independent women of a certain age, highly capable, and willing to do whatever was needed to accomplish their goals.
They differ in some details (besides one being real and the other fictional). Ms. Bell was a true Victorian, who never married and quite probably died a virgin. She was also an anti-suffragette, feeling that most women couldn't handle the vote. Grace Vatta, on the other hand, is quite OK with sex and would shoot anybody who tried to deny women's rights. I can't remember who said that "history is the raw material for science fiction," but they're absolutely correct.
, this weekend. It's the biography of Gertrude Bell, who, along with her understudy Thomas Edward Lawrence (AKA "Lawrence of Arabia") essentially drew the maps of the modern states of Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. I also finished Elizabeth Moon's newest, Victory Conditions.The biography was only so-so, but the information imparted was fascinating. For example, Lebanon is a French creation, and under all previous regimes had been a part of Syria. Ibn Saud, who founded Saudi Arabia, was not the favorite of the British, and the current Hashemite king of Jordan has a decent dynastic claim to that territory.
What was most interesting to me was learning about the problems of creating Iraq. Sunni vs. Shia, tribe vs. city, and the Kurds off in the north wanting nothing to do with either. It all read like it was lifted from recent news reports. Even some of the same families are involved; for example, Muctada Al-Sadr's grandfather was one of Bell's allies. Can anybody say "those who fail to remember history are condemned to repeat it?"
Ms. Bell herself was an interesting character, reminding me of Grace Vatta, one of the characters in Elizabeth Moon's (
e_moon60) book Victory Conditions. They are both independent women of a certain age, highly capable, and willing to do whatever was needed to accomplish their goals.They differ in some details (besides one being real and the other fictional). Ms. Bell was a true Victorian, who never married and quite probably died a virgin. She was also an anti-suffragette, feeling that most women couldn't handle the vote. Grace Vatta, on the other hand, is quite OK with sex and would shoot anybody who tried to deny women's rights. I can't remember who said that "history is the raw material for science fiction," but they're absolutely correct.
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