The Rose of Versailles...

[fajrdrako]

Last night, thanks to encouragement from monsieureden and maaboroshi, I had a wonderful time wandering through numerous websites and YouTube looking at pictures and clips from The Rose of Versailles - the manga, anime, the old movie Lady Oscar, the trailer for the upcoming movie (yay!), the Takarazuka musical - oh, what I would give to see that on stage! what costuming! - and all sorts of fannish music vids. I even discovered a lovely stauette of Oscar. (Oooh! I want!) And a lovely doll version of her lover André.

I'd never even thought to look for Rose of Versailles material beyond the anime and the manga - as far as I know, only two volumes were ever published in English, and they're long out of print. I managed to buy the manga I have at a booth at San Diego Comic Con back in the 1980s: and from the first, I was smitten by its dashing French female hero, Oscar.



This falls into a small genre of fiction that I adore: romantic stories about cross-dressing pansexual young women with swords, set in colourfully baroque historical periods. Well, actually, I can only think of one other example of the genre,¹ and that is Ellen Kushner's wonderful novel, The Privilege of the Sword. I'd like to see that as a movie - oh, I wish!

Or a book illustrated by Charles Vess.

Well, I can dream, can't I?

~ ~ ~
¹ Eowyn in The Lord of the Rings shares many of the aspects I love with both Oscar and Katheine, but doesn't quite push the same emotional buttons. Maybe because Eowyn is unequivocably heterosexual. Maybe because the story, whatever it is, isn't the least bit baroque. Maybe becasue Eowyn is only a part of a much longer, larger work, only fragments of which touch on the genre I'm thinking of.

It tempts me to write such a thing myself, it really does.

Comments

[mllelaurel.livejournal.com]

It tempts me to write such a thing myself, it really does.

*encourages*

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the encouragement. This is something I'm really thinking about.

[teenygozer.livejournal.com]

The New Yorker did an in-depth article on the Takarazuka musicals of Japan many years ago, and the musical they wrote about was, wait for it -- yes, Rose of Versailles. It's fascinating -- the actors (or rather, actresses, it's an all-girl theater troupe) are SO FABULOUSLY SKILLED and the theater complex is amazing, but it is a rather scorned artform as mere popular culture of the lowest sort. The writer of the article would tell someone she was going to see a Takarazuka musical, and the locals would scoff and tell her there were better things to do than waste her time there. Frankly, though it wasn't said, I got the feeling that because it was woman-based in origin and of interest pretty much only to women, it was considered "low art" -- kinda the feeling I sometimes get when fandom is discussed by the non-fannish. I just felt there was misogeny there, though not overt.

If you know someone with DVD-ROMS of The Complete New Yorker, you can find the article. I remember the cover of the magazine was this gorgeous illustration of Cinderella, very apt for the article, but can't remember the year it was published.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

The New Yorker did an in-depth article on the Takarazuka musicals of Japan many years ago, and the musical they wrote about was, wait for it -- yes, Rose of Versailles.

How wonderful! I'll have to track that down.

it is a rather scorned artform as mere popular culture of the lowest sort.

Musical theatre here doesn't always get the highbrow seal of approval, either. And we all know how easy it is to encounter sexism, and denigration of art-forms that are either aimed at women or produced by women. And yes, fandom is a good analogy. An overlapping one.

I should be able to a New York search. Thanks!

[monsieureden.livejournal.com]

OMG, Rose of Versailles love! *is obsessively watching the anime*

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Rose_de_Versailles... is that an animated film? Is there an idea of when it will come out??

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Yes, it's an animated film which was announced at San Diego Comic Con. They delayed the release to fit in with an anniversary - I think maybe it's coming out next year. I can hardly wait!

[monsieureden.livejournal.com]

"This falls into a small genre of fiction that I adore: romantic stories about cross-dressing pansexual young women with swords"

Haha. I guess for me it, in a small way, reminded me of Eden, but in the opposite gender. Cross dressing and swords never fail to win me over.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

it, in a small way, reminded me of Eden, but in the opposite gender.

Yes. I suppose I don't really care what gender the protagonist is: a young pansexual swordsman in a roccoco or baroque era would be just as good. Except I can't recall ever having read such a story. Not yet.

[monsieureden.livejournal.com]

PPS, http://www.acesquad.com/glory/ has some nice stuff, including a wallpaper that has Oscar looking a tad like Eden: http://www.acesquad.com/glory/wallpapers/violin.jpg

Why do they all play violin?

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Why violin? I don't know but I can guess. It's an instrument with a romantic, melancholy sounds. It sounds good (if well played) as a solo instrument. The 17th-18th century was a period where the violin was technologically perfected, and popular. It's more mobile than a harpsichord. And wuthors like to make protagonists musical. (Cf. Lymond.)

Nie wallpaper.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

Everyone messed about with violins/fiddles in 18C. Even Pattie Ferguson did when he was in the West Indies, though he shut himself away to practice, because he said he was a lousy player.

It also meant you'd be in demand at parties, to play dance music.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

The original of the genre, of course, is Gautier's Mademoiselle de Maupin, which was loosely inspired by the cross-dressing actress of the Louis XIV era. Marg once sent me a copy of Lady Oscar. but the visual quality of the old tape wasn't good, so I didn't keep it.

I loved the King's Ransom episode of The Scarlet Pimpernel (Richard E Grant version) in which the villainess was a cross-dressing lesbian actress with a background as an assassin. She was wonderful!

You may enjoy the old movies I posted to you the other week: it wouldn't take much tweaking to add a lesbian twist to something like The Wicked Lady!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I got your packages! Thank you! Three items - the poster, the William Marshall pdf (with wonderful, wonderful additons) and the movies. I need to find a place to put the poster on a wall. It's impressive.

I don't know what the odds are on my finding a copy of Lady Oscar, but I'll give it a try. Apparently there are also videos of the Takarazuka performances in existence.

I loved that part of The Scarlet Pimpernel too. Didn't like Richard E. Grant in the role, but I liked everything else about that production. Including that it had other actors in it that I do like, Martin Shaw and Jamie Bamber.

[spherissa.livejournal.com]

It tempts me to write such a thing myself, it really does.


What a Shiny idea..

*encourages*

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

The idea really appeals. I'm... thinking about it. Now, I don't want to just copy ideas from Kushner or Ikeda, I want to get my own take on the theme... but right now the idea is filling me with enthusiasm. So I'm thinking.

Thank you for the encouragement!

[puritybrown.livejournal.com]

The scanlation group Lililicious have scanlations of the manga (http://www.lililicious.net/projectDet.php?id=6), though their updates are sporadic and I don't know whether they've gotten any further than the volume you've already got. They also have Claudine (http://www.lililicious.net/projectDet.php?id=18), which is also by Ryoko Ikeda, and while there is no swordfighting and the period is not very baroque, there is horseriding and crossdressing and ambiguous sexuality (Claudine, like Oscar, is raised to be a "son" for her father). Ooh, and Oniisama E (http://www.lililicious.net/projectDet.php?id=3), again by Ryoko Ikeda, is really good: intensely emotional, melodramatic, gorgeously drawn. There's a cross-dressing woman in this, too: it's kind of a preoccupation of Ikeda's. She doesn't have a sword, but she does use a knife. :)

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for the wonderful links. I will certainly look at the manga, hoping the story of "The Rose of Versailles" takes me further than I have already read. These sound wonderful. Absolutely wonderful.... Thank you for feeding my addiction! I love it!

[fadryn.livejournal.com]

Thanks for linking to The Privilege of the Sword. It looks like exactly my sort of book. I'm definitely going to check it out. :)

Beth

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

You're welcome - I highly recommend it. It's terrific.

Last year was a good year for me, when it comes to finding good books.

[myfavouriteplum.livejournal.com]

Thank you for reminding me of The Rose of Versailles! There was a time when I caught a glimpse of Oscar's beautiful face every morning on my way to school, in the show window of a small manga bookstore. Every children in my school loaned mangas in that store.

When I read The Rose of Versailles, I was only a child, so I don't remember that much (I do remember who dies in the end, though.) *swear to find some online reading of it, for old time's sake*

And the art. The style is very old-fashioned manga and I adore it.

The Rose of Versailles is a shojo manga (manga for young and teenage girls), so yes, it is romance. I loathe many of this genre, like 'Sailor Moon', but I remember actually enjoying The Rose of Versailles. And 'Basara'. Another shojo manga with a cross-dressing, strong-willed, army-leading heroine, who's admired by both male and female readers. I think I may love 'Basara' more, since I read it later, in my teens.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I think The Rose of Versailles might be the first manga I ever read. I'd seen manga before that (rarely) but it looked like violent science fiction written for me. The Rose of Versailles appealed to me because of its historical setting, and because it was so unlike the only 'girls' comics' I'd ever seen in North America - things like Lonely Hearts or Patsy and Hedy. Which I wouldn't have read if you paid me to.

I later discovered and came to enjoy From Eroica With Love, but it was a long time before manga became generally available here. Now it's in just about every bookstore or comics shop, and popular.

I never heard of Basara - thanks for the recommendation.

[wanderinunicorn.livejournal.com]

I know that it's off topic, but have you seen the film Stage Beauty with Billy Crudup and Claire Danes? If yes, I would like to know if you like it. I've seen the movie just tomorrow and it's still on my mind.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Yes, I loved that movie. I thought the acting was excellent, and though there are some things about the historicity I might quibble with, I did love the way it was written. I'd like to see it again.

When I saw Stardust, I was trying to remember where I'd seen Claire Danes before. It was in this movie!

[wanderinunicorn.livejournal.com]

Here is the link for this movie on the imdb: http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0368658/

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[filkferengi]

About writing, I sing hmmmm in your general direction. ;)

If you want to party with Charles Vess, go to Foolscap. Listies carbonelle & mmegaera will be there. So will Charles de Lint & his wife, who are giving a concert on the Saturday night [without me; how rude!].

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Woo, I'd love to go to Foolscap. I wish I could.