'Tis the day
Never mind Halloween, the big occasion today in Germany is that it's the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, which events throughout the past decade and epecially the last year have been leading up to. (See also: the Luther eggs at Easter Wells, shared in this very journal.) Now I'm not of the Lutheran faith, but as a historically interested person, I'm duly impressed, of course. This article I thought does a good job of portraying both the good and the bad of Martin Luther, quondam Augustinian friar in Wittenberg. And there was both good and bad in excess. Incidentally, back when Hilary Mantel both in her Cromwell novels and in non-fiction articles went on about Thomas More's scatological extravaganzas in his anti-Luther writings, I thought: Yeah, but did you read Luther's writings? Nobody, but nobody tops Martin L. when it comes coming up with literally shitty similes for his opponents. This may be amusing when he's writing about being depressed (the article I linked includes a particularly drastic and genuinely funny description of Luther's of how that feels like to him), entertaining when he's writing about people he'll never meet and who are above him in power (read: Popes and Henry VIII.), starts to to get disturbing when he's having a go at poor old Erasmus of Rotterdam for being the lone guy in that era who tries the "look, everyone has some good points in this argument!" line, and becomes incredibly unsettling and revolting when he's punching down and attacking people whom his verbal hatred truly damages (mainly the Jews, since Luther was incredibly antisemitic even for his time, but you can also list the peasants from the peasant's revolt in this category).
This, btw, is why fictional depictions tend to stay the hell away from older Luther and focus on younger Luther in rebel-against-Rome mode. Though there are exceptions.)
(I haven't yet encountered a fictional Luther in any medium entirely convincing me. Though I loved the monologue Christine Brückner wrote for his wife, Katharina, "Are you sure, Martinus?" in her collection of female monologues (translated into English by Eleanor Bron, btw).
On a less historical and more Halloween note, read some Stranger Things ficlets, all spoilery for the second season and hence
Eleven & Hopper:
The first day (of the rest of their lives)
Black Holes and Revelations
Nancy:
passenger side: Nancy and the Byers family.
This entry was originally posted at https://selenak.dreamwidth.org/1256731.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.
This, btw, is why fictional depictions tend to stay the hell away from older Luther and focus on younger Luther in rebel-against-Rome mode. Though there are exceptions.)
(I haven't yet encountered a fictional Luther in any medium entirely convincing me. Though I loved the monologue Christine Brückner wrote for his wife, Katharina, "Are you sure, Martinus?" in her collection of female monologues (translated into English by Eleanor Bron, btw).
On a less historical and more Halloween note, read some Stranger Things ficlets, all spoilery for the second season and hence
Eleven & Hopper:
The first day (of the rest of their lives)
Black Holes and Revelations
Nancy:
passenger side: Nancy and the Byers family.
This entry was originally posted at https://selenak.dreamwidth.org/1256731.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.