Julien's Terror - Imagining the French Revolution

Julien's Terror, my latest novel, is the story of a haunting - a haunting that is either metaphysical or psychological, or is it both? 

Set in the dramatic period of the French Revolution, culminating into Napoleon's empire, it revolves around a young couple from different walks of life. Yet both have lived tragedy and both are touched by it. 

Julien's Terror features impressive figures of the French Revolution, including Charette, the Vendée counter-revolutionary and Marie Anne Lenormand, the celebrated Parisian fortuneteller.

Historical figures who play a minor role in the story but which I place on a pedestal, are the author, Madame de Staël who Napoleon hated, and the famed Austrian physician, Franz Anton Mesmer, whose works laid the foundation for hypnotism and psychotherapy.

The novel is dedicated to Charette.

While some dates around Charette’s presence in the Gralas forest may have been modified or blurred to aid the narrative, the events of the Vendée war depicted in Julien's Terror and the tragic massacres that unfolded in Western France are historical. 

When I was a teen, enamoured of art, I reproduced a centuries old drawing depicting Charette’s entry into Nantes on February 1795. At this young age, I knew not the significance of this drawing and its relation to the French Revolution.

Many years later, I learned the meaning of this drawing. It was a truce (not in the novel). Charette had agreed to a truce with the Republic and one of the secret conditions of this truce was that the revolutionaries would free the young king, Louis Charles. The truce was later ignored, as more fighting between Republicans and the Vendéens insued. 

Meanwhile, the young King, Louis Charles died in the Tower of the Temple in Paris. He was neglected and suffered the worst conditions. 

Ah, I almost forgot. Louis Charles is a central figure in Julien's Terror. 

There are many things that drove me to write Julien's Terror. On the one hand I was unsettled by the disturbing fate which an eight year old was forced to suffer until his death.  I wondered at times whether Louis Charles' soul might not haunt Le Temple had Napoleon not demolished it... 

There were also personal reasons - my awe for Charette is one of them.

Recently, while researching my Breton and French genealogy, I discovered that one of my 18^th century ancestors, had hidden Charette in the area of Montaigu, south of Nantes. It was that perilous time, prior to Charette’s capture in 1796, when the Vendée general had been abandoned by most, and erred from farm to farm in search of an asylum. I was proud of my ancestor for hiding Charette.

There was also the urge to tell the world of something tragic, to reveal a past...

Nantes is my home city in France, the city of my ancestors and a place that I have returned to many times since childhood. But when I visited in 2013, I experienced an urge to write about the drownings, the “noyades”, and to depict the tragedy that befell Nantes during the Terror.

And then, there was a fascination for the psychology of the people of France in those times. 

More than simply creating a character who had lived those events of the Revolution, I wanted to create a dynamic between two people, both damaged by their experience of the reign of terror. I examined the psychology of that period. What was fascinating was the increased resort to fortune telling services; the arts practiced by Marie Anne Lenormand were never more popular than from the revolution to the First Empire, where people sought answers and were deeply anxious about their future, and the future of France.

Delving into the past, with a psychological lens, I envisaged these historical events as a major cause for the rise in suicides, the growing number of asylum patients and the rise in depression. And then I remembered the majority. The majority which in all appearances seemed to not exhibit mental problems. If they did, then these poor souls never sought help, because such psychological help did not exist as it does today. This majority whose mental illness would remain concealed in a domestic realm, would resume living, but it would forever hide wounds.

That’s when I realised that this majority, it was an entire nation. And perhaps just as France’s wounds were never healed completely, so too, there exists today, in most parts of the world, wounds that have not healed and psyches that are forever marked by historical events. In essence, it is the psychohistorical dimension of this novel which most drove me to write.

On Failure and Social Support

There is a fear of failure in most individuals that belies one of the greatest truths in human social interactions. It is simply, that misery loves company and people are more likely to warm up to others who they think embody some weakness of some sort.

This is the product of social comparison, the tendency of individuals to compare themselves to others to assess their own standing and maintain self-esteem. It is easier and less painful for individuals' self-esteem to provide social support for those against whom they believe, they compare favourably.

To illustrate this phenomenon, I would like to give an example using two women. Everyone knows these two women. The scenario I am using is familiar and has been played in the social sphere countless of times.

Woman One has been overweight for most of her life. In terms of fitness, she is equated with a level of failure.
Woman Two is a splendid model of health, who for years, perhaps over twenty years, has followed a fitness and diet regimen without fail.

This is where it gets interesting.

In some circles, I must try not to generalise but that is the norm, the continually slim, healthy woman is dismissed as vain and 'not-knowing-what-it's-like' to struggle with weight issues. If she were to post a photo of herself on a social media platform, perhaps feeling proud of all her efforts in maintaining a toned figure and her persistence in taking care of herself after all these years, the general consensus is that she must 'really love herself'. It does not matter that following a regular exercise and health routine involves determination, discipline and self-sacrifice. The fact that she generally succeeds in this quest and has succeeded in this quest for years often bears negative consequences. Her 'success' is perceived as having come easily for her. There is also the perception that her 'overblown' efforts to maintain her appearance are only the result of her self-centredness and vanity.

Now let us examine what it means to be seen as 'once having failed'.
Please note, that personally, I think, failure only becomes failure if one is dissatisfied with one's state but chooses to do nothing to overcome this state. The example I give with Woman Two, that of being overweight, is only a problem if Woman Two is dissatisfied with her health and unhappy with her abundant curves. My measure of failure, here, is relative and depends on the individual's own values.

So returning to our example, let us assume that this overweight woman decides to lose weight and increase her fitness level because she wants to and over the next six months or maybe a year, she does indeed succeed at her enterprise.
Let us also assume that she begins to post photos of her efforts on a social media platform partly to motivate herself in her ongoing quest but also to celebrate her results so far.
Now comes the difference...

Her friends will naturally be encouraging of what is perceived as her commendable efforts in exercising regularly and eating well. They will perceive her long struggle. They will empathise with the feelings of dissatisfaction that have given rise to her desire to better herself. In short, she can expect more support than Woman One.

This is not just for women by the way,  I have witnessed abundant outpourings of support, praise and encouragement on Facebook when one man admitted to having lost 10kg in his last regimen. Kind words like "That is an amazing effort!" or "Well done on your determination" rarely shower down for those who are 'effortlessly' slim.

This is an example of how being perceived to have failed and to then succeed is often more socially welcomed than being perceived to have done nothing but succeed. Unless an individual is already a celebrity and has over 10 million fans, people have a need to know that the individual is not superhuman. Many people in fact need to see others as struggling with some sort of setback before they will allow them to shine.

Another example. When a new author comes onto the scene with a published book, recall how fascinated we are to know that they were once rejected by fifteen different publishers. All of a sudden, when we learn of this, there is a glow around their newly published manuscript. It's a manuscript seared with battlefield scars. It acquires an aura of injustice that has been finally overcome. Its potency somehow increases just as does our support for the author. It does not matter that most publishing stories are in fact riddled with rejections and the writer's journey is by its very nature likely to be fraught with setbacks and rejections. It is as though having identified that an author has been rejected before, we think they must 'know-what-it's-like' to struggle and we rally in favour of this underdog. Take the growing pains of J.K. Rowling in placing Harry Potter on the market and how this has been perceived. J.K. Rowling is seen as fully 'deserving' of her books' successes as a result.

Conversely, think to some of the feedback that writers like Elizabeth Kostova have received for being known to not-have-struggled in their publishing quest. Not content with being likened to the next Dan Brown, Kostova dared to attract a $2-million dollar advance for her fabulous debut novel, The Historian. If this was not enough, Sony was known to have immediately signed up for the movie rights. Here is a brief example of the against-the-grain responses (with the star rating in brackets) that have been made of The Historian:

"I honestly don’t understand the high reviews that had been given to this book" (1/5)

"This proved to be a big disappointment. It's been a huge bestseller, & reviews always mention the huge advance it got & often say it's brilliantly structured. But I found everything about it implausible..." (1/5)

"I found The Historian to be rich and luxurious - kind of like a mink coat, unfortunately the pacing and unrelenting narrative make it about as useful as a mink coat in Florida. Still, I wouldn’t mind reading the next novel Ms. Kostova writes, maybe a biography of one of the historical characters in this book because she has a wonderful ability to bring her characters to life. My only hope is that Ms. Kostova spent her two million dollar advance wisely, hopefully not on a mink coat." (2/5) - Ha!

"This is definitive proof that Dracula is NOT still alive/undead because if he was, he'd've killed this author. And then her editor." (1/5) - And they say only indies have editing problems. :)

"Considering the fact that the author had a 2 Milion Dollar advance to write this book over 10 years, it was a very bad read. I kept hoping the story would unfold, but no." (1/5)

Negative reviewers of this instant-success novel tended to make relative judgments based on the publicity that the book and its author had garnered. For example, they alluded to the critical acclaim and hefty advance and balked at how misled everyone else who raved about it was.

It would be interesting to discover if the lowest ratings given for The Historian would have been statistically higher, if Kostova's book and her generous debut novelist advance had not received so much publicity.

Indeed, people are relatively more supportive of those who struggle with some perceived failure and who eventually overcome this to 'succeed'. It is as though they are deemed to 'have suffered long enough' to be allowed to succeed. There is a sense that due to all their sufferings they now deserve their silver medal. As a result, it becomes perfectly alright to praise them and shower them with support since we have now established that they have been to hell and have suffered 'just like the rest of us'.

Human nature is indeed fascinating.

Beautiful actresses who uglify themselves onscreen deserve an Oscar

So in summary we can formulate the above discussion into two equations:

1. Effort + Success => Low Level Social Support or in extreme cases, No support

2. Perceived Failure/Struggle + Effort + Success => High Level of Social Support

What to take home from this?

Ultimately the social support one will obtain from others is related to the ability to market one's failures and let others know that one has flaws. Failure is not such a bad thing after all.

In fact many women do bond by speaking about the difficulties in one or more aspects of their lives. Woe to the woman who has everything going for her and is perceived as a model of perfection.

In some cases, people make a point of revealing their problems because they know perfectly well that this will arouse sympathy and can be used to rally others to their cause. It is a form of social manipulation.
Based on this, is it socially manipulative to advertise your failures?

I have no answer. With anything, it depends on the individual and the situation. In fact, never believe any advice that is too deterministic in nature: human psychology is riddled with 'it depends'. Don't even believe what I've written here. I should know better. I should know that successful people are praised every five minutes and live a joyful life due to all those who bask in their glory and hope to gain favours from them. I should also know that people who lose weight after years of struggle are met with apathy and jealous silences and that since they've dared to come out of their box and reinvent themselves they can expect nothing except resentment... Yeah, you see? It depends!

Fascinating, those humans...

But returning to the topic... While I would not go out of my way to hide my failures, I personally would not follow the conscious, 'everyone-look-at-how-much-I'm-struggling' approach.

I like to be perceived as superhuman you see...Why not!  And by the same token, the prospect of seeing my friends kick ass at whatever they do, can only bring a smile to my face.

Tools for Nurturing the Self - And Is Bragging Necessarily Bad?

One of the themes in social psychology is the concept of self-esteem and the desire that all individuals have to maintain a positive sense of self. That is, people have a genuine need to know that they are valuable and that in comparison to others, their worth is significant.

This need to maintain a positive sense of self is present in all people. It drives our behaviour, whether consciously or subconsciously, through mechanisms that are often subtle and others that are so obvious as to be unfavorably seen by others. Does this mean we are a narcissistic bunch? Not necessarily. In fact narcissism is more complex than that.

Simba likes to brag about being King
Perhaps the best example of a self-boosting behavior that is not so well seen by others is the act of bragging. An individual who self-promotes to feel good about themselves is using the not so subtle behaviour of publicly sharing and expressing their abilities or achievements. This often invites scorn from some people. I don't think it should.

Before I explain why, I want to outline some of the mechanisms through which individuals maintain a sense of worth. My experience has been that no one is immune to these strategies and we have each performed one of these at least once in our lives.

Comparisons
At the very least, individuals will compare themselves with friends, family members and those in their social or work circles. The dimension of comparison really depends on what an individual values.
For example, if I value intellect, I would compare my intellect with the intellect of those I know. If I were to value material gain, I would compare my wealth or earning capacity with those I know.

Social comparison is not necessarily a competitive streak. The aim of social comparison is not to come out on top in every dimension but to feel a sense of worth by knowing that in at least a few dimensions, an individual compares favorably with others. This adds to one's sense of worth.

The difference between competitiveness and social comparison is that a competitive person will aim to better others in any field or activity, regardless of whether they actually value the activity in the first place.
Social comparison is normally aimed at achieving a sense of worth without upsetting harmony between individuals. For example, I may be threatened that my sister is a better dancer than I am, if I value dancing. In order to feel better about myself, I will use another valuable dimension in my comparison. For example, it may be that I am a better cook than my sister, or that I have a better sense of style. By performing the comparison using dimensions where I have an advantage, such as cooking ability or style, rather than dancing, I can maintain self-worth.

Snow White Queen - Some Comparisons Don't Pay
Interestingly enough, when people first meet, they will size each other up. You will notice that in the first month (often year) or so of getting to know each other, two people exchange skills, achievements and experience. There is obviously some mutual reckoning of common interests to determine where they can strike a friendship, or maybe find points of discussion. But in many cases, there might also be a subtle social comparison in progress which allows each person to 'know their place' and evaluate their own worth vis a vis the other person by systematically comparing multiple dimensions to see how they rate against the other person. Again, nothing competitive, just a way for individuals to know they are valuable.

Devaluing
A more negative tendency of individuals for maintaining self-worth is the act of devaluing others. Simply put, an individual who feels threatened because they find someone else has a greater aptitude for something or possesses an attribute that they do not, will devalue this skill or attribute. By devaluing what others have, the individual comes out on top and maintains self-worth.

An example is if I tell someone I am buying a house and this person, who values property and perhaps had previously considered buying a house but could not secure a loan, suddenly declares that they wouldn't buy a house in this country anyway or, that they prefer to buy elsewhere or, that they prefer to travel rather than buy a house.

By changing their attitude towards buying a house, the person would no longer feel threatened with my purchase, since it would no longer be something they desire. Their self-worth is maintained with the elimination of this threat.

Cinderella is branded a thief by her step-sisters
Moralising
An even more negative strategy for maintaining self-worth is the act of moralising.
The classic example is when less attractive women make moral judgments on other women that they deem more attractive. It is arguable that many women desire physical attractiveness, meaning that attractiveness happens to be a dimension that women tend to use in their social comparison.

A woman who finds herself continually upstaged by others in this dimension, may resort to moralising, that is finding behaviors in the more attractive woman that lessen her moral (or intellectual!) worth, hence shifting the balance in the social comparison. By moralising, the less attractive woman can persuade herself that she has nothing to envy from someone as 'loose' or 'stuck up' or 'vain' or 'shallow' as the more attractive woman.

The reason why this strategy is so negative is that often, the act of moralising relies on people sharing their moral observations in public. As a result, an unfortunate person may find themselves scorned for their so-called moral failings simply because an individual happened to need an ego-boost.

Basking in other people's glory
Another strategy, notably on Facebook, is the Basking in other people's glory.

To boost their self-worth, an individual may befriend people whose qualities they value and admire and who are also seen by the public as a success in their chosen field.

Through public interaction with successful people or the sharing of their friends' success in public, an individual basks in their glory, that is to say, they behave in the hope that their successful contacts' admirable qualities will rub off on them, hence achieving to raise their sense of worth. I know, I have been guilty of that.

As an extreme case scenario, this phenomenon is the reason why people who are deemed powerful, successful, popular or professionally talented, somehow acquire such fervent Facebook followings and have the most Likes on their status!
In fact, on Facebook, I have observed modest talents along their rise to success such that as they became increasingly more successful, the rate at which their friends commented on their status or liked their status increased dramatically and not necessarily because they suddenly had more friends over time (although this also happens), or because these friends always believed in their abilities. Hardly.

Whatever Happened to Baby Jane - Self-worth at all costs

Putting Others Down
This is an insecure and often nasty way of maintaining self-worth. This is different from devaluing which is effectively a change in attitude resulting from a need to avoid a threat to our sense of worth.

When an individual puts another person down, they are behaving reactively. In fact, what usually happens is that the person they put down actually compared favorably in a particular dimension or even a number of them. The individual is often deeply insecure and as such, they resent the feeling of threat that the other person has inadvertently instilled inside them due to their skill or attributes. In general, as I've explained, this threat is undesirable. But it is more so for an already insecure individual. The insecure individual begins to resent the other person, even becoming angry with them. In order to establish a balance, they will react by putting the other person down. By putting the other person down, they can feel better about themselves.

Identification
This is actually an offshoot of the Freudian defence mechanism of partial identification.
By publicly identifying with a cause, idea, celebrity or other public figure known for their good qualities, a person behaves in the hope that these good qualities will rub off on them. Identification seeks to raise the person's worth in the eyes of others through endorsement of causes, ideas, celebrities and other public figures that are seen as highly worthy.

Idolisation
If we were to compare ourselves with celebrities, scientific geniuses, tycoons and other individuals deemed by us to be highly successful or freaking amazing, we would feel terrible. How can we compare ourselves to individuals that are seen either by history or contemporary masses to be prodigious in one dimension or another? To do so would do nothing for our sense of worth. We would fail miserably in all aspects of social comparison.

No one can be that Bad...
In fact we don't compare ourselves to them. Instead, we idolise them. We put them on a pedestal such that they are untouchable and represent an unattainable goal for mere mortals. By idolising such people, we tell ourselves that any comparison with them is ridiculous, after all, "you can't compare yourself with a god", hence protecting our sense of worth which would otherwise take a battering.

One of the questions I ask myself when I think about this strategy is, at what point do people acquire idol status? That is, when does an individual make the decision to stop comparing themselves with another because they now recognise that this other person is out of their league? It would be interesting to measure this.
I think it would possibly depend on the individual's self-esteem. For example, a film maker with a huge sense of self-worth will not shirk away from comparing themselves to Hitchcock or Mel Gibson. But a film maker with an average self-esteem, who has maybe made two modest features will only compare themselves to those in their own field with the same number and quality of features under their belt. Conversely, a film maker with low self-esteem will somehow find more comfort comparing themselves to budding film students who they believe pose little threat and with whom they can most often compare favourably.

Self-Affirmation
Apart from social comparisons and basking in other people's glory, there are other means through which individuals maintain their self-worth or integrity.
One of these is the act of expressing one's beliefs, achievements or attitudes.
This aims to reassert what an individual values and helps to safeguard their integrity.

According to research, self-affirmation protects an individual from any event that constitutes an ego-threat. For example, being taken over by other's will, either through persuasion, force, authority or other means all constitute a threat to a person's integrity and is therefore an ego threat. That is, people want to know they are in control of their own selves. No one likes to lose control to another.
Often however, individuals encounter scenarios where they will feel taken over by others. Self-affirmation serves as a way to reestablish their integrity and sense of worth. This could be anything from bragging, talking about what they believe, Tweeting an attitude, re-asserting a belief, sharing an achievement on Facebook, wearing a particular item of clothing and the whole gamut of human self-expression.

As an example of an ego-threat, imagine that you are a full-time mum and you attend a party where every other mum also has a professional occupation and together they spend considerable time swapping anecdotes about their job and sharing how much they enjoy 'juggling it all' both at home and at work. After the party is over, some full-time mums would not even feel an ego-threat. But what if you did? What if you went home and felt that something had crawled underneath your skin...cognitive dissonance might be one way to put it. Then, it is very possible that you may resort to self-affirmation. So you may, for example, update your Facebook status with something like:

"I love spending quality time with my children. It is priceless."

What a caring mother she is! But this status is more than just a noble or seemingly caring statement, it is actually a tool for self-affirmation through which you would re-affirm your decision to spend time at home. Underlying the expression of your no-doubt noble sentiment is the conviction that by spending time at home, you, more than the other mothers you met at the party, can give quality time to your children and no money in the world can replace this. This brilliant self-affirmation restores your self-worth.
That is just one example. The internet is crawling with them. Some more subtle than others...

Martin Luther King - no stranger to self-affirmation
Now that I have outlined these mechanisms, I want to return to my initial example of bragging. Bragging, as I have just explained, may just be a form of self-affirmation. Bragging, especially when it is supported by a verifiable aptitude or skill, should not be seen negatively by others. It is unfortunate that bragging or any form of self-promotion so often invites scorn.
Perhaps this scorn is just a form of moralising and in fact, those who have a low tolerance for braggers often happen to be, interestingly enough, people with low self-esteem. My personal belief is that it is impossible for a mature, secure individual to feel threatened by the self-promotion of others.

If you believe you have something worthy to share, be proud of it.