Gunpowder Treason and Plot

I had always heard of Guy Fawkes and was dimly aware he was some VIP in history. However, I'd never run across him in any of my studies either in school or out. It's understandable now why this is so; he wasn't part of Modern European history and I'd just never studied James I.

Of Henry VIII I am quite familiar with and of Elizabeth I have a lesser degree of familiarity. The history of English royalty is far from my forte. I am definitely aware of the overall idea of Catholics and the separation of church and state and the related events that occurred in Henry VIII's and Elizabeth I's reigns. What I had almost no knowledge of was what happened next. And this is where Guy Fawkes comes in.

As is always the case with history, the events were much more complicated and interesting than I will describe. There was some confusion over who would succeed Elizabeth I and she wouldn't announce a successor. But things went surprisingly smooth right after her death and James I came into power. He carried on the anti-Catholic sentiments the two previous rulers had had. A couple of years passed while Catholics in England became more and more upset with James I. There were many plots to try to kidnap him and his family and make them promise to be nicer to the Catholics in England, but none of them worked.

Then, a bunch of Catholics (13 overall in the end) got together and decided to blow up the House of Lords with all the Lords and the king inside it. This would certainly intimidate the high and mighty ones (since the idea was that all the lords would be in the building when the explosion happened) and the Catholic plotters hoped to gain some official tolerance towards Catholics by then placing James I's Catholic daughter Elizabeth (who was nine years old at the time) in power.

Oh, and just so you know, almost all of this is garnered from wikipedia along with other websites (brittannia, about.com, bonfirenight.net) and I still don't understand things like how such an anti-Catholic king could have a Catholic daughter. Apparently he discovered his wife had received a gift of a rosary from the Pope but I don't know if this means she was merely a tolerant individual or if she was Catholic herself. For now, I'm only focusing on understanding the gist of the Guy Fawkes story. If anyone wants to enlighten me, by all means go ahead - I'll probably end up finding out soon enough, just not right now.

An anonymous letter was sent to one of the lords who was Catholic (they didn't want him to be there when the building blew up) warning him of the plot. It didn't say the exact date but it did describe the intention of the plotters. It was easy to deduce when to be on alert since the House of Lords was going into session in just a few days after the letter was shown to the king.

On the night before the House of Lords session, soldiers searched the building and caught Guy Fawkes in the cellar next to 36 barrels of gunpowder. Guy Fawkes chose to maintain that his name was John Johnson (yeah, very original, like "John Doe") and it took a few days of torture before he started revealing his real name and details of the plot. The other plotters were eventually captured, including a strong attempt to blame some Jesuit priests for being in on it (good for anti-Catholic politics), and a couple months later the plotters were hanged, drawn, and quartered, including Guy Fawkes who managed to snap his neck when he was hanged so he didn't suffer the following actions customarily given to traitors.

And why am I reading about the Gunpowder Treason Plot? What does it have to do with my novel? Well, it has absolutely nothing to do with my novel. The "why" is that today happens to be the day, four hundred and five years ago, that Guy Fawkes was caught. I wouldn't have known this if I hadn't spotted a tweet from Neil Gaiman> which said:

Remember, remember the fifth of November: Gunpowder, Treason and Plot. Perhaps I will have a very small bonfire here tonight, just because.

I wondered what the heck he was talking about. So I looked it up.

And now, I will end with a copy of the Gunpowder Plot poem.

Remember, remember the fifth of November,

Gunpowder treason and plot.

We see no reason

Why gunpowder treason

Should ever be forgot!

Guy Fawkes, guy, t'was his intent

To blow up king and parliament.

Three score barrels were laid below

To prove old England's overthrow.

By god's mercy he was catch'd

With a darkened lantern and burning match.

So, holler boys, holler boys,

Let the bells ring.

Holler boys, holler boys,

God save the king.

And what shall we do with him?

Burn him!

Of course, I have seen the movie "V for Vendetta" but it was only once awhile ago and the references to the actual historical event I completely missed. Sometimes, I'm a little thick in the head. I mean, V wears the Guy Fawkes mask, and he quotes part of the poem, and he's trying to do what Guy Fawkes failed to do and blow up the English Parliament. His reasons are different and it's set in a futuristic England which is a totalitarian state, but *still* I feel like I should have known. Alright, I'm gonna scuttle off and actually get some things done ... work on website, get a higher nanowrimo wordcount, and such.

Thinking short but not so random thoughts

Colin and I were sick over the weekend with something everyone has been catching at his office. Very low but persistent fever, off and on sore throat and headaches, congestion, fatigue, and Colin did more coughing than I did. Not so much fun. I've had two small lattes (including extra milk added to my already half-drinked cup) today and I haven't had coffee for almost a week. I did have lots of tea and we've got only one bag of Constant Comment left, but I definitely have a buzz right now.

I noticed I say "oh well" a lot here. It generally sums up how I feel quite nicely but I need to stop saying it so often because I'd imagine that repeated phrases irritate people.

Also, it seems I am not done rolling the egg rolls that have no egg in them. I've used up the 50 wrappers and I've still got a good chunk of stuffing. I did a lot of them while watching "Marley and Me" by myself last night while Colin had a business dinner. The movie is sad, sure, but not quite as sad as I thought it would be. There were some cute parts but it seemed a lot more "real lifey" than I'd expected it to be. So it's back to the store to get some more wrappers, probably tomorrow. No library volunteering session tomorrow since the lady who heads it is out of town to a funeral.

Today we finally got to try the Wild Berries pancake place somewhat close to home. The french toast stuffed with cream cheese and topped with strawberries is really good! Colin dreamed of clocks not working and then it turned out his alarm hadn't gone off when I got up 45 minutes after the usual alarm time. For lunch, we went to visit a restaurant we used to go to more when we lived in the area to celebrate Shaheli's birthday. We'd found a mug that seemed to fit her very well: sparkly, contains silly words like "hope your day is filled with love!", has a rainbow and cute sketches of little boys.

Oh, and I wanted to correct what I said earlier: the pringles weren't a dollar a piece. Well, originally they were, but I bought them for 25 cents each. I knew it had been a better deal. I found some different cookie wafers at Garden Fresh Market yesterday. One thing I realize now is that so much of the food is imported and it makes me wonder just how much food mileage there is for most things at that store. Yet on the other hand, many of their fresh foods are more local than most grocery stores. I think at least spice packets for Indian foods would be a fair exception. I know many people who try to be more locavore follow the Marco Polo rule: if it was transported during his time by ships (such as spices), it's okay if it comes from the other side of the world. I always with the out of pocket costs versus ethic (environmental) dilemma. I like a deal but I also like good guilt-free food. I'm mostly gonna be ignoring this during November I think ...

Speaking of November, it's coming up so fast! Eep! I've been feeling nervous about not having enough story stuff but today I was mostly doing some research but also spitting out overall plot fragments that have been floating around in my mind. I feel much better have stuff a bit more written out and better organized although my "outline" is very very bare. Still have a couple overall questions but the characters are much less elusive to me now, so that's helpful. Overall, I've got 5,000 words of research. This includes copy pasted passages and writing tips. Considering that this is one tenth of the word count goal, the goal feels more real and obtainable now. Of course, none of these will actually be in the novel itself as that would be against the rules. But words beget words, it seems.

Indiana and an Introduction to LBing

I was intrigued by Kate's post about the history of Labor Day and her thoughts on it. While I don't have a job, I find this another way to be reminded of how lucky I am. I try constantly to count my blessings but the counting can always use encouragement. Speaking of which, "Thanksgiving Day" is simply too silly to me as a former undergrad history major, but that's another issue. Labor Day is more free of forced traditions. Honoring Labor Day by remembering its roots and being thankful for what we do have is especially relevant these days.

Colin is puttering around somewhere, I think upstairs. He's still looking for some electronic tool stuff that he remembers owning. I say "remembers" because he hasn't seen them since two moves ago. Not a huge surprise, since he has at least three huge tupperware boxes full of stuff and that's just what's stacked in the corner behind the bedroom door. We've been brainstorming and getting excited with a DIY project that we both can/will do together. I probably shouldn't go into details because it might not work and if it does, it's going to be a great kind of present to give to people.

He has emerged triumphant from upstairs - even brought down two things of chocolate at least two years old ... oh yay. And candles! We got a bunch of candles from Bullfrog Factory last Christmastime. We needed something for Colin's family and one of the things Charlevoix is known for are these special candles. They have a secret way of making them so that the glow is evenly distributed throughout. So of course we bought a couple for ourselves which I promptly forgot about. It's a nice and timely surprise though, especially with the weather changing.

Being in Indiana for a couple nights with Colin's family and going to the wedding was nice and we were glad we went. I even had some fun slow dancing with Colin and jamming it with his sisters. We seem to have caught something from one of the four flights we took to get there and back but it's not too debilitating. I just keep sneezing a lot, my head hurts mildly, and my throat tickles sometimes. I can tell it's not just allergies but that's about it. We even got Colin's dad and youngest sister to go letterboxing with us while the rest raided the Goodwills.

I realized I haven't yet mentioned letterboxing (LBing for short) on this blog yet, but that needs at least one blog entry all to itself. Basically, it's like geocaching without the GPS devices. You find them by anything between precise directions and a single line of code. They can be as specific as "in Illinois" to "on the west side of the base of the third bush from your right next to the John Smith headstone in Ever-Rest Cemetery."

The basic situation: You find one. It has a logbook and a stamp. You have a personal logbook and stamp with you, a pen, and some kind of stamping material such as pads and/or markers. You stamp your personal stamp into the box's logbook, sign, and date it. You stamp the box's stamp in your personal logbook, write down the name, place, date, whatever else you want in your personal logbook. Thus, there is evidence you found it for both the person who made and put out (called "planted") the box and for yourself.

That's the basic idea of letterboxes. I've found about 40 to 50 so far (depends on which ones "count"). I promise, I'll explain more soon.

Also, if you haven't yet seen the movie "Kick Ass," get it. Watch it. It's pretty good. There is a fair amount of spurting blood but even for someone as squeamish as myself it was not bad at all. It's just so ridiculous. I like the story lines and the characters are awesome, especially Hit Girl. :)